What did Fr say?

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aidanbradypop

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So I was at Mass yesterday and a new priest was saying Mass. He is a wonderful priest and I really enjoy his passion, BUT I can hardly understand a word he says. He is from India. I could somewhat understand him until it came time to give a homily. He got so excited and passionate that many of his words ran together. I was, and still, sad that I could not really understand it. I am sure it was such a beautiful homily. Does anyone else ever run into this? Father is young and full of passion but unless you are right in front of him, you really cannot understand him. 😦
 
Happens alot, and will continue to happen as we in the US get more priests from Asia & Africa.

I work for the Church, and in the past 5 years have had 3 priests from 3 different countires- Nigeria, Phillipines, & Sri Lanka. The one thing that I learned was to encourage conversation. Conversing in a language is the best way to master it.

Invite the priest out for a cup of coffee or lunch. Take him on a “tour” of your area. Just sit and talk with him. It will help him to develop his English language skills, and who knows, you might make a new friend!! 🙂
 
Oneofthewomen said:
Happens alot, and will continue to happen as we in the US get more priests from Asia & Africa.

I work for the Church, and in the past 5 years have had 3 priests from 3 different countires- Nigeria, Phillipines, & Sri Lanka. The one thing that I learned was to encourage conversation. Conversing in a language is the best way to master it.

Invite the priest out for a cup of coffee or lunch. Take him on a “tour” of your area. Just sit and talk with him. It will help him to develop his English language skills, and who knows, you might make a new friend!! 🙂
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Yeah I agree and intend on doing so. He is so wonderful and I believe, when understood, his homily will be so moving and a blessing.
 
You’ll be surprised how quickly you will start to understand him. The Priest at my old church is from India. He gave wonderful homilies. When I first converted I had trouble understanding him b/c he spoke so quickly. It didn’t take long for me to understand him although there were times when I still had trouble. One of the Priests at my new church is from India. His Masses are so reverent. Most of the time I still can’t understand most of what he’s saying in his homilies. Yesterday, however, was one of the best and I understood most of what he was saying. Since our head Priest is on medical leave I will be seeing more of him and I’m sure I’ll be able to understand him more and more.

God bless our Priests.
 
I’ve heard a few Indian and African priests and I also work with several foreign people. One thing I suggest is to sit as close up as you can. The other thing is that most people find that after they have heard someone’s accent on a few occasions, their brain begins to “translate” the sounds into English automatically. Consider the parents of small children who don’t speak clearly. You can’t understand anything their kid is trying to say, but they are used to it and it sounds very clear to them. I even have a coworker who has assisted for years with identifying 1st graders with possible speech correction needs, but she managed to completely miss the lisp on her own child that was obvious to everyone else. Your ears just get used to the discrepencies in the person’s speech and you’ll be able to understand them much easier. The same holds true for accents.
 
Our assistant pastor is from Mexico and has only been a priest for a little over two years, in this country an even shorter time, so he’s difficult to understand much of the time. But I listen carefully to his homilies and always get something from them. I hope that my attentiveness will be used by God to encourage him in his ministry.
 
Things will get better, both as you hear him more frequently, and as he spends more time here. In the meantime, perhaps you could ask that the homily be published in text form in the bulletin, or, if your parish has one, on the website? Or else start an email mailing list?
 
Following along with the priests using a missal as he prays the prayers of the Mass has helped me understand better how individual priests speak. That way when the homily comes, I already have a reference point for his accent.

-Tim-
 
TimothyH said:
Following along with the priests using a missal as he prays the prayers of the Mass has helped me understand better how individual priests speak. That way when the homily comes, I already have a reference point for his accent.

-Tim-
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What a great idea!!! Thanks Tim!! 😃
 
I sent Farther an email praising his passion and beautiful homily. I invited him to dinner on me and told him that I deeply desired to know him more:D
 
That’s wonderful. I wish I could do something like that, but as a single female I don’t think I should.
 
Wow, now we’re even outsourcing Mass!

Sorry, that wasn’t meant to be disrespectful. I work for an Indian-owned company and encounter this on a daily basis.

What was really funny was the time one of my managers in India said that I needed to speak slower during conference calls because the people in India couldn’t understand my accent! That was a total reversal of our perceptions and led to a greater understanding between the cultures.

It just takes time, and then it will be much easier to understand your priest.
 
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