Which kind of Homily/Sermon do you prefer at Sunday Mass?

[Pumpkin]

I picked a variety. I believe the variety that the readings and gospel provide is excellent, applicable to the lives of the congregation today. I have had some excellent pastors in my lifetime that I would swear were talking straight to me and the topics were all from the readings. It is amazing there have been several occasions when I have left church feeling like the priest said exactly what I needed to hear. It is a blessing when you have a pastor that can read his congregation. When they do there is always a few homilies that you can just tell that they have grabbed everyone and people walk out remembering the homily to pass on.
Good question.

 

[Nan_S]

Being preached “at” minimizes my retention of the message. So, I prefer a homily in which the priest challenges us to think.

In the best homily I ever heard, Father James challenged all of us to think hard about how a passage of scripture applied to us. The Gospel was the Temptation of Jesus (Mt 4:1-11 or Lk 4:1-13). I had always though this was interesting history, but not particularly applicable to me personally. Father James’ homily went like this:

Jesus was tempted to turn stone into bread. Now most of you can’t turn stones into bread, but you have gifts and talents of your own given to you by God. How many times have you said “yes” to the tempter and used them for selfish purposes. Jesus said “no”. Did you?

Jesus was tempted with lordship over the whole world if He would only bow down before Satan. Now most of you haven’t been promised lordship over the whole world, but you do have power and influence over your family, friends, and subordinates. How many times have you said “yes” to the tempter and taken advantage of those who depended upon you? Jesus said “no.” Did you?

Jesus was tempted to thorw Himself off the cliff, with the promise that the would protect Him. Now most of you have probably don’t expect angels to catch you if you fall off a cliff, but you do enjoy the mercy of God. How many times have you said “yes” to the tempter and presumed upon the mercy of God, that you could sin without consequence? Jesus said “no.” Did you?

Thanks for letting me share. This homily burned itself into my heart years ago, and I still reflect upon it today.

 

[Lux_et_veritas]

Nan S:

Being preached “at” minimizes my retention of the message. So, I prefer a homily in which the priest challenges us to think.

In the best homily I ever heard, Father James challenged all of us to think hard about how a passage of scripture applied to us. The Gospel was the Temptation of Jesus (Mt 4:1-11 or Lk 4:1-13). I had always though this was interesting history, but not particularly applicable to me personally. Father James’ homily went like this:

Jesus was tempted to turn stone into bread. Now most of you can’t turn stones into bread, but you have gifts and talents of your own given to you by God. How many times have you said “yes” to the tempter and used them for selfish purposes. Jesus said “no”. Did you?

Jesus was tempted with lordship over the whole world if He would only bow down before Satan. Now most of you haven’t been promised lordship over the whole world, but you do have power and influence over your family, friends, and subordinates. How many times have you said “yes” to the tempter and taken advantage of those who depended upon you? Jesus said “no.” Did you?

Jesus was tempted to thorw Himself off the cliff, with the promise that the would protect Him. Now most of you have probably don’t expect angels to catch you if you fall off a cliff, but you do enjoy the mercy of God. How many times have you said “yes” to the tempter and presumed upon the mercy of God, that you could sin without consequence? Jesus said “no.” Did you?

Thanks for letting me share. This homily burned itself into my heart years ago, and I still reflect upon it today.

And thanks for sharing, Nan.

That is precisely the kind of thing I get at my parish - almost on a weekly basis. It tugs at the conscience which is all I can hope for out of a homily.

Lets face it, I don’t need the priest to tell me how much God loves me. He sacrificed his Son out of love for us and that shows no greater love. Jesus went humbly to the slaughter - how much greater love can he show for us?

Therefore, what I need out of the homily is how to love God back - by turning from sin, by making sacrifices, and not taking Him for granted by “enjoying the moment” while loosing the opportunity to please Him - often by saying, “No” to ourselves.

 

[holyspirit1985]

i find this poll very interesting. all my priest preaches on is social justice and politics. it’s frustrating b/c growing up all i learned about the Catholic Church is to be nice and love everyone. while that’s important, there’s so much more to our faith than that!

 

[otm]

NWUArmyROTC:

Do I get the hard Catholicism in the Sunday Homily/Sermon, NO!

Unless I go to the Cathedral and Cardinal George delivers the homily, then I get the hard homily.

George is awesome!

Our loss, your gain.

 

[otm]

I can just about count on one hand the number of truly effective homilists I have heard in my life, which works out to about one ever 8 to 12 years.

I want one who can break open the scripture reading in a way that I have something to chew on for the rest of the week; something that convicts me, or opens the way to following Christ more closely.

One of the more intereesting and challenging homilies I have heard focused on an aspect of a reading I had never heard before - or since. It was about the elder brother in the reading about the prodigal son. Talk about making me squirm…

 

[Pumpkin]

Nan S:

Being preached “at” minimizes my retention of the message. So, I prefer a homily in which the priest challenges us to think.

Thanks for letting me share. This homily burned itself into my heart years ago, and I still reflect upon it today.

Thanks for sharing. That is the kind of homily I was getting at.

 

[cecelia]

I would like the kind of homilies that strengthen us to defend our faith in the public square. We in the Church Militant need reinforcement from our “generals,” and we’re not getting it. If the priests would read the Gospel, apply it to our lives today, and then reference the Gospel readings to a pertinent doctrine of the faith, then we would have the application to our own personal lives and then the doctrinal background we need to understand the situation in its broader context. The EWTN priests do that often, but so often the homilies, regardless of the Gospel readings, boil down to “Jesus loves us,” or “let’s love one another.” Such broad inferences sometimes reflect the safe way to deliver a homily, but they also imply pastoral laziness,timidity,or a misguided sense of pastoral solicitous which is paternalizing. Jesus does indeed tell us to love one another, but He also said that to love Me you must keep My commandments. So we need the priests to remind us of the commandment and what we need to do to adhere to them in season and out of season. They must give us tough love and not try to be our friend the way some liberal parents try to be their children’s friend. The children of these parents oftentimes turn into very self-indulgent children. The same thing happens when a congregation has not been prepared for the spiritual battle which accompanies a person’s attempt to fully live within the Catholic faith. These persons may end up as spiritually deficient because their pastors have not fully informed them of the faith. As our spiritual fathers, the priest have the duty to train their children up in the way they should go. Our immortal souls depend on their giving us the “hard sayings,” for if they don’t, they will have to answer to God.

 

[carlycatholic]

I like homilies that combine the readings of the day with a little fire and brimstone about the current culture that can lead or has already led to occasions of sin and sins themselves, with an emphasis on the consequences in this life and the next. Some readings lend themselves more to this than others, so “come to me all you who are weary” homilies are great, too! Positive things like the spiritual and temporal gifts of the Holy Spirit can be wonderful. (We’ve got a great pastor who’s covered all of these plus emphasizing the Real Presence in the Eucharist each time. It really really needs to be emphasized, and I remember his homilies all week.)

 

[Petertherock]

I do find this poll/discussion interesting. I think back and I don’t think I have ever been to a mass where the priest has talked during his homily about sins other than to talk about forgiveness. Now, forgiveness is important but I have never heard Hell mentioned. It’s like priests are afraid to preach about these subjects but they are needed now more than ever.

I think a majority of Catholics think it’s OK to be an active homosexual and recieve Communion. There also isn’t enough instruction on how important it is to confess mortal sins before recieving Communion. There needs to be more instruction as to what the mortal sins are.

I think the best homily I have heard about was one my dad told me about where the priest came out and started using some mild cuss words. Of course everyone was stunned and he went on to say that every day he hears these words and worse coming from the mouths of people who call themselves Christians and no one thinks anything about it but when it comes from a priest you are all shocked. He went on to say that priests are not holier than any lay person. The reaction to a priest cursing should be the same for when you hear any Christian cursing.

 

[OutinChgoburbs]

I want the homily to relate to, and hopefully explain to some degree, the day’s scripture readings as these readings pertain to Catholic faith and practice in today’s world. If it’s time for Father to pull out the fire and brimstone to make his point, then fine. If not, then why waste the effect? If he screams and yells and shouts down thunder every day, even every week, what’s been accomplished? To contrast, if he saves his fire and brimstone for every six weeks to two months, and uses it constructively, well then…

…He used it very effectively once on a Sunday, to make sure everybody had more respect for the reading of the Gospel and placement of the Gospel Book than to “brush flies” when crossing oneself, and “flop” on one’s keester before the Gospel Book was replaced on its stand. It’s been over two years, and people are not only still reverent on Sundays, but also on the weekday, when the “old” lectionary is used for the Gospel.

Another time, he used it in reference to people who were too afraid to stand up for the truth of Church teaching, especially during the holidays. He related that he had to do the same thing when confronted with the relatives sinful living, he could not and did not approve. He got a little loud about it. It worked, at least if conversations in latter days proved true.