Why do homilies ..... well, stink?

[Joan_M]

Unfortunately, since the so-called “Spirit” of Vatican II crept in and, also “Politically Correct” foolishness has contaminated many priests as well as lay people, too many priests have become “wimps”. They are afraid to offend their parishioners and, instead of telling us the truth, treat us like babies unable to digest solid food.

Thank God, there are some really good priests who are willing and able to preach the truth and admonish us when necessary.

In my parish, the parish priest is not very good at preaching. There is another priest there who is a much better preacher.

We need to pray every day for priests - holy priests who will help us to get to Heaven.

 

[rwillenborg]

I just wanted to add one thing…
I have been to evangelical services in the past and their preachers were all about being on fire. There was a hymn, the preahcer talked, another hymn, and then we all went home.
The ENTIRE service was listening to this ONE man, or woman’s, exegesis on Scripture.
That’s alot of pressure! Basically, EVERYONE was there just to listen to him! And on fire, they were! The sermons were, well, they were touchy-feely, but they were also really exciting.
Whereas, it’s exactly the opposite with Catholic Mass. Rather than hearing alot from the preacher, you hear from the Lord Himself through Scripture. You pray as a community, and then receive the Eucharist.
My point is, the reason so many Catholic priests aren’t good preachers, I think, is because no one is really there for their preaching. They don’t stress it in seminary, and since the priest himself is not the focus of the Mass, it’s simply not the area that he focuses on either.
So, I would say that’s probably why the sermons aren’t very good (I know, I’ve heard a few off ones myself!)
I’ll be praying that your priest gets the gift of public speaking! (though not an official gift of the HOly Spirit, it’s useful nonetheless!!)

 

[Zooey]

For what it’s worth, I don’t think much of most non-Catholic preachers I’ve heard either.

As a generalisation, their sermons tend to be longer and more superficially and stylistically flashy, but equally lack substance, and structure as well, which is less of an issue in shorter Catholic sermons thankfully.

When we get one who can actually preach, we tend to have to resist the urge to grab him & duct tape him to the church building before anyone else can take him away!

They can also be lacking somewhat in relevance, by which I mean that plenty of examples come to mind of preachers quoting a particular text and then making points or relating anecdotes that relate little or not at all to the text. Always find this funny, since they usually CHOOSE their own texts!

Of course this just may be representative of the particular denominations and churches whose preachers I’ve heard.

I think the bottom line is that public speaking in general is not nearly as much a well-taught or well-honed skill these days as it used to be, and the standard has gone down in professions such as law and politics, as well as in religious preaching.

There’s your problem right there; its common to all of us. There simply aren’t the teachers out there anymore, & without teachers, who can learn? Only the naturally gifted. (No, it doesn’t come automatically with the calling; there is a subject for by all of us.

 

[Bailey2]

Our sermons are great; rarely bad and do relate to the majority of the people. To take care of catechesis, there is a 3 minute catechesis just before mass that often quote the catechism. Must not be bad or boring because I haven’t noticed many people coming late to mass, the church is full, standing room only even though they added another mass.

 

[michaeldaniels]

I personally don’t like it when the priest or bishop tries to make people laugh throughout the Homily…if he was wants to be on Last Comic Standing, I would love to watch his stand up routine after Mass or some other time…however, during Mass, according the St. Stephen the Martyr, the priest is supposed to admonish you regarding lessons learned from the readings…it should also be a time to talk about the wages of sin, the necessity of confession, and necessity of the frequent reception of The Sacraments…and guidance on how to live according to their particular state in life as a devout Catholic within the world we live in today.

 

[sophie1]

The saddest thing for me about going to Mass every Sunday is that our priest squanders a wonderful opportunity, week in and week out, to EDUCATE his flock about the infinite depth and beauty of our faith. There is SO MUCH THERE! It would be better for us if our priest would just pop in a video of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s excellent series “Life is Worth Living” rather than give us the same old tired bromides. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to speak up during a homily and ask a question or share something I have found during my own research. But I bite my tongue out of respect…

I realize that not every person is a gifted speaker, but all of these guys have been the beneficiaries of extensive education – the kind of education many of us would give our eye teeth for. It isn’t asking too much for them to try to share it with us.

If any priests are reading this, please know that we, your flock, are grown adults committed at the very least to coming to Mass every Sunday. In fact, many of us are dying of thirst. Please don’t insult our intelligence by nagging or blaming or dumbing down.

I have been able to satisfy my need for more by reading Chesterton, and others and by listening to Bishop Sheen’s lecture series, etc. It takes extra effort, but I find it’s necessary to avoid stagnation…

 

[jpjd]

Well, I’m happy to be the odd one out in this case. My priest is a wonderful homilist, and I have told him so on several occasions. Not only is he good at public speaking skills, but he gives the reading(s) a meaningful application to our lives, clearly explained, and to top it off, he does it without reading from any notes.

His homilies are a gift and I thank God for that gift every day, I truly do.

 

[NewEnglandPriest]

Well, here’s a statement that is often repeated on these boards: “Mass is not entertainment.”
While the homily might not be the most dynamic unless it contains heresy then it contains truth that we can reflect upon.
And remember, while you might hate the homily I guarantee that there are others who probably do and a homily that you like others will hate.

And, of course, you try to come up with something interesting and dynamic 52 weeks a year for 45 years.

 

[Justin_Mee]

And, of course, you try to come up with something interesting and dynamic 52 weeks a year for 45 years.

I’m not trying to be the devil’s advocate here because I love Mass. As soon as I am confirmed I will probably attend daily (or at least more often). However, the Prots have no trouble coming up with dynamics 52 weeks of the year. Hell, fire and brimstone brother.

 

[Justin_Mee]

Ahem. I think you’re selling yourself short.

From the Compendium (boldface mine):
“277. How is the celebration of the Holy Eucharist carried out?
CCC 1345-1355
CCC 1408
**The Eucharist unfolds in two great parts which together form one, single act of worship. **The Liturgy of the Word involves proclaiming and listening to the Word of God. The Liturgy of the Eucharist includes the presentation of the bread and wine, the prayer or the anaphora containing the words of consecration, and communion.”

If you’re not all there for the Liturgy of the Word, you’re not all there for the Eucharist. It is a public celebration and an actual handing on of Apostolic Tradition that requires that one of the ordained proclaim the Gospel and deliver the homily in which the Scriptures are opened for the people. It is a prayer of listening, and it is an integral part of the single act of worship that is the Mass.

Well, I did not say that I do not pay attention. I do. Strict attention. When I find my mind wandering, I slap myself with a silent prayer. The message is good; it’s the delivery. Oh well, really it’s a minor thing. When Jesus speaks the gospel and offers His body and blood, what is there to complain about?

 

[lizaanne]

I’m 37 and a lifelong Catholic. One thing I notice about Mass is the homiles are dry, and boring. In my diocese it seems to be the norm. Rarely do you hear a homily on sin, hell, the devil, abortion, birthcontrol, purgatory, confession, the real presence in the Eucharist, doctrine or dogma. These are all things we believe in as Catholics but never or rarely ever discussed. Our priest almost talked about confession over the weekend at Mass, but danced around it without saying what it was or much about it, he hinted at it but that’s it. Its usually “we are all going to heaven” or a feel good “love your neighbor.” All these are good (love of neighbor, etc.), but they seem to be lacking (homilies) in any substance. Any idea’s on why this is the case? Is this normal?

Not at our parish!!! We are incredibly blessed to have wonderful holy priests who give solid as a rock, non-wishy-washy homilies. You can read the homilies from the pastor of our parish here:

assumptiongrotto.com/sermons/sermon1.htm

Enjoy!!!

~Liza

 

[Ghirardelli]

…Rarely do you hear a homily on sin, hell, the devil, abortion, birthcontrol, purgatory, confession, the real presence in the Eucharist, doctrine or dogma…

If you think that’s bad, try listening to constantly negative homilies each week on “hell, the devil, abortion, birth control, purgatory and confession.” Week after week no matter what the readings we hear about how we are failing and it gets mighty old, mighty quick. Far older and far quicker than some overly fluffy homilies that some complain of.

Someone in my parish quietly said to me that we keep hearing how sinful and bad we are but never a word on how we can improve. Joy and salvation need to be preached about as well and we never hear it around here.

 

[Ghirardelli]

I’m not trying to be the devil’s advocate here because I love Mass. As soon as I am confirmed I will probably attend daily (or at least more often). However, the Prots have no trouble coming up with dynamics 52 weeks of the year. Hell, fire and brimstone brother.

The typical Protestant minister develops and delivers one sermon per week.

The typical Catholic priest develops and delivers as many as seven homilies per week, often multiple times for some of them.

“Hell, fire and brimstone brother” should not be the focus of all homilies. It should probably not be the focus of most homilies in fact.

 

[Shin]

Not at our parish!!! We are incredibly blessed to have wonderful holy priests who give solid as a rock, non-wishy-washy homilies. You can read the homilies from the pastor of our parish here:

assumptiongrotto.com/sermons/sermon1.htm

Enjoy!!!

~Liza

Not bad at all!

I particularly like the one on ingratitude and the Passion of Christ! I’m going to have to keep coming back to these.

Here’re some more!

Bishop Massillon’s book of sermons has been quite a find for me. The Last Day, the Small Number of the Elect, he’s worthily one of the most famous from the past.

 

[Theophile]

I may be walking against the tide, but I actually prefer Catholic homilies. It’s not because of they lack substance, but because they actually are doctrinally correct. Before I became a Catholic, I have seen a variety of abysmal sermons, from claims that left-wing politics are the work of the devil to arguments for pro-choice rants, to attacks on Catholicism that entirely distort reality (and other faiths; while I may not be a Muslim, I have abhored Islamophobia to this very day). While some Catholic homilies may not seem brilliant on the surface, they do at least aspire to be theologically orthodox, and have the Gospel at their heart. When I find a homily to be poor, I will usually go to the Bible or a theologian and read something with good content.

 

[bpbasilphx]

\A lot of it has to do, I think, with the modern spirit. Everyone wants to hold hands and get along and dance around “offensive” issues like sexual morality, abortion, sacraments, traditional values, and so forth. These, and Christ, are the meat and potatoes of the Catholic Faith, so it’s no wonder when key things are avoided only a boring malaise can result\

**Wrong.

Only CHRIST is the meat, potatoes, bread, beverage, salad, and dessert of the Faith.

“Traditional values” is a meaningless term. Remember that the Roman pagans had their own “traditional values”, too. And Christians were persecuted precisely because they did not uphold these traditional values.

The central sin in Christiam morality is NOT sex or its issues, but PRIDE.**

 

[lutherlic]

This thread appears to use homily and sermon interchangeably. I think that may be incorrect (on the other hand, I am not officially Catholic for another 3 days!).

The GIRM uses the word homily (repeatedly without mentioning sermon).

Also, I have seen several places online define these terms as follows:

• A homily explains a passage of scripture and gives practical applications. (“In this passage, Jesus is saying… This applies to us today in such situations as…”)
• A sermon develops a point of doctrine or morals in a systematic way. (God is ______. Scripture describes this attribute in several places… or The virtue of _____ can be fostered in a number of ways; firstly…)

Fr. John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary appears to define homily as a subset of sermon.

I think homily more precisely defines what we have in the Liturgy of the Word (at least by Catholic definitions of the homily and sermon).

 

[lizaanne]

I don’t think it matters much WHAT you call it - the words that come out of the priest’s mouth during Liturgy of the Word are severely lacking in many parishes. Semantics aside, they need to be far more serious about what they are saying and stop worrying so much about chasing people out of the pews.

~Liza

 

[EasterJoy]

Well, I did not say that I do not pay attention. I do. Strict attention. When I find my mind wandering, I slap myself with a silent prayer. The message is good; it’s the delivery. Oh well, really it’s a minor thing. When Jesus speaks the gospel and offers His body and blood, what is there to complain about?

I should not have made that sound so judgmental. I meant only that if you’re there for Eucharist, of course you are there for the preaching.

Besides, do not be so sure that the Baptists (or anyone else) has us beaten on that. They do have the advantage that the “Amen Pew” can start yelling “Help him, Jesus! Help him, Lord!” when the sermon starts getting bad. They have the disadvantage that they don’t have the fullness of doctrine that comes from the Apostolic Tradition. Our preachers have hardly cornered the market on improperly adding and subtracting from the Gospel.

You won’t find any preaching in Christendom that is better than a really good homily, for it is not just talk, but an action of worship within an incomparable whole.

What is there to complain about if the preaching is poor or the Liturgy of the Eucharist is carried out in an irreverent fashion? I don’t know if complain is exactly the right word, but the Mass, being the source and summit of the Christian life, deserves the best that can be put into it. There is no valid Mass that is not “good enough”, this is true, but it is also true there is no effort put into the Mass that is ever wasted or beyond what the work deserves. There should be no labor of love that gets more love than the Mass. In that sense, “good enough” hardly begins to describe the goal.

 

[jmcrae]

Some of the homilies I am hearing lately border on the bizarre.

I am thinking that I might get him The Sermons of the Early Fathers for his birthday.