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

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LilyM said:
One of our great saints, Francis of Assisi, famous for his generosity and charity to the poor and needy, said ‘preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words.’

In other words our good works and the example we set in the way we live our lives are just as much truly preaching, just as much a witness for Christ, as any amount of words.

Mind you, there’s a phrase about empty vessels making the most noise that comes to mind too … not, I am sure, that it applies to you 🙂

If you look at the New Testament, I certainly don’t recall either Christ or the Apostles being recorded as making any especially long sermons - certainly not 40 minutes or an hour!
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Uh - St. Paul famously preached all night one time, and toward morning, one poor soul fell to his death off the wall on which he was perched, because he had fallen asleep. St. Paul raised him back to life.

I suppose that is the reason that our modern priests try to keep things short - they don’t want to have to raise anyone back to life at the end of it. 😛
 
frdude00 said:
I’m not sure what you mean by “selling myself short.”
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EasterJoy’s comment to Justin Mee about “selling yourself short” was in response to the attitude of “I’m there for the Eucharist anyway”. The Mass begins with the Liturgy of the Word – with a homily – for a reason.
frdude00 said:
Although I have heard some homilies that have absolutely nothing to do with the Word just what “impresses Father.”
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Well, to be fair, [ to be based on the Scripture readingshas (The Cross Reference: Excerpti: The Homily, Part III: What is the purpose of the homily?) for the day, although that is probably the standard experience.
  • The homily teaches and illustrates the truths and mysteries of the faith as well as the norms for Christian living, touching upon the whole of Christian teaching. (Cf. CIC, can. 386 §1, 528 §1, can. 767 §1; CCEO, can. 614 §1)
  • The homily provides liturgical catechesis. (Cf. GIRM, n. 13)
  • The homily explains the texts heard in the liturgy. (Cf. GIRM, nn. 29, 55, 65)
  • The homily is based on Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium. (Cf. Divino Afflante Spiritu, n. 50; GIRM, n. 65; Redemptionis Sacramentum, n. 67)
  • The homily should be relevant to the liturgical celebration of the day or season. (Cf. GIRM, n. 65)
  • The quality of homilies must improve: they must not be generic or abstract, they must not dwell solely on the profane and political, and they must not use pseudo-religious material as sources. (Cf. Redemptionis Sacramentum, n. 67; Sacramentum Caritatis, n. 46)
 
Perhaps it will be shocking, what I am about to reveal: Not all attorneys are great orators. Not all doctors have fantastic bedside manners. Not all CPAs are great mathematicians. Not all who sing have operatic voices.

One can take a seminarian and drill them till they are ready to collapse. However, all the training in the world is not going to make them a scintillating homilist. Some of them, shock of shocks, are average people, going about the best way they know how doing the Lord’s business. And what you get is often… average. And that average is not necessarily very high on the scale, nor in the middle. The fact that they were called by God to the priesthood did not include a guarantee that the Holy Spirit was going to gift them with the gilded tongue.

Even among order priests in orders which emphasize or focus on preaching (the Dominicans come to mind), not all of them are of equal ability. And it falls off rapidly from there.

Many did not have a great deal of training. Protestants, particularly the evangelical wing, put far more emphasis on preaching skills and ability (and they have their duds too); we put our emphasis on the sacramental end and the oratorical skills gets far shorter shrift. Be happy when you find the gem; and realize what you have found; and if you don’t find one, then get yourself busy and do spiritual reading. God’s Word Today, the Magnificat, and The Word Among us are all great starting points. Take responsibility for your own spiritual growth and don’t presume that if the priest doesn’t make your socks roll up and down, that the issue stops there.
 
Just wanted to bump up the website that Shin linked to earlier in the thread, in case anyone missed it:

Audio Sancto Sermons

If you like listening to downloaded sermons online, or on Catholic radio (like Fr. Corapi, etc.) then I really, *really *recommend this site! 👍 There’s a list of topics on the right side of the main page, and there must be in total a couple hundred different sermons here. They’re not too long, about 15-25 min. each and free for download.
 
Record one of Joel Osteen sermons, and play it instead of the priest’s homily. It will definately hold the attention of the congregation, and most people will probably get more out of it.
 
:)my husband and I love to go to early Mass - we go between several parishes, where son was youth minister, and the parish where the kids had gone to school - we stopped going to one parish when the very dear older priest who always said the 6:00 a.m. Mass (and you know what the average age of the 6:00 a.m. Mass crowd is!) - he gave a homily on ‘modesty of dress’ — we looked at each other, looked around the church - and well, not sure the audience was one who needed that homily. 😉

So… I’m with an earlier poster - lets keep our Priests in our prayers, give them encouragement - and when the homily doesn’t ‘land’ go home and do a bit of reading!

Blessings!
 
dizzy_dave said:
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?
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Two things:


  1. *]It’s already been noted by some that not all Priests are gifted teachers (though Paul did command that they should be - 1 Timothy 3).
    *]The Catholic Church, while positionally conservative, has a fair share of liberal priests. Asking a liberal to preach on the atonement of Christ with passion and conviction, is like asking a conservative to preach against the death penalty or health care.

    I wonder if there is a more conservative church in your area that you might attend?
 
It’s unfortunate that uninspiring homilies seem to be the norm. I like daily mass homilies a lot better. They last about two minutes and get right to the point. The Vatican did issue an order that Sunday mass homilies should not be more than 10 minutes. Unfortunately many priests think they are obligated to fill that 10 minutes and they simply don’t have the gift for it. If the point can be made in 5 minutes, so be it. I kinda wished they did away with the homilies altogether. Homilies are not why I go to mass. It’s the rest of the mass up to and after the homily is what really matters. And when I say really matters, I mean REALLY MATTERS.
 
Same here in Ireland. There are a sprinkling of good priests who preach about the faith; the rest give what I call candy floss sermons - empty feel good nothingness. I think they are afraid of offending people. But this is very silly, because their job is to preach the Gospel in it’s fullness. Their neglect will result in the loss of souls. Ouch.
 
i’ve heard some good sermons over the years. i’ve tend to try and catch the same priest every time for mass if i liked the homily. i’ve also been to masses where the homily is a snoozefest. i’ve been to some where the priests speaks in a monotone and sometimes worse, the way he speaks you can’t really understand the words.

the last two parish priests i had were great. the previous one was really good in delivering a lesson from the readings. the current one appeals to the Bible geek in me as he explains the background and the historical facts that goes into each reading, as if it was a Bible study. not sure if everyone in the church appreciates that but i love it 👍
 
We really got lucky at our parish. Our pastor is very clear and concise. And two of our lay priests are great! One in particular is a new york italian who is just in everybodys face and gives the best homilies ever! He really gets worked up and always ends with something to really think about. I always bring my St Joseph Missal to Sunday Mass and arrive early. I read it before Mass. It explains what each reading is all about in plain concise words. This may help you if you don’t have a good homilist (I think I made that up). You can order the missal online. I never go to Mass without it!
 
turtleoompa said:
We really got lucky at our parish. Our pastor is very clear and concise. And two of our lay priests are great! One in particular is a new york italian who is just in everybodys face and gives the best homilies ever! He really gets worked up and always ends with something to really think about. I always bring my St Joseph Missal to Sunday Mass and arrive early. I read it before Mass. It explains what each reading is all about in plain concise words. This may help you if you don’t have a good homilist (I think I made that up). You can order the missal online. I never go to Mass without it!
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What is a “lay priest”? Only a validly ordained deacon, priest and bishop can preach the homily. Please explain.
 
I’m sorry, I probably used the wrong word. By lay, I meant not our pastor. They are 2 retired priests. A better word would have been supply priest.
 
non_vac said:
Record one of Joel Osteen sermons, and play it instead of the priest’s homily. It will definately hold the attention of the congregation, and most people will probably get more out of it.
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Blecch. ‘Health and wealth’ prosperity gospel nonsense. I’ve heard too much of preachers of his type to give him any creedence.

Jesus DIDN’T come to earth to reward us with money, success at work, great physical health or indeed any material blessings. In fact He told us to give away all our possessions if we would be perfect. I have yet to hear of Mr Osteen or any of his buddies preaching on THAT text … gee, I wonder why? :rolleyes:
 
Supercatholic said:
Please forgive my poor choice of words. The Vatican has recommended homilies should be about 10 minutes unless necessary to be longer. As reported by earthtimes.org and catholic news agency.
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From my research, it appears that back in February of 2008, Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith (then a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments) gave an interview to Bruno Volpe of Petrus. He gave his personal opinions on matters and questions posed to him. Concerning the length of homilies, he said:
Another point: one often hears very long homilies…

This is an abuse too. I’m against dances and applause during Masses, which aren’t a circus or stadium. Regarding homilies, they must be about, as the Pope has underscored, the catechetical dimension exclusively, avoiding sociologizing and pointless chatter. For example, priests jump onto some political point because they didn’t prepare their homily well, which really ought to be scrupulously worked on. An excessively long homily is synonymous with poor preparation: the right length of time for a sermon should be 10 minutes, 15 at most. You have to remember that the high point of the celebration is the Eucharistic mystery, without of course intending to downplay the liturgy of the Word, but rather to make clear how to carry out a correct liturgy.
 
non_vac said:
Record one of Joel Osteen sermons, and play it instead of the priest’s homily. It will definately hold the attention of the congregation, and most people will probably get more out of it.
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I do believe this won’t be possible without violating the rules of liturgy. I also hope that no priest has resorted to doing this in any mass since it could be a reflection of his dedication to be a minister of the Word.
 
non_vac said:
Record one of Joel Osteen sermons, and play it instead of the priest’s homily. It will definately hold the attention of the congregation, and most people will probably get more out of it.
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Joel Osteen is a gifted speaker with just the right touch of emotion, but the only thing you’ll get out of him is entertainment. Homilies at mass may be boring, but we have Jesus, because Jesus has us. Mr Osteen’s pearly silver tongued speeches trick many weak minded catholics into leaving the one true church. DON’T BE ONE OF THEM!
 
Student09 said:
If it’s any comfort, the priest at my current parish talks about all these things on a regular basis. I think at least one gets mentioned every Sunday, usually more than one. He has a gift for communicating theological ideas in a way that is understandable and powerful for people of all levels of education. Another priest with a totally different style once gave the most beautiful homily on why birth control is wrong, that I have ever heard. Yet another priest (no longer in the area), a phenomenal preacher, gave a homily on the Eucharist and Purgatory that was so beautiful I cried.

And then, yes, I’ve heard some homilies that made me wonder, “Huh? Am in a Catholic church?”
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We have a Sacramental Minister priest, due to the shortage of priests. He is a gifted homilist, and the main thing he leaves out, compared to our pastor when I was a child in the 1950’s is all the talk about money!

Our priest isn’t fire and brimstone by a long stretch, he isn’t “nicey-nice” either. He will usually tie in the Gospel and the readings and relate it to how we can live it as Catholics.

Our mission statement is, “As followers of the Good Shepherd, we worship God and strive to love our neighbor by building community, fostering discipleship, promoting social justice and serving others.”

His homilies are very uplifting, and I am never bored, always inspired. And blessed that he is with us.
 
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