No More Boring Sermons: Italian Bishop's Plea

[Ash Wednesday]

One time we were on vacation as a family and this poor Vietnamese priest was giving a sermon that none of us could understand. Bless the poor guy's heart. The big thing was that my mom fell asleep during a sermon. This was completely epic and had us in stitches, because she was always the diligent worshipper and ear grabber who always kept us in line and threatened to send us to the car without cocoa and doughnuts if we didn't behave.

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='Raphael' date='05 January 2010 - 08:37 PM' timestamp='1262738230' post='2030466']
I hope the plea included the line, "and for goodness sake, everyone knows the story of your childhood already, please stop ignoring the readings to try to 'relate' to people through nostalgic retellings of events most of them weren't alive for and don't care about...we want Jesus, not your self-aggrandizement."

Not that I have any particular priest in mind.
[/quote]

Or perhaps it'd be nice if it included, "Hey, just because you're the only Catholic church in town doesn't mean you have to preach like an emotional, cheesy televangelist, and play sacchariney songs during the Minor Elevation to make your point. There's no need to add anything to the GIRM to give it more effect!" Ahhhhhhhhh!!!

Okay... so maybe I'm a little... flustered. Or flabbergasted.

What happened to good, solid preaching (and teaching!) from the pulpit?

I agree with you, Raphael -- we want Jesus! Not self-aggrandizement, or a show.

[MissyP89]

[quote name='Ash Wednesday' date='07 January 2010 - 03:49 PM' timestamp='1262897381' post='2031949']
My husband and I sometimes attend a nearby church but also attend elsewhere to get a break from his sermons. He is a very angry priest from the hippie generation, and seems very much influenced by liberation theology. Very big on social justice, but he has called JP2 a fascist, and BXVI "autocratic." With his sermons, it's the same thing every week: criticizing us all for our complacency, pondering about how angry Jesus must be ("if you had him over for tea, I imagine him turning the table or slapping the cup of tea in anger for how we behave!"), emphasis on what bad Christians we are, asking us what we do with our lives and how much we waste it, asking us what have done with ourselves besides going to church on Sunday. He raises very valid points, mind you -- but when you hear it week after week after week, it no longer feels like going to mass, it feels like we go there only to get scolded. He is very pleasant otherwise. He's got the image of Jesus angry in the temple down perfectly. But people need to have a little sense of hope and encouragement once in a while. A little variety can be the spice of life if you know what I mean.
[/quote]

We could use something that dared suggest we weren't all angels now and then. One of the priests at my parish typically acts as if none of us sin, ever.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='07 January 2010 - 04:36 PM' timestamp='1262900189' post='2031984']
Or perhaps it'd be nice if it included, "Hey, just because you're the only Catholic church in town doesn't mean you have to preach like an emotional, cheesy televangelist, and play sacchariney songs during the Minor Elevation to make your point. There's no need to add anything to the GIRM to give it more effect!" Ahhhhhhhhh!!!

Okay... so maybe I'm a little... flustered. Or flabbergasted.

What happened to good, solid preaching (and teaching!) from the pulpit?

I agree with you, Raphael -- we want Jesus! Not self-aggrandizement, or a show.
[/quote]
You know what would be great...if a priest would mention contraception or abortion or gay marriage or divorce or euthanasia or IVF in a homily! The liturgy is supposed to be transformative...what work is Jesus supposed to do in the soul of a person who's just spent twenty minutes listening to how great they and their parish are and how grand life is and how all of us are immaculate conceptions?! I mean...how about trying to challenge people to be better and then giving them God and all His graces to make that change a reality?!

[MissyP89]

Right. Jesus loves us. We know that already. Now give me something that will spark revival in the Church!

[cappie]

Whilst I did start this by posting the original I have been surprised at the somewhat negative and dare I say it carping responses.Whilst I can say I have been "bored" my many sermons, including my own in my own defense it is difficult to preach a homily when the age of the congregation ranges from 5-85, the education standard ranges from primary level to university, from someone who cannot read English to the deputy premier of the state of Queensland (Australia). Whose theological education varies wildly and whose view of the church ranges from "post Modern" to the Church Fathers and all spectra and shades in between.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='cappie' date='07 January 2010 - 11:36 PM' timestamp='1262925399' post='2032257']
Whilst I did start this by posting the original I have been surprised at the somewhat negative and dare I say it carping responses.Whilst I can say I have been "bored" my many sermons, including my own in my own defense it is difficult to preach a homily when the age of the congregation ranges from 5-85, the education standard ranges from primary level to university, from someone who cannot read English to the deputy premier of the state of Queensland (Australia). Whose theological education varies wildly and whose view of the church ranges from "post Modern" to the Church Fathers and all spectra and shades in between.
[/quote]
This is true, and I hope we're not coming across as too harsh, but you must understand how annoying it can be for those who are striving to know and live their faith when their priest doesn't teach the faith or approach the issues.

I once took my parents to Mass in Steubenville when a brilliant theologian was going to give the homily. I talked it up the whole time we were on the way to Mass. As it turned out, when we got there, we found out that we had a visiting priest, a Redemptorist, and all he wanted to do in his homily was sell subscriptions to The Liguorian magazine.

Then I visited Jennie's old parish from where she lived in North Carolina for a while. The priest was another visiting priest who, not kidding, wanted us all to pray to our "great cosmic daddy."

Now I've had priests who broke into their Gospels with bits and pieces of homiletics. I've seen a bishop give a "little homily" after each reading instead of one whole homily. I've heard countless stories about a particular priest's childhood over and over again, each one filled with Rockwellian portraits of perfect American family life, and he somehow expects to relate to the congregation of middle-class folks struggling to pay their bills and probably looking at being relocated with the military within a few months, this being the same priest who has altar calls, criticizes Pope Benedict openly in homilies in a very negative way, and claims publicly that he is not subject to the sanctions of canon law because he's "a progressive."

Fr. Cappie, I love and respect you as a priest and I can't begin to tell you how, based on our many exchanges over the years, I can't imagine you're anything like these priests.

[cappie]

A bishop said priests were like cow excrement very unattractive in a lump but capable of doing some good spread around the countryside

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='cappie' date='08 January 2010 - 12:05 AM' timestamp='1262927135' post='2032284']
A bishop said priests were like cow excrement very unattractive in a lump but capable of doing some good spread around the countryside
[/quote]
Teehee.

[eagle_eye222001]

[quote name='Ash Wednesday' date='07 January 2010 - 03:49 PM' timestamp='1262897381' post='2031949']
My husband and I sometimes attend a nearby church but also attend elsewhere to get a break from his sermons. He is a very angry priest from the hippie generation, and seems very much influenced by liberation theology. Very big on social justice, but he has called JP2 a fascist, and BXVI "autocratic." With his sermons, it's the same thing every week: criticizing us all for our complacency, pondering about how angry Jesus must be ("if you had him over for tea, I imagine him turning the table or slapping the cup of tea in anger for how we behave!"), emphasis on what bad Christians we are, asking us what we do with our lives and how much we waste it, asking us what have done with ourselves besides going to church on Sunday. He raises very valid points, mind you -- but when you hear it week after week after week, it no longer feels like going to mass, it feels like we go there only to get scolded. He is very pleasant otherwise. He's got the image of Jesus angry in the temple down perfectly. But people need to have a little sense of hope and encouragement once in a while. A little variety can be the spice of life if you know what I mean.
[/quote]

My childhood is chock full of the other extreme of homilies. I crave "hell" homilies.


[quote name='MissyP89' date='07 January 2010 - 11:29 PM' timestamp='1262924942' post='2032247']
Right. Jesus loves us. We know that already. Now give me something that will spark revival in the Church!
[/quote]

No, I don't think you understand.....Jesus loves you! God loves you.........so not only does Jesus love you....but God loves you too!

[quote name='cappie' date='07 January 2010 - 11:36 PM' timestamp='1262925399' post='2032257']
Whilst I did start this by posting the original I have been surprised at the somewhat negative and dare I say it carping responses.Whilst I can say I have been "bored" my many sermons, including my own in my own defense it is difficult to preach a homily when the age of the congregation ranges from 5-85, the education standard ranges from primary level to university, from someone who cannot read English to the deputy premier of the state of Queensland (Australia). Whose theological education varies wildly and whose view of the church ranges from "post Modern" to the Church Fathers and all spectra and shades in between.
[/quote]

I do try to remember this when I am bored in the pew. It feels like though that no one dares mention the words "abortion, contraception, gay marriage" or anything that could possible offend people. However coming up with a homily each week I am sure gets to be very challenging. Although one can only take the re-hashes of the gospel soooo many times.

[laetitia crucis]

[quote]"Too often, sermons are just boring mush, unappetising fare and certainly not too nourishing" for parishioners' minds," Crociata said.
[/quote]

Hmmm... I just hope some won't go to the other "extreme" in their homilies. Like this: [url="http://actsoftheapostasy.blogspot.com/2010/01/talk-show-mass.html"]The Talk-Show Mass[/url]

Definitely not boring, but I think the other mentioned adjectives are applicable.

When I first read that blog post, my honest-to-goodness first reaction was, "Whoa... that sounds almost [i]too [/i]familiar..."