Greg Kandra on Homilies: Keep it simple, already!

greg-kandraThis. Every word and every syllable of this. Kudos to Deacon Greg Kandra for his Facebook post:

Preachers: just keep it simple, already!

I’m teaching homiletics to the next class of deacons (being ordained in May 2017) and too many of the homilies have these consistent problems:

1) They sound like Wikipedia entries …
2) They make a dozen different points

One guy preached last night about The Assumption, and mentioned virtually every Marian dogma—along with all the reasons people don’t believe them and why those people are wrong. Eight minutes, 15 separate ideas.

You would think some of these guys had never heard a homily before.

As one of the monks here at St. John’s says about daily Mass homilies: They should have only one point, if that. 🙂

awr

Anthony Ruff, OSB

Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John's Abbey. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant at St. John's University School of Theology-Seminary. He is widely published and frequently presents across the country on liturgy and music. He is the author of Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations, and of Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. He does priestly ministry at the neighboring community of Benedictine sisters in St. Joseph.

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Comments

7 responses to “Greg Kandra on Homilies: Keep it simple, already!”

  1. Alan Hommerding

    Perhaps it’s not that they’ve never heard a homily before – I think that what you might be witnessing secondhand is all the homilies (or types of homilies) that they HAVE heard!

    Reply
  2. Jim Pauwels

    It probably sounds obvious, but there is a difference between listening to a homily and writing and delivering a homily. Having views on what makes for a good homily as a listener is helpful, but not sufficient to ensure that the auditor can then sit down and actually write a good homily. It’s like the difference between appreciating a good short story and writing a good short story. Or appreciating a good song and writing a good song.

    I think a lot of rookie preachers, having listened to homilies all their lives, assume that sitting down and writing one is a piece of cake. In fact, it’s quite different. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the two engage different parts of the brain.

    Reply
  3. Charles Day

    We have a priest assigned to our parish in the last few months, and about 2 weeks ago he started his homily by telling us that he had been to a session in the Archdiocese about giving a homily, and then noted “I have been doing it all wrong”.

    Seventeen minutes and dozens of points later, including commentary on hiking the Appalachian Trail, he concluded.

    I like him anyway.

    Reply
    1. Elisabeth Ahn

      @Charles Day:

      Ours meander a lot, but I like him anyway too. He’s a good pastor. Plus, he sings “Through him, with him, in him” so beautifully (during which one could hear a pin drop).

      @Jack Feehily:

      …they proclaimed the kerygma with the goal of conversion.

      uh, isn’t that like, giving homilies?

      Reply
  4. Jack Feehily

    If one lacks the gift of preaching, then the number of points and the chronological duration matters little. Jesus and the apostles didn’t give homilies, they proclaimed the kerygma with the goal of conversion.

    Reply
  5. Jack Feehily

    Not really. Many homilies are lectures or mini-lectures about theological topics. They might be interesting but they usually are un-engaging. The folks often can’t wait until they’re over. Some center around the priests latest travels and feature snappy allusions to books he’s been reading…books that most ordinary folks have never heard of and will never read. I could go on.

    Reply
  6. Jim Pauwels

    Professor Michael Peppard with some strong words on preaching over at dotCommonweal, headline “Starving in the Pews”:

    https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/starving-pews

    Reply

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