{"id":33603,"date":"2016-08-07T13:14:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-07T18:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=33603"},"modified":"2016-08-07T13:14:49","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T18:14:49","slug":"how-long-should-the-homily-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2016\/08\/07\/how-long-should-the-homily-be\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long Should the Homily Be?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Liborius Olaf Lumma<\/em><\/p>\n

In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium,<\/em> Pope Francis gave surprisingly detailed hints for preparation and rhetoric techniques for the liturgical sermon in the Mass, the homily (Art. 135\u2013159).<\/p>\n

Francis even discussed a homily\u2019s appropriate duration:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe homily […] is a distinctive genre, since it is preaching situated within the framework of a liturgical celebration; hence it should be brief and avoid taking on the semblance of a speech or a lecture. A preacher may be able to hold the attention of his listeners for a whole hour, but in this case his words become more important than the celebration of faith. If the homily goes on too long, it will affect two characteristic elements of the liturgical celebration: its balance and its rhythm.\u201d (Art. 138)<\/p>\n

Although I cannot exactly define what \u201cbalance\u201d and \u201crhythm\u201d mean in context of Mass, I am convinced that the pope mentions a very important aspect here: as the homily is an integral part of an aesthetic and artistic phenomenon (the liturgy), it has to be measured by aesthetic and artistic categories.<\/p>\n

But what is the \u201cbriefness\u201d that Francis mentions? He only gives a hint (\u201cthe words of the preacher must be measured, so that the Lord, more than his minister, will be the center of attention,\u201d Art. 138), but he does not suggest an exact duration. So it might be interesting to find out how long Francis\u2019 homilies themselves are.<\/p>\n

Well, I did not perform a precise research project, but I had a look at the list of the published papal homilies on the Vatican website (most of them in Masses, few on other occasions, such as solemn Vespers). I took every fourth one of them (always the Italian version), copied them into my word processor, and counted the words (including abbreviated biblical books etc.). So here is the list of numbers of words in papal homilies in increasing order:<\/p>\n