Posted on 11/06/2013 11:07:21 AM PST by markomalley
When was the last time you heard an archbishop discuss preaching this way:
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas has urged Catholic priests to always prepare and think carefully about the content of their homilies, saying delivering “boring” sermons is unjust to God and the churchgoers.
deliver better quality preaching.
These included, he said, their failure to prepare for the liturgy.
Drawing from his own experience, Villegas attributed his long and winding homilies to his failure to “know my people well.”
“In other words, I was speaking about hunger when I did not feel the hunger myself. I was speaking about death, sorrow and loneliness but I have not felt the loneliness, the death and the sorrow that the parishioners are going through,” said Villegas.
“We priests can preach to empty stomachs but only if our stomach is as empty as our parishioners. When our life is so different from our parishioners, then we end up giving long and winding homilies. I don’t speak about anyone. I speak about myself and I’m guilty,” he added.
Read it all.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas has urged Catholic priests to always prepare and think carefully about the content of their homilies, saying delivering “boring” sermons is unjust to God and the churchgoers.
“It is unfair to God. It is unfair to the people. It is also unfair to me because I’m depriving myself of the good encounter with God,” Villegas said, admitting that he himself was guilty of it at times.
In an article posted on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website, Villegas cited reasons why priests sometimes failed to deliver better quality preaching.
These included, he said, their failure to prepare for the liturgy.
Drawing from his own experience, Villegas attributed his long and winding homilies to his failure to “know my people well.”
“In other words, I was speaking about hunger when I did not feel the hunger myself. I was speaking about death, sorrow and loneliness but I have not felt the loneliness, the death and the sorrow that the parishioners are going through,” said Villegas.
“We priests can preach to empty stomachs but only if our stomach is as empty as our parishioners. When our life is so different from our parishioners, then we end up giving long and winding homilies. I don’t speak about anyone. I speak about myself and I’m guilty,” he added.
Sorry about the first posting
Hear, hear!
Don’t bother, they’re here.
You were saying? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzdBAX02KHE
It takes a “real” Christian to stay awake during a boring sermon. or is that “a reel Christian?” (Just beating someone else to the punch line.)
And its really bad when you hear God snoring from the upper balcony.
Most of those in my Church are as old as myself and cannot hear anyway, so why with the long and winding homilies.
As I leave I always ask my wife what it was about and she can tell me in few words.
I wish Fr. George Rutler would make more episodes of “Christ in the City”. I don’t know if they count as sermons, but they’re certainly not boring. Not to me, anyway.
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