Posted on 12/19/2019 8:29:28 AM PST by Salvation
A recent analysis by the Pew Research Center shows the rather unsurprising fact that sermons at Catholic masses are much shorter than those at Protestant and Evangelical services. The Catholic News Agency reports:
An analysis of nearly 50,000 sermons, given across a variety of Christian denominations during the months of April and May this year, found that the median length of a sermon was 37 minutes, but for Catholic priests, the average length was just 14 minutes.
Pew found that historically black Protestant sermons had the longest median length of 54 minutes, while mainline Protestant sermons were an average of 25 minutes long, with evangelical churches falling in between at 39 minute [sic] per sermon (CNA).
Catholic clergy are generally considered to be poorer preachers than their Protestant counterparts, and I would argue that the shorter sermon length has something to do with that. The expectation that a sermon be brief, about twelve minutes, affects what is said and how it is said. It also makes a number of forms of preaching, some of them among the most satisfying for the congregation, impossible.
Some years ago, a brother priest asked one of his parishioners who had left for a large Protestant denomination why he had done so. “They teach the Word,” was the man’s answer. We can certainly lament that the man would not have left the faith had he understood the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but people also have a hunger for God’s Word effectively taught and presented. For this reason, a good sermon deeply rooted in a biblical text is very satisfying. Long before I was ordained a priest, I listened to recordings of Protestant preachers like Adrian Rogers and Tony Evans. I marveled at how these men could take a text and teach from it line by line, creatively applying it to life. Even if I did not agree with every point they made or thought that they missed something that a Catholic would see, they saw the text as full of meaning and served up rich spiritual fare for their listeners.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen had this ability, too. He’d find a crucial point most others would miss and develop it beautifully. I remember once he noted that the disciples had forgotten to bring bread with them on the boat and emphasized the detail in the text that said, “They had only one loaf with them in the boat.” With the authority that only Sheen could command he proceeded to say, “And the loaf was Christ, who alone is our necessary Bread.” From this insightful teaching he went on to develop four aspects of it.
This sort of teaching and preaching takes time. I would argue that the relative inferiority of Catholic preaching isn’t just that Catholic clergy are poorly trained; it is also the limited time tolerated by the faithful. With such an abbreviated length, Catholic sermons tend to present a single principle drawn from the readings without being able to fully develop it. Good biblically based preaching usually involves going through a passage in the following steps: read it, analyze it, organize it, illustrate it, and then apply it. This sort of preaching isn’t likely to happen in a twelve-minute homily.
I also am told by many Catholics that priests need to teach more from the pulpit. There is a very long list of topics that they want to hear preached about more. I would argue that this also requires more than a mere twelve minutes.
I do not say that every member of the clergy should preach longer. Some simply don’t have the skill to do so. Others are in situations were a longer sermon is not possible due to the overall Mass schedule. There are also going to be ethnic/racial differences that factor in. So, neither do I argue that longer sermons teaching in depth out of a biblical text should be used in all situations. However, I do argue that if they want the “better” sermons of the denominations noted for excellent preaching, more Catholics might want to consider tolerating a longer sermon, at least at certain Masses.
I have spent most of my priesthood in predominantly African-American parishes. In such congregations, longer sermons are assumed. The people have high expectations of the sermon; they also interact with the preacher through encouraging interjections such as “Amen” and “All right now.” In these settings I routinely preach about thirty minutes; it is a great luxury. This permits me to preach through a biblical text examining its stages or exploring several aspects of the teaching it sets forth. Most of you who read my Sunday sermons posted here or listen to them online know this. One sermon might cover four aspects of discipleship derived from a Gospel pericope. Another might explore the stages of faith the man born blind goes through in the Gospel of John. Most of my parishioners would be surprised if I gave a ten-minute sermon, wondering what had happened. Once when I gave a short sermon a woman playfully rebuked me, saying, “Father, you left too much fruit in the tree this morning. We need a better harvest next week.”
Some Catholics have told me that they think long sermons are a mistake no matter who is in the pulpit because the purpose of the Mass is not to be a glorified bible study; it is an act of worship. Perhaps, but isn’t the Lord being worshipped when the faithful are attending to His proclaimed and preached Word with devotion?
Over the years, I have found that people have pretty strong opinions about sermons, both length and content. I suppose the best way for me to end this piece is by saying that perhaps we can all make a little room for one another in the Church. Some priests preach longer and are good at it. Some are not and better off keeping the sermon short and to the point. Other priests preach brilliant, memorable homilies that are quite brief. Vive la différence! Even in my own parish, not every liturgy is the same: our 11:00 AM Mass runs well over an hour, while our 7:00 PM Mass is no longer than forty-five minutes. Hence, in my own sermons, both content and length vary.
The one thing that is most clear to me is that rigid declarations that no sermon should be longer than a certain number of minutes (8, 10, 12, or whatever) are disrespectful of legitimate differences across cultures, liturgical traditions, and even personal temperaments. Pastors and congregations can and should work out their own situations and provide variety even there. Live and let live.
This sermon clip shows that, when I have to, I can preach in under four minutes. This was a half-hour TV Mass and only four minutes for the sermon is allotted. I certainly don’t consider it one of my better efforts and would liked to have developed the possibility that St. John did have supernatural grace. But all that one can do in so brief a moment is to throw out a few thoughts and exit gracefully. In my written online sermon I developed, in three stages, going from the imperfect gift we merely want to the perfect gift that God is actually offering. In my recorded parish homily, given the generous time allotted in that setting I was able to sample well from the Prophets as well as the Gospel text itself.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Goes back to a certain Pope Francis saying to keep the homilies short.
I love this guy. Gosh I’d love to sit with his intelligfent words flowing down from the pulpit and his parishioners all around me.
All faiths seem to have about the same attention span and tolerance for a typical service. That time is about 50 minutes.
Because the Catholic mass spends 20-25 minutes on the Eucharist, and another 15-20 on the readings, gospel, collection, and petitions, that only leaves about 15 minutes for a homily.
Our Roman Catholic friends would be “woke” if they knew how long the early church services were.
Our service lasts about an hour and 15 minutes. the sermon is usually about 20 minutes long, +/- 5 minutes depending upon the topic. I remember one winter service where it was cut to about 10 min when a storm front arrived earlier than forecast.
I'd argue it's because Roman Catholic priests are trained primarily to conduct the Mass....not preach.
In reviewing degree requirements at various RC seminaries this becomes pretty evident.
No, it doesn’t. It’s been the same for decades.
That’s a good observation. I do think culture affects people’s attention span, though. When we have a visiting priest from Latin America, he’ll often speak for 30 minutes or more. Because of the time of our Spanish Mass (1:00 p.m.), it’s usually not a problem if it runs very long: the next Mass isn’t until 4:30 p.m.
However, when a priest has one Mass after another on a Sunday morning, he’s got to keep an eye on the clock. As you observe, the Scripture readings take a certain amount of time, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist another length of time, leaving a limited window for the homily.
Is Pew aware that most of those “other services” with longer sermons don’t have anything else going on, like....the celebration of the Mass?
In today’s gospel (Luke 1:25)
He will be great before the Lord,
He will drink neither wine nor strong drink.
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb,
and he will turn many of the children of Israel
to the Lord their God.
It is interesting to read that “He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb,” While I have not seen any official comment, it appears to me that if John is filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb, then is he free from sin?
Good grief....are you serious?
One Priest at my church speaks seven languages.
English is number five or six on the list. Ask him to give a 57 minute sermon and he’d probably have a coronary.
We had one pastor who would finish at 12:05 regardless of when he started. He came out of the great depression era and as he put it I was a long winded preacher for a while until one little old lady who was a very faithful member of his congregation at that time got up at 12:20 and walked out. The next time he saw her he asked if everything was okay, was there an emergency or something. No she replied, my husband and I are limited on our income and Sunday dinner is our big meal of the week and I put a roast in the oven and it was set to come out at 12:30. I burned two because you preached until 1:00 o’clock and 12:45 o’clock the last two Sundays, I won’t burn another one.
Our current pastor can be long winded but usually is done 12:30 for the most part. Our biggest problem is we have a couple of members who don’t know when to shut up. In our services Sunday/Wednesday evening a deacon will take prayer request from the congregation after the last song the choir sings. We have one lady who will carry on for 10 mins. about everything under the sun, and have one request at the end.
The other is a lay preacher and he will tell you everything in the world, scripture, the miracle of medicine, damning his nephew to hell, even playing grab ass with his wife and he will never get to a prayer request and take 15-20 minutes to do it! At times he pops up in the middle of the sermon and tries to interrupt and at the end of the sermon with the spirit moving, he is the devils sprinkler system, he will hope up and tell everyone what the pastor actually meant to say or said. He’s infuriating to no end.
His wife has told him to sit down and shut up and up he goes. He’s been run out of two Sunday school classes because he won’t shut up and bless his heart if him and the other long winded lady got locked in a room with one typewriter they had to use to express themselves there would be a blood bath over who got to use the letter I on the keyboard and then it would be worn out in a couple of hours!
If we can keep these two windbags quite our service generally starts at say 11:00am and after the singing and offering the pastor will start around 11:30-11:35 and finish 12:00-12:15. Evenings are a different story, with prayer requests and the windbag show. I know some people who have stopped coming to these services because of these two windbags.
Yikes. That sounds pretty brutal. haha
If a pastor has only ONE shot a week, then his/her sermons WILL be longer. But priests can speak to us every day of the year, even twice a day, so those sermons don't have to be so long.
Also, the Church has a three-year rhythm, that is, we get different readings every day for three years, then they repeat the three-year cycle of readings.
Catholics also have confessions, novenas, Masses for weddings, funerals and baptisms, first Holy Communions, Confirmations AND the Liturgy of the Hours (The Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: Liturgia Horarum) or Divine Office (Latin: Officium Divinum) or Work of God (Latin: Opus Dei) or canonical hours,
[a] often referred to as the Breviary,
[b] is the official set of prayers "marking the hours of each day and sanctifying the day with prayer".
It consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns, readings and other prayers and antiphons. Together with the Mass, it constitutes the official public prayer life of the Church. The Liturgy of the Hours also forms the basis of prayer within Christian monasticism.
At our Church there is the morning prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours.
Also at 9:00 every morning there is a group of us who recites the rosary. Here we offer special intentions for people for various reasons: illness, injury, death of a spouse, hurt shoulders, etc.
There are SO many, many times that we come together that the sermons can be shorter.
I've gotten so I recognize the same sermons every three years...that's how long I've been attending Mass.
So who can blame the pastor for his/her uber-long homily when s/he gets so little time to preach? I sure don't blame them.
And those RCs who do attend each and every day are a small percentage of Roman Catholicism.
•Fewer than four in 10 Catholics attend church in any given week.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/232226/church-attendance-among-catholics-resumes-downward-slide.aspx
I've gotten so I recognize the same sermons every three years...that's how long I've been attending Mass.
So it's rinse, wash, repeat?
Boy, what you don't know about Catholic priests...
In the United States, priests must have a four-year university degree in philosophy plus an additional four to five years of graduate-level seminary formation in theology with a focus on Biblical research. A Master of Divinity is the most common degree.
They are also counselors in every aspect of human life. They counsel in confession, pre-marriage counseling, troubled marriages counseling, abuse counseling...in every aspect of human living. They visit the sick in rest homes, hospices, family homes, bring Holy Communion to the home-bound and to all the above mentioned.
They perform weddings, funerals, baptisms, first Holy Communions, annointings of the sick, Confirmations and any other special event.
They were on the battlefields during the wars, helping the injured...and giving Last Rites to the dying...even to non-Catholics who requested it.
So, all priests have a Master's Degree--their minimum in education. Many of the priests also have their Ph.D. in something else, like Canon Law.
Their sermons are a teaching/preaching/counseling tool and now you know that. .
Pax tibi.
And God bless you and yours.
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