The following comes from an October 14 Angelus article by Mike Nelson:
“A preacher,” says Msgr. Francis J. Weber, “has maybe a quarter of an hour a week to reach his audience at Mass with his homilies. But many of today’s preachers in our church are overwhelmed with so many responsibilities that they don’t have time to properly prepare.”
And that’s a problem, says the archivist emeritus of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, who recalls the words his own homiletics professor, Vincentian Father Oscar Miller at St. John’s Seminary, from the 1950s: “Never preach without preparing. It’s unfair to the people and unfair to the Scripture.”
To that end, Msgr. Weber — in the spirit of fairness to assemblies and Scripture, and of helpfulness to overwhelmed homilists (priests and deacons alike) — has assembled a three-volume collection of homilies, one for each Liturgical Year cycle, that may be used in whole or in part by those finding themselves short of time, or inspiration, as they prepare for Mass.
Simply titled “Sunday and the Feast Day Homilies: Years A, B and C,” the handsomely-bound collection (published by Editions du Signe) is the latest work by the prolific pastor of Mission San Fernando, whose “California Catholic Heritage” was a fixture in The Tidings for 33 years.
“And it only took me 57 years to do these,” smiles Msgr. Weber of the collection of homilies, which stems in large part from the observation of his mentor and friend, acclaimed church historian Msgr. John Tracy Ellis.
“Msgr. Ellis contended that the evangelists were the first archivists for the Catholic Church,” says Msgr. Weber. “Their role was to gather, proclaim and circulate the contents of the Catholic faith to future generations.
“And our Lord gave the evangelists only two mandates: teach the Gospel and sanctify the people with the sacraments, starting with baptism. But preaching, or teaching, is chronologically first.”
“I think I write better than I preach,” he says, “and very few can do both well. Archbishop [Fulton J.] Sheen could do it, and so could Cardinal [Timothy] Manning. The thing is, as Father Miller said, you need to be prepared, be sure you have something to say or people will get bored. Words are pregnant, and they can give great meaning when they are lined up right.”
Seems like the title of this item ought to be “Teaching Priests to Read”. Am I wrong here, but isn’t there a difference between reading what another person writes, and preaching? I can spot a canned homily from dozens of pews away. Most people can. And most people, when confronted with bad preachers or preachers who merely “read” their homilies scurry away to another parish in favor of a place which preached Christ and Christ crucified. Mercy. Justice. Love. Contemplation. The Sacred Mysteries.
“Never preach without preparing. It’s unfair to the people and unfair to the Scripture.”
The 2016 Presidential Election: Voting from a Catholic Perspective (taught in one awesome homily)
https://tomperna.org/2016/10/04/the-2016-presidential-election-voting-from-a-catholic-perspective-taught-in-one-awesome-homily/
Over the years I have known many Protestant Ministers/Pastors who lead large congregations and have families to raise. Yet, each of them spent hours each week preparing their sermons for the weekend. Each one I knew went into the church a couple of times each week to practice giving the sermon from the pulpit. They did this, and still had time to manage a large organization. Why can’t our Priest do the same? Our Priests do have, of course, the requirement of developing a homily for each day of the week in addition to the Sunday sermon. That does take a lot of time. But still, it might be that preaching isn’t thought to be that important, or after thirty years its a bit of a chore.
proper preparation requires starting a week ahead and working with the central passages daily. focus must be given to the gospel as the center, not to a ‘theme’ cooked up by a liturgical committee that might be trying to tie in favorite songs and thus misshape the best outcome. i read once that the lectionary was set up with the gospel as the focal point and various letters. books, and psalms were selected to illuminate the gospel pericope. the ‘tour of the bible’ over a three year stretch was not the main intention. those preachers who feel they need to give a mini exposition of each reading do not have enough time to…
meet the goal of a focussed product .. always try to apply the teaching to the local community experience in a way the leaves room for hope .