Vatican: homilies should not be improvised entertainment

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:11 pm by Deacon Greg Kandra

Vatican: homilies should not be improvised entertainment 2015-03-13T16:11:47-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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From The Catholic Herald:

Archbishop Arthur Roche has said that homilies preached in Mass must not be improvised and used as a form of entertainment. The Archbishop’s comments came as he presented new directives for the Church on the preaching of the homily in Mass today at the Vatican.

Archbishop Roche, the former Bishop of Leeds and now secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said that the homily “is not an intermission in the middle of Mass” but is intimately connected with the Word of God and faithful gathered to celebrate the Eucharist and is one of the main ways in which priests and deacons carry out their ministry of teaching.

He added that homilies should generally not be improvised but should be the fruit of prayerful preparation. In his presentation, the archbishop quoted Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, “preparation for preaching is so important a task that a prolonged time of study, prayer, reflection and pastoral creativity should be devoted to it”.

Archbishop Roche, in another quotation from Evangelii Gaudium, referenced the Holy Father’s comments that “the homily cannot be a form of entertainment like those presented by the media, yet it does need to give life and meaning to the celebration. It is a distinctive genre, since it is preaching situated within the framework of a liturgical celebration”.

The archbishop accompanied Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation, at the presentation of the Homiletic Directory this morning.

The directory provides practical suggestions and answers the questions, “What is the homily? What kind of attention does it deserve? Where do we find its contents? How do we articulate it?”.

While acknowledging that it will not solve all the problems or challenges having to do with the homily, the archbishop hopes that it will be a useful instrument in the training and ongoing formation of those who are called to preach in the Sacred Liturgy.

Cardinal Sarah added that many Catholics judge their entire experience of Mass on the basis of the homily.

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