How Does the Homily Happen?

10-15-2017Weekly ReflectionFr. Brian Jazdzewski

Over the decades, believers used countless titles for what happens in church on weekends from the mouth of the minister. Some places call it a sermon, others a homily, others a speech, lesson or preaching. Within our Catholic world, the modern title to the message after the Gospel from the clergy is called a homily. Typically, the title was sermon until more recent years, say the last several decades. From my understanding, the sermon was meant to teach/catechize some doctrine of the Church whether or not it was connected to the weekend scriptures.

In recent times, the title was changed to a homily and is meant to me more on the spiritual side of things, related more directly to the weekend scriptures, and may include some historical or catechetical moments. The other parameters include the length; suggested time on a homily ranges from 6-9 minutes to 12-15 minutes.

Perhaps some people wonder how a Catholic clergyman comes up with his homily. I am only able to speak for myself and so here are a few major things I do to prepare. First of all, I pray with the scriptures for the upcoming weekend. I like to mark the readings in my Bible on Monday or Tuesday for the weekend to come. My first read is to discover how the Lord may be speaking to me personally. Then, as the week progresses, I ask the Lord what He may be asking me to preach to you, His people. I re-read the scriptures daily, including on Saturday morning. The familiarity with the Word allows it to ruminate in my mind as the days go by in anticipation of the weekend. Through these multiple reads and reading before and after the selected scriptures, there is usually some inspired idea upon and around which I preach.

Along with my personal and private prayer, I often, though not always, refer to the Workbook for Lectors, Gospel Readers, and Proclaimers of the Word by Liturgy Training Publications, a resource we have in each church for our weekend readers. This book contains commentary on the readings. The commentaries usually contain some idea or historical setting which helps inspire a preach-able idea. I also regularly use some devotional book with daily and weekly reflections. I can't say I have a favorite. I rotate through several resources through the year depending on the liturgical season. Another resource I use is Word on Fire, a website by Bishop Robert Barron. He provides an audio version of his upcoming weekend homily from which I gain ideas and inspiration. I'd say I use this resource around a dozen times annually. I will, however, encourage you to visit Word on Fire now and again; Bishop Barron's homilies are around 14 minutes.

While the days of the week progress, my homily is structured around 2-4 central ideas. From those ideas, I develop ways to support those main points. I rarely write any words on paper, unless those words are a bullet point or more which I want to remember. Then, by Saturday evening, I preach the homily which follows the same format throughout the weekend. In my years of priesthood, there have been only a handful of times when I've written out my entire homily. There are another handful of times or so when I've used some type of notes to remember significant points. Most often, I just trust the Holy Spirit will remain in my mind and lead me to speak what God wants His people to hear.

While these steps are my normal preparation for the weekend, similar procedures occur for daily Mass, Holy Day of Obligation, funerals, marriages and the like. In the end, after my homily is preached, I pray some morethanking God for His gifts which allow me to do what I do.

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