Unfortunately there is relatively little with respect to official norms regarding length of homilies. This is partly inevitable because expectations vary from one culture to another and even from one social milieu to another. There are some cultures which expect long discourses during Mass and others which fidget after six minutes.<\/p>\n
No. 24 of the Introduction to the Lectionary has the following to say about the homily:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe homily, by which, through the course of the liturgical year, the mysteries of faith and norms of Christian life are set forth from the sacred text, as part of the Liturgy of the Word has been recommended often and especially since the liturgical constitution of the Second Vatican Council, and indeed is prescribed in some cases. The homily in the celebration of Mass is customarily to be given by the one who presides by virtue of the fact that it shows how the word of God which has been proclaimed becomes together with the eucharistic liturgy \u2018a kind of proclamation of the wonders of God in salvation history or the mystery of Christ.\u2019 And also the Paschal Mystery of Christ, which is announced by the readings and homily, is exercised through the sacrifice of the Mass. Christ, moreover, in the preaching of his Church, is always present and at work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe homily, therefore, whether it explains the word of sacred Scripture that has been proclaimed or another liturgical text, ought to lead the community of the faithful to celebrate the Eucharist actively, so that \u2018they may hold in their manner of life what they have grasped by faith.\u2019 By this living explanation of the Word of God, which is read, the celebrations of the Church, which are carried out, can also acquire a greater efficacy if the homily is truly the fruit of meditation, aptly prepared, neither excessively drawn out nor too brief, and if it is attentive to the needs of all those present, even children and the uninstructed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2026The Church does recommend brevity, above all because the homily should be in proportion to the entire celebration. It makes little sense to go on for 20 or more minutes and then rush through the Eucharistic Prayer.<\/p>\n
Once more cultural factors have to be taken into account, and it is nigh impossible to give strict rules. One could say that on a Sunday six minutes would be a minimum, but the maximum is much harder to determine. I believe that the criterion of proportion with the rest of the celebration is a good guide, along with the faithful\u2019s expectation within the context of a concrete pastoral situation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read more, including Pope Benedict\u2019s thoughts, here.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We talked about this a little at the Redemptorists\u2019 conference in New Jersey this week. Fr. Edward McNamara has more, from ZENIT:\u00a0 Unfortunately there is relatively little with respect to official norms regarding length of homilies. This is partly inevitable because expectations vary from one culture to another and even from one social milieu to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[11193],"class_list":["post-25523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preaching","tag-preaching"],"yoast_head":"\n
How long should homilies be?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We talked about this a little at the Redemptorists' conference in New Jersey this week. Fr. Edward McNamara has more, from ZENIT:\u00a0 Unfortunately there is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How long should homilies be?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We talked about this a little at the Redemptorists' conference in New Jersey this week. Fr. Edward McNamara has more, from ZENIT:\u00a0 Unfortunately there is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-22T20:37:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-30T20:03:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/files\/2013\/08\/simpsons-in-church-575x366.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/\",\"name\":\"How long should homilies be?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-22T20:37:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-30T20:03:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"We talked about this a little at the Redemptorists' conference in New Jersey this week. Fr. Edward McNamara has more, from ZENIT:\u00a0 Unfortunately there is\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How long should homilies be?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How long should homilies be?","description":"We talked about this a little at the Redemptorists' conference in New Jersey this week. Fr. Edward McNamara has more, from ZENIT:\u00a0 Unfortunately there is","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How long should homilies be?","og_description":"We talked about this a little at the Redemptorists' conference in New Jersey this week. Fr. Edward McNamara has more, from ZENIT:\u00a0 Unfortunately there is","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2013-08-22T20:37:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-30T20:03:05+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/files\/2013\/08\/simpsons-in-church-575x366.jpeg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/","name":"How long should homilies be?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-08-22T20:37:18+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-30T20:03:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"We talked about this a little at the Redemptorists' conference in New Jersey this week. Fr. Edward McNamara has more, from ZENIT:\u00a0 Unfortunately there is","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/08\/how-long-should-homilies-be\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How long should homilies be?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2013\/08\/simpsons-in-church.jpeg\" "\\"simpsons-in-church\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n