I particularly liked his reasonings from preaching from a prepared text:
One of the valuable things about working from a text is that you can control the length of the homily -- along with the structure and direction of it. It gives the work a clear beginning, middle and end. The running time is fairly consistent: 7-8 minutes.
I've seen priests and deacons who can preach from prepared text quite eloquently and those who could put you to sleep doing so. But... at least the homily has some direction. I also know of two who frequently preach the entire or majority of a homily extemporaneously - unfortunately they're not nearly at the level of delivery of our Pope. The homilies frequently jump from one idea to another and then all of the sudden it seems they see their time is up on the clock on the back wall and *poof* they walk away. To say it is distracting is an understatement.
ReplyDeleteI think the art of reading from a prepared text with inflection is an art that requires either an innate gift or considerable practice or both. I sometimes wonder if perhaps seminarians ought to take classes in acting or more advanced public speaking as well as homiletics but, of course, that runs the risk of the liturgy becoming a show which is equally problematic. The fineness of the line between the two seems to be the reason well-thought-out and well-delivered homilies are often considered such a rare gift.