Homily Preparation

When a non-catholic christian minister prepares their sunday preaching, they usually say that they are preparing their sermon. A Catholic ordained minister, on the other hand, calls it a homily. The difference is about 15 to 20 minutes. A sermon is expected to last between 25 and 30 minutes whereas a homily is more likely to be 7 to 10. I've learned that it takes about one hour of preparation for every minute of preaching so that means that I try to get started early enough in the week to make sure that I'm not singling out seven hours on Saturday to get it all done. Unfortunately it does happen, however, when I can't do it any other time than Saturday, which is what is happening today. I find myself just a few hours away from the time when mass will start hurriedly trying to get my homily done. This week has been filled with reconciliation, meetings, and other stuff, so much so that I just haven't been able to get it done before today. So, I'll keep this short so that I can spend enough time to have a good message.

Day One

Here we are just a few days away from Christmas. It has been an amazing day for several reasons. In my Dubuque parish, we have a catholic grade school. Dubuque is an old catholic town with several catholic churches, at last count there were 11. Beside every church there is a catholic school. At one time, there were more than enough kids to fill these schools. However, things change and we no longer have that. That means, that some churches have had to consolidate their schools, which is an incredibly painful event. Unfortunately, some people have acted very selfishly in the process, not being willing to accept that keeping their parish school open was impossible. It's amazing that, in these situations, it's always the other guy who should have to suffer. So, it's hard for me to appreciate going to our catholic school. It's a reminder of the pain that is going to have to happen as people get angry that "their school" is going to close. However, this morning, we had a communal penance for the school kids. For those of you who don't know, catholics are obliged to go to penance or confession once a year to confess their serious sins. As the kids came over today, I realized that, in neglecting the school, I wasn't punishing the people who were being selfish. The kids aren't being selfish about this, it's their parents who don't have any vision for the future of the catholic schools. I realized that I should seek forgiveness from these kids for giving up on them even as they were approaching this unworthy servant to receive God's forgiveness.