Dear Lauren [ I hope the name is not fictitious, just protected ID] The article by Fr.Washington [SAR/ICPA] was really good. The laity sometimes has unreasonable expectations from priests and treat him as another sub-species of the human race.
Your interpretation, however, has some inaccuracies. A priest is normally ordained at about 25 years of age and retires at 75 years, so the sermons are for about 50 years, if at all for that long. If a sermon is boring , it is boring. If one is inattentive, one is inattentive. A sermon does not become boring because one is inattentive. If a priest is unprepared to preach, he should not preach because he is supposed to. A sermon that is not preceded by prayer and preparation is an unjustified verbal assault on a captive audience. The protestants routinely allow the parishioners to prepare and preach sermons. There is no bar that I know of in the catholic church to lay preachers. It is not the convention, either. I have preached a sermon on LOVE [ I Corinthians 13] in a Southern Baptist Church while I was a undergraduate student and a Roman Catholic one to hilt. I would be shocked if a Baptist is allowed to preach in one of our Churches at mass although. the Charismatics have preachers from almost any denomination. I have heard Pentacostals preach at a World Charismatic Convention, but not in a Church. The worst sermons that I have heard are ones that militate against the Bible, the Christian theology and the Cathechism of the Catholic church. They are not boring, they are wrong. Unlike a school lecture, a sermon goes unchallenged in a Catholic church. The preacher has that much more responsibility to prepare his sermon with prayer. As the Bhagwad Gita says, "When in doubt, abstain." From: Lauren Fernandes <[email protected]> > Subject: [Goanet] RE: *** Goanet Reader: > To: [email protected] I always have this little thought running in my mind specially when > I find im not able to concentrate on a sermon well (or boring as we call > it)imagine a priest giving sermons for 60 years of his life its not easy so > I guess realization has to dawn on us. > Thank you dear Father for your article and I hope you will continue writing > such practical realities for lay people like us. > Regards, > Lauren .................................... The priest is human, we have to accept it. The priest is a shepherd who should not mislead his flock; he has to accept that. If he changes his mind, he can resign priesthood and rejoin the laity. One cannot have the best of both the worlds. One must die to one....... to live for the other. Christ talks of no other way. Viva Goa. Miguel >
