Sermon Lengths Should Vary

Archdiocese of Washington ^ | 12-18-19 | Msgr. Charles Pope

[Luircin]

Sermons should be exactly as long as they need to be. It depends on the congregation and the sermon topic.

[fishtank]

[fishtank]

Our Bible church has 40 minute sermons - standard.

The head pastor is starting the fourth year of preaching through the book of Romans, verse by verse.

We are in chapter 15 right now (out of 16 total, of course).

[Buckeye McFrog]

The Fulton J. Sheen reruns on EWTN are remarkable.
For sure he was an orator for the ages. Some of these
date to the DuMont Network in the early 50’s, yet they
are as fresh and timely as if they had been recorded
yesterday. They resonated with a TV audience that was
mostly Protestant.

[ealgeone]

That the question was even asked is probably the more astounding thing.

[Faith Presses On]

Those were accurate generalizations, and they were clearly generalizations. I was careful not to say that Protestants read the Bible while Catholics don’t. But it’s simply true that to really get much out of God’s Word, a person needs to be meditating on it very frequently. Do you read the Bible yourself?

[Elsie]

Well; Rome’s Mary gets by with less!

[Elsie]

When you have TWO services on Sunday; the first had BETTER be done ‘on time’!

Although where I attend now has a 30 ‘intermission’ beyween services. It allows the parking to not be all jammed up in the lot.

[ealgeone]

Is listening the same as reading?

I seriously wonder how many Roman Catholics carry their Bibles to church.

I recall hearing a debate with Karl Keating. What he said was very telling:

He said you can tell who the Christians are tonight....they have their Bibles.

[cloudmountain]

The Fulton J. Sheen reruns on EWTN are remarkable. For sure he was an orator for the ages. Some of these date to the DuMont Network in the early 50’s, yet they are as fresh and timely as if they had been recorded yesterday. They resonated with a TV audience that was mostly Protestant.

I hadn't realized that so many Protestants watched Bishop Sheen. Why would so many bother to listen to or watch a Roman Catholic bishop? I'm just curious.

[cloudmountain]

Those were accurate generalizations, and they were clearly generalizations. I was careful not to say that Protestants read the Bible while Catholics don’t. But it’s simply true that to really get much out of God’s Word, a person needs to be meditating on it very frequently. Do you read the Bible yourself?

I do, every day of my life.

[Elsie]

Why would so many bother to listen to or watch a Roman Catholic bishop? I'm just curious.

He didn't blather on and on about 'unique' Catholic inventions; but managed to stick to what the Bible is actually teaching.

[Elsie]

Plain, ol' common sense NEVER goes out of style!!

---

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen quotes:

 

 

"A Plea For Intolerance" (1931)

 

Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil ... a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment.

 Tolerance applies only to persons ... never to truth.

 

America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance — it is not.

It is suffering from tolerance.

Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos.

Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.

 

 

 

Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive.

They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything.

As quoted in Seven Words to the Cross (1979) by Ellsworth Kalas, page 93.

 

 

 

 

 

Right is right if nobody is right, and wrong is wrong if everybody is wrong.

 

If you don't behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave.

 

 

An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.

• Though Sheen is quoted as saying this in Look magazine (14 December 1955) the earliest located declaration of this witticism was by John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir on 21 February 1936:

 

[combat_boots]

Bishop Sheen

I revere him

[cloudmountain]

He didn't blather on and on about 'unique' Catholic inventions; but managed to stick to what the Bible is actually teaching.

I don't recall ANY priests I heard blathering on about anything in their homily. They just preached and taught.

I listen sometimes to EWTN and Scott Hahn is on sometimes and he NEVER blathers. He's an excellent speaker.

What Catholic priests blather, in your opinion? They are certainly smarter and more educated than 100 years ago. They do SO many different things.
The most amazing priests were those who went into combat and spent their time tending the wounded and administering Last Rites, sometimes even to non-Catholics if they requested it.

[Faith Presses On]

Listening can be good if it’s done right. Illiterate people could still learn a lot that way if there was a commitment for them to learn about the material and commit it to memory.

I have some doubts, though, about saying that you can tell Christians by them carrying Bibles while unbelievers don’t. There are reasons why unbelievers might carry Bibles, even because they know they’ll look good, while Christians may not for a variety of reason. On who’s reading them in faith, in order to learn from and about God, there’s no doubt about that.

[Faith Presses On]

“...Do you read the Bible yourself?”

“I do, every day of my life.”

Okay, so this is the text you highlighted to me as “downright insulting” to you, as you put it:

“Also, many more evangelical Christians than Catholics are actually reading the Bible themselves in any given week. If you aren’t reading the Bible for yourself, then for the most part those Scripture readings go in one ear and out the other.”

I said, “IF you aren’t reading the Bible for yourself...”

You are reading the Bible for yourself, so what I wrote doesn’t even apply to you.

[cloudmountain]

You asked me if I read the Bible.

[cloudmountain]

Those were accurate generalizations, and they were clearly generalizations. I was careful not to say that Protestants read the Bible while Catholics don’t. But it’s simply true that to really get much out of God’s Word, a person needs to be meditating on it very frequently. Do you read the Bible yourself?

YOU asked me so I answered you.

[Faith Presses On]

Okay. Please follow this the best that you can, cloudmountain.

I asked you if you read the Bible because you were supposedly insulted by my words, but you had twisted my words and read into them what wasn’t there, and that was proven when you admitted that you read the Bible.

I said: “IF — note that — IF you aren’t reading the Bible for yourself, THEN for the most part those Scripture readings go in one ear and out the other.”

The IF doesn’t apply to you — does it?