Tech Talk: Never Miss a Homily Again

Do you remember what you heard in last Sunday's homily?

Did you even get to hear the whole thing? Maybe you were distracted by taking care of your children's needs (which is a necessary distraction in a certain stage of life and nothing to be ashamed of). Maybe your mind wandered. Maybe you were worrying about something. Maybe you were praying about something. Maybe the church has a terrible sound system and you couldn't hear well. If you're a musician, like me, maybe you were mentally rehearsing the introduction to the Offertory Song.

There have been several times that one of our deacons has preached a homily that so struck me that I wanted to read it again when I could reflect on it more. As I know all of our parish deacons well, I've felt free to approach them and ask them for a copy of that homily, and they always generously shared it with me.

Image: "Good Friday Homily" by Matthew Huntbach, 2014, all rights reserved, via Flickr. Text added in PicMonkey.

A growing number of priests and deacons have begun offering the text and/or audio recordings of their homilies online, so that people who didn't get to hear the whole thing can catch up later--and people who want to prayerfully review it can do that as well.

About 10 years ago I discovered that a priest in my diocese was publishing his homilies on a blog. I've followed it ever since. My parish was staffed by Franciscan priests, so I didn't think it was too likely that I'd ever meet this diocesan priest whose homilies I read sometime in the middle of the week. But this spring, the Franciscans left our parish to concentrate on other ministries, and imagine my surprise when I learned that our new parish priest would be the very same one whose homilies I'd been reading for about a decade!

I still read them midweek, but when I do, I mentally hear his voice proclaiming the words.

I love that these priests and deacons have found a way to use technology to share the words they preach, not only with their own flocks, but with people around the world. This is a real blessing for anyone who wants to review a homily for any reason.

I did a little crowdsourcing and asked my Facebook friends to share their favorite sites where they can hear or read homilies online--and in no time at all, I had a pretty big list!

My parish priest, Fr. John C. Garrett of Resurrection Parish, Delran, NJ

Bishop-elect Robert Barron

CatholicIreland.net Sunday homily

Father Dave Dwyer, CSP of Busted Halo (note: this site was last updated in June)

The Dominican Friars

His Eminence Cardinal Dolan of New York City

A Concord Pastor (Massachusetts)

Fr. Jim Chern, campus minister at Montclair University (NJ) and guest on the Catholic Guy show on Sirius radio

Fr. Roger J. Landry of the Diocese of Fall River, MA

EWTN

Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish of Plymouth, MI offers several priests' homilies (find this feature in the right sidebar)

JoyAlive.net features weekly homilies by Fr. Bob Hilz