I have often wondered what the ideal length of a homily should be. Some priests say 8 minutes. Some say no more than 10 minutes. It is no surprise that my homilies tend to average around 15 minutes. I am often self-conscious about the length of my homilies. However, as I don’t get too many complaints about the length, I have stuck with that timing.

I just came across THIS article on a study done by Pew Research which compares the lengths of homilies and sermons from different Christian denominations. It turns out that Catholic homilies are on average far shorter than all others, averaging around 14 minutes. Sermons in Protestant churches average between 25 and 54 minutes (depending on the denomination). HERE is a link from the Pew Research article on the study.