homily
/ˈhɒmɪli
/noun (plural homilies)
1A religious discourse which is intended primarily for spiritual edification rather than doctrinal instruction.The conclave opens with a Mass of the Holy Spirit, including a key homily stressing the particular challenges facing the next pope....
- I had seen him on October 22, 1978, in his first homily as pope, admonishing and encouraging the whole of humanity to be not afraid.
- The spammed messages were sometimes accompanied by a religious homily or endorsement.
Synonyms
sermon, lecture, discourse, address, lesson, talk, speech, oration, declamation;
preaching, teaching
informal spiel
rare peroration, allocution, postil
1.1A tedious moralizing lecture: she delivered her homily about the need for patience...
- Indeed, he now regularly appears at right-wing seminars and lectures to deliver his homilies on the President's failings as a man and as a leader.
- What is wrong is the inability to resist the temptation of delivering a moralistic little homily when someone does take out one of your seductively promoted loans.
- The next day the Chancellor went to the Mansion House, probably in the same creased suit, and delivered his annual homily on the state of the economy.
Derivatives
homilist
/ noun ...- St. Ephrem, one of the most renowned and lyrical homilists of the Eastern Church, beautifully described the praise of God flowing from us like a wellspring of water.
- He's an excellent, edifying, and courageous homilist; he never waters down the Gospel message to suit modern sensibilities.
- The guest homilist was Fr. Dermot Burns, Parish Priest of Straide, Co. Mayo.
Origin
Late Middle English: via Old French from ecclesiastical Latin homilia, from Greek, 'discourse, conversation' (in ecclesiastical use, 'sermon'), from homilos 'crowd'.