Monsignor James Turro is a man of a few words. Literally. His homilies are legendary for being excessively brief: about four or six sentences. So, don’t unwrap a piece of hard candy or gaze too long at your missalette. It’s over.

Why? “I fought against making the pulpit a classroom,” Turro told me as we sat in the dining room of Our Lady of Mercy Rectory in Park Ridge, where Turro resides with three other priests. “I wanted it to be more of a conversation, though one-sided.”