Pope Francis called on Catholic priests to keep their homilies short - "no longer than eight minutes" - so that their audiences would not "fall asleep".
The homily - or sermon - is the address in which a priest comments on a reading from the Bible.
A homily, he said, was meant to transfer the word of God from the book to life.
"But for this, the homily must be brief: an image, a thought and a sentiment," he told the crowd at his weekly general audience, improvising as he went.
"The homily must not go beyond eight minutes, because after that time, attention is lost and people go to sleep, they fall asleep and they are right to do so," the 87-year-old pontiff added.
"And I want to say this to priests, who talk a lot, very often, and one does not understand what they are talking about," he continued in a light-hearted tone.
This is not the first time the head of the Catholic Church has offered such advice.
In 2023, he described long homilies as a "disaster".
Pope Francis has spoken in the past of the need for priests not to ramble on in their homilies but his own use of language is currently under scrutiny.
The pope apologised last month after Italian media reported that he used a derogatory Italian term associated with the LGBT community, as he told Italian bishops he remained opposed to admitting gay people into the priesthood.
However, according to Italian news agency ANSA, Francis repeated the term yesterday as he met Roman priests.
