D defs.my
Entry 2 senses Webster, 1913

Homily

/häm'-əl-ē/ · Hom·i·ly · IPA /ˈhɑməli/
01 n. A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a serious discourse.
pl. Homilies ((#))
  1. 1.
    A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a serious discourse.
  2. 2.
    A serious or tedious exhortation in private on some moral point, or on the conduct of life.
    “As I have heard my father Deal out in his long homilies.” Byron.
Phrases & compounds
Book of Homilies — A collection of authorized, printed sermons, to be read by ministers in churches, esp. one issued in the time of Edward VI., and a second, issued in the reign of Elizabeth; -- both books being certified to contain a “godly and wholesome doctrine.”