Homily

Homily is a short sermon.  A lecture or discosure on a moral theme.  The word has Greek roots. The original Greek word is homilos meaning "crowd' or "assembly".  Gradually it evolved into homilein, meaning "to  address" and then to homilia,  meaning "conversation" or "discourse'. Homilia eventually took the meaning "short sermon".   It was later adopted into Latin by the writers of early first millenium.  It reached English of the 14th century by way of Anglo French.  But when it arrived in English, it was spelled "omelie". By the mid 16th century h was back, and y of the modern spelling found its place.