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The article tackles a key-practice of Christianity, preaching, by considering Catholic sermons in France. By assuming that discourse genres are basically historical realities, we study two of them, exemplified by one sermon delivered in 1702 and another in 2008 ; both deal with the same topic : the holy day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The author of the first homily is J.-B. Massillon, a famous preacher at the turn of the 18th century ; the latter was delivered on French television during a weekly religious program ( 'The Day of the Lord') by the president of the association of French bishops. A comparison is made between the two sermons, studied from two viewpoints : 1) as systems of communication, 2) as diverging configurations of the meaning of the Assumption, according to the constraints imposed by interdiscourse and the situation of enunciation.