Here I have put together a selection of homilies. The Word of God is ‘alive and active’ says the Letter to the Hebrews. That is not to say that it lives a hidden organic life we can trace through a microscope, as if it were a virus; but that it is inspired, a bearer of God’s eternal Spirit. Therefore it resounds to this day with quite as much force as when it was first spoken. It ever has something new to say. The preacher’s first task is to listen intently to this Word at once ancient and new, then to make his own, necessarily limited words its vehicles. I have not been able to provide translations of texts in other languages; but if you rummage around a little you will find a fair amount of material in English.
The persecution that arose in Jerusalem after the lapidation of Stephen caused the apostolic nucleus to explode. The Twelve, who since the Ascension had huddled, first in fear, then in creative confidence, with Mary the Mother of Jesus, scattered.
Continue reading Western philosophy since Descartes has tended to assume that the perception of reality results from inference; that I can, in isolation, think my way to the truth. The Gospel’s philosophy is different.
Continue reading A life pierced by repentance may become an even more effective vehicle of grace than one that has never known what it is to fall and to be raised up again.
Continue reading Error, the loss of direction, may confer momentary thrills, but its long-term effect is frustration and sadness. It is worth being attentive to intimations of frustration and sadness - should they occur, it is time to check the compass.
Continue reading A Christian should be a loyal citizen and contribute to the good of society, on this subject the New Testament is clear. Our loyalty, however, should not become gormless gullibility.
Continue reading God wishes to dwell in us, he wants to be known - we are called to be burning coal to let his divinity burn with cleansing, blessing power in the world. Are we wholly surrendered to this hope?
Continue reading Jesus, rising from Sheol, serenely put off death as if were an old pyjamas for which he had no further use. He folded it neatly, showing even this last enemy divine respect, a kind of tenderness due, not to death as such, that's for sure, but to the wounds death has imprinted on human experience.
Continue reading We think that a given circumstance, a given person, a given wound prevents us from being free. We spend our time moaning about that circumstance, that person, that wound.
Continue reading Christ is risen! May he be fully alive in us, in the unity among us, that the world may believe and rediscover the gladness it has lost.
Continue reading If we seek an image of what the Church is, we find it here, in the fact that we, of ourselves a heap of forlorn individuals, are by God's efficacious power turned into a unified, jubilant sea of living fire. The Church's decisive synodos happens through incorporation into Christ's Pasch.
Continue reading Christ's cross, geometrically a sign of contradiction, a function of two lines that will never run parallel, has become a symbol of wholeness.
Continue reading We intuit what it means to love, not just when it feel right, but definitively, 'until the end'.
Continue reading If we pay attention we see, here and there, the hoof-print of him whom Revelation refers to as 'the accuser of the brethren'. Let's not fall for his tricks.
Continue reading Jesus must go up to Jerusalem to take the altar's place. The old covenant has completed his mission; the new covenant, drawn up in his Blood, is about to begin.
Continue reading St Joseph calls us to live our faith coherently, with courage and devotion, and not to confuse ourselves and others with all manner of superfluous, useless chatter. In a time like ours, in which the significance of words is easily subverted, such an approach is balm for the soul.
Continue reading The Easter mystery provides us with a master-key to human existence. Let us remember to use it where life seems locked, where death by way of illusion appears to have the last word.
Continue reading Often we complain against God and feel ignored by him when in fact grace is in store for us. We are like the Israelites who complained in Mara, 'We have no water' though they practically stood on the threshold of a wonderful oasis.
Continue reading This Lent, make it your exercise to look at yourself in the mirror at least once a day and remind yourself, ‘I am holy to the Lord’. Then live accordingly.
Continue reading The rainbow God set as the sign of his covenant, a sign no lesser cause can usurp, indicates an economy of mercy, for God will henceforth leave the world undestroyed. It also indicates an economy of patience, for in a post-diluvian world man must bear the brunt of his choices.
Continue reading Affirming our mortality, we embrace our limitation. We own that, despite occasional lapses of delusion, we know we are not God.
Continue reading We might be tempted to try a Marxist reading of our passage from Job, and say, ‘Haha - here is proof of alienation from life-activity even in Biblical times, proof of man reduced to a cog in the wheel of a structure that exploits him — live the Revolution!’ And we'd miss the point.
Continue reading If we stay faithful to our call, we too, shall by grace be a sign to the nations, a sign of hope and direction our disoriented times need badly as they hurtle ever further off the rails.
Continue reading Do we feed ourselves and others on solid food or on milky mush? One quickly tires of mush, which can hardly be said to anticipate the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.
Continue reading It is a gigantic and tragic paradox that the celebration of such noble legislation coincides this year with a motion for a new abortion law whose predictable finality is the elimination of, precisely 'the poor and disadvantaged in society' before they have even seen the light of day, that we might forget all about their existence.
Continue reading With increasing frequency we hear the word 'truth' used with a first-person singular possessive pronoun - even university presidents can be found to speak in earnest about 'my truth'. It is agreeable to behold the world in this light; if truth is mine, it follows that I am always right.
Continue reading In the Church we transcend time. We must always be mindful of this.
Continue reading The sanctuary where Samuel heard his call was not a fervent junior seminary. It was a tepid, lurid scene, a place void of conviction, an accusation against itself for failing to live up to its objective.
Continue reading Structures and institutions fall. What remains is the Word proclaimed in the night by a star.
Continue reading No child belongs to its father or mother; it is entrusted to them; but has its own integrity from conception. It is God's gift.
Continue reading Rightly understood, the Word of God is the paradigm by which all things are judged, the cornerstone that is at the same time a stumbling-block for unbelievers.
Continue reading Emmanuel, God-with-us, would use us to cleanse this world with water, oil, and fire, then spread abroad his sweet perfume. The grace of Christmas is anchored in history but nonetheless points forwards to a new heaven, a new earth.
Continue reading Only one who knows himself carried by an all-powerful benevolence can say, 'I know neither who I am nor what I shall become, but I know that I am loved'. That is the only remedy for ills whose deepest root is perhaps not so much ideology as despair.
Continue reading En dom i bibelsk språk er ikke et juryutsagn rettet mot en anklaget forbryter; dommen går ut på at ting fremstår slik de er. Det skjulte blottlegges på godt og ondt.
Continue reading While the sweet-smelling incense rises, we call upon the Holy Spirit, 'the Comforter, the Spirit of wisdom and prudence, of knowledge and piety, of the fear of God'. This monastic church, drawn by sturdy architects from Trondheim, is no longer, then, a mere building - it will have become a sacramental reality, the tabernacle of divine presence, a concrete epiclesis.
Continue reading As long as I consider myself the hapless victim of the ravages of others, of life, or of God in his heaven, I never take my future into my hands; somehow I'll never be my own life's acting subject. There is a risk that I'll gather bitter grapes even from good vines - so let's beware.
Continue reading These days there is a tendency to cardamomify the Christian proclamation. We might profitably note how demanding the Church herself is when, through the liturgy, she shows us what we believe and what we are called to become.
Continue reading Our world is set on a course that madly resists the good and true, bent on obliterating God. Wherever God’s grace makes its presence felt, it encounters resistance, even violence.
Continue reading What we celebrate today is the triumph of hope. Even the dead who, at their passing, were unprepared to meet their Maker are covered by the mantle of his mercy.
Continue reading By our prayer and sacrifice we can bring effective consolation to brothers in tribulation, who may not be able to pray themselves, being overwhelmed. This touches the heart of the communion of saints - we bear one another's burdens in a communion that defies time and space in all-encompassing fellowship.
Continue reading To be in love is to idealise the beloved while at the same time finding ourselves idealised. It is a most agreeable sensation.
Continue reading In day-to-day speech, when we say of someone, ‘He (or she) is very zealous’, we shudder a bit. The zealous person is officious and singleminded to the point of obsession, having little time for the sensibilities of others - to live alongside zealots can be an ordeal.
Continue reading History progresses towards a fulfilment. God uses the processes of history and man's free choices, choices often ignobly and selfishly motivated, to further in the long term his design - our salvation, the establishment of God's kingdom whose birth pangs darkly immerse us.
Continue reading What's it supposed to mean that Noah, after the flood, planted vines, not cabbage? That man refuses to accept the world as merely a vale of tears, a wilderness of thistles to be conquered in the sweat of his brow - that within us there's remembrance of a more harmonious earth, created for delight.
Continue reading In the vocabulary of the Old Testament, an offering is literally an 'elevation' — it refers to the movement the priest performed when he lifted up before God whatever gifts people brought, a sign that all earthly accomplishments point towards a heavenly finality, that even our corn, our wine, our cattle carry a seed of eternity and can come to be a vehicle of blessing.
Continue reading It is tragic (I don't think the term is too strong) that the word 'grace' in our parts, in the wake of the Reformation, became a harsh word. To live 'on grace' is humiliating in Norwegian vocabulary - it's about being seated on the beggar's bench just inside the door, hoping for someone to drop a coin into your hat, ready to bow low in response.
Continue reading We cannot take away another’s freedom or force him or her to act in a certain way. But we cannot simply look on resigned while someone self-destructs - at least we should call out, ‘Come back, I’m here for you!
Continue reading We too live in times in which much is broken to pieces. That is nothing to get too excited about.
Continue reading Peter wields the key to the kingdom as trusted servant, not as lord - it's an important distinction to bear in mind, showing us both the dignity and limit of Peter’s authority. When Peter presumed that his position entitled him to dictate Christ’s course of action, he was rebuked in the strongest possible terms.
Continue reading For hearts wounded by sin, closure is the default movement - our heart must learn to reopen like an oyster to discover, and reveal, the pearl within, the pearl of great price. The tearing of the temple curtain symbolises the resolve of conversion by which we reaffirm our option for what is great, universal, and whole.
Continue reading If God is truly God, he is present everywhere, even in his apparent absence. The God of action is also a God who waits - what he waits for is our response, our obedience, our getting up to go.
Continue reading Let us, as Catholics, hold firm to what is palpable and real in the legacy of St Olav and leave it to the secular authority to bask in fantastical abstractions.
Continue reading If the call to ministry has come to seem irrelevant it is at least in part because many a flame that once burnt brightly is now perceptible only by way of deduction on the basis of heaps of burnt-out ash. Tend carefully the flame that today is lit in you through the sacrament of Holy Church, our Mother.
Continue reading Once we find ourselves well and truly fallen, with our nose in the dirt, we are relieved of illusions about ourselves. We can start a new life afresh based on reality, in truth.
Continue reading The heralds of the Lion of Judah transformed into flowerpot-holders!
Continue reading It's never been easier to pass as a prophet, we hear the word prophecy used a lot. There's a risk, though, that the term is devalued thereby, becoming self-referential, wordy, tiring — boring, quite simply.
Continue reading The Heart of Jesus is not a geiger counter that catches, measures, and evaluates sin with precision just for the sake of statistics; it is touched by our options, wounded when we do evil and prefer darkness to light. Each of us can bring the Heart of Jesus grief or consolation.
Continue reading The Tower of Babel was preeminently a synodal undertaking, though self-destructive, which is why the Lord undermined it. To be on the road together is a fine thing, but what really matters is where one is bound and whose lead one follows.
Continue reading A human being that lives beautifully becomes beautiful, such a human being also becomes whole. The call to holiness is not a call to become someone else - it is a call to become who you are.
Continue reading For us who live in the wake of the 1969 lunar mission, it is almost impossible to read those words without seeing before our mind’s eye the image of the Apollo rocket fired off from Camp Kennedy.
Continue reading Is a just societal order possible in the long run without a higher, divine standard, unmeasurable in terms of silver and gold, before which we stand accountable?
Continue reading We want to be left tranquil, to have a good salary and at the same time plenty of leisure to do what we want, and access to 5G internet browsing. But then a massive crisis can, in a trice, turn reality upside down.
Continue reading The greatness of our works, the integrity of our discipleship, is not about making spectacular impact — not about having others gathering around us saying, ‘Ah!’ The greatness is a function of perseverance within our limitations, letting grace accomplish there something beautiful and healing.
Continue reading The Christian condition is not a life wrapped in cotton wool. We show ourselves Christians when we stand in the eye of the storm and yet are at peace.
Continue reading We’re always conscious of all we haven’t got, and tell ourselves, Ah - If only I had this one thing, I’d be satisfied. Though of course we wouldn’t.
Continue reading Our time lets us assume that we can, armed with the appropriate App, master not merely our own existence, but reality as such. Therefore the image of a saving God seems superfluous to us.
Continue reading Avoid a disproportionately contemporary and self-centred vision of things which may make the faith more graspable, perhaps, but also reduces it to something banal. No political or sentimental aim will rejuvenate our soul and inflame our heart, but only the unchangeable promise of God revealed in Jesus Christ, the same today, yesterday, and forever.
Continue reading The sacrament you are about to receive is no private matter, no pious formality. The sacrament equips you to embrace an urgent task - to participate in healing a world that is sick.
Continue reading Faith in the resurrection lets us see who Jesus is; it illumines the mystery of the Holy Trinity. It enriches our insight that the Three are one.
Continue reading The washing of the feet conveys more than just a precept to be good to the underprivileged; in it, we encounter the mystery of the cross.
Continue reading To be tempted, Christ shows us, is something quite banal, part and parcel of the life of faith in a world that has turned its back on God. What we must guard against is tempting God in our turn.
Continue reading What we celebrate in Holy Week is more than grand historical drama. It is the distillation of the human condition - during these days we are handed the key to unlock the riddle of existence, including our own existence.
Continue reading Why does God not choose more secure, warrantable procedures? Based on his case history, the Lord would not stand a chance confronted with the terms of a modern insurance agency.
Continue reading Truly, we are dealing with something that is greater than all we have so far experienced, greater than all we can cleverly work out, greater even than the most drastic signs of the times. Amen.
Continue reading The diabolical is not a unified principle, it generates strife without intentional order. Evil has no personality - fragmented, it fragments, simply feeding on what is good.
Continue reading The highest form of freedom is not to have choices to make. What's that supposed to mean?
Continue reading In much current discourse about the Church, isn't the presupposed image of Christ almost exclusively this-worldly?
Continue reading On the ocean of humanity's tears sails Christ our God. His ark is the wood of the Cross, the Spirit of truth is the wind in his sails - he bids us sail along, not circularly, round and round, but straight to the harbour.
Continue reading The counsel to ‘clothe the naked’ makes me think of HC Andersen’s tale about the Emperor’s new clothes, a parable that speaks to our image-conscious, vanity-prone times. Even in the Church there is a risk that hypes replace substance.
Continue reading Anyone who regularly prays the rosary will be struck, I think, by a strange, beautiful symmetry running across the four series of mysteries.
Continue reading Don’t we risk falling into a kind of double-speak whereby we gather in church now and again to recite reassuring but ultimately meaningless lovey-dovey formulas before we step back into the ‘real’ world where love has no place and man is to man a wolf?
Continue reading St Eystein is inseparable from the legacy of St Olav. He knew in his body the reality of Olav's powerful intercession as one of that host of witnesses who eternally sing praise before the throne Ezekiel saw, recommending the needs of the Pilgrim Church on earth to God's mercy.
Continue reading In recent times we have heard voices crying, 'I am for Pope Francis', 'and I am for Pope Benedict', while others shout, 'and I am for Pope Pius X'. What a lot of nonsense.
Continue reading Who among us has not experienced that one whom we have known for years suddenly reveals a new side of himself or herself and we are forced to admit: 'I thought I knew him (or her), but I now see I did not'.
Continue reading When I speak of poetry I do not primarily think of pretty verses about flowers, keeping a regular rhythm and end-rhymes. I envisage the poem as an inspired statement of what, otherwise, remains ineffable.
Continue reading To be a mother or father is not limited to the generative act; she is a mother, and he is a father, who allows generated life to be realised in its irreducible otherness.
Continue reading John the Evangelist soars in the firmament, seemingly motionless, yet rising ever higher. He sees hidden and beautiful patterns that can’t be perceived from below.
Continue reading We need not be ashamed of childish fears. It is as a child that God comes to us, to comfort us and free us, and so to make us bearers of freedom and comfort.
Continue reading I am not trying to preach some kind of ideological rant. I am just reminding you that the world of Ahaz and Isaiah is not so very different from ours, which seems to have gone off the rails.
Continue reading The eternal truth of God is made manifest in time, by all means, but to adjust it to a secularised society's expectations is irresponsible to the point of absurdity. The contemporary world must be read, rather, in the light of revealed eternity.
Continue reading In looking, as it were, up and down at the same time, we approach the mystery of Christ, who was incarnate to ‘unite all thing in himself’; who, for being fully God, was fully a man, spreading abroad on this concrete, perspiring earth a fragrance of divinity.
Continue reading Our present condition, even in its moments of ecstasy, is but a noviciate preparing us for a life of eternal abundance.
Continue reading Only when I assume responsibility for my life the way it has turned out do I take my first tentative steps towards freedom. There is no other way.
Continue reading The Judge before whom we shall stand is no bureaucratic official. The Shepherd who awaits us at the gate is the Lamb of God.
Continue reading Our outlook is so limited! We are like ants who think of our anthill as the world.
Continue reading What are we not prepared to do to hide our vulnerability? Often, very often, the source of sin in people's lives is a near-panic fear of being humiliated.
Continue reading The humble person, when he does good, does not say anxiously, ‘O, there’ll be sin and selfishness in this, somewhere’. He feels a kind of jubilant astonishment and asks, ‘Really, was that me?
Continue reading When Paul speaks of 'putting on the Lord Jesus Christ', the reference is not to some kind of loose poncho that fits on top of various layers of other, personally chosen garments. To be a Christian is to be transformed.
Continue reading Saying thanks is hard for many. A person’s capacity for gratitude is a pretty infallible index of his or her inner freedom and maturity.
Continue reading All of us may feel from time to time that we haven't strength for all that should be done, that needs far exceed our abilities and means. That is nothing to get too excited about - it is how it is to be a Christian.
Continue reading ‘The righteous will live by faith', we read in the prophet Habakkuk, who lived in the 7th century BC. For us, though, the statement resonates with jousting matches about theology fought in Europe 2100 years later.
Continue reading What is at stake is an effort to help ourselves and others to grow 'to full maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ' — no less. May our lives, like Matthew's, serve this grandiose, joy-bearing, freeing cause.
Continue reading A dizzying thought: there might be material objects around that were physically touched by God Almighty! It is small wonder that Constantine set out to search for the greatest relic of all: the Cross on which Christ died.
Continue reading The metanoid woman or man takes stock of life to reorient it, letting life’s project be re-magnetised by a single, definitive desire strong enough to order lesser desires according to itself, where before these had been pulling in opposite directions. Is my heart unified - is yours?
Continue reading In this symbolic, sacramental interaction of masculinity and femininity, fundamental to Catholic life, we shall find, of this I am convinced, the true response to painful perplexities present in our time. This response is already formulated, thank God; it needn't be invented anew.
Continue reading The pursuit of humility is not just a matter of devotion; it is about upholding the dignity of all human life, recognising ourselves among the weak and outcast, standing up for table fellowship. To be humble on these terms is not to be meek and mild; it requires courage, strength, and perseverance in the face of hostile opposition.
Continue reading It isn't, then, a waste of time and energy to ask ourselves - am I a man, a woman, without deceit? Do I think of the Church as a mousetrap or as a ladder?
Continue reading The core of the dogma is essential, expressed with austere theological precision - the woman who, by anticipation, tasted the fruit of Christ's redeeming work, who was preserved from sin and freely received the Word which became flesh in her, was not subjected to the logic of corruption. Death had no claim on her, no power over her.
Continue reading This great scholar of the Marquis de Sade fearlessly and carefully approached an intellectual heritage often diametrically opposed to the convictions upon which he constructed his existence. He exemplarily showed how we as Catholics can position ourselves in a post-Christian world striving for freedom and meaning.
Continue reading Many people aren't aware of having a kernel; they think of themselves, like Peer Gynt, as an onion. To posit a human soul these days outside an ecclesiastical enclosure — say, in psychology — is to expose oneself to scorn.
Continue reading Every activity, every utterance, every movement of the heart and body can become a means by which to glorify God, a liturgical worship permitting God's glory to insinuate itself into everyday life. Even your falls will have their part to play if you, like Peter, get up at once, humbly and (this is important) without bitterness.
Continue reading Recently, at a do-it-yourself till in the supermarket, while I was having trouble beeping bananas, a lady said to me: ‘It won’t be long now, and we’ll have to perform our own surgery’.
Continue reading It is a lot more convenient to surf on a euphoric wave of future projection, be it ethical or political, than to ask oneself, 'Is there an absolute truth that requires something of me?'
Continue reading As Paul writes, love without deceit presupposes the word of truth — a truth, he stressed, that must be spoken in love; if it is uttered angrily, it almost invariably becomes counterproductive.
Continue reading A disappointed man or woman is easily imprisoned in an egocentric bubble. He or she forgets that other people exist and likewise have dreams, hopes, and needs — there's a risk that bitterness turns into a chronic condition.
Continue reading Full as we are of post-modern confidence that our times represent the acme of human accomplishment, we expect that God’s way of seeing things should adapt itself to ours, not ours to his. It is no surprise, therefore, that so many of our efforts are sterile.
Continue reading Sometimes it is the wing mirror that lets us perceive the burning presence of an angel that just crossed our path, a bearer of benediction. We must be attentive, then, when we’re about our business, be it ordinary or extraordinary.
Continue reading The best remedy against clericalism (a tendency to which all of us, ordained and unordained, are prone) is surely the witness of deacons who are truly deacons, priests who are truly priests.
Continue reading The solemnity we celebrate today is not about a magic talisman in an ornamental cupboard.
Continue reading A man is no automaton. He is unprogrammable, possessed of that liberty to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ that is at once our crown of glory and our potential path to self-destruction.
Continue reading Underlying the many, often bewildering crises of the contemporary Church is a basic conflict of principles. It is a conflict between autonomy and heteronomy.
Continue reading Liturgically speaking, this day marks the end of the first forty days of Paschaltide, corresponding to the forty days of Lent. The two periods are like giant waves flowing up to, then away from, Easter — ebb and flow.
Continue reading We must not surrender a key notion like 'freedom' to purely subjective, pragmatic interpretation. If we do, it may happen — indeed, it almost certainly will happen — that injustice is committed in the name of freedom.
Continue reading This may seem like just another well-intentioned but predictable bishop's sermon, stuffed full of pious phrases but with zero relevance for life as it really is. Let me then conclude on a note of explicit clarity.
Continue reading Christ knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows our true identity, our name, even when we ourselves may think we don’t know any more who we are.
Continue reading Nothing is harder to bear than the consciousness that I've betrayed someone I love, and who loves me. How can Peter rejoice in the fact that Jesus is alive, and receive Jesus's Spirit, when he knows he has let him down cruelly?
Continue reading Thomas realises: what Jesus takes away is the sin of the world, not its wounds. His blood, though, flows into them and makes them clean.
Continue reading I am aways touched when we read, on Easter Morning, of the shroud our Lord left behind, especially of the cloth that had been over his head, 'rolled up in a place by itself'. It affords us an image of the Lord of Life rising up out of death with ordered peace, putting death aside, tidily folded, like a pyjamas for which he has no further need.
Continue reading The ceremony with which our Easter Vigil begins is a sign of the task which, by the power of Christ's victory, is mandated to us: to let our risen Saviour's light spread throughout the world, that the world may appear in truth the way it is, that is, created by his love to live in him.
Continue reading The cross, which a while ago represented utter shame, is carried in in triumph as we sing: 'By the wood of the cross, joy entered the whole world.' A transformation takes place; we see the cross at one and the same time as something in itself evil and as the sign of God's vanquishing evil.
Continue reading It is a deeply human need to wish, at the moment of a definitive departure, to leave behind some sign of what those from whom we part means to us.
Continue reading In the holy oils God gives us a palpable, sensual sign that his hand touches us tenderly, with healing, as a caress. In this way he shows us how we are to live upon this earth.
Continue reading The Lord reminds us that death (our own, but also the death of cultures and of civilisations) is intrinsic to life and that we, to see the sense of it all, must look beyond death. He reminds us that history progresses towards towards a goal which is of eternity.
Continue reading To go to confession is a wonderful thing. Why, then, are so many people intimidated by the mere thought of it?
Continue reading The root meaning of the New Testament verb denoting 'to sin' is ‘miss the mark, especially of a spear thrown’ - later it came to mean, ‘miss a road’ or more generally, ‘fail of one’s purpose’. These insights from lexicography are helpful as we try to work out where sin makes its presence felt in our own lives.
Continue reading Let's not go down the elder son's road, opting out, upset because no one affirms our self-importance, angry because others get what we consider they do not deserve. Were we to get what we deserved, most of us, in fact, would be in trouble.
Continue reading Only the Catholic Church can mobilise humanity to join in a spiritual act of consecration, all at the same time, throughout the world; what we are part of is a momentous act. Let us thank God for the grace of being part of this communion.
Continue reading When we're really poorly, we seek remedies anywhere. Cures abroad have a special attraction.
Continue reading Is this, then, all that the Bible has to say for itself: that we human beings are subject to luck?!
Continue reading To be human is to be prepared to set out ever anew, to learn to embrace the terrible in order, thereby, in Christ's name, to be renewed in the core of our being, to glimpse the new heaven and the new earth towards which we're drawn.
Continue reading By receiving the ashes, we testify that our pilgrimage goes through the burn-out of death and that there, in what is lifeless, the empowering, joy-bearing power of Christ is made manifest. Nothing in us is so dead that it cannot be resurrected if Christ's light is allowed to shine upon it.
Continue reading Sin can, in fact, settle in the body and express itself somatically. A splinter in a vital organ, be it the eye or the heart, will naturally provoke an infection.
Continue reading It is my business to remind you that justice is a Christian imperative. There are boundaries, metaphorical and geographical, that must not be breached.
Continue reading Today we not only accompany Christ through the fulfilment of a Mosaic prescription; we get a foretaste of what will be our own eternal destiny, if we stay faithful to God’s call. In a wonderful phrase in this morning’s Vigils reading, St Sophronius of Jerusalem exhorted us: ‘Let us be shining ourselves as we go together to meet the light whose brilliance is eternal’.
Continue reading One who knows the Lord is transformed and before him or her a new dimension of existence opens up. Notions like 'love', 'justice', 'benevolence' are no longer simply beautiful words; they become vital energies needing to find expression.
Continue reading Let us thank the Lord when he, like a good orchard keeper, subjects us to a thorough pruning, when he re-digs the soil in which we are planted and graces us with a cartload of dung. That is how we will grow.
Continue reading We are losing the sense of the Church as subject. The Church is now mostly a direct object surrendered to verbs of action whose subject is ‘we’: we no longer seek to be formed by the Church; we form it.
Continue reading He, who knew the extent of the mission field, was certain that evangelisation must flow from prayer. There must be, within the Mystical Body, women and men who offer themselves up to prayer unceasingly for the sake of all.
Continue reading If what we seek is affirmation and comfort for ourselves, then we’ve had it. Then we shall already have surrendered to Goliath.
Continue reading Such is his reverence for our freedom that he honours even our destructive choices. That is one of the great mysteries of faith.
Continue reading For centuries St Anthony was presented like a tortured peasant in the grip of diabolical illusions - a representation allegedly based on St Athanasius’s life. How easy it is to form opinions on the basis of books one hasn’t read!
Continue reading The feast we keep today speaks of the effective transmission of grace resulting in lives of integrity, holiness, and fruitfulness. It is a lesson we need to hear and heed right now, when the Church’s credibility worldwide is, on account of human betrayal, at an all-time low.
Continue reading Jesus stands in the middle of the Jordan, the frontier that since Abraham had marked the Promised Land off from the rest of the earth, pontifically, as a bridge-builder; from now on the Gospel will reach the ends of the earth. The alabaster jar is broken open for the whole house to be filled with its aroma.
Continue reading It is wonderful: God prepares our salvation by means of a scenography conceived in minute detail so as to give us reliable signs by which we may ascertain its accomplishment. Now the hour has come.
Continue reading To hear someone say, ‘I love you’, transforms a life. It makes a narrow existence broad; indeed, to hear those words, ‘I love you’, is our best way, perhaps, of getting an inkling of what ‘eternity’ means.
Continue reading There's a lot of talk, right now, about the Church's various crises. To my mind, there is only one fundamental crisis of importance, given that all the rest spring from it - I mean the widespread loss of faith in Christ as the Son of God.
Continue reading To come close to others is risky; to be drawn by blood ties into God's salvific plan is to become part of a passion narrative. What the holy Family displays is not saccharine harmony but readiness to renounce what is one's own in order to assume, as a holy obligation, the vocation of another.
Continue reading The challenge Christ poses has never appealed to the majority. However, in each generation there have been exceptions — men and women, sometimes children, whose heart's eyes have been opened to the transforming potential of God's love; who have let themselves be transformed; and have thereby transformed society.
Continue reading Salvation? We've got so used to being needless that we don't sit around waiting for someone to save us: if our own strength runs out, we can always lean on the welfare state - or on the internet, which delivers cardboard-wrapped solutions to our problems to our door as long as our credit card is in balance.
Continue reading Cut off from the notion of God's Image, the body is at the mercy of our imagination's surrealist tendencies (homily in French).
Continue reading To be a Christian is to assume risk responsibly; to put one's trust in God and not in oneself. Then joy's floodgates burst open.
Continue reading The Mother of God becomes a holy tabernacle, the manifestation of human nature unscathed, the way God created it at first. In Mary we contemplate the perfect prototype of our race (Homily in Norwegian).
Continue reading Why did the Word become flesh? Why was the incarnation a necessity?
Continue reading There was a time when being a Christian felt like being part of the winning team. That is no longer the case - but Christ's reign has not for that reason been sidelined.
Continue reading To be an atheist is not necessarily to fail to believe in God. To be an atheist is to live as if God did not exist - thus atheism is possible among believers, too, a terrible, destructive possibility.
Continue reading Do we not, as Catholics, look at ourselves in the mirror rather too much these days? It is both boring and counter-productive, so let us instead drape our mirror with Abgar’s cloth and set our sight on the face of Christ.
Continue reading Our Order has always known that the purpose of our life is expressed, not just in the spirit of the Rule, but in its letter.
Continue reading To speak the truth can be costly, but it liberates; to hide behind a facade of untrue words, meanwhile, is a kind of captivity. A prison of that kind may feel safe for a while, but it's not where life is likely to blossom and prosper.
Continue reading Å være menneske, er å kunne si til en annen: “Jeg er din for alltid”; å kunne inngå en pakt, i kjærlighet, som varer livet ut. Alle, sier Kristus, lengter vi etter å hengi oss helt, dog ikke alle på samme måte.
Continue reading Lar vi oss lede, føres vi frem på en vakker, meningsfull vei; en vei som ikke alltid er lett, men hvor selv de vonde etappene betyr noe. For vet dere: den store faren her i livet, er ikke å gjennomleve smerte; det er å lide uten å kunne erkjenne at også lidelsen kan ha mening.
Continue reading Vi tenker oss utbrenthet som et moderne fenomen. Men det skal godt gjøres å finne klarere uttrykk for tilstanden enn i Moses’ desperate, nærmest blasfemiske bønn: “Jeg makter ikke å bære hele dette folket alene; er det slik du vil gjøre mot meg, så drep meg heller med én gang, og la meg slippe å se min ulykke”.
Continue reading Å la seg konfirmere, er å erklære seg moden til å si ja på egne vegne til evangeliets fordring. Dere står her i dag, ikke lenger som barn, men som unge menn og kvinner.
Continue reading Let us never forget that, if the Lord has given us the light of faith, it is so that it, through us, may be carried into dark places, not just to cast a cosy, homely glow under our own bed.
Continue reading Not to answer violence with violence; to keep our hearts open towards those in need; to pray deeply in times of persecution; to be prepared for sacrifice: we know these imperatives well. Nonetheless, to find them embodied in a specific existence, be it one that unfolded 1100 years ago, is at once unnerving and thrilling.
Continue reading L’illusion de l’autonomie est pour l’homme une espèce de vache sacrée. Une partie cruciale de l’itinéraire spirituel est la découverte des éléments de notre vécu, de notre personnalité qui nous tiennent captifs.
Continue reading Vi tenker oss altfor lett troen som noe dennesidig; vi lever som om verden her og nå var evig. Vår oppfatning av kristendommen blir, som følge, lett både snever og gørr kjedelig.
Continue reading Ein kirchlicher Körper der sich dieser Ordnung entzieht ist wie ein kopfloses Huhn dessen Anblick zugleich komisch und erschütternd ist. Es läuft zwar noch, flattert auch ein bisschen, aber kommt nicht weit, wie auch immer es seinen Weg nennt.
Continue reading Den hellige Ånd hvisker i vårt øre: ‘Bare flytt litt på deg, du, så ser du det hele i et annet perspektiv; en nådefylt mulighet oppstår der du nå ser stagnasjon.’ Problemet er at vi blir vi stående på krava, i solstek og tørke, akkurat som Israel i ørkenen, oss ubevisst at en svalende oase åpner seg rett over åskammen.
Continue reading Hvem tror på alvor i dag at vi ved slutten av vårt liv skal ha dette livet å svare for? Vi har da betalt skatt!
Continue reading Et rosetog er en storartet ting; men mer skal til for å hele et trauma. Gode hensikter sikrer ikke en såret nasjons enhet og hold.
Continue reading Israel er uforestillbart uten sau. Litt etter litt blir fellesskapet mellom folk og husdyr et bilde også på forholdet mellom Herren og hans folk; det var liksom det nærmeste å ty til.
Continue reading Kun unntaksvis ser vi at Vårherre stå stille. Stort sett er han på vandrefot, hastende, opptatt av å kalle til omvendelse, av å drive ut den onde, av å helbrede syke—de tre former for virksomhet han idag betror apostlene.
Continue reading Allerede en tid har du, Svein, vært, som Evy sier det, læresvein i Kirkens sakramentale tjeneste; nå skal du bli diakon, en enhetens tjener, en formidler av Guds faderlige omsorg. Jeg gjenkjenner i deg noe av den samme begeistrede iver som kjennetegnet Paulus i hans modne år.
Continue reading Sunniva står for det Absoluttes krav. Hun står også for friheten som blir den til del som våger å oppta kampen for en så krevende sak og ikke lar seg tilfreds med det smålige og lettvinte, sånn for bekvemmelighetens skyld.
Continue reading Det ligger i tegnets natur at noe vidunderlig oppstår ut av noe vanlig. Det kan bli tilfellet i våre liv, hvis vi lar Kristi Legeme og Blods mysterium forvandle dem helt, uten å holde noe tilbake.
Continue reading Mennesket kan ikke leve uten kjærlighet. Hvis kjærligheten ikke åpenbares for mennesket, hvis det ikke konfronterer kjærligheten, erfarer kjærligheten og gjør den sin egen, hvis det ikke selv blir levende del av kjærligheten, da forblir mennesket ubegripelig for seg selv, da har livet ingen mening.
Continue reading Som en god munk, har P Anthony levd i det skjulte, først i Roscrea, der han dyrket jorden og skjøttet klosterets buskap med hengivenhet; så her på Tautra, hvor hans stillfarne, vennlige vesen er høyt verdsatt, hvor hans kloke innsikt, frukten av et hengitt liv, finner klangbunn, og hvor han ved en særskilt Eden-nåde får jordens frukter til å gro og bugne i tang og tare.
Continue reading Vi tenker oss lett erfaringen av Ånden som noe sensasjonelt. Mange kristne bærer på et kompleks om ikke å være åndelige nok, fordi de ikke har hatt erfaringer lik apostlenes.
Continue reading Jeg står ikke her og utroper en kulturrevolusjon; men vil vi se på verden med kristne øyne, er det nå slik at hvert land, hvert folk har et kall å følge, og at vi i Norge, her og nå, har uklare begreper om vårt. På det feltet har Kirken et viktig bidrag å yte, ikke minst i Trøndelag, hvor vi på en særlig måte forvalter Olavsarven.
Continue reading Vi skal passe oss her for å gjøre Guds ord til et kortspill, der det ene bibelvers trumfer det annet. Som alltid, er det helheten vi må søke, grunntonen vi må høre.
Continue reading Politikk for oss dreier seg om bompenger, skatt og Corona-restriksjoner. Helst vil vi ha mindre av alt sammen, men det er ikke akkurat et sjelsanliggende
Continue reading En bonde dyrker jorden, ikke for moro skyld, men for at sæden han sår skal bære frukt, og for at frukten skal bli andre til næring. En bonde må derfor være usentimental.
Continue reading Alle fikk vi et gammelmodig bilde av en pastellfarvet Jesus som vandret inn i solnedgangen drapert med et angoralam han bar om nakken som en slags boa. Bildet inngav meg det motsatte av devosjon; vrang som jeg var, gikk jeg indignert hjem, trampet med foten og erklærte: “Dit går jeg ikke mer!
Continue reading Den franske filosofen Jean Guitton, venn av Pave Paul VI, skrev engang at Kirken er oppbygd som en pyramide av vennskap: alltid åpen og ekspanderende, men aldri manipulerende; alltid personlig, aldri kaldt kollektivt.
Continue reading For den som elsker Gud, fornyes ungdommen lik ørnens når vi lever i Herrens åsyn. Ungdom har lite med alder å gjøre.
Continue reading En “fristelse” som kommer fra Gud er en prøve. Den er ikke sadistisk sabotasje lik den til smådjevlene i min barndoms Donald-blader som, iført røde pysjbukser og utstyrt med møkkgreip, drev tegneseriens helter bort fra dydige forsett mot all slags uskikk.
Continue reading Julen er familiens høytid, det fortelles oss fra alle kanter. I morges, mens jeg vasket opp etter frokost, leste jeg det sågar på en melkepapp fra Tine Meierier.
Continue reading Tenk på de fabelaktige soloppganger vi har hatt i det siste, her i Trondheim, når himmelen spraker i eksplosjoner av rosarødt, stigende som røkelse. Hva det vil si for all denne storhets Opphav, ham ved hvem alt ble skapt, å bli et foster i Mors liv, å fødes og svøpes og legges i en krybbe, forblir for all tid et uutgrunnelig mysterium.
Continue reading Nåden fungerer nå engang slik at den må være i bevegelse. Den er som en bølge mot stranden, som ikke lar seg fange; forsøker man det, om det så skulle være med verdens største balje, står man igjen, ikke med berusende urkraft fra et uendelig hav, bare med en relativ mengde udrikkelig saltvann.
Continue reading Stefan var diakon, det vil si, en Guds tjener. Det var innlysende for ham at diakoni ikke begrenser seg til gode gjerninger; at gudstjeneste, i dypeste forstand, går ut på å leve et liv i overgivelse, i trofasthet inntil det siste.
Continue reading Det er ett og samme Ord som virker i vårt hjerte, av nåde, og som holder skaperverket sammen. Universets skjønnhet og storslagenhet er et bilde på de høyder en kristen er kalt til å nå.
Continue reading Vi får ha det hyggelig til jul. På samme tid, skal vi ikke redusere englenes lovsang til en slager vi nynner mens vi handler: Det er viktig at vi ser den “store glede” i et sant perspektiv.
Continue reading Vi skal unngå fristelsen til å sette Guds Mor i en nisje langt oppe på veggen, uoppnåelig. Hun er verdig vår beundring, selvsagt, men ikke på avstand — nært; for hun som ved sitt “Ja” til en plan hun ikke kunne fatte ble Guds Mor, er også Kirkens Mor, deres og min.
Continue reading Å appellere til Guds Farskjærlighet, er ikke det samme som å unndra seg hans forventning. Ingen foreldre ønsker at barna deres skal forbli barn.
Continue reading Egeninteressen, tanken på belønning og omdømme, insinuerer seg i de edleste forsett. Lytter vi til fristerens kløyvde tunge, risikerer vi å lammes i vår handlingskraft.
Continue reading Niels Steensen, født i København i 1638, var medisiner av internasjonalt ry, som gav karrieren på båten for å vigsles til prest, senere til biskop. Siden han en tid forvaltet bispedømmet Hamburg, med ansvar for Danmark og Norge, var han også vår biskop.
Continue reading Det rører meg at dere som kjente den kristne mann vi begraver i dag, som kjente ham best, har valgt Saligprisningene som uttrykk for hans liv og håpet han levde på, som bar ham inn i en fredelig, ja, salig død. Gjennom store forandringer gikk Dominic Thong Van Nguyen stødig, sakte, men sikkert.
Continue reading Alle kjenner vi folk som på denne måte vier seg enkle, kanskje utakknemlige oppgaver og ved helhjertethet oppnår, på egne og oppgavens vegne, lysende verdighet. Rollemodellene i evangeliet er ikke ledere, stjerner eller kjendiser, men bønder, håndtverkere og, ikke minst, gode mødre og fedre.
Continue reading Samfunnet Martin var del av, i det fjerde århundre, hadde mye til felles med vårt idag. Det var preget av folkevandring, usikkerhet, krig og kulturelle sammenbrudd.
Continue reading Tenker vi oss raskt gjennom Bibelen, finner vi at Guds venner preges av ledig og energisk bevegelse. Da englene gjestet Abraham, sprang hans som en guttunge for å gjøre alt rede, enda han nesten var hundre år gammel; da Elija, som i yngre år satt og furtet under en gyvelbusk, var kommet til veis ende, fòr han til himmels i et uvær; da Maria etter engelens budskap var blitt Ordets tabernakel, skyndte hun seg med en gang over fjellene for å bistå Elisabeth.
Continue reading Døden var ikke fra opphavet av, den er fremmed for vår egentlige menneskenatur, slik vi i blant opplever det spontant og vet det med maven. I dag minnes vi at vi er del av et dødsoverskridende fellesskap.
Continue reading Å være cistercienser, er å rotfestes i det reelle. Vår Orden har kjent lysende mystikere, bevares; dog synes meg normen snarere en utdyping av nattlig tro, en hvetekornserfaring.
Continue reading Å være kristen, er å bekjenne at man ikke er autonom; ja, at man slett ikke ønsker å bli det; ikke fordi man er feig, men fordi man gjennomskuer autonomien som noe illusorisk. For oss som kristne, er det å leve “på nåde” rett og slett en oppsummering av livet slik det faktisk er.
Continue reading En nous donnant comme première lecture pour cette veille de l’Assomption le récit de la montée de l’Arche à la ville de David, l’Écriture met devant nos yeux un magnifique symbole théologique. L’Arche de l’alliance, c’est la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie qui porta dans son sein le Dieu trois fois saint; l’Assomption signifie son entrée définitive dans la Jérusalem céleste parmi les cris d’exultation d’innombrables légions d’anges.
Continue reading La devise de Dominique était ‘Veritas’. Et c’est bien la vérité qu’il a ainsi, avant de la proclamer, incarnée.
Continue reading Dieu, notre Créateur et Père, n’hésite pas d’entamer une déconstruction radicale pour, ensuite, pouvoir rebâtir. Pour le dire autrement: le vieil homme doit mourir et céder la place à l’homme nouveau.
Continue reading Saint Pierre Chrysologue, ‘de la parole d’or’, le grand évêque de Ravenne que l’Église commémore aujourd’hui, dit magnifiquement dans un de ses sermons: Homo, quare tibi tam vilis es, qui tam pretiosus es Deo?
Continue reading Marie Madeleine est la preuve qu’aucun obstacle, aucune chose vécue ou subie, puisse nous séparer de l’amour vivifiant du Christ. Nous n’avons qu’à combattre la tendance perverse qui nous habite, le fruit du péché: la tendance à dire Non, à refuser la grâce, à préférer librement la mort à la vie.
Continue reading J’ai connu un vieux moine, un homme lumineux, dont la prière après 70 ans de vie monastique s’était distillée en deux phrases, ‘Saint Esprit mon ami, Saint Esprit mon amour!’ Il les répétait inlassablement, jour et nuit.
Continue reading L’évangile de ce jour, plein de détails pittoresques, de beaux vieillards et de tourterelles roucoulantes, suppose un arrière-fond mystérieux et par conséquence ténébreux, car le mystère appartient au pénombre, ayant besoin du lever du Soleil de Justice pour éclore et manifester la lumière cachée en lui.
Continue reading Un’occhiata data ai giornali basta per farcelo costatare: le tenebre che, nei giorni d’Isaia, ricoprissero la terra non sono svanite. La domanda si pone: come credere in una bontà salvificamente luminosa in un mondo rimasto buio?
Continue reading Les choix sur lesquels j’ai bâti mon existence, furent-ils des illusions?’ Qui d’entre nous, frères et soeurs, n’a jamais connu ce genre de questionnement angoissé, la nuit, peut-être, entre 3h e 4h, l’heure qu’Ingmar Bergman appelait l’heure du loup, quand l’agneau nous semble un allié dérisoire.
Continue reading To renew our society we need more than just re-budgeting and larger prisons. We need a new sense of purpose, a new unifying energy; we need men and women whose goodness of life makes us spontaneously want to be like them.
Continue reading Clare saw the world around her self-sufficient, preoccupied with wealth and stuff and status. And she said: Enough!
Continue reading When we are fearful (or downcast or merely indolent), the best remedy is not always to deal hands-on with our trouble, which is apt to entangle us in confusion and self-pity. We emerge victorious not by fighting darkness but by fostering our desire for light.
Continue reading The first recorded instance of public preaching in the Catholic Church was thought by onlookers to be a display of drunkenness. It is a point worth thinking about.
Continue reading We learn that from the outset of our faith, the Church has had to deal with infidelity; it has done so realistically, in faith, facing facts, sure that the Lord will provide. In our times, we have been reminded more than once that election to high ecclesiastical office is not in itself a guarantee of truthful living.
Continue reading Few spiritual tendencies are deadlier, more barren, more boring than the desire just to do better than someone else, be it the monastery across the valley or the brother or sister next to me in choir. Any reform movement, be it the micro-enterprise of reforming my own life, must exercise caution in this respect.
Continue reading The gloriousness of Christian existence was central to the thought of our father St Bernard, who spoke of it often, stressing all the while that it does not make for an easy life. For this glory, he once wrote, ‘is a secret glory, it lies hidden in tribulation’.
Continue reading Inch by inch, discourse that supposes the existence, the mere possibility, of truth is pushed out of the public arena: ‘What is truth?’ Give us instead Barabbas, a fine fellow made of the same stuff as ourselves!
Continue reading We live in times that are quick to anger, poor in steadfast love, that love to point the finger and accuse, whose mindset is litigious. God knows there is enough malfunction in the Church, in society; but what if, instead of declaring others’ guilt, we assumed a portion of its weight?
Continue reading Let us note this: the liturgy does not explain the massacre of Bethlehem: How could it? Quite simply, the Church ascertains that, yes, this awful thing did happen.
Continue reading The cry for pity will resound until the end of the world, when Christ returns with glory to judge the living and the dead, to ‘save those who are eagerly waiting for him’. Our great task as Christians is to position ourselves within this dynamic of expiation, intercession, and impending judgement.
Continue reading One day, we, too, you and I, shall behold for the first time our life’s hidden guide. But do we attend to him now?
Continue reading The prayer to St Michael the Archangel goes back to an instruction of 1886 by which Leo XIII exhorted all the bishops and religious superiors of the Church to ensure its daily recitation. The pope, we are reliably informed, had shortly before, while at prayer, gained an experiential sense of the abiding struggle of evil against good; he wished the Church to call as one upon the angelic hosts to assist it in keeping darkness at bay and to fight with it for light and truth.
Continue reading Most of us, if we look closely, are likely to recognise something of ourselves some of the items on the Lord’s list: ‘fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly’.
Continue reading I often think of Augustine on his deathbed in 430, when Hippo was surrounded by vandals and he had his room covered with hangings that bore inscriptions of the Penitential Psalms: he wished to keep these ever before his eyes. He was conscious of living at the end of an age, awaiting the beginning of another, yet he remained, as far as we can see, largely free of fear and full of hope.
Continue reading Given the crises the Church has to negotiate right now, the Gospel's woe to hypocrites is not a vain statement. Hypocrites are people resigned to a discontinuity between what they say and what they do.
Continue reading Som gutt sadlet adelsmannen Olav bukken for sin stefar Sigurd Syr; han var seg sin stand bevisst. Hans misjonsstrategi bar nok også preg av at han syntes en tro som var god nok for ham, jamen burde være det for hans undersåtter også.
Continue reading When the Lord called the sons of Zebedee to follow him, they had no idea where he would lead them; they hardly knew who he was. They simply sensed that he knew where they needed to go, and that was enough.
Continue reading We may worry today about the chaotic state of the Church and of the world. Still, compared to the turmoil of the 14th century, it doesn’t seem like much.
Continue reading The religious and philosophical breakthrough of Judaism, whose grateful heirs we are, was to extend human thought sufficiently to conceive of a single God, a single absolute power, the source at once of life and truth. We must never forget what a revolutionary move this was, what intellectual and moral courage was required of the patriarchs.
Continue reading By this great sacrament, Marie-Françoise will be made light and free, full of noble potential, equipped, through the power of Christ’s Paschal victory, to unmask every deception of evil, and to live beautifully. She will be made ‘a temple of God’s glory’.
Continue reading Wer versucht hat, dem Herrn unbedingte Zuversicht zu zeigen, weiss welcher Kampf erfordert wird - wie Gott in Christus Mensch ward, muss der Geist in uns Fleisch werden. Das Gottvertrauen ist letztendlich eine Inkarnation: es geht um ‘Tat und Wahrheit’.
Continue reading Try asking an Irishman who, on 17 March, appears with a shamrock why has has adorned himself with cattle food; try asking a veteran with a poppy in his buttonhole why he picked a weed from a railway line instead of getting himself a decent red carnation. Certain ordinary things take on extraordinary sense in given situations, at set times; we must be able to grasp that sense.
Continue reading Your personal exodus journey has acquired a nobility and beauty all its own. Like the Israelites in the desert, you have learnt something precious about who God is, and about who you are yourself.
Continue reading The Cistercian Fathers, so attentive and humane in their reading of God’s action in our lives, never tired of invoking a verse from the Song of Songs that, to them, summed up their experience of grace: ‘Ordinavit in me caritatem’; ‘He has set love in order in me’. If we let the holy angels roll away the heavy stone that blocks the way into our hearts, God enters to heal and recompose our disordered affections.
Continue reading Reconciliation is never unilateral. It has to be two-sided, to be realised in dialogue.
Continue reading Do we wish to be healed and made whole? Our answer must be Yes, yes or No, no: there’s no middle ground.
Continue reading To be a Cistercian is to evaluate oneself constantly in the light of a great, exacting ideal. We are not to be scrupulous (for scruples are rarely life-giving), but we must aim to be truthful—and ready to recompose our lives on the basis of what we recognise as truth.
Continue reading The message of Christmas is this: the Word become flesh in Mary would take possession of our flesh, too; it would fill our lives and make them glorious. Brothers and sisters, do we realise how wonderful this is?
Continue reading The other day, on the Loughborough Road, I met a lorry so ablaze with psychedelic lights it blinded me. Attempts to rebrand Christmas as a ‘festival of lights’, a shopping binge, makes the shining symbol of the season ambiguous.
Continue reading Each night, at bedtime, we invoke the Blessed Virgin as ‘our life, our sweetness, our hope’. Never do we see more clearly what this means than on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Continue reading In Mary he would find a human being like those who, on the sixth day of creation, before the serpent’s insinuation, stood upright and free before God’s face, formed in his image. Mary Immaculate shows us what we all could, and should, have been, had it not been for the fall’s tragedy.
Continue reading St Thomas Aquinas offers us a luminous description of holiness, full of refreshment in its brevity. He says: ‘Since good that is loved has the nature of an end, and since the motion of the will is called good or evil in terms of the end it pursues, the love by which the supreme good, God, is loved must possess the supereminent goodness that goes by the name of holiness.
Continue reading A saying often on his lips was a distillation of experience, characteristically devoid of perfumed piety: ‘I have always tried to be obedient’, he would say; ‘often I haven’t liked it much, but I have tried.’ Then he would laugh.
Continue reading The apostles we celebrate today, Simon and Jude, are in very ancient sources associated with a mission to the east. One of the most venerable documents of early Church history, the Doctrine of Addai, tells us how Jude or Thaddeus (Addai in Syriac) was despatched by St Thomas to Edessa in modern-day Turkey.
Continue reading The first companions of St Bruno tell us that this apparently austere, intellectual monk was in fact semper festo uultu: his face was always joyful, like that of a man on his way to a feast.
Continue reading A great deal of nonsense is often said about angels. We may find we’re given to thinking nonsensically about them ourselves, haunted as we are by images of feathers, celestial chariots, and cascading cloaks: so earthbound are we poor human clods, so conditioned by our bodies, that it is hard for us to conceive of pure spiritual existences.
Continue reading The Queen of Peace is our model. Like her, we are called to say a deliberate ‘Yes’ to the lordship of Christ, letting him take flesh in our flesh, becoming his instruments, sacraments of his presence.
Continue reading I recently finished reading a new biography of St Bernard of Clairvaux by the Austrian historian Peter Dinzelbacher. In his effort to place Bernard in context, the author leaves no stone unturned: his book contains 3,000 footnotes.
Continue reading For Guerric, divine contemplation was fundamentally a matter of assimilating, by interiorisation, the prayers we recite with our lips in the breviary and missal. He would have scoffed at any notion that mental and vocal prayer were somehow in opposition.
Continue reading Kolbe’s death eclipses his life; his life, indeed, seems like a build-up to his sacrificial death. That is something to reflect on with regard to our own Christian lives.
Continue reading Even if we can swim there was a time when we couldn’t. We may remember the awful downward pull; how scary it is, even up there in the shallow end of a pool, with people everywhere and lights on, with our father’s arms ready to carry us up.
Continue reading So often, when what we considered a thoroughfare turns out to be a cul-de-sac, we raise our arms to heaven and cry out, ‘Why, Lord, why?’ We’re indignant and hurt, proceeding, as we are, from the assumption that our journey ought to be uncomplicated, that the Lord, like some tour guide, should make the path straight before us.
Continue reading In my first year at Cambridge, I picked up a copy of the Rule of St Benedict from Waterstones. I read it right through, I remember, and thought: Wow, to live like that!
Continue reading ‘Set me as a seal upon your heart’, says the Lord. It would take a brave preacher to expound that verse to two cardiologists.
Continue reading The perspective on life and death offered us this night is extraordinary. We take in the whole sweep of human history at a glance, from the beginning of the world to the saving events of our Lord Jesus Christ to our own present reality.
Continue reading The Passover is no magic charm; the Eucharist isn’t either. It is a pledge from the Lord and a pledge we give in return: a pledge to be faithful, to conform our lives to grace, to answer love with love.
Continue reading How can we respond to the call of Palm Sunday with integrity? We can, quite simply, refuse to run away.
Continue reading For Br Thomas, the history of the monastery and his own history were inseparable. This led him to invent what, to my knowledge, is a new and original literary genre, an extended autobiography in the form of obituaries!
Continue reading Above the horizon we shall ever perceive the comforting twinkle of the Star of the Sea. It sheds the light we need to journey on with confidence: the knowledge that our gracious God saves, wants to save, never ceases to save.
Continue reading Meister Eckhart once wrote: What good is it to me if Christ is born in Bethlehem but is not born in me? What use is it to me to call Mary full of grace, if I am not full of grace also?
Continue reading Newman had a genius for wonderment. We find it expressed in natural terms, as when, at the end of his life, he picked up the violin again and was so moved by the sheer joy of it that he had, so he wrote to a friend, to lay down the instrument and literally cry out with delight.
Continue reading It was during the reign of Edward the Confessor that a Norfolk noblewoman, after entertaining a vision of the Holy House of Nazareth, ordered a model built at Walsingham. Her masons had hardly got stuck in before they found the work completed by a team of engineers from quite a different league.
Continue reading In most villages, one house stands out: a mansion among hovels, a single large property with satellite dishes, an ornamental staircase, manicured lawns, and armed guards. The rich make their presence felt, in a contrast that seems preposterous until, by virtue of sheer repetition, one gets used to it and accepts it as part of the order of things.
Continue reading If we look closely at the liturgy for the Assumption, we find traces of the Ark everywhere. Pictorially it is a less alluring symbol than the cosmic lady: an ark, after all, is just a box.
Continue reading We are not all called to be martyrs, certainly; but we will all, one day, have to leave everything familiar behind, throwing ourselves into our heavenly Father’s embrace in a death that, in reality, is but a passage to a higher mode of living—but will nonetheless test us, like gold in the furnace, by fire.
Continue reading The enchanting mystery of the blessed Trinity is this, precisely: that it is a constant flow of life and love, a divine current that has always been, never shall cease, into which we, too, are drawn to be charged and enlivened. It is difficult to speak of these things.
Continue reading What contradiction Christ knew, humanly speaking! In communion with the Father through the Spirit, in communion with mankind through the flesh, his earthly life culminated in a cry of dereliction that rent his heart within even as, outwardly, it was pierced by a lance.
Continue reading Let’s not judge just by what we see, be sensible and say, ‘Oh, it was nothing’. It is everything!
Continue reading A ceremonial from 1600, the heyday of Francis de Sales, mentions the custom of bishops washing the feet of cathedral canons, but says it might be better still, as a lesson in humility, to seek out ‘poor people’ instead. It was Pius XII, pope during WW2 and its aftermath, who integrated the washing of the feet into Maundy Thursday’s Mass, limiting it to ‘twelve chosen men’.
Continue reading The art and poetry of Christmas loves to meditate on this stunning paradox: that the Maker of all things, the invisible, boundless God, should be corporeally present in a human person, an infant wrapped in swaddling cloths, the most confined posture imaginable.
Continue reading More than once, I assure you, some angel will bring you a commission to which, like Mary, you can only reply with consternation: ‘How shall this be?’ At such times, like her, do not be afraid; entrust yourself to God’s providence.
Continue reading Et videre problem: Hva forbinder vi nå med kongestand? Vi tenker oss pliktoppfyllende, velfriserte damer med kjærlighet til pølsehunder; vi tenker oss herrer i lysegrå dress som åpner broer og taler til nyttår.
Continue reading Sixteenth-century Catholics saw that a spiritual battle underlay the clash of superpowers. They saw that the soul of Christian Europe was at risk.
Continue reading There is a risk that we reduce Scripture to a medley of favourite themes, a Classic FM collection, with only lyric second movements and the occasional piece for solo harp. We like bits of Scripture that promise consolation; we’re unkeen on those that speak of judgement.
Continue reading St Jerome's awful temperament was proverbial. His vast store of invective would have been a goldmine for Monty Python, had it occurred to John Cleese to look up the Patrologia Latina.
Continue reading We are responsible not just for enacting our own assent to God’s call in the form of a Suscipe; we are also responsible for helping others enact theirs. We are called to share the gifts we have received, to make our talent increase, then pass on the capital, to nurture the realisation of others’ potential.
Continue reading I would say that sometimes Br Jonathan seemed almost luminous. He was possessed of a joy, a lightness, and a strength that made him appear, right to the end, the bearer of some glorious secret
Continue reading Fifteenth-century painters show Christ literally rising out of death, standing up from a stone coffin, one foot within, one foot outside, his hand holding a banner of victory. A century or two later, naturalistic settings with elaborate tombs are in vogue, with the Lord coming forth robed in white, all gleaming and unworldly.
Continue reading Some of us could write treatises on transubstantiation - that is good and can be useful. But it is not what the Twelve would have thought of then—that is now—in the Upper Room.
Continue reading Our longing for life, for love, for communion is what really defines us, much more so than our bodies with its passing pains and pleasures. We have a soul, and our soul lifts up our whole being in a yearning to live forever.
Continue reading As Mt Melleray’s porter he exercised for decades a ministry of welcome, receiving all comers kindly. He practised the asceticism of suspended judgement.
Continue reading Israel was divided and imperilled. Its religion was decadent, administered by reprobates like Hophni and Phineas, Eli’s sons, filling their already fat bellies with choice pickings from the altar at Shiloh.
Continue reading We remember everything that is not peace: wars, famine, poverty; conflicts at work; friendships that have died; difficulties in our families. We may experience a strange disconnectedness, as if the peace enjoyed at prayer, for seeming real, does not really touch the rest of our busy, messy, sometimes painful lives.
Continue reading As cathedral of the Empire’s first city, the Lateran won the title that adorns it to this day: Omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput; ‘Mother and Head of every church of the City of Rome and throughout the whole world’. It is as such that we celebrate the Lateran today.
Continue reading Brothers, the Lord has called you to be monks to make you happy; also, I may add, that others may find happiness through you. He has asked you to give all because there is no limit to the gifts he wants to give; he would have you embrace the fullness of life, never settling for less.
Continue reading What nurtures me, what gives me joy, what fills me with such peace is not an idea, not something but Someone, Someone alive who, astonishingly, cares for me.
Continue reading The world’s redemption is about to be accomplished; the Lord is entering his temple. And this fellow’s response is, Hello, donkey!
Continue reading Giving was natural to her; she delighted in it, quite unconcerned that many of her guests could not hope to reciprocate her generous treatment. Scripture teaches us to recognise this attitude of hers as a reflection of the kindness of God.
Continue reading When Fr Matthew’s rational defences fell away one after another, when his heart lay open for all to see, not a trace of impurity was left. All we saw was light and love and trust and kindness - truly, he was a monk.
Continue reading We think of the ox as plodder: to call someone bovine is not to pay a compliment. Earlier civilisations perceived the ox differently.
Continue reading Into whatever darkness we carry—be it enmity or strife, guilt or shame, hurt or resentment—the light of Christ will shine if we let it.
Continue reading From within this private, secret space he greeted others with courtesy and unfailing kindness, but also with the unequivocal instruction: ‘Do not enter.’ He had a genius for bringing conversations to an end with enigmatic monosyllables.
Continue reading Br Gabriel's energy was irrepressible. We all know how he could spontaneously burst into song at any time, anywhere – and in voice production he was not, to cite his own phrase, ‘backward in coming forward’!
Continue reading Amanda saw herself as someone to whom a particular, arduous work had been entrusted. With the courage for which she was outstanding, she assumed that work, certain that it would bear fruit, even though she could not see precisely how this would come about.
Continue reading For oss som vet hvorledes historien går videre, er opptrinnet i Jairus’ forgård som en profetisk kaldgufs. Det får oss til å tenke på en annen folkemasse som, ikke så veldig mye senere, på et blunk vil stemme sine hosannarop om til “Korsfest ham!
Continue reading Noah trådte ut i en ny verden, hvor alt måtte tilskikkes på nytt. Og i møte med denne tvingende nødvendighet, var det ikke primærnæring han dyrket, ikke kål, men vin.
Continue reading I have followed the unfolding of your respective lives in two brilliant mosaics of very different character, though they share certain key features. In either case, the immense integrity that marks you both has ensured a rigorously defined, pure outline.
Continue reading A lecherous king, a jealous queen, a fickle child: should these bring the Old Testament to a close?
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