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.
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 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 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.
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