januar 2015

Nye presters holdninger

I en del år nå, kanskje så mye som 15-20, har nyordinerte prester oftest vært mer konservative enn eldre prester. Om dette har fortsatt også de aller siste årene er jeg litt usikker på, men jeg tror egentlig det. Liturgibloggen PrayTell skriver ganske interessant om dette i et grundig innlegg med mange kommentarer. De innleder slik:

Pray Tell has heard increasing reports in the last few years about difficulties with some recently ordained priests. There are divisions in some parishes because some younger guys are more traditional or conservative or legalistic than much of their flock. This seems to be an important issue that needs addressing. To get the conversation going, Pray Tell went to some folks we knew in diocesan offices and asked them to reflect on the issue as constructively as possible. …

Et par av innleggene er nokså kritiske til de unge prestene, mens et tredje innlegg er mer balansert og skriver bl.a. at hvis en prest forandrer for mye i liberal (som vel var mest typisk rundt 1970) eller konservativ retning, vil det skape spenning i menigheten:

I would like to begin with an observation: this is an issue at both ends of the theological-political spectrum. While it may be more common now for new priests to be more “rigid” in their application of liturgical norms, we also have a history of those who have been much too “lax” in their approach to applying the same. Both would claim the “desire to do the right thing” as their motivation, and both—regardless of intention—can harm, and have harmed, the Church.

Is it an issue of maturity? On the one hand, there may be an inability to think outside of black-and-white categories, or a desire for security that is, in the end, illusory. If so, assuming that time alone will be corrective may be a dangerous assumption. Those attitudes may, instead, be perpetuated in the seminary environment. Such candidates need to be challenged early in their formation. …..

Film om dødsleirene

27. januar feires Den internasjonale holocaustdagen, og et par dager etterpå så jeg en interessant film kalt «Møtet med dødsleirene», som man fortsatt kan se her (bare fram til 16/2). Filmen presenteres slik:

Br.dokumentar. De første britiske fotografene som var med inn i de tyske konsentrasjoinsleirene i april 1945, møtte en sjokkerende virkelighet. Først nå, 70 år etter krigen, blir disse bildene vist i en nyprodusert dokumentar. Kjente regissører som Alfred Hitchcock og Sidney Bernstein var med å dokumentere dødsleirene, men filmen ble stanset av britiske myndigheter av hensyn til samarbeidet med Tyskland etter krigen. I dag vises filmen på en rekke TV-stasjoner i forbindelse med den internasjonale Holocaust – dagen.

Tradisjonell messe fra England 1962

Jeg feirer ikke den tradisjonelle latinske messen så ofte nå som jeg gjorde for 3-5 år siden, men når jeg feirer den (som sist søndag) oppleves den alltid som klar og tydelig og velfungerende. Dessverre er denne svært gamle liturgien nå nesten blitt helt glemt, og den nye messen (litt avhengig av hvordan den feires) oppleves ofte som veldig forskjellig. I videoen under ser vi julens midnattsmesse fra Ushaw college i Durham; en høymesse med vanlige seremonier, men med mange dyktige ministranter og et veldig stort kor. (Selve messen begynner etter ca 8 minutter.)

Jeg fant videoen hos New Litugical Movement.

Pave Frans gleder seg over store familier

På sin tur til Sri Lanka og Filippinene sa pave Frans enkelte ting som ikke var ganske upresise, og som ble slått stort opp i media. Men under dagens onsdagsaudiens i Vatikanet, sa han bl.a. dette:

The meetings with families and young people at Manila, were salient moments of the visit to the Philippines. Healthy families are essential to the life of society. It gave us consolation and hope to see so many large families that welcome children as a true gift of God. They know that every child is a gift of God. I heard it said that families with many children and the birth of so many children are among the causes of poverty. It seems to me to be a simplistic opinion. I can say that the main cause of poverty is an economic system that has removed the person from the center and put the god of money there; an economic system that excludes, that always excludes, children, the elderly, the youth, without work…- and that creates the throwaway culture that we live in. Recalling the figure of Saint Joseph, who protected the life of the “Holy Child,” so venerated in that country, I reminded that it is necessary to protect the families that face different threats, so that they can witness the beauty of the family in God’s plan. It is also necessary to defend them from the new ideological colonizations, which attempts threatens their identity and their mission.

Les alt han sa under denne audiensen – om turen til om Sri Lanka og Filippinene

Tradisjonell latinsk messe i Oslo søndag 25. januar

Søndag 25. januar kl 08.00 feires den tradisjonelle latinske messen i St Hallvard kirkes kapell.

Det er 3. søndag etter åpenbaringen som feires, og alle messens tekster og bønner kan leses her.

I evangeliet på denne søndagen hører vi bl.a.:

Og da Jesus var gått inn i Kapernaum, kom en høvedsmann til ham og ba ham og sa: «Herre, gutten min ligger lam hjemme og lider meget.» Jesus sa til ham: «Jeg skal komme og gjøre ham frisk.» Og høvedsmannen svarte og sa: «Herre, jeg er ikke verdig til at du går inn under mitt tak. Men si bare ett ord, så blir gutten min frisk. …. Og Jesus sa til høvedsmannen: «Gå, og det skal gå som du har trodd.» Og gutten ble frisk i den samme timen.

Mer informasjon om disse messene her.

Dokumentet «Dominus Jesus» under angrep?

Nokså overraskende leste jeg hos Sandro Magister at det kjente dokumentet Dominus Jesus fra år 2000 (LES DET HER), om Jesus som eneste vei til frelse, og et tillegg om hva som kreves for å virkelig kunne kalles en Kirke. Jesuitten Jacques Dupuis kritiserer dokumentet i en bok som kom ute etter hans død, skriver Magister, og:

The Bolognese historian (Professor Alberto Melloni) dismisses “Dominus Iesus” as “the most fragile document of the Wojtylian pontificate,” portrays it as “not accepted by Catholic theologians” and attributes its composition – on a par with the notification that Dupuis was made to sign at that time – to the “incompetence” of unspecified “collaborators of the congregation,” which Ratzinger “in direct conversations demonstrated he did not value and did not know,” and to which John Paul II “did not react,” in spite of the fact that the “maneuver” had as its “target” – again in Melloni’s view – precisely “the papacy of Wojtyla and his peculiar fidelity to Vatican II, the prayer of Assisi on the on hand and the ‘mea culpa’ of the Jubilee, his ecumenical attitude, his ideas about the God of the Quran and about the permanence of Israel’s covenant.”

Men kardinal Ratzinger skriver selv om hvordan pave Johannes Paul tydelig støttet utgivelsen av dette dokumentet, og forstod hva det handlet om:

In refutation of the timidity and indolence of Ratzinger and John Paul II, who according to Melloni permitted rather than intended the composition and publication of “Dominus Iesus,” letting it be done by anyone whatsoever, there is no mistaking what the pope emeritus wrote a year ago in a book on pope Wojtyla:

“Among the documents on various aspects of ecumenism, the one that prompted the greatest reaction was the declaration ‘Dominus Iesus’ of 2000, which summarizes the indispensable elements of the Catholic faith. […]

“In the face of the firestorm that had developed around ‘Dominus Iesus,’ John Paul II told me that he intended to defend the document unequivocally at the Angelus. He invited me to write a text for the Angelus that would be, so to speak, airtight and not subject to any different interpretation whatsoever. It had to be completely unmistakable that he approved the document unconditionally.

“So I prepared a brief address: I did not intend, however, to be too brusque, and so I tried to express myself clearly but without harshness. After reading it, the pope asked me once again: ‘Is it really clear enough?’ I replied that it was.

“Those who know theologians will not be surprised that in spite of this there were afterward some who maintained that the pope had prudently distanced himself from that text.”

Dr. Kwasniewskis siste bok – om liturgien

15jan_resurgent I går mottok jeg – fra amazon.co.uk – flere bøker (mest om liturgi, som vanlig), bl.a. den helt nye Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis av dr. Peter Kwasniewski. Boka har følgende informasjon og lovprisninger på omslaget:

“I heartily recommend Peter Kwasniewski’s new book for those struggling to come to terms not only with what happened to the liturgy of the Catholic Church, but with why those changes have had such disastrous consequences. As he shows in one aspect after another of the Mass, the changes have taken us further away from that inner transformation of the worshipper which is a secondary purpose of the liturgy, after the worship of God.”
— JOSEPH SHAW, President of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales

“To come out of the present crisis we need to restore the liturgy in all its sacredness. Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis is a very important work that leads us to meditate in depth on the permanent value, theological centrality, and beauty of the traditional liturgy of the Church.”
— MSGR. IGNACIO BARREIRO, Executive Director of HLI’s Rome Office

“Peter Kwasniewski is one of a handful of 21st-century Catholic authors really in touch with our tradition who can, at the same time, carefully explain what is at stake in both the Catholic intellectual world and the culture as a whole. He is devastating in delivering his points, which he makes without wasting a word.”
— ROGER A. MCCAFFREY, President of Roman Catholic Books

“Combining deeply human insight with supernatural faith, Prof. Kwasniewski presents a compelling case for the continuing necessity of the traditional Latin Mass for the Church’s life and mission. Without questioning the validity of the modern rite, he illuminates in many ways how the older liturgy more clearly expresses the Faith and more richly nourishes the faithful.”
— FR. THOMAS KOCIK, author of Reform of the Reform? A Liturgical Debate: Reform or Return

“The topics of these essays are all of vital importance to our appre­ciation of the Church’s liturgy. With an abundance of wit and learning, Dr. Kwasniewski offers invaluable encouragement towards a greater love and greater understanding of our liturgical tradition.”
— GREGORY DIPIPPO, managing editor of New Liturgical Movement

“The author presents a well-argued, documented case that the present crisis in the Church will not be overcome until there is a return to the traditional Latin liturgy, a revival of the true social teaching of the Church, and a restoration of the study of St. Thomas Aquinas in our seminaries and colleges.”
— FR. KENNETH BAKER, Editor Emeritus, Homiletic & Pastoral Review

About the Author

PETER KWASNIEWSKI has taught and written on a wide variety of subjects, especially the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas, sacramental and liturgical theology, the history and aesthetics of music, and the social doctrine of the Church. After teaching at the International Theological Institute in Austria, he joined the founding team of Wyoming Catholic College, where he currently serves as Professor of Theology and Choirmaster. For twenty-five years Dr. Kwasniewski has also been a director of choirs and scholas, a cantor, and a composer. He writes regularly for The Latin Mass and several popular Catholic weblogs.

Betydningen av stillhet i messen

priest_mass Mens dyp taushet lå over alle ting og natten var rukket midtveis i sitt løp. kom ditt allmektige Ord, Herre, ned fra den himmelske kongsstol. (Introitus til messen søndag i juleoktaven – se hele messen her.)

På nettsidene til The New Liturgical Movement skriver Peter Kwasniewski enda en interessant artikkel om messen. Messen handler først og fremst om å møte Gud, å kunne be til Ham på best mulig måte -da er det interessant å lese hva Kwasniewski skriver:

… I wish to reflect on the peculiar beauty of the very ancient custom of the silent canon and how it confirms the intuition that the Word comes to us in the liturgy in a personal mode that transcends the notional presence of the Word obtained by reading individual words from a book. The Introit quoted above strikingly brings together both of these points: the coming of the Word Himself in the midst of total silence.

As I staunchly maintained in my lectio divina series last Lent, the Lord unquestionably speaks to us in and through Sacred Scripture, and we must constantly go to this source to hear Him; but He comes to us more intimately still in Holy Communion. The traditional practice of the priest praying the Canon silently emphasizes that Christ does not come to us in words, but in the one unique Word which HE IS, and which—immanent, transcendent, and infinite as it is—no human tongue can ever express. Once we have absorbed this fact in our life of prayer, the words of Sacred Scripture can, paradoxically, penetrate our hearts more effectively and have a more-than-Protestant effect on our minds.

What I mean by a “Protestant effect” is the way that Protestants can listen to or look at Scripture again and again – e.g., John 6 or Matthew 16 or 1 Corinthians on the Eucharist – and yet their minds remain closed to its obvious Catholic significance. They are like the disciples on the way to Emmaus, who are thoroughly steeped in Scripture but have failed to grasp the central point, viz., the victory of the Messiah over sin and death. Jesus in person has to explain to them what they already “know” but have never internalized—and Jesus comes to us in person in the Real Presence and is internalized in the most radical way when we are permitted a share in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. …

Les hele denne artikkelen her.

15 år siden min prestevielse

200jan_prvielse

Et bilde fra min prestevielse i St Paul kirke i Bergen 8. januar 2000. Jeg ligger på gulvet under allehelgenslitaniet, og biskop Gerhard Schwenzer kneler mellom menighetens to diakoner.

Hvordan beskrives messen best?

Da jeg i 2007 lærte om (og lærte å feire) den tradisjonelle katolske messen, var det en del ting som overrasket meg – siden jeg aldri hadde hørt om den katolske, liturgiske tradisjon før 1965. Peter Kwasniewski skriver nå om en så pass liten ting som hva man kaller de ulike delene av messen. Hoveddelene hadde blitt kalt Katekumenenes messe og de troendes messe, men dette ble forandret til Ordets liturgi og nattverdens liturgi. OM denne forandringen skriver han:

It is well known that the Novus Ordo Missae divides the Mass into four parts: the Introductory Rites; the Liturgy of the Word; the Liturgy of the Eucharist; and the Concluding Rite. It is perhaps less known among Catholics today that this is a modern schematic and that the much more ancient distinction—still found in the traditional Latin Mass—is between the Mass of the Catechumens and the Mass of the Faithful. As we bask in the effulgence of the Incarnate Word, it would be well to reflect on why this ancient way of speaking is superior to the modern way.

The central and definitive “word” is Jesus Christ, the Logos or Verbum of the Father, made flesh for us men and for our salvation. It follows that the liturgy of the Word par excellence is the Holy Eucharist itself. To go further, the liturgy of the Word, in the fullest sense, must be the Eucharistic sacrifice, because in this sacrifice the Word which is “spoken” by the Father is offered back to Him, thanks to His human nature, in a perfect self-offering—and this oblation of Christ on the cross is the sole reason we ourselves can receive, can be made “hearers of,” the word of God in nature and in divine revelation. If, instead, one appropriates “word” to the Bible, then this portion of public worship, in terms of the phenomenology of the Mass, risks becoming an equal to the Eucharist, if not its superior. …

Les resten av artikkelen her.

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