The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History

Liturgi /

liturgy_medieval_england_l Jeg har nå lest ferdig denne boka, som forfatteren, Richard W. Pfaff, i forordet skriver kanskje heller burde ha blit kalt The Liturgical Books of Medieval England, eller enda bedre (men for langt) The Liturgy in Medieval England: An Essay on the History of Medieval England as seen through Liturgical Sources.

Boka handlet nok for mye om utallige manuskripter etter min smak, og enkelte av detaljene må jeg innrømme jeg leste ganske raskt. Boka (som er på 575 sider) er delvis historisk, delvis går den gjennom liturgiene til de ulike religiøse ordenene i England, og mot slutten også de ulike regionale liturgiene, som Sarum (Salisbury), York, Hereford, Lincoln og et par til. Sarum er den mest kjente liturgien/ messerordningen, som etter hvert kom til å dominere det meste av England.

Fra en annen kilde kan vi lese om rubrikkene i Susrum-messen (i tillegg skriver Pfaff også en del om forskjellige tekster og helgenkalendere i de ulike tradisjonene):

The following are the more noticeable variants of the Use of Sarum from the developed Roman Rite:

At Mass, as in the Dominican Use, the Sarum priest began by saying a verse of the psalm «Confitemini,» with a shortened Confiteor followed by the verse «Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.» Nevertheless, at Salisbury every celebrant was bound to have recited the whole psalm «Judica me Deus» in the sacristy before coming to the foot of the altar. The prayer «Aufer a nobis» was said, but not that which now follows it, in lieu of which the priest simply made the sign of the cross and proceeded to read the Officium, or as we call it, the Introit.

From the Kyrie to the Offertory the deviations from our actual usage are slight, though on festival days this section of the sacred rite was often enormously lengthened by varied and prolix sequences. Like the Dominican and other contemporaneous Uses, that of Sarum supposes the previous preparation of the chalice (put by the Sarum Missal between the Epistle and Gospel) and thereby materially abbreviates the Offertory ceremonial.

According to an archaic usage, still familiar to ourselves from the Roman Good-Friday Rite, the prayer «In spiritu humilitatis» followed in place of preceding the washing of the priest’s hands and the psalm «Lavabo» was omitted. To the «Orate Fratres» (at Sarum, «Orate Fratres et Sorores») no audible response was made.

From the Preface onward through the Canon, the Sarum Mass was word for word and gesture by gesture that of our own Missals, except that a profound inclination of head and shoulders took the place of the modern genuflection and that during the first prayer after the Elevation the celebrant stood with arms stretched out in the form of a cross. As in France and generally in Northern and Western Europe the Benediction given at the breaking of the Sacred Host was not curtailed to the mere pronouncing of the words «Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum» but, more particularly when a bishop officiated, was very solemnly given with a formula varying according to the festival.

The prayers before the priest’s Communion were other than those with which we are familiar. The kiss of peace was given as with us but there was no «Domine non sum dignus.» The words pronounced by the celebrant at the moment of his own Communion are striking and seem peculiar to the Sarum Missal. They may therefore be fittingly quoted: «Hail for evermore, Thou most holy Flesh of Christ; sweet to me before and beyond all things beside. To me a sinner may the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ be the Way and the Life.» The Communion and Postcommunion followed as now. But no Blessing was given, and the beginning of the Gospel of St. John was recited by the priest on his way from the sanctuary to the sacristy.

Bok om Gregory Dix

Liturgi /

tactful_god_g_dix Jeg leste i dag ferdig booka A Tactful God av by Simon Bailey, og den beskriver livet og det liturgiske arbeidet til Dom Gregory Dix, den kjente anglikanske (anglo-katolske) liturgieksperten. (Jeg har hans svært kjente bok, The Shape of the Liturgy med meg på dette studieoppholdet, og skal lese (i alle fall deler av) de 750 sidene om ikke lenge.)

Amazon skriver bl.a. følgende om boka:

Dom Gregory Dix is perhaps the most influential liturgical historian of the 20th century. To quote the jacket, «The publication of the Shape of the Liturgy proved a watershed in English speaking liturgical writing. Whilst it was the culmination of the scholarship and spirituality of the Anglican monk-writer Dom Gregory Dix, it was only the best example of a wide and important output. Drawing on original correspondence and notebooks, Simon Bailey provides a balanced assessment of Dix the monk, scholar and pastor, and charts his involvement with the papist Anglo-Catholicism of the interwar years…»

If you have any interest in liturgical studies, this book will prove an fun footnote to one of the leaders in the field.

Og HER er en grundig omtale av boka.

The Oregon Coast

Generelt /

16febr_oregon_coast
Nå har vi bodd ei uke i en leilighet i Lincoln City på den ganske berømte Oregon Coast – det er fint her, men ikke særlig varmt (10-12 grader) som bildet viser. Forrige helg hadde vi familiebesøk (fra min kones familie) lørdag, søndag, mandag, siden har vi studert ganske mye og gått på stranda. Kommende helg skal vi også treffe familiemedlemmer tre dager (det var hovedgrunnen til at vi kom hit), og så blir det igjen tid til studier de neste ukedagene.

Det er litt underlig å være 9 timer etter Norge tidsmessig, for selv om vi står opp tidlig (før 6) er folk i Norge da på vei hjem fra jobb – og jeg leser Aftenposten og Vårt Land for neste dag hver ettermiddag. Jeg har vært i Oregon mange ganger før (vi gifta oss her for litt over 30 år siden), men det har stort sett vært om sommeren og det har ofte ikke vært mer enn to uker, og nå skal vi være her akkurat fem uker.

Sherborne Missal

Generelt, Liturgi /

Sherborne_missal_pp_17-18

I The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History av Richard W. Pfaff, som jeg nå leser, leste jeg nettopp – i kapittelet om Benedictine liturgy after 1215 – om the Sherborne Missal. Sherborne was ( a Benedictine abbey from 998 to 1539.)

Richard Pfaff skriver (s 236-237) om denne missalen: «Sherborne seems to have been an abbey of medium size (15-20 men) and income … In these circumstances it becomes all the more astonishing that, probably between 1396 and 1406, there should have been commissioned, and illustrated by a prominent artist, the missal that … «is the unrivalled masterpiece of English book production in the fifteenth century».»

Etter at alle kloster ble oppløst av kongen (Sherborne i 1539), vet man lite om missalen, men den var i Frankrike «from at least 1703 to 1797, then (by 1800) in the posession of the Duke of Northumberland, who kept it at Alnwick castle until 1983, when Trustees of the then Duke placed it on indefinite loan at the British Library; in 1998 the Library bought it.»

Bildet under viser korsfestelsen, og er den eneste helsides miniatyren i missalen.

Sherborne_missal_p_23

Hva er igjen hvis vi ikke har liturgien?

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Erkebiskop Alexander Sample i Portland, Oregon (der jeg er nå) er nettopp blitt intervjuet, både om erkebispedømmet (i et av de mest kirkeløse delene av USA), om bispesynoden og om liturgien. Om det siste emnet sier han:

The Church teaches us that the liturgy is the “source and summit” of the Church’s life [in Sacrosanctum Concilium]. There is nothing more important that the Church does. All our apostolic works flow from it. It is the heart of who we are as the body of Christ.

I had the pleasure of attending a general audience with Pope Benedict. As a bishop, I had the opportunity to greet him personally afterward. In the few moments I had with him, I told him I had a great admiration for what he’d done to renew the sacred liturgy and thanked him for his leadership. He responded, “If we don’t have the liturgy, what do we have?” I took that message to heart.

I want to do what the Church wants us to do in regards to liturgy. It is not my take, or my style, but what the Church is asking of us. I want to be faithful to what the Vatican II Council intended.

The liturgy is not the personal possession of any priest or liturgical commission, but belongs to Holy Mother Church. We must celebrate it according to the mind and heart of the Church.

Videre sier han også:

I’m grateful to Pope Benedict for allowing the Extraordinary Form to flourish again in the Church. I have a great love and appreciation for the ancient liturgy. I wish every priest and seminarian would familiarize himself with the Extraordinary Form, which can help us to better understand the Ordinary Form.

Jeg leste om dette først hos Father Z.

Messefeiring i England i middelalderen

Katolsk, Liturgi /

liturgy_medieval_england
Jeg er nå i gang med å lese The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History av Richard W. Pfaff, det er ei bok på nesten 600 sider, som det vil ta litt tid å komme gjennom. Amazon skriver om boka:

This book provides a comprehensive historical treatment of the Latin liturgy in medieval England. Richard Pfaff constructs a history of the worship carried out in churches – cathedral, monastic, or parish – primarily through the surviving manuscripts of service books, and sets this within the context of the wider political, ecclesiastical, and cultural history of the period. The main focus is on the mass and daily office, treated both chronologically and by type, the liturgies of each religious order and each secular ‘use’ being studied individually. Furthermore, hagiographical and historiographical themes – respectively, which saints are prominent in a given witness and how the labors of scholars over the last century and a half have both furthered and, in some cases, impeded our understandings – are explored throughout. The book thus provides both a narrative account and a reference tool of permanent value.

Boka går gjennom den ene tidsepoken etter den andre, bl.a. disse:

Early Anglo-Saxon England: a partly traceable story
Later Anglo-Saxon: liturgy for England
The Norman Conquest: cross fertilizations
Monastic liturgy, 1100-1215
Benedictine liturgy after 1215
The non-monastic religious orders: canons regular
The non-monastic religious orders: friars
Old Sarum: the beginnings of Sarum Use
New Sarum and the spread of Sarum Use
Exeter: the fullness of secular liturgy
Southern England: final Sarum Use
Regional Uses and local variety
Towards the end of the story

Pave Frans i Mexico

Katolsk, Paven /

francis_mexico
John Allen skriver om dette besøket:

Upon arriving in Mexico, Francis clearly wanted to make four statements, and he underscored each with a symbolically fitting destination:

1 The importance of popular faith and devotion, which he highlighted Saturday with a Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

2 The dignity of Latin America’s indigenous population, expressed on Monday by an outing to Chiapas, home to an armed Zapatista uprising fueled in part by a legacy of injustices directed at indigenous communities.

3 The indecency of the drug trade and drug-related violence, hammered home on Tuesday when the pontiff traveled to Morelia, a state in which scores of ordinary people and an estimated 40 Catholic priests have been killed by criminal gangs in the past decade.

4 The human dignity of immigrants, captured in the border stop on Wednesday.

Aides said Francis personally chose these destinations, and it’s hard to imagine an itinerary better reflecting his priorities. When the pope goes some place, a good chunk of the world’s media also travels with him, and it’s clear Francis wanted to exploit that spotlight.

Pave Frans snakket også til biskopene i Mexico, og om dette sier Allen:

In effect, what the Mexico trip underlined was the kind of bishop Francis wants. Key qualities include:

– A preference for ordinary people and the poor rather than elites.
– Close contact with social realities, including concrete humanitarian and charitable efforts.
– Political moderation and dialogue with all parties.
– Simplicity of lifestyle and approach.
– Personal integrity and a distaste for wheeling and dealing.
– Rejection of careerism; that is, a prelate who thinks more about this job than the next one.

Bok om Summorum Pontificum

Liturgi, TLM /

care_for_church_liturgy Jeg har nå lest ferdig boka Care for the Church and Its Liturgy: A Study of Summorum Pontificum and the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite av William H. Johnston, som ganske grundig og saklig gjør rede for pave Benedikts utvidelse av muligheten til å feire den tradisjonelle latinske messen. På Amazon kan vi lese om boka:

In July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued Summorum Pontificum, designating two «uses» or «forms» of the Roman Rite, declaring the Missal of Paul VI to be the «ordinary form» and the 1962 Missal of John XXIII to be its «extraordinary form.» On the same day, the pope also published a letter to bishops, Con Grande Fiducia, to accompany and offer commentary on this motu proprio.

In Care for the Church and Its Liturgy, William H. Johnston offers analysis and commentary on both documents, exploring their meaning, context, purposes, implementation, and implications. Johnston carefully attends to the multiple purposes of the documents themselves and to the various questions related to their implementation, as well as to the complex postconciliar dynamics in the Catholic Church. His approach throughout is appreciative, critical, and constructive.

Johnston’s study embodies respect for dialogue, unity, and charity. It will provide much food for thought and discussion among both academics and pastoral leaders in the years ahead as the church discerns its liturgical way forward, and all those with educational or pastoral responsibility for the liturgy will find it an informative resource and valuable guide for understanding and assessing this still constitutive feature of the Roman Rite.

John Allen om møtet mellom paven og den russisk-ortodokse kirken

Katolsk, Økumenikk /

16feb_pave_patriark
John Allen skriver interessant og nøkternt om dette møtet som nylig ble avholdt på Cuba. Han uttrykker lede over at møtet mellom de to kirkelederne endelig skjedde, men fortsetter slik:

Alas, and without trying to rain on anyone’s parade, there are also good reasons for caution, in large part because Moscow’s motives — both in terms of the Russian church, and the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin — are open to serious doubt.

(The Russian Orthodox Church is a close ally of Putin, and most observers believe Friday’s meeting would not have happened without his encouragement.)

In recent decades, the Catholic Church has bent over backwards to improve relations with Moscow. Given fears that Catholics try to poach Orthodox worshipers, for instance, the Church in Russia has been under what amounts to a quiet “no-growth” policy. Pastors have received instructions that if a Russian seeks to convert, he or she should be sent back to an Orthodox congregation.

Yet despite a slew of similar accommodations, Russian Orthodox leaders still routinely exude hostility. ….

Han kommer med mange flere interessante observasjoner (les gjerne hele artikkelen) og avslutter slik:

Given all that, how will we know if Friday’s meeting was more than a photo-op?

First, the Russian Orthodox could stop making life difficult for other Christians in their sphere of influence, whether that means Greek Catholics in Ukraine or other Orthodox Christians who want to be independent (the term in the East is “autocephalous.”)

Second, Kirill could officially reject claims by arch-conservative traditionalists in his church that Catholic sacraments and ministries aren’t valid. Catholic experience shows doing so won’t make those folks go away, but it will at least prevent them from claiming they speak for the church.

Third, Orthodox clergy could stop providing religious cover for Putin’s imperial ambitions and establish genuine independence from state control.

Fourth, Pope Francis and the Vatican could make the preceding three steps a precondition for moving forward.

If those things occur, then Friday’s get-together will represent a sea change. Longtime observers, however, may be forgiven for not holding their breath.

Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square

Generelt, Katolsk /

neuhaus_biography I dag har jeg lest ferdig ei bok som kom ut for akkurat ett år siden: Richard John Neuhaus: A Life in the Public Square Neuhaus har betydd mye for meg, helt siden 1991, da jeg begynte å lese det nystartede tidsskriftet First Things, og også hørte at (den tidligere lutherske>) Neuhaus kort tid før dette hadde blitt katolikk. (Jeg skrev litt om mitt forhold til Neuhaus den dagen han døde i januar 2009.)

Biografien ble anmeldt i mange aviser da den kom ut, New York Times skriver bl.a.:

At the time of his death six years ago, the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus was arguably the most prominent conservative Roman Catholic in America. He was leader of the “theocons,” as critics labeled them, right-leaning Christian intellectuals grouped around First Things, a journal Neuhaus founded. Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI knew him personally, as well as by his work, and George W. Bush sought Neuhaus’s counsel before and during his time as president. His 1984 book on the place of faith in politics, “The Naked Public Square,” has been credited with helping to define the climate in which Ronald Reagan won re-election.

Yet Neuhaus did not begin as a conservative, a Catholic or indeed in America. He was born and baptized the son of a Lutheran pastor in Pembroke, Ontario. Later, as a Lutheran pastor himself in New York, Neuhaus was an activist liberal — ally of Martin Luther King in the civil rights struggle, co-founder of Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam and antiwar delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Each half of Neuhaus’s life supplies ample material for a biography. …

… A man of the cloth as engaged in public life as Neuhaus was makes a difficult subject for a biography: The cavalcade of events threatens to overwhelm the spiritual side of his life. Boyagoda draws attention back to Neuhaus’s faith whenever he can, particularly in the moving final chapter, as Neuhaus approaches his death. But an adequate spiritual biography would have to be quite different from an account of a public life as full as the one Neuhaus’ led, and inevitably Boyagoda has to choose his focus. Here it is on the outward man, and Boyagoda has explored and explained this fascinating American as well as anyone could have hoped.

Les mer om denne boka her.

Upresist om katolsk-ortodoks møte

Økumenikk /

Videoen over viser noen glimt fra det sensasjonelle møtet mellom pave Paul VI og patriark Athenagoras i Jerusalem 5.-6. januar 1964. DET VAR VEL DEN FØRSTE FORSONINGEN MELLOM KATOLIKKER OG ORTODOKSE SIDEN 1054. Om dette skriver Wikipedia:

Pope Paul VI visited the Orthodox Patriarchs of Jerusalem and Constantinople in 1964 and 1967. He was the first pope since the ninth century to visit the East, labeling the Eastern Churches as sister Churches. He was also the first pope in centuries to meet the heads of various Eastern Orthodox faiths. Notably, his meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I in 1964 in Jerusalem led to rescinding the excommunications of the Great Schism, which took place in 1054.

This was a significant step towards restoring communion between Rome and Constantinople. It produced the Catholic-Orthodox Joint declaration of 1965, which was read out on 7 December 1965, simultaneously at a public meeting of the Second Vatican Council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Istanbul. The declaration did not end the schism, but showed a desire for greater reconciliation between the two churches.

Vårt Land skriver en del interessante ting om dagens møte mellom pave Frans og patriarken av Moskva på Cuba, men når de som overskrift og ingress skriver: «Første toppmøte siden 1054. Patriarken og paven lyste hverandre gjensidig i bann for 962 år siden. I dag møtes patriarken og paven på Cuba», blir det feil. For det fantes ingen patriark i Moskva i 1054, det var ikke før i 1448 at den russiske kirken frigjorde seg fra Konstantinopel. Fra Wikipedia:

In 1448, the Russian Church in Moscow became effectively independent from the Patriarchate of Constantinople — when the Russian bishops in Moscow elected their own primate, Jonas, a Russian bishop, without recourse to Constantinople. The Russian church within the bounds of the Grand Duchy of Moscow was thenceforth effectively autocephalous.

Metropolitan Jonas was given the title of Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus’, but his successors styled themselves as Metropolitans of Moscow and All Rus’. Five years later, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. From this point onward the Russian Orthodox Church saw Moscow as the Third Rome, legitimate successor to Constantinople, and the metropolitan of Moscow as head of the Russian Church.

Møtet mellom paven og patriarken av Moskva er svært viktig, men man bør holde tunga rett i munnen.

Raskeste vei til Stillehavet

Gamle tekster /

I går reiste vi fra Oslo til Seattle, via Keflavik på Island. Det er den raskeste turen jeg har tatt fra Norge til the Pacific Northwest (dsv Washington og Oregon). Vi reiste fra Gardermoen kl 14.05 and landet i Seattle kl 16.35 samme dag – + ni timers tidsforskjell.

Jeg vet ikke om noen direkte turer fra Norge til USAs vestkyst, vi har tidligere reist (en viss omvei) via København eller Amsterdam, London er selvsagt også mulig. Å reise via USAs østkyst syns jeg er mindre behagelig, for da har man 6 timers flytid igjen over USA. Vi reiste med Icelandair, og var godt fornøyd med turen – det viste seg å være et svært islandsk flyselskap både mht til språk og kultur. Vi byttet fly på Keflavik, men det er jo ikke noen omvei, flyene går den veien i alle fall – vi fløy 2 1/2 time dit og 7 1/2 derfra til Seattle.

Vi skal være i Oregon de siste fem ukene av min studiepermisjon. Jeg skal lese de siste ca 15 bøkene jeg har fått tak i om liturgiens utvikling, og vi skal treffe mange medlemmer av min kones store familie.

P. Erik Andreas Heyerdahl Holt inkardinert

Katolsk /

holth_inkardinert

Slik kan man lese på St Paul menighets nettsider (som også har mange flere bilder):

Under sin visitas i Bergen inkardinerte bp Bernt Eidsvig pastor Erik Andreas Heyerdahl Holt i Oslo Katolske Bispedømme. Pave Frans og Troskongregasjonen har godkjent hans tidligere prestevielse og han fikk dispensasjon fra sølibatet. P. Erik skal tjene som kapellan i St. Paul menighet.

Gratulerer p. Erik!

Om konselabrasjon av messen

Katolsk, Liturgi /

holy_eucharist Jeg har lest ferdig boka The Holy Eucharist – The World’s Salvation, der forfatteren, Joseph de Sainte-Marie, OCD, er nokså kritisk til praksis som har kommet etter 1970 mht konselebrasjon av messen. Han er ikke mot konselebrasjon, og finner det bl.a. naturlig at prester konselebrerer med sin biskop ved spesielle anledninger, men han finner det ikke naturlig at mange prester skal konselebrere messer til stadighet, heller enn å feire egne messer. Han tar opp spørsmål som; blir ett eller flere messeoffer båret fram når mange prester konselebrerer en messe? Og han skiller tydelig mellom seremenoiell konselebrasjon (når f.eks. en biskop feirer messe med assisterende diakoner og en MC), og sakramental konselebrasjon (når flere prester deltar i konsekrasjonen).

Prof. Peter Kwasniewski har skrevet en grundig og positiv anmeldelse av boka på The New Liturgical Movement, og han åpner anmeldelsen slik:

Let me begin with the bottom line. This is the most important book ever to appear in English on the subject of concelebration. It ought to be read by every bishop, priest, religious, teacher of liturgy, and seminary formator, and absolutely anyone with a desire to learn about this complex and sometimes contentious issue.

Fr. Joseph de Sainte-Marie (1931–1985), a professor and specialist in Carmelite spirituality at the Pontifical Theological Faculty ‘Teresianum’ in Rome, published this substantial collection of his writings in 1982, only a few years before his death. One may regret that it has taken over 30 years for an English translation to appear — or better, one may rejoice that it has finally come out for the benefit of those who do not read French. Lest a nearly 600-page tome prompt any dismay, I hasten to repeat that this is a gathering together of a dozen finely-chiseled essays on the Mass and the Holy Eucharist, with special attention to concelebration. …

Har tar også med innholdfortegnelsen til boka:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction (xi)
Foreword (xvii)

Part I: A Disputed Question
1. Reflections and Questions on the Subject of Concelebration (3)
2. A Critical Note on a ‘Theology of Concelebration’ (29)
3. Concelebration: Sensus Fidei and Theology (81)

Part II: The Historical Inquiry
4. Concelebration: The History of a History (123)
5. Concelebration: An Historical Summary (179)
6. Eucharistic Concelebration in the Magisterium of the Second Vatican Council (203)
7. ‘Useless and Superfluous Masses’ (273)
8. The Church Asks for the Multiplication of Masses (297)

Part III: Theological Reflection
9. ‘Sacrificium Missae’ (323)
10. The Liturgy: Mystery, Symbol, and Sacrament (355)
11. The Mass: Meal, ‘Blessing’, Congregation, or Sacrifice? (425)
12. The Celebration and Multiplication of the Sacrifice (483)

Conclusion (539)

Katolikker fra Irak

Generelt, Katolsk /

Det fins også latinske katolikker fra Irak i Norge, men jeg tror nok de fleste katolikker fra Irak (i Norge og andre steder) tilhører den kaldeiske ritus (som bruker en dialekt av Jesu eget språk, arameisk). Avisa Dagen skriver om disse kaldeiske kristne (og nevner såvidt at de er katolikker) i en artikkel der hovedbudskapet et at alt håp er ute for de kristne i Irak. De skriver bl.a.:

Fader Rooni Yousif er Norges første kaldeiske prest. Han ser ikke lenger noen fremtid for kristne i hjemlandet. «Hvordan kan verden hjelpe de kristne til å bli værende i Irak?»

Vi stiller spørsmålet til Norges nye kaldeiske prest, på koselige Café Jordbærpikene på Tveita senter i Oslo. Svaret er blottet for kos.

«Det er for sent. Det hersker en fullstendig mangel på tillit. De har mistet troen på at de har en fremtid i Irak», svarer fader Rooni kontant.

Svaret ryster meg. Gang på gang har jeg hørt kirkeledere advare mot at Irak tømmes for kristne, hvis de ikke får hjelp til å bli, men aldri før har jeg hørt noen si at det faktisk er for sent.

«Men hvis verden virkelig mobiliserer», prøver jeg.

Den kaldeiske presten rister på hodet. «Det er for sent nå, svarer han. Altfor mange har reist.»

Siden Saddams fall i 2003 har tallet på kristne minket fra drøyt 1,2 millioner til nær 200.000.

Den siste masseflukten startet da IS erobret Mosul og de kristne landsbyene på Ninive-sletten i Nord-Irak sommeren 2014. Ett og et halvt år etter bor IS-flyktningene fremdeles i kummerlige, midlertidige boliger. De mangler det meste, mange av barna får ikke gå på skole, og IS-krigere okkuperer fremdeles hjemmene deres i Mosul og på Ninivesletten.

Lenge oppfordret irakiske kirkeledere de kristne til å vise mot og bli værende i Irak. Det har de fleste lederne sluttet med. …

Les mer om P. Yousif her.

Sexagesima søndag

Liturgi, TLM /

sexagesima

I den tradisjonelle kalender feires i dag søndag sexagesima; såmannssøndagen, og vi hører følgende evangelium:

Luk. 8, 4-15.
På den tid da det hadde samlet seg mye folk, og det løp mange fra byene til Jesus, sa han i en lignelse: «En såmann gikk ut og sådde sin sæd, og da han sådde, falt noe langs med veien og ble tråkket ned, og himmelens fugler åt det opp. Og noe falt på stengrunn, og da det vokste opp, visnet det fordi det ikke hadde væte. Og noe falt mellom torner, og tornene vokste opp sammen med det og kvalte det. Og noe falt i god jord, og da det vokste opp, ga det hundre fold.» Da han hadde sagt dette, ropte han: «Den som har ører å høre med, han høre.» Men hans disipler spurte ham hva denne lignelsen skulle bety. Han sa til dem: «Dere skal få vite hemmeligheten i Guds rike; men de andre får det i lignelser, forat de skal se og likevel ikke se, høre og ikke forstå. Dette er lignelsen: Sæden er Guds ord. Det langs med veien er de som hører, men så kommer djevelen og tar ordet bort fra deres hjerte, så de ikke skal tro og bli frelst. Det på stengrunnen er de som tar imot ordet med glede når de hører det, men de har ingen rot; de tror for en tid, men i prøvestunden faller de fra. Men det som falt mellom torner, er de som hører, men kveles mens de vandrer under sorger og rikdom og livets lyst, og bærer ikke frukt. Men det i den gode jorden er de som hører ordet med et godt og edelt hjerte og tar vare på det, og de bærer frukt i tålmod.»

Om denne tesketn skriver Den hellige Gregor den store (til Matutin):

Homily by Pope St Gregory the Great. 5th on the Gospels.
Dearly beloved brethren, the passage from the Holy Gospel which ye have just heard, needeth not so much that I should explain it, as that I should seek to enforce its lesson. The Truth Himself hath explained it, and, after that, it beseemeth not man’s frailty to fritter away His exposition by any further comment. But there is, in that very explanation by the Lord, somewhat, which it behoveth us well to weigh. If it were but we who bade you believe that by the seed is signified the word; by the field, the world; by the birds, the devils; and by the thorns, riches ye would perchance doubt of the truth of our explanation. Therefore the Lord Himself hath vouchsafed to give this explanation, and that, not for this parable only, but that ye may know in what manner to interpret others, whereof He hath not given the meaning.

The Holy Eucharist – The World’s Salvation

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Jeg har begynt å lese boka The Holy Eucharist – The World’s Salvation, av Joseph de Sainte-Marie, OCD. Den handler om konselabrasjon av messen; hvordan det har foregått gjennom tidene, og hvorvidt det er en god praksis eller ikke.

holy_eucharistAmazon skriver om boka bl.a.:

The present book, originally published in French, and now in English with a new foreword by Dom Alcuin Reid OSB, is a splendid example ante litteram of the task of the Hermeneutic of Continuity so courageously undertaken by Pope Benedict XVI. Without calling for a change in the post-Conciliar discipline of the Latin Church, the author offers a complete and trenchant historical and dogmatic critique of the recent neglect of the individually celebrated Mass in favour of concelebration.

The discipline of the church after Sacrosanctum Concilium, up until the 1982 Code of Canon Law and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal for the third edition of the Missal of Paul VI, has always asserted the freedom of priests to celebrate individually, yet the liturgical and theological atmosphere of seminaries and religious communities has rarely favoured this freedom.

Here is a careful discussion of the value of the multiplication of celebrations of the Eucharist, in the light both of the nature of the Eucharistic Sacrifice itself and of the theology of its fruits. A meticulous study of the history of the practice of concelebration shows that the present practice of daily concelebration, especially among simple priests without their Ordinary presiding, far from being a return to an ancient norm, is in fact a new development.

The author concludes with a carefully nuanced set of practical proposals which, while giving to concelebration its due place, would serve to make better use of the infinite riches contained in the Holy Sacrifice. This conclusion may be summed up by the ancient prayer over the gifts found in both forms of the Roman Mass and quoted in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council: As often as the memorial of this Victim is celebrated, the work of our redemption is accomplished. May the careful examination of this beautifully reasoned study lead to a renewed sense of the efficacy of the Church’s Offering and of its frequent and devout celebration by her priests.

Muir: Ritual in Early Modern Europe

Generelt /

muir_ritual_l For et par dager siden leste jeg ferdig boka: Ritual in Early Modern Europe, av Edward Muir, en ganske interessant gjennomgang av ritualer i samfunnet og i kirker i siste del av middelalderen. Amazon skriver bl.a. dette om boka:

Edward Muir draws on extensive historical research to emphasize the persistence of traditional Christian ritual practices even as educated elites attempted to privilege reason over passion, textual interpretation over ritual action, and moral rectitude over gaining access to supernatural powers. Edward Muir discusses wide ranging themes such as rites of passage, carnivalesque festivity, the rise of manners, Protestant and Catholic Reformations, the alleged anti-Christian rituals of Jews and witches. This edition examines the impact on the European understanding of ritual from the discoveries of new civilizations in the Americas and missionary efforts in China and adds more material about rituals peculiar to women.

Tradisjonell latinsk messe i Oslo søndag 31. januar

Katolsk, TLM /

Denne søndagen feires søndag sexagesima etter den tradisjonelle kalenderen, i St Hallvard kirkes kapell kl 08.00.

Dette er den tradisjonelle såmanns-søndagen, og evangeliet fra Lukas 8, 4-15. begynner slik:

På den tid da det hadde samlet seg mye folk, og det løp mange fra byene til Jesus, sa han i en lignelse: «En såmann gikk ut og sådde sin sæd, og da han sådde, falt noe langs med veien og ble tråkket ned, og himmelens fugler åt det opp. Og noe falt på stengrunn, og da det vokste opp, visnet det fordi det ikke hadde væte. Og noe falt mellom torner, og tornene vokste opp sammen med det og kvalte det. Og noe falt i god jord, og da det vokste opp, ga det hundre fold.» …

Les alle dagens tekster og bønner her – og se en oversikt over vårens messer her.

Western Church in the Middle Ages – ganske interessant bok

Katolsk, Teologi /

thomson_western_church_l Western Church in the Middle Ages, skrevet John A. F. Thomson, var en ganske interessant bok, som tar for seg Kirkens historie i litt over 1000 år (fra 450 til 1515) – selv om den omtalt en hel del ting som jeg visste fra før. Slik skriver Amazon om boka:

From its origins in the ancient world as a rival to traditional paganism, Christianity has become one of the great world religions. How the Church took over spiritual control of Western Europe to become the foundation of medieval life, setting the moral agenda of society and dominating its intellectual world, is the guiding enquiry at the heart of this book.

Covering the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Reformation, the account is structured in three chronological blocks, starting with the gradual development of unity within the Western Church up to the 11th century, followed by the period of centralization between the 11th and 13th centuries, and concluding with the break-up of this centralization in the later Middle Ages.

Organizational developments and changes in spirituality and doctrine are examined, and the history of the papacy is situated in the wider context of both ecclesiastical and lay society. Intellectual developments and the rise of heresy, at both elite and popular levels, are the focus of an exploration of the mental world of medieval Christendom.

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