Om første eukaristiske bønn

Liturgi /

Amy Welborn skriver på sin blogg:

As the priest began praying the Eucharistic Prayer during Mass on Saturday night, I realized with a start that with this, I had heard the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I) prayed in the last three Masses I’d attended. I’m sure there are entire years in which I have not heard it that frequently. And these Masses? All over the map. Literally.

The first was the Feast of the Assumption at a small parish down on the Gulf Coast. Mobile Archdiocese. The priest was elderly and infirm – he had to celebrate Mass sitting in a chair. Well, let me correct that. His body was infirm, but neither his voice nor his spirit were. He celebrated Mass with strength and reverence – including that Roman Canon.

The second was a week ago at the Sister Servants of the Eternal Word. The priest was an order priest, I believe. Rather young. Mid-30′s.

The third was, as I said, this past weekend in a parish on the North Carolina coast. Diocese of Raleigh. The priest was not too old – older than I, though. He was straightforward in his presiding (a big plus), and said not a word outside the black. The music was the usual awful sentimental contemporary slop …..

Three times. In as many Masses. Times, they are a-changing …

Jeg har sikkert nevnt flere ganger at jeg nesten bare bruker den første eukartistiske bønn, men det hender noen ganger at jeg hopper over de helgenene som står i parentes – men jeg sier alltid alle «Ved Kristus vår Herre. Amen», som også kan utelates. Jeg gjør også som hun skriver; «said not a word outside the black», selv om det hender at jeg sier en kort setning før syndsbekjennelsen. Det blir mest riktig for meg å lese messen slik – og i den tradisjonelle messen har ikke presten lov til å si ett eneste ord som ikke står i missalet (unntatt i prekenen) – og jeg tror egentlig at lekfolk på hverdager ikke ønsker noe annet.

Imbredagene om høsten

Katolsk /

Imbredagene (fastedagene) om høsten er uka etter festen for korsets opphøyelse, 14. september – altså onsdag, fredag og lørdag denne uka. Father Z. skriver i år om disse dagene:

These days were penitential in spirit. They were also traditional times for ordinations. If nothing else, pray during these Ember Days in a special way for an increase in vocations to the priesthood. If you cannot attend Ember Day Masses in the older form of the Roman Rite perhaps you would, in your goodness, make a donation to a diocesan or other sound vocation program.

I en kommentar skriver en dame ganske interessant om hvordan hun husker denne tradisjonen fra «gamle dager»: (De forsvant i 1970, men kan forstsatt brukes, så vidt jeg forstår.)

I remember Ember Days as a child as we lived in a rural area and these were big days. These were connected to the harvest times to remind people to be grateful but also moderate in eating and drinking. Harvest festivals and embers days were like the waxing and waning of our relationship with the good things of the earth. I distinctly remember fasting and abstaining as all us kids did as our parents did. Growing up with such practices was merely part of the rhythm of life. Friday fast, ember day fasts, days of festivals, formed our lives and added to our Catholic identity. I, for one, was sad when so many of these things passed away in the new calendar.

Markering av 14. september

Liturgi, TLM /

Bildet over (syns jeg) har et 50-tallspreg, både kirkerommet og messeklærne. Det passer for så vidt godt med min instilling, for jeg syns dagens katolske liturgi skal baseres både på det nye, det gamle og det «halvgamle». Kirken lever og utvikler seg kontinuerlig og naturlig, derfor bør dagens liturgi bære sterkt preg av tidligere tiders liturgi (for Kirken har aldri hatt noe brudd), og etter min mening er det en styrke at den nye om den gamle messen nå lever side ved side.

Om messen som er avbildet over kan man lese følgende (tips fra TLM-bloggen):

The Reverend John Reutemann, assisted by the Reverend Michael Paris and the Reverend Mister Sam Plummer celebrated a solemn high Mass of the Roman rite for the feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross on Friday, September 14 at the church of the Sacred Heart in La Plata, Maryland. The ministers were assisted by seminarians and priests attending in choir of the Archdiocese of Washington.

Det aller siste om Bredtvet kirke

Generelt /

Tidlig tirsdag morgen leser jeg (på nettsidene til Oslo kirkelige fellesråd) om mandagens vedtak i Oslo bispedømmeråd:

Bispedømmerådet bestemte mandag:

Kun fem sokn i Groruddalen

Fra årsskiftet vil Den norske kirke bare ha fem sokn i Groruddalen, mot dagens elleve. Bispedømmerådet anbefaler også at Bredtvet kirke fristilles, med tanke på salg eller utleie til Den katolske kirke.

Planene om salg eller utleie av Bredtvet kirke i Groruddalen til katolikkene er kommet et viktig skritt lenger. Etter at Oslo bispedømmeråd har anbefalt en slik løsning, er det opp til Oslo kirkelige fellesråd å ta den endelige avgjørelsen. ….

Om katolsk (og annen) blogging

Data/blogg, Katolsk /

En av de godt voksne og seriøse prestebloggerne i England, Fr. Tim Finigan, holdt nylig et foredrag ved the Catholic Theological Association Annual Conference, kalt «New Movements and New Media«. Der sa han bl.a. om blogging:

The rise of the Catholic blogosphere was not something engineered by Pope Benedict, though his election proved to be a focal point for many new bloggers at a time of growth. What he has done is to encourage this phenomenon and to give some fatherly guidance. Three successive annual messages for World Communications Day were devoted to the digital media. In 2009, the Holy Father spoke of how new technologies had brought about a shift in patterns of communication and human relationships. He addressed the “digital generation” encouraging the promotion of human understanding and solidarity. Remarkably he addressed the concept of Christian friendship in the context of a digital concept of “friend”, a clear reference to Facebook. Towards the end of his message, he appealed to young Catholics:

It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this «digital continent». Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the “Good News” of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people.

The following year, the Holy Father addressed priests particularly. He spoke of the way in which digital communications offer priests new possibilities for proclaiming the word of God.

The spread of multimedia communications and its rich “menu of options” might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different “voices” provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

Since April 2006, my blog has had six and a half million page views from nearly 4 million visitors. Other priests I know have up to ten times the number of readers that I have. Even a relatively low traffic blog by a priest who simply posts his sermons each week would get in excess of 200 unique visitors per day. There is no way that we would reach that number of people by preaching in Church or even by standing on a soap box in the local shopping mall. A priest who blogs is made acutely aware of his responsibilities by the (unmanageable) correspondence that he receives from the faithful who are grateful, confused by things that have happened in their local Church, in need of prayer, or puzzled by some aspects of Catholic doctrine. Whatever criticisms we might have of individual priests’ blogs this platform is certainly a means that can be used for evangelisation.

In 2011 Pope Benedict addressed the question of the internet a third time. He spoke of a vast cultural transformation parallel to the industrial revolution. I would suggest that it is also parallel to the invention of moveable type, something especially relevant to evangelisation. In this message he addressed the dangers of “cyberspace” particularly in regard to personal authenticity. He also reaffirmed that direct personal contact can never be replaced by virtual friendships and that such contact was fundamental for the transmission of the faith. He called us back to Christ:

In the final analysis, the truth of Christ is the full and authentic response to that human desire for relationship, communion and meaning which is reflected in the immense popularity of social networks. Believers who bear witness to their most profound convictions greatly help prevent the web from becoming an instrument which depersonalizes people, attempts to manipulate them emotionally or allows those who are powerful to monopolise the opinions of others.

In these messages, Pope Benedict used his authority, which is hugely respected by many Catholic bloggers, to offer a deeper vision of social communication and to invite us to an examination of conscience which is necessary from time to time when communication is made so easy, effective and powerful.

Det engelske tidsskriftet The Tablet liker ikke blogging noe særlig, soesielt ikke konservative, katolske blogger, og skriver:

[T]he use of social media, particularly blogs and tweets, where instant reaction is coarsening debate. And it’s evident not just in politics but in religion too, particularly in comment over the same topics that cause such vitriol in politics: life and death issues, sex, marriage, gays. Friends who work at The Guardian tell me that great care has to be taken in monitoring its website whenever Catholics write opinion pieces, given the aggression of many readers’ instant responses to them.

Critics of the Church and of Catholics are not only to blame. Nasty, unChristian remarks abound within the Catholic world. No wonder one Catholic journalist says he won’t read the most vicious sites of the Catholic blogosphere any more: he views them as an occasion of sin. But what’s worrying is that Rome is apparently keen to read them too.

The Vatican itself has become adept at using new media – check out YouTube, its tweets, its websites – realising the power of these twentyfirst-century opinion formers. The word is that Vatican officials are gleaning much of their “knowledge” of the Church beyond Rome from blogs, including those that have made spite their signature dish.

If we have reached a stage when Rome’s views are shaped by bloggers’ vitriol rather than the opinions of its nuncios and its bishops, let alone sounding out the people in the pews who pray and pay, then something deeply distorted is developing. It’s certainly no way for Rome to learn to talk human. (Father Z. kommenterer dette her – svært kritisk til the Tablet.)

Jeg har selv blogget i over 7 år, har ca 200 besøk pr dag, og fått kjeft noen ganger. Personlig syns jeg nok det kan være ubehagelig å lese kommentarer i blogger, nettaviser o.l., mens innleggene/sidene selv ofte er nyttige. Jeg har sensurert en del innlegg på min egen blogg, og f.eks. er kommanterene på Vårt Lands Verdidebatt hovegrunnen til at jeg besøker denne fellesbloggen forholdsvis sjelden.

Pave Benedikt i Libanon

Katolsk, Paven /

Pave Benedikts besøk i Libanon får ganske positiv omtale, her fra to ikke-katolske kilder, BBC og og avisa Dagen.

Sistnevnte har nylig skrevet flere positive artikler om vår Kirke – bl.a. om St Paul menighet her – og betrakter tydeligvis katolikkene nå som (nokså vanlige) kriste – «I love jesus» på bildet over viser jo dette.

Hva gjør man for å få den tradisjonelle messen feiret i sin menighet?

Liturgi, TLM /

I forbindelse med femårsjubileet for Summorum Pintificum spør noen father Z. hva de kan gjøre for å få den tradisjonelle messen feiret der de selv bor:

«I wanted to drop you a note to tell you what a positive response I got from our pastor here in ____ when I asked about the St. ___’s hosting an extraordinary form Mass. He said yes right away and put me to work on the planning. The first EF Mass will take place on …. Please say a prayer that a stable group might take enough interest to make this a permanent Mass on the Sunday schedule.»

I get lots of email asking how people can get a TLM in their parish? The first step is: ASK. You would do well to have a group of people who ask.

You will have to be willing and ready to do all the work to make it happen. You will have to be willing to buy, find, provide, donate all the things necessary for the worthy celebration of the Extraordinary Form.

You should be ready to step up and give Father an airplane ticket to someplace where there is a workshop for priests to learn the TLM. In other words, don’t just ask for something and then expect Father to do it. This goes for anything you would like to see in a parish. ….

Fem år siden den tradisjonelle messen ble frigitt

Katolsk, Liturgi, TLM /

For meg er det i løpet av disse årene blitt helt naturlig å feire både den tradisjonelle og den nye messen, men det er fortsatt nokså få prester som gjør det (er de redd for motstanden, for ekstraarbeidet med å lære noe nytt, liker de ikke Kirkens gamle tradisjon?). Jeg ser heller ikke så veldig forskjell mellom de to formene av messen, i alle fall når man feirer den nye messen i lys av tradisjonen (som jeg selv gjør).

Det har de siste årene blitt helt normalt for meg å lære av Kirkens tradisjon også når det gjelder liturgiske spørsmål (ikke bare når det gjelder historie og teologi); men for veldig mange mennesker førte slutten av 60-tallet til et dramatisk brudd liturgisk sett, helt unødvendig og svært skadelig etter min mening – dette er et brudd som må leges så snart som mulig.

Slik skriver Father Z. om dagens jubileum:

Today is the anniversary of the happy day when Summorum Pontificum went into force. A lot of progress has been made but there is still a great deal to do.

But consider the fact that, even though many seminaries and even bishops are resisting the formation of priests for the whole of their Roman Rite, after five years, all the major seminarians in formation now have not known a time as seminarians when the provisions were not in effect.

It seems to me that, though sometimes it seems as if the wheels are spinning once in a while, this is going to get traction soon. And when it does….

Perhaps we shall see some great gains during this Year of Faith? Perhaps you can redouble your efforts to promote and stimulate and bring about a wider implementation of the provisions of the Motu Proprio.

Please say a pray for Benedict XVI today, who gave priests and laity alike this great gift.

Spennende om Bredtvet kirke

Generelt, Katolsk /

Jeg feirer nå messe hver søndag morgen i Bredtvet kirke, og så vidt jeg vet er det førstkommende mandag Oslo (lutherske) bispedømmeråd egentlig skal avgjøre om vi katolikker får kjøp/ leie denne kirken. Det er min studiekamerat fra 30 år siden som uttaler seg om dette til NRK:

… Mange som bor i Groruddalen tilhører andre religioner, og behovet for kirker er ikke lenger like stort. Derfor skal Oslo bispedømmeråd bestemme seg for om de fire sognene i Grorud-området skal bli ett, og om de skal gi fra seg Bredtvet kirke.

Leder i Oslo bispedømmeråd, Harald Hegstad, mener at Bredtvet kirke vil være den beste kirken å gi slipp på, enten ved å selge eller leie den ut. …

Eksempler på liturgiske feil

Katolsk, Liturgi /

Bloggen PrayTell er på ingen måte spesielt konservativt, det kan man se både på innlegg om kommentarer, men ofte tar de opp interessante og aktuelle (mest) liturgiske spørsmål. Nylig spurte de om hvilke liturgiske feil prester gjør, som (uten at de ønsker det) kan føre til en konservativ reform av liturgien. I innlegges nevnes det to slike feil; det ene er at presten begynner messen med et rungende «Good morning!», og det andre er at han løfter hostien og kalken høyt opp under konserkrasjonen (dvs mens han sier ordene), ser på menigheten hele tiden, og på en måte «spiller» handlingen for dem. Slike ting ser man ofte i USA, men jeg har heldigvis aldri sett det i Norge.

I en kommentar skriver Fr. Allan J. McDonald interessant om dette:

We have to keep in mind that many priests my age and older (in their 50′s and forward) were taught and had modeled for us the Fr. Eugene Walsh school of celebrating Mass which is a model that has the priest trying to engage the “assembly” with a smile on one’s face and dramatic gestures towards them to embrace them and pull them into the “action” of the Liturgy.
He encouraged dramatic eye-contact with the congregation not only in reading the lessons, I mean, proclaiming the Scriptures and having an “informal” formality, a kind of “living room” approach to connecting the priest to the assembly and the assembly to one another and to the priest. What this leads to is a “false” liturgical familiarity with the assembly, proclaiming not only the Scriptures to the assembly but also the prayers, all the prayers, and reading these as though they are directed to the assembly, not only with gestures, but with eye contact and moving one’s eyes and head toward the assembly so that each person present feels as though they are pulled into the “action” of the prayer.
Facing the congregation directly by not only the priest but also the choir or ensemble leading the music gives an air to the entertainment model of assemblies that so many experience today when they attend Mass even if no rubrics are actually challenged or words changed, but the latter two do occur and rather frequently in innocuous and blatant ways. And when the priest faces the congregation for prayer, many often comment that they like this, that or another priest or dislike him because of his demeanor and visual piety thus developing the “cult the celebrity priest or the villain priest” based upon the visual features and piety of the priest’s face. …

Fr. Allan J. McDonald interessant blogg kan leses her.

Kardinal Burke om kirkeretten og «ånden» fra Vatikankonsilet

Katolsk, Teologi /

For noen år siden arbeidet jeg sammen emd en prest som ofte ga uttrykk for at han ikke hadde noe sans for eller respekt for kirkeretten. Jeg tenkte på det da jeg nylig leste om et foredrag kardinal Burke holdt om kirkeretten i slutten av august. Om det foredraget leser vi bl.a.:

Lamenting a clerical culture dismissive of canon law in the decades following the Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Raymond Burke addressed a Kenyan canon law convention on August 28 2012 about “the essential service of canon law in the work of the new evangelization.”

“After I began my studies of Canon Law in September of 1980, I soon learned how much the Church’s discipline was disdained by her priests, in general,” he recounted. “Institutes of the Church’s law, which, in her wisdom, she had developed down the Christian centuries, were set aside without consideration of their organic relationship to the life of the Church or of the chaos which would necessarily result from their neglect or abandonment.”

“The ‘hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture,’ which has tried to hijack the renewal mandated by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, is marked by a pervasively antinomian culture, epitomized by the Paris student riots of 1968, and has had a particularly devastating effect on the Church’s discipline,” he continued

. “It is profoundly sad to note, for instance, how the failure of knowledge and application of the canon law, which was indeed still in force, contributed significantly to the scandal of the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy in our some parts of the world.”

The prefect of the Apostolic Signatura continued: The years of a lack of knowledge of the Church’s discipline and even of a presumption that such discipline was no longer fitting to the nature of the Church indeed reaped gravely harmful fruits in the Church. For example, I think of the pervasive violation of the liturgical law of the Church, of the revolution in catechesis which often rendered the teaching of the faith vacuous and confused, if not erroneous; of the breakdown of the discipline of priestly formation and priestly life, …..

Hele kardinal Burkes foredrag kan leses her.

Katolsk tidsskrift kritiserer katolsk biskop

Katolsk /

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy i England arrangerer en interessant konferanse i oktober. Her skal bl.a. en engelsk, katolsk biskop delta, noe som får en skribent i det katolske tidssktiftet the Tablet til «å se rødt» (fra continuity-bloggen):

… the Tablet observes that Bishop Egan’s appointment was seen as «part of a trend to appoint outspoken defenders of Church teaching to dioceses in England and Wales.» How dreadful! Fancy appointing Bishops who are outspoken defenders of the teaching of the Church! Most of us might see the defence of the teaching of the Church as an uncontroversial requirement of Canon Law for the appointment of Bishops. In Tablet-speak it makes him a «rising star for the conservative wing of the Church in England and Wales.» Can they really mean that the other Bishops are generally not outspoken defenders of the teaching of the Church? Perish the thought!

In classic Tablet style, the Notebook piece was used as a dolly-up for a thunderous letter the following week … Mr Angry refers to Bishop Egan’s nefarious role as Church teaching defender, along with his guilt by association with Bishop Mark Davies. He reckons that «The plans and purposes of this confraternity should be made known as widely as possible, openly debated and wherever necessary vigorously opposed.»

Her er så noe av det aktuelle leserinnlegget i the Tablet:

… The plans and purposes of this confraternity should be made known as widely as possbile, openly debated and wherever necessary vigorously opposed. Being in his diocese, I am able to get a very good idea of the mentality of the confraternity from Bishop Davies’ own Shrewsbury Voice. It is reaction itself. It stands for a return of the Church to how it was before the Second Vatican Council. It holds to an excessive, hence highly unbalanced, interpretation of the role and power of the papacy which has no foundation in biblical and patristic sources. This is the pool from which episcopal appointments are now, and will be, made. It is totally unable to distinguish between its version of ecclesiology, the sacraments, male and female relationships, and so on from what is also now on offer, and has been for many centuries, in the Universal Church. The confraternity is a gathering of the like minded who root themselves in the nineteenth century and pre-Second World War Europe. It has influence, and its influence will grow. It has to be challenged, by whatever way it does it, by the rest of the hierarchy itself; by the clergy and with the equal involvement of the Catholic laity which is now anything but the subservient layer of the Church which the confraternity would like to return it to. …

Pave Benedikt om Guds lov

Katolsk, Paven /

Litt forsinket kommer her pave Benedikts preken til Angelus-bønnen sist søndag:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The theme of God’s Law, of his commandments, makes its entrance in the Liturgy of the Word this Sunday. It is an essential element of the Jewish and Christian religions, where the complete fulfilment of the law is love (cf. Rom 13:10). God’s Law is his word which guides men and women on the journey through life, brings them out of the slavery of selfishness and leads them into the “land” of true freedom and life. This is why the Law is not perceived as a burden or an oppressive restriction in the Bible. Rather, it is seen as the Lord’s most precious gift, the testimony of his fatherly love, of his desire to be close to his People, to be its Ally and with it write a love story.

This is what the devout Israelite prays: “I will delight in your statutes, / I will not forget your word…. Lead me in the path of your commandments, / for I delight in it” (Ps 119[118]:16, 35). In the Old Testament the person who passes on the Law to the People on God’s behalf is Moses. After the long journey in the wilderness, on the threshold of the promised land, he proclaims: “Now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you” (Deut 4:1). And this is the problem: when the People put down roots in the land and are the depository of the Law, they are tempted to place their security and joy in something that is no longer the Word of God: in possessions, in power, in other ‘gods’ that in reality are useless, they are idols. Of course, the Law of God remains but it is no longer the most important thing, the rule of life; rather, it becomes a camouflage, a cover-up, while life follows other paths, other rules, interests that are often forms of egoism, both individual and collective.

Thus religion loses its authentic meaning, which is to live listening to God in order to do his will — that is the truth of our being — and thus we live well, in true freedom, and it is reduced to practising secondary customs which instead satisfy the human need to feel in God’s place. This is a serious threat to every religion which Jesus encountered in his time and which, unfortunately, is also to be found in Christianity. Jesus’ words against the scribes and Pharisees in today’s Gospel should therefore be food for thought for us as well.

Jesus makes his own the very words of the Prophet Isaiah: “This People honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Mk 7:6-7; cf. Is 29,13). And he then concludes: “You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men” (Mk 7:8).

The Apostle James too alerts us in his Letter to the danger of false piety. He writes to the Christians: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas 1:22). May the Virgin Mary, to whom we now turn in prayer, help us to listen with an open and sincere heart to the word of God so that every day it may guide our thoughts, our decisions and our actions.

Tradisjonell latinsk messe i Oslo 9. september

TLM /

I søndagens messe vil vi få høre følgende inngangsvers:

Inclina, Dómine, aurem tuam ad me, et exáudi me: salvum fac servum tuum, Deus meus, sperántem in te: miserére mihi, Dómine, quóniam ad te clamávi tota die. – Herre, bøy ditt øre til meg og hør min bønn; frels din tjener, som håper på deg, min Gud. Miskunn deg over meg, Herre, for dagen lang roper jeg til deg.

Og evangeliet er fra Lukas 7, 11-16:

På den tid hendte det at Jesus gikk til en by som heter Naim, og hans disipler gikk med ham og en stor mengde. Og da han kom nær til byporten, se, da ble en død båret ut, som var sin mors eneste sønn, og hun var enke; og en stor mengde fra byene var med henne. Da Herren så henne, ble han rørt av medlidenhet med henne, og han sa til henne: «Gråt ikke.» Og han gikk bort til båren og rørte ved den, og de som bar, sto stille. Og han sa: «Unge mann, jeg sier deg: Stå opp.» og den døde reiste seg opp og begynte å tale. Og han ga ham til moren. Men de ble alle tatt av frykt, og de priste Gud og sa: «En stor profet er stått fram mellom oss; Gud har gjestet sitt folk.»

Denne (kjente) teksten brukes svært lite i vår tid – les om det her.

Dette er siste gang disse tradisjonelle latinske søndagsmessene i Oslo feires i St Joseph kirke sent søndag kveld, fra neste gang av (23. september) vil den finne sted i St Hallvard kirke i Oslo kl 14.30.

Kardinal Carlo Maria Martinis «åndelige testamente»

Katolsk /

Flere steder har vi lest om det siste intervjuet med Milanos tidligere erkebiskop, Kardinal Carlo Maria Martini, noen uker før han døde 31/8. Jeg vil gjøre det klart at jeg ikke deler hans synspunkter, faktisk syns jeg de er ganske sjokkerende. Men her er intervjuet i John Allens oversettelse, med følgende innledning:

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini died in Varese, northern Italy, on Aug. 31 at the age of 85. Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 8, Martini gave a final interview to his fellow Jesuit Fr. George Sporschill, with whom Martini had collaborated on a book titled Nocturnal Conversations in Jerusalem, and an Italian friend named Federica Radice Fossati Confalonieri. Radice has told Italian media outlets that Martini read and approved the text of the interview, intending it as a sort of «spiritual testament» to be published after his death.

Og her litt av intervjuet:

What tools do you recommend against the exhaustion of the church?

I recommend three very strong ones. The first is conversion: the church must recognize its errors and follow a radical path of change, beginning with the pope and the bishops. The pedophilia scandals compel us to take up a path of conversion. Questions about sexuality, and all the themes involving the body, are an example. These are important to everyone, sometimes perhaps too important. We have to ask ourselves if people still listen to the advice of the church on sexual matters. Is the church still an authoritative reference in this field, or simply a caricature in the media?

The second is the Word of God. Vatican II gave the Bible back to Catholics. Only those who perceive this Word in their heart can be part of those who will help achieve renewal of the church, and who will know how to respond to personal questions with the right choice. The Word of God is simple, and seeks out as its companion a heart that listens. … Neither the clergy nor ecclesiastical law can substitute for the inner life of the human person. All the external rules, the laws, the dogmas, are there to clarify this internal voice and for the discernment of spirits.

Who are the sacraments for? These are the third tool of healing. The sacraments are not an instrument of discipline, but a help for people in their journey and in the weaknesses of their life. Are we carrying the sacraments to the people who need new strength? I think of all the divorced and remarried couples, to extended families. They need special protection. The church upholds the indissolubility of matrimony. It’s a grace when a marriage and a family succeed …

The attitude we hold towards extended families determines the ability of the church to be close to their children. A woman, for instance, is abandoned by her husband and finds a new companion, who takes care of her and her three children. This second love succeeds. If this family is discriminated against, not only is the mother cut out [from the church] but also her children. If the parents feel like they’re outside the church, and don’t feel its support, the church will lose the future generation.

Before communion, we pray: «Lord, I am not worthy …’ We know we’re not worthy … Love is a grace. Love is a gift. The question of whether the divorced can receive communion ought to be turned around. How can the church reach people who have complicated family situations, bringing them help with the power of the sacraments? …

De tradisjonelle latinske søndagsmessene i Oslo flyttes

TLM /

Søndag 9. september kl 19.00 er siste gang de tradisjonelle latinske søndagsmessene i Oslo feires i St Joseph kirke; neste gang – 4. søndag i måneden – 23. september, feires søndagsmessen i St Hallvard kirke i Oslo, kl 14.30.

Inntil påske i år var dette tidpunktet ikke ledig i St Hallvard kirke (faktisk var ikke no tidspunkt ledig hele søndagen, men nå er det en åpning her), dette pluss min arbeidssituasjon og et ønske fra flere om å få messen på et tidligere tidspunkt, har ført til denne forandringen. Etter noen måneder får vi vurdere hvor vellykket det er.

Fra en av de berømte liturgiukene i USA

Katolsk, Liturgi /

En blogg jeg nettopp kom over – conciliaria.com – skriver om det som skjedde ved oppstarten av konsilet for 50 år siden. Nylig skrev de – dvs. presenterte gamle dokumenter som skrev – om den liturgiske konferansen som ble holdt i Seattle i juni 1962. En konferanse som ble beskrevet slik:

What is a Liturgical Week?
The first Liturgical Week, sponsored by the National Liturgical Conference, was held in 1940, in a room in the basement of Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. It was attended by just a handful of people, mainly priests. But these days, it is clear that the Liturgical Movement is not just a fad or a trend, nor is it only for priests. Pope Pius XII, and his successor, our beloved Pope John XXIII, have embraced the Liturgical Movement as the work of the Church itself. Last year’s Liturgical Week in Oklahoma City drew about 5,000 people–priests, religious, and laity–who came together to pray together and to learn more about the Church’s worship and to explore displays, listen to lectures, view demonstrations and art exhibits, and even take part in a contest for the best church design. This year’s Liturgical Week in Seattle is expected to be the largest yet, with as many as 6,000 participants. The added attraction of the World’s Fair, and the excitement about the forthcoming Ecumenical Council, both have something to do with the surge of interest in the Liturgical Week. LES MER HER.

Bloggen viser også til en annen artikkel som ble skrevet om lturgien, etter at konferansen var over, og som tok med et bilde (over) av den første messen som ble feiret versus populum i Seattle:

From the June 28, 1962 issue of Commonweal Magazine, a provocative call for liturgical reform by an organizer of the North American Liturgical Week recently held in Seattle in conjunction with the World’s Fair, imagining how liturgy might be celebrated 50 years from now. LES MER HER.

31. august: Den hellige Raimund Nonnatus

Liturgi /


I dag feirer man i den tradisjonelle kalenderen en helgen som de fleste vel nå har glemt, den hellige Raimund Nonnatus (den ufødte, 1200-1240). Om ham leste vi i dagens matutin-bønn:

Raymund was called Nonnatus, or Unborn, because he was brought into life from the side of his dead mother contrary to the common law of nature. He scorned childish games and the temptations of the world and gave himself to works of devotion so that all admired the boy as having the virtues of a mature man. He loved the Mother of God above all and constantly prayed to her. He entered the religious Order called that of Ransom or of Mercy, for the ransom of captives. He perpetually kept his virginity, which he had already consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, and shone with the other virtues, especially with charity toward the Christians who were living wretched lives under the power of pagans. Gregory IX enrolled him among the Cardinals ; but the man of God shrank from all pomp and always held most firmly to the humility proper to a religious. At Cardona, worn out by his last illness and fortified by the Sacraments of the Church, he went to the Lord on the last Sunday of August in the year 1240.

Og katolsk.no forklarer som vanlig hvorfor han ble borte (eller flyttet) i 1969:

… Raimund ble helligkåret ved at hans kult (som kardinal) ble stadfestet den 5. november 1625 av pave Urban VIII (1623-44). Hans fest ble foreskrevet den 9. mai 1626. Den 7. august 1657 ble hans navn tatt inn i Martyrologium Romanum av pave Alexander VII (1655-67), og den 13. august 1669 ble hans kult godkjent for hele Kirken av pave Klemens IX (1667-69). Den 10. mars 1681 bestemte den salige pave Innocent XI (1676-89) at hans fest skulle feires den 31. august, og dette er fortsatt hans minnedag. En kommisjon nedsatt av pave Benedikt XIV (1740-58) foreslo å fjerne ham fra den generelle kalenderen, og på grunn av hans begrensede betydning på verdensbasis, ble dagen ved kalenderrevisjonen i 1969 henvist til lokale og spesielle kalendere. Hans navn står fortsatt i det nye Martyrologium Romanum (2001), så han kan feires i messer og tidebønner som før.

30. august: Den hellige Rosa av Lima

Liturgi /

I de tradisjonelle tidebønnene leser vi i dag om den hellige Rosa av Lima:

The first flower of holiness in South America was the maiden Rose. She was born of Christian parents at Lima and in her cradle early gave signs of her future sanctity, for the child’s face was wonderfully transformed into the likeness of a rose, and this gave her her name. Lest she be compelled by her parents to marry, she secretly cut off her lovely hair. The austerity of her life was most singular. She took the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic and followed the difficult path of St. Catherine of Siena. For fifteen years, she would suffer terribly for hours at a time from desolation of spirit and from aridity, and bravely bore agonies more bitter than any death. Through frequent apparitions, she enjoyed a wonderful companionship with her Guardian Angel, St. Catherine of Siena, and the Virgin Mother of God, and she was privileged to hear Christ say these words, Rose of my Heart, be thou my bride. Famous for many miracles both before and after her death, she was enrolled in the list of holy Virgins by Pope Clement X.

I den nye kalenderen feires hun ikke i dag, men er valgfri minnedag 23. august. Katolsk.no skriver bl.a. om denne flyttingen:

… Rosa var den første person i Amerika som ble helligkåret. Året etter ble hun utnevnt til skytshelgen for Peru. Det ble senere utvidet til hele Mellom- og Sør-Amerika, Filippinene og til og med India. På grunn av navnet blir hun også (uoffisielt) betraktet som skytshelgen for blomsterhandlere og gartnere. I Roma er et eget kapell viet til henne i kirken Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Tidligere ble hennes fest feiret den 30. august, mens den nå feires 23. august i nesten hele verden. I hjemlandet Peru minnes hun fortsatt den 30. august. Dødsdagen 24. august er opptatt av den hellige Bartolomeus. Hennes attributter i kunsten er blomster og Jesusbarnet, og hun avbildes ofte i Dominikanerdrakt.

29. august: Johannes døperens martyrdød

Liturgi /

«Herodes hadde latt Johannes gripe, hadde bundet ham og kastet ham i fengsel. Dette hadde han gjort på grunn av sin brors hustru Herodias. For Johannes hadde sagt til Herodes: «Det er ikke tillatt for deg å ha henne til hustru.» Han ville da helst ha drept ham, men var redd folket, som mente at Johannes var en profet. Men da Herodes feiret sin fødselsdag, danset datter til Herodias for gjestene. Herodes likte dette så godt at han med ed lovte å gi henne hva hun så bad om. Da fikk moren henne til å si: «Gi meg døperen Johannes’ hode på et fat.» Kongen ble ille ved, men fordi han hadde sverget, og det mens gjestene hørte på, bød han at hun skulle få det, og han sendte folk for å halshogge Johannes i fengslet. Hodet ble båret inn på et fat og gitt til piken, som gav det videre til sin mor. Men disiplene hans kom og hentet liket og gravla det, og gikk så og fortalte alt til Jesus.» Matteus 14, 3-12

Det er denne hendelsen vi markerer i dag. Les mer om dagen på katolsk.no – bl.a. mye av relikvier av Døperens hode.

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