On this meeting, we are going to elect a new board and make the program for the new semester. We will also discuss how to reach out for the new catholic students that have just arrived this semester.

If you are a new student, then you are also more than welcomed to join us on this meeting

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20).

This is my personal answer. This verse helped me when I was the chairman two years ago. It made me feel less afraid that the group would be a failure, and it made the tasks of a chairman more enjoyable. It made me focus on the things we did, the praying, the singing, the time we had together, instead of how many we were. It made me think that if 2 or 3 people gathered, then it was already a success, and anything more than that was a bonus, a blessing.

Whoever you are, future-chairman, if you feel that the task is too difficult, then I hope that this little verse will help you too.

H.

I must say that they and Maria have done a great job with the student group during the last semester. I was really impressed by the program that they put together. It was a combination of old and new activities/events, which made it both familiar yet refreshing, so I really liked that. I regret that I missed the adoration at Nidarosdomen Cathedral. It must have been beautiful. Many thanks to Benedikt, Daniele and Maria for taking care of the student group.

Now, we must think ahead. A board must consist of three people: the chairman, the vice-chairman, and the accountant. The accountant position is already filled by Maria. She is our current accountant, but has only been so for half a year, and she wishes to continue. The other two positions is currently open, so I need you guys to think about this. I know that there is one person who consider the chairman position. But nothing is sure yet. Personally, I would also like to join the board once more, preferably as a vice-chairman. But I’m going to work in Ålesund (another town in Norway) for 4 months after Christmas, so it’s going to be difficult. Hopefully, some will find the motivation and inspiration to lead the Trondheim Catholic Student Group in the next two semesters.

We will have a meeting shortly after summer. We will elect the new board at that meeting. Specific time and date remain to be discussed with P. Dominic and soon-to-be-ex-chairman Benedikt. Information will be sent out to the mailinglist, so don’t worry. Hopefully, many will come. In the mean time, have a great summer.

Huy.

Well, the last update before this article was the announcement of the ecumenical meeting between our group and another christian group called Trondheim Kristelige Studentforbund. It was a good meeting. Many students from both groups showed up. We prayed and sang together, and afterwards we discussed our images of God. We also discussed an article from Under Dusken, where the author didn’t have a very nice image of the christian God. After about an hour of talk and discussion we had a good meal together. Altogether, it was a great meeting. Hopefully, our two groups will meet again in the future. Do check out their website http://www.trondheim.forbundet.no/.

That was the 19th of April. After that, exams have started. But still we had meetings in the month of may, for example adoration, and dinner.

Although there was a lecture on the program for may, I don’t remember if we actually had it. Did we? I wasn’t there, so I am not sure, but I think we did. Someone has to help me remember here.

Anyways, the fact that the site is inactive, doesn’t mean that the student group is also inactive.

And finally, I know that many of you already know this, but I guess I’ll still write about it. There are going to be changes in St. Olav Church that is going to affect us. More specifically, 3 of our 4 spiritual counsellors at St. Olav Church, Bishop Muller, P. Dominic and P. Etienne, are leaving us. P Dominic is going to study at the Vatican for a couple of years, so luckily for us, he’ll be back. P Etienne is going to be permanently transferred to Molde to work there (at St. Sunniva Church, I guess). I hope that we’ll still see him occasionally, because after all he’s still in Norway. Bishop Muller, on the other hand, is not going to be in Norway. In fact, he has already left and is now in the Vatican. He has permanently stepped down from his position here in Trondheim, as many of you may know. Luckily, P. Al is not going anywhere, so we will still have a familiar face here.

Let’s pray for the Bishop and the two priests who are leaving us, that God must watch over them in their new journey. And let us pray for us here in Trondheim, the Catholic Student Group, P. Al, and the St. Olav congregation, that the changes of spiritual counsellors do not weaken us, and that God must bless us with a new bishop and new priests.

Peace.

Huy.

We started cleaning at 2 pm. It was pretty fun. Some of us got to climb the tall ladder to bring down the glass globes. But it was also a lot of work. There were 6 groups of glass globes in total. Each group consisted of 10 or more globes. We had to take all of them down, wash and dry each and everyone of them, and put them back. Additionally, we had to change all of the light bulbs and wipe off the dust on the cables. We had to move the ladder many times, because we couldn’t reach every glass globes from one spot. By the time we were finished with 4 groups, it was already 6 pm. It meant that the Evening Mass would start soon, so we had to stop and do the rest another day.

Everybody attended Evening Mass which started at 6.30 pm. The Mass ended at 7 pm, and everybody went downstairs to the parish hall. The tables were already set and the food were ready. I think that everybody enjoyed the dinner. The food was delicious! Many thanks to Maria D.C. and Elizabeth who made the food! And thanks to Father Dominic who made the dinner happened

It was really great to see that so many people came and helped with the cleaning. It was also really nice to have dinner together. It was actually the first and only time this semester, which was a cutback in comparison with the previous semester. The reason was that when we were making the program for this autumn, we decided to cut back on the number of dinner, because we wanted to try other things, like a pilgrimage or a walk in Bymarka. Maybe we could fit more dinner into the program in the next year, without cutting back on other activities?

Two weeks later, we gathered again and cleaned the rest of the glass globes.

Check out more pictures on the link to the right!

There was a change of plan on the meeting that took place on October 22nd. It was P. Andreas who was supposed to give us a lecture that day. But the Trondheim Catholic Youth Group (KUL TRO) had a meeting on the same day. And since P. Andreas’ main work is about youth (and not students), we had to change the lecturer, so that he could have some time with the youth. P. Dominic gladly stepped in, and gave us an inspiring and educational lecture about St. Paul. This was a continuation of the lecture about St. Paul earlier this semester. And this time, it was about St. Paul’s understanding of the laws given to us by God.

How should we understand and interpret the laws from God? St. Paul’s critics against many of the people of his time was that they seemed to forget that the laws are made for the people, and not the people that are made for the law. In other words, you have to understand why the laws exists, and not just follow the laws blindly.

An example that we used on this meeting was the traffic lights. If you’re carrying a very sick child to the hospital, and you have to cross the road, what do you do if the traffic light is red for you? The child is very sick. It’s dying. If you understand the law in the old way, you will not cross, even if there are no cars coming. Abiding the law is the most important thing. And the law states that it’s illegal to cross on red light. But if you understand the law in the new way, the way that St. Paul was talking about, then you will cross if there’s no car coming. The new way of understanding the law is: the laws are made to protect us, not to burden us. The red light is there to protect us from getting hit by cars, but if there are no cars, then the right thing to do is to cross the road with the sick child, even if the light is red.

So the lesson was that it’s very important to understand why the laws are given to us, and not just to follow them blindly. But it is important to know that this doesn’t mean that we can get rid of the laws. No, the laws have a special value of its own. They are important in the childhood, when the mind of the children are simple, and understanding the meanings of the laws would be too difficult for them. All that the children is able to grasp is that the laws are important, and that they have to follow them, or they’ll be punished. And in the childhood, this is enough. In the childhood, it is more important to follow the laws “blindly” than to understand why they exist, mainly because it will be to complicated for them to understand why. In time, when they minds mature, they will understand that the laws are there to protect them. But in the meantime, all they need to do is to follow the laws, and they’ll be safe. That is why the laws are important.

We can compare the early mankind, the mankind before Christ, as a human in its childhood. God gave mankind many laws, and it was important to follow them, without fully understanding why. If God said that you had to do it, then you had to do it. But then Jesus came, and His coming and teaching indicated that it was time for mankind to grow up, leave its childhood, and become an adult with the mind and ability to reflect and understand why God had given them the laws.

For instance, the laws states that you shall not work on the Sabbath. Healing was considered work, so it was also not allowed.

“Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” (Mark 3:1-5)

Basically, St. Paul understood what Jesus was teaching us, and he wanted us to understand it as well.

The real answer to our life’s problems whatever they may be, is to turn toward God with lifted hands, moved by love, trusting in God’s promises and mercy. There is no other way, there is no other answer. If one stands in intercession with uplifted hands, as Moses did, then the miracle of God’s action will take place. The one who turns to prayer, is like a norwegian boat battered by storm but no effect as the boat sails to harbor safe and sound – så bra!

Dr. Alexis Carrel, who in 1912, received the nobel prize for medicine, explains why prayer is so powerful. He said: In my 50 years of medical practice I have seen men and women, who after all the medical interventions failed, were healed miraculously… The reason is prayer, constant faithful, persevering prayer. But the greater miracle takes place everyday in the hearts, minds and lives of people who pray.

St. Jane Frances De Chantal known as the “specialist in prayer” writes: “In prayer, one must hold fast and never let go, because in this game the one who gives up, loses all”. If it seems God is not listening to you, then cry out still louder. If you are driven out of one door, go back inside by the other door. If you are told that you don’t deserve what you are asking, then reply like the “canaanite woman” that you do not claim the great favours, but only hope to eat the crumbs which falls from the divine table.

On this matter of prayer, the message of Jesus is very simple and clear: “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened unto you!”

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spririt! To God be the Glory!

But more food arrived. Father Dominic kindly shared the free baguettes that he got from the university’s canteen with the students. Of course, with the thoughts of getting myself free food in my mind, I tried to interrogate him about his contacts on the inside of the university. But he just smiled to himself, brushed aside my questions and contentedly started the lecture. I fully sympathized with him. Knowledge is power. Or in this case, free baquettes.

The lecture (which is not a lecture in the sense of a boring, sleep-inducing and monological speech from your university-professor, but a lecture in the sense of an interesting, interactive and dialogical discussion between a Bible-knower and a bunch of Bible-want-to-knowers) started with each person telling one thing that they knew about St. Paul. “He was blind at one time,” I quickly announced, and thereby made sure that no other person said that before me. Because that was about the only thing I knew about him…

The other contributed with better (and sometimes weirder) knowledge: “His original name was Saulus”, “He first persecuted the christians”, “He was called the Apostle to the Gentiles”, “He was a tentmaker”, “His head bounced three times on the ground when he was decapitated, and on those places churches were built”.

But more importantly, he believed in God and in Christ, and turned away from his path of persecuting and joined the people who he once persecuted – he became a christian. And even more notably, his interpretation and his view of the Holy Spirit from a different and refreshing angle, his wisdom and his blessed mind, was an immensely valuable contribution to the Church and its formation in the earlier years.

There’s a lot to learn about St. Paul. This evening, we had only scratched the surface of this big subject and gotten ourselves an introduction. More will come.

“I adore You, Lord and Creator, hidden in the Blessed Sacrament. I adore You for all the works of Your hands, that reveal to me so much wisdom, goodness and mercy, O Lord. You have spread so much beauty over the earth, and it tells me about Your beauty, even though these beautiful things are but a faint reflection of You, Incomprehensible Beauty. And although You have hidden Yourself and concealed Your beauty, my eye, enlightened by faith, reaches You, and my soul recognizes its Creator, its Highest Good; and my heart is completely immersed in prayer of adoration.”

“My Lord and Creator, Your goodness encourages me to converse with You. Your mercy abolishes the chasm which separates the Creator from the creature. To converse with You, O Lord, is the delight of my heart. In You I find everything that my heart could desire. Here Your light illumines my mind, enabling it to know You more and more deeply. Here streams of graces flow down upon my heart. Here my soul draws eternal life.”

“O my Lord and Creator, You alone, beyond all these gifts, give Your own self to me and unite Yourself intimately with Your miserable creature. Here, without searching for words, our hearts understand each other. Here, no one is able to interrupt our conversation. What I talk to You about, Jesus, is our secret, which creatures shall not know and Angels dare not ask about. These are secret acts of forgiveness, known only to Jesus and me; this is the mystery of His mercy, which embraces each soul separately. For this incomprehensible goodness of Yours, I adore You, O Lord and Creator, with all my heart and all my soul. And, although my worship is so little and poor, I am at peace because I know that You know it is sincere, however inadequate…”