Lecture about St. Olav: Viking, King, Saint
September 16 we gathered in the priests’s living room for a lecture about St. Olav. Many showed up! We were both new and old faces. Liesbeth from Belgium and Rufina from South Korea both joined us for the first time. Vietnam, Norway, Italy, Malta, The Philippines were also represented. Proof that we are a big, universal family! Fr. Etienne, who was responsible for the student group last semester and has now moved to Molde, talked to us about the different parts of the life of St. Olav and also gave an excellent picture of life in Norway at Olav’s time – year 995 to 1030.
First he was a viking. Later he became the king of Norway for a short time,
before his death, which may have been a martyr death, if he was not murdered by one of his own. After his death, he was named saint by the local bishop. This was before the Vatican took charge and organized the canonization.
Now he is recognized as the patron saint of Norway, and has numerous churches dedicated to him both in Norway (Oslo and Trondheim), and abroad. You will find Olav has greatly influenced Norway when you look for it. Our regional hospital is called St. Olav’s hospital, and Olav, Ola and Ole are still popular names for boys.
Father Etienne also questioned, at the end of the lecture, if it is right to impose faith on others. Saint Olav christened Norway by the sword, and is celebrated by the Church despite this. Today faith is still imposed on people, mostly in other parts of the world. We also discussed whether Church and state should be separate or, as in Norway and England, one.
Father Etienne has been so kind as to give us his whole lecture, for future reference and for those who could not join us. Read it here!
Helping our Sisters
St. Birgitta. Picture from www.brigidine.org
In the beginning of September, the students gathered to help the Birgitta/Brigidine sisters in our parish. The Sisters have played a very visible part in our parish for 11 years, present at Sunday Mass, helping the priests with catechesis of children and adults, as well as doing ecumenical work with the other Christian churches in the region.
Now, finally, the sisters have a monastery which for the first time in Trondheim lets them lead the true Brigidine life. They have moved in to a new building which includes 25 guest rooms which lets them host both the faithful looking for a retreat with prayer and daily Mass, and groups for conference. This means we have to come to them, they will no longer be as present in St. Olav church.
Moving to a bigger monastery means they needed some help getting ready. I was so happy to see that so many students gave their Saturday morning to the sisters! Fritzie, Andrea, Andrea, Francesco and I met at the Church for a short prayer before we left, and Karoline, her mother Kari and sister Maria met us there. The sisters were thrilled with your work! We dusted, cleaned rooms and windows. Now the guest rooms are ready for guests!
The sisters were very hospitable toward us. They welcomed us with smiles and gave us a nice break with delicious fruit and drinks, and coffee. They also served us lunch, which we were very lucky to eat with them. In honor of the Italian students they made a delicious pasta (that father Dominic has been bragging about earlier) for the primi piatti and sausage and salad for the secondo piatti. It was delicious! The conversation at the table was very interesting, because the students spoke English and Italian, and I Norwegian. Some of the sisters speak English, but not all, and some speak Italian. All of them spoke Norwegian, and so all three languages were used in the conversation at once.
One of the rooms. So comfortable and peaceful!
All the students were very impressed with how the guest rooms looked, and would gladly recommend them to friends and family coming to see them. The sisters will gladly welcome you. If you want to book, just call mother Patrizia at 72 89 40 00. She speaks Swedish, Italian and English, and of course understands Norwegian. Their rooms are 450 kr per night and include breakfast. There are lovely en suite bathrooms with shower. Some of the rooms are wheelchair friendly.
The sisters are always very welcoming and offers great company. The student group has been enriched by their company before, when we discussed calling. I’m sure we will come to them in the future also, for spiritual guidance and friendship. Mother Patrizia says we are welcome to visit them for Mass, prayers or someone to talk to. They have daily Mass at 7.30AM, except Thursdays, when Mass is held at 5PM. Everyone is welcome to join them.
Getting to the monastery is very easy, especially by bus. Their address is Ingeborg Ofstads vei 1, 7091 Tiller. Here is a map. We simply took the number 46 bus, which has frequent service, from Church and got off at Ingeborg Ofstads veg, which is a few stops after the big shopping centre, City Syd. The bus stop is right next to the monastery.
“As for you, your sins are forgiven”
Wednesday’s Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was centered around a theme: healing.
Pope Pius XII in front of the Blessed Sacrament, inside the monstrance
We were joined yet again by a new face: Cecily from Singapore. We’re so happy to have you with us! We were 10 students in total.
Clarisse and father Al had come up with the theme and content together. Here is the entire program, for those who could not be with us, or other groups who need ideas for their adorations:
Opening of the academic year
Sunday the 30th of August, the Catholic student group was kindly invited by the student priest at NTNU to celebrate the opening of the academic year in Nidarosdomen, the Nidaros Cathedral. This is a yearly tradition, where the Christian student organizations gather to pray for the students.
I was glad to see so many of the group be present! I asked the Catholic students to pray for unity of the churches, so that we may be one in Christ. Don’t ever stop!
Also present were Forbundet, who also invited us to discuss our image of God, which took place just after Easter.
The service started with a procession, with the choir, student organizations, the heads of NTNU, HIST and DMMH and the priests. The readings:
1 Kings 17, 8-16
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9“Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” 11As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” 13Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 14For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” 15She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
The second reading was from St. Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians:
16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not despise the words of prophets, 21but test everything; hold fast to what is good; 22abstain from every form of evil.
23May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
The third reading was from the gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 11:
28“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Knut Andresen, one of the priests of the cathedral held the sermon, which took an academic approach to the gospel reading. He tried to find explanation to the text in different Norwegian translations. His conclusion was that “rest”, which Jesus talks about in the text, is not a problem free life, rather mastering the difficulties and challenges that arise in everyones lives, and having faith in Christ.
We thank you for inviting us! It was a good experience. I will leave you with The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI’s, words on ecumenical work: ”…I express my sincere appreciation for the invaluable work of all those engaged in ecumenism.”
First dinner of the semester
Friday the 28th of September we gathered in the parish hall of St. Olav church for dinner. 15 students had signed up, and Olimpia, Steve, Martin and Ingvild had cooked for two and half hours. And Karoline rescued the night!
We were so happy to see some new faces! Martin, Ingvild, Fritzie, Giovanni and Klaus were new, we hope to see you again! There were also some old faces, like father Etienne, who has moved to Molde, joined us. He used to be in charge of the group and will also give us a lecture in September. Plus, Clarisse is back! She has spent the summer studying across the globe. Otherwise known as Radio Clarisse, she has been in charge of Adoration and is our lead singer. Sadly, most people stop singing when she starts, because we can’t really compare.
The evening started with Mass. Whenever we have a social evening, like dinner, we encourage everyone who wants to join us to celebrate Mass with us, because one of the goals of the student group is for people to explore their faith. What better way to do that than to celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection, and receiving His body and blood? Then we try to live our faith in the meetings, by being hospitable, forgiving and loving to our fellow Christians.
The meal this time consisted of arabian-spiced carrot soup, marinated chicken with salad and sun-blushed tomatoes, and plum cake with ice cream for dessert. All the food was gone! I hope there was enough food for everyone.
And thank you Clarisse and Giovanni, who did the dishes! A job very well done 
Peace, Pia Maria
Pictures from the trip to Bymarka
Now I’ve finally posted the pictures from the blueberry-trip!
You can find it under Pictures.
Enjoy!
- Karoline
Blueberries and Queenship
Saturday the 22nd of August we gathered outside Church, ready to pick blueberries. We were slightly disappointed that so few of us had showed up: Karoline, Maria, Huy, me, my husband and dog. Where were the others?
Father Al packed his bag so we could celebrate Mass by the lake and we left. Half way to the bus stop, Father suddenly remembered he had forgot the missal. Running back, he found Andrea, Giovanni, Abraham, Laura and David! Thank you, Lord, for making Father forgetful. We would have left them if he hadn’t!
We took the bus number 8 to Byåsen butikksenter and bought some food. Suddenly we were in the forest! We walked to a lake, where we found a bench to celebrate Mass. Today we celebrated the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary and prayed for the Holy Mother’s intercession, bearing in mind specifically the people’s hardship in Afghanistan.
Father reminded us in his homily what also the late Holy Father John Paul II reminded us: Be not afraid. Mentioned 365 times in the Bible, one for every day of the year, to remind us that God is with us each and every day and thus we have nothing to fear. We finished Mass by singing the short version of Ubi Caritas, a song most of us knew by heart. The words are very simple, but the meaning so profound and so precious to us: Ubi caritas est amor, Ubi caritas Deus ibi est! Where charity and love are, God is there. My latin is not the best, but my comfort will be that that’s true for most of the readers too
After a walk we gathered for lunch by another bench, another lake. It was a peaceful place, under the trees. We shared a prayer and chocolate. After another walk, we found Karoline’s secret blueberry place and picked. We walked all the way down to Ila, now we were tired! But that’s one of the joys of nature: to see it and enjoy it you have to put effort and time into it.
Thank you all for coming! I hope we’ll see you all again.
Peace and love!
Pia Maria
First Meeting of this Semester
It’s time to have our first meeting of this semester. The date is Wednesday 19th August, at 7 PM. The location is St. Olav Church. We will meet in front of the church and then proceed downstairs.
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
Don’t Be Afraid
This is for you who are considering to be the next chairman or vice-chairman of the catholic student group in Trondheim, but are afraid that it will be too difficult, and that you may fail in your task. How do we measure failure or success? For me, success is measured by the number of people who come to the meetings. The next question is then, how many people, besides you, have to come to the meetings regularly to consider the group a success? The answer is one. Yes, one. As long as there is at least one person besides yourself at the meetings, then you have succeeded.
“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.
The Future is Nigh
It’s in the middle of July now. Most of us have vacation. Some of us may have a summerjob. Not me. I’m too lazy. But I have started to think a little bit ahead. We need a new board for our student group. The current board will soon resign. As you may remember, we only elected them for half a year, because two of the board members had to leave Norway before next semester. Daniele is going back to Italy, and Benedikt is going to study abroad (France?).
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.
