It has been\nan unusual Lent, a Lent when we have had to abstain from celebrating Lent\ntogether. For me, worship, the Holy Mass, the Way of the Cross and,\nparticularly during the Holy Week, Christ\u2019s entry to Jerusalem, His suffering and\nresurrection have always been of the essence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Private\nprayer, reading the Gospel and internal conversion all belong to the Lenten\ntime, but they take place in a larger context, in the community with other\nfaithful, with the whole Mystical Body of Christ. Of course, this is true, also\nwhen we are told to pray on our own, even then we are never alone because we\nare connected to our Saviour and to His Mystical Body, the Church. Still, I\nmiss the community during Mass in the crowded St. Paul church when hundreds of\nthe faithful cheer when the Lord enters Jerusalem, or kneel adoring the\nCrucified Saviour on Good Friday, or when they rejoice in Alleluia at Easter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have\nreceived similar reactions from many parishioners; they also miss the Church and\nour own parish. And this is good, it is good that we miss our parish. Because even\nthough it may be fine to watch Mass with the Pope from St. Peter\u2019s Basilica, it\nis something else, something special with our own parish, our own church where\nwe come every day to serve God who came<\/em> <\/strong>not to beserved<\/em>, <\/strong>but toserve<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I know that you too miss the Church and the\nparish also due to your response, your telephones, your e-mails, and also all\nthe contributions you have made to the parish bank account after my call about\ncollection. Many contributions, big, medium and small, have been registered.\nAll of them help the parish to keep going. Our employees are working even\nthough the church is not open. Catechesis is conducted via the internet,\nregistrations and paperwork are being done, alter linen and garments have been\nwashed, the church is cleaned so that it is not dusty when we open again, Holy Masses\nare recorded and uploaded on our website or streamed direct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want to\nthank you all for you financial contributions, and to all of you who pray for\nus, both priests and employees and for the whole parish. You should also know\nthat we pray also for you and long for the day when we can again get together\nin our church of St. Paul\u2019s and at Marias Minde.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have to live\nwith our longing with patience in these Covid-19 days. We have to take care of\nour brothers and sisters so that we do not expose them to danger, even though Our\nSaviour teaches us not to fear what the future may bring for us ourselves. We\nhave to persevere and to carry our longing and our Cross, which we unite with Our\nSaviour Jesus Christ\u2019s Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parish\npriests faithfully celebrate the Holy Mass and pray the breviary, the official prayer\nof the Church. And when we do that we pray first of all for you, parishioners\nof St. Paul\u2019s, for the faithful in our diocese and our country, and for the Church\nworldwide. We pray for your spiritual and physical life and health, we pray for\nGod\u2019s blessing and for Our Lady\u2019s protection. We pray for the living and for\nthe dead. We all belong to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, Christ\u2019s\nMystical Body. If one when \u201cone member\nsuffers, all the members suffer with it\u201d. Therefore I beg you all to be in\nprayer for each other and for us all. In faith and in prayer, we are together\ncarrying each other through our burdens, and we experience being borne by the prayers\nof the others. It is in prayer that we experience God being near us and we are\nnear each other as members of Christ\u2019s Mystical Body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n May God in His Grace let us mature in prayer\nand grow in faith so that Paschal Triduum be for us all a true Pesach, a Passover\nfrom angst and darkness to the light and joy of Easter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Oremus pro invicem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your parish\npriest Dom Alois \n5.04.2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It has been an unusual Lent, a Lent when we have had to abstain from celebrating Lent together. For me,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13549"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13550,"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13549\/revisions\/13550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}