{"id":16709,"date":"2021-12-17T16:07:15","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T16:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/?p=16709"},"modified":"2021-12-17T16:07:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T16:07:16","slug":"christmas-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/?p=16709","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Message"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dear Parishioners<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we have\nbeen deeply hoping not to occur, has unfortunately happened. The COVID-19 virus\nis spreading across the country and the authorities keep announcing new and stricter\nrestrictions as to what we are allowed to do and how many people may\nparticipate in Mass and other worship in church. This applies to our celebration\nof the Birth of Christ in a really painful way because so few of the faithful\nwill be able to participate in Mass in church during the Feast of Christmas.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can\nallow only 50 persons at each Mass in St. Paul Church, where we have \u201cpermanently\nmounted benches\u201d (fastmonterte) <\/em>and are able to keep 1 metre distance.\nAt Marias Minde where we also have fixed benches, we may allow only 20 persons.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seats in\nthe church are numbered. One should occupy the seat which you are assigned by\nthe church warden on entering the church and checking on the registration list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\nnecessary that we have enough church wardens who can make sure that the rules\nare observed. If we do not have enough church wardens, then only 20 persons may\nenter the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, I\nappeal to you to sign up to be a church warden. These come as additional\npersons to the 50\/20 registered participants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\npainful for me to have to limit the number of persons who may come to church\nwhen we are now going to celebrate the Birth of Christ, but we must comply with\nthe regulations given by the authorities and hope that we in this way\ncontribute to reduce the spread of the virus in our city. Thus, the suffering of\nmany who cannot participate in Mass in person, is transformed to something good\nfor others and for our society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irrespective\nof all this, we can pray and read the Bible texts, and we can follow Mass online,\neither from our church or from St. Olav\u2019s Cathedral in Oslo, or any other place\nin the world. We can also gather our families for the reading of the Gospel and\nprayer at home \u2013 this is also worship. Prayer is never in vain, irrespective of\nwhere you pray and in what framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since we\nhave only a few places in our church, I appeal to you to participate in only\none or two Masses, so that also other chance a chance of coming to church at Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let Him who\nwas born in Bethlehem on Christmas night be born in your hearts during this\ncoming Christmas; thus, also this so special feast, will become a Blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God bless\nyou all<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your Parish\npriest<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dom Alois<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Parishioners What we have been deeply hoping not to occur, has unfortunately happened. The COVID-19 virus is spreading across<\/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-16709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16709","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=16709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16710,"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16709\/revisions\/16710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bergen.katolsk.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}