Norway Comments - En

ACTS OF THE 7th EUROPEAN ASSEMBLY OF LAY DOMINICAN FRATERNITIES

ANNEX IIn

COMPLEMENT TO THE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION OF NORWAY A few comments about the pictures: The first slide shows some of the members of the Oslo fraternity in the garden outside the church of St Dominic. One of us, Jeanne, wears a habit and lives according to a special rule which implicates a more contemplative way of living the lay Dominican calling. As many of you already know, she has worked for many years to renew the mantellata tradition. Her rule has been developed in cooperation with the authorities of the Order. At present, Jeanne is the president of our fraternity. Søren (right) lives in the north of Norway, the others live around Oslo. The second slide shows a few important points from our latest history in Norway. We have been told that when the brothers of the French province decided to expand their work to the Nordic countries, they chose Norway because there were lay Dominicans there already. The third slide gives some facts about Norway and our society. The Catholic Church came back after the reformation in 1845 and is quite small. Nevertheless, the Church, especially the Dominicans, have represented a significant voice in the public intellectual and theological debate through the years. The fourth slide shows two characteristic Norwegian pictures: High mountains and a stave church. The stave churches were built around 11-1200, i.e. when all Norwegians were Roman Catholic. Those were the days ........ The fifth slide shows the Dominican houses and communities in Norway: the Maria Convent with apostolic sisters in Bodø (north) and - all in Oslo - the St Dominic community (brothers), Lunden Monastery (contemplative sisters), the Sta Katarina Convent (apostolic sisters) and the lay fraternity. As you can see, the four branches of the Order are represented in Oslo. The sixth slide shows some snapshots from our fraternity life: Elisabeth's solemn profession with president Jeanne and religious promoter and brother Arne Fjeld op as witnesses (top left), preparations for vespers with the friars (top right), a fraternity meeting (bottom left) and a meeting with the rest of the family (bottom right, the young friar is the son of Elisabeth in our fraternity). The seventh slide is about our main activities. Each of us makes efforts to live our lay Dominican life in our everyday settings with family, colleagues and friends. Once a month we come together to pray, learn, give and receive. We have one or two retreats a year, usually as guests of one of the three communities in Oslo. We also

have Dominican family gatherings, on Norwegian and Nordic basis. Many Dominican communities and fraternities are members of the Catholic Social Academy for the Nordic countries, where we work to make the Church's social teaching better known and implemented in our societies. With a portrait of St Dominic from our church in Oslo, we greet all brothers and sisters in Bratislava. Even though we could not be there, we are all together in prayer and we share the same calling: TO PRAISE, TO BLESS, TO PREACH. Much love from us in the Oslo fraternity!