Words on the Word

Erik Varden is a monk and bishop, born in Norway in 1974. In 2002, after ten years at the University of Cambridge, he joined Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in Charnwood Forest. Pope Francis named him bishop of Trondheim in 2019.

Please find below a selection of homilies:

Desert Fathers 43
Desert Fathers 43
You can find this episode in video format here – a dedicated page – and pick it up in audio wherever you listen to podcasts. On YouTube, the full range of episodes can be found here. 
A priest made his way Read More
Genie In a brisk piece, Nicola Shulman reflects on ‘the overcompensating sense of self-importance that flourishes in the dark of self-doubt’, a sense likely to erupt ‘with all the towering egotism and sweet relief that a genie might feel after a Read More
29 Sunday C
29 Sunday C
Exodus 17.8-13: But Moses’s arms grew heavy.
2 Timothy 3.14-4.2: Be urgent in season and out of season.  
Luke 18.1-8: The need to pray continually and never lose heart. 
In our second reading Paul exhorts Timothy to ‘be urgent in season and Read More
St Teresa Teresa is a witness to the beautiful dimension of faith. When she speaks of it, she is categorical: ‘The fact of seeing Christ left an impression of his exceeding beauty etched on my soul to this day: once was enough’. Read More
Light-Filled Lamp A wonderful text from St Columbanus’s Instructions in today’s vigils: ‘I am a lowly creature but I am still his servant, and I hope that he will choose to wake me from slumber. I hope that he will set me Read More
Desert Fathers 42
Desert Fathers 42
You can find this episode in video format here – a dedicated page – and pick it up in audio wherever you listen to podcasts. On YouTube, the full range of episodes can be found here. 
Isaac the Theban went to Read More
A Conversation in Lisbon
A Conversation in Lisbon
My book Chastity was recently published in a fine Portuguese version.
I was fortunate on that occasion to engage in a conversation with my translator, Joana Viana Lopes, and a group of young people at the Catholic University in Lisbon, being on Read More
28 Sunday C
28 Sunday C
2 Kings 5:14-17: Now, please, accept a present from your servant. 
2 Timothy 2:8-13: He is always faithful, for he cannot disown his own self.  
Luke 17:11-19: One of them turned back praising God. 
Our readings invite us to reflect on the Read More