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:

What is Love?
What is Love?
A homily given on the last full days of the Nordic Bishops’ Conference, which has been in session in Trondheim this week. 
1 Corinthians 8.1-13: Love makes the building grow.
Luke 6.27-38: Love your enemies. 
At all times men and women have loved Read More
Evangelisation From a press statement of the Nordic Bishops’ Conference: “Bishop Erik Varden OCSO (50), Bishop Prelate of Trondheim and Apostolic Administrator of Tromsø, was elected new president of the Nordic Bishops’ Conference. Bishop Raimo Goyarrola (55), bishop of Helsinki, was Read More
Contemplation The word ‘contemplation’ is currently on many lips. It is a good thing. Many aspire to attain deep prayer. They long to ‘see God’, which is an eminently Scriptural aspiration. How often, though, the spiritual quest is treated, even in Read More
Pastoral Letter
Pastoral Letter
Pastoral Letter to the Prelature of Tromsø. A Polish version can be found here. 
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
A year has passed since the Holy Father appointed me Administrator of the Prelature of Tromsø. Like all of you, I had hoped a Read More
The Body at Prayer
The Body at Prayer
A lecture given to open an ecumenical symposium at Bjärka Säby. The lecture was followed by a public conversation with Professor Sarah Coakley. 
I was a doctoral student when a friend passed on to me a second-hand copy of a book Read More
Wakolda Lucía Puenzo’s Wakolda appeared to mixed reviews ten years ago. The Holocaust film, like the Holocaust book, is apt to meet a tired groan – ‘Not another!’ – yet there is something new here, at once timely and timeless. Not only Read More
Sealed Revelations As so often, I find a life-giving, challenging perspective on life in Paulina Mariadotter. On 10 October 1963 she noted in her prayerbook:
‘All Gods’ revelations are sealed until our obedience breaks the seal – in the very moment in which Read More
Jargoning Jackdaws These days I daily read a page or two of Between Two Eternities: A Helen Waddell Anthology or of Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, astonished at the intelligence and musicality of Waddell’s renderings, which sweep away the distance merely apparently created by Read More