On the way to Easter
The season of Lent is a very special time for turning towards God, in the joyful waiting for Easter. In Taizé, the liturgy expresses this waiting through the sung introductions at the beginning of each prayer, through the responses and hymns of the season, and through the readings of the Word of God.
But the waiting is also visible on a quite material level. Registrations for the meetings at Easter are flowing in, and each one has to be replied to. From the point of view of logistics, the preparation is being done well upstream! The volunteers and all those who are here for the week are hard at work putting up tents and marquees.
Among those who came recently, we noted the presence of a large group of young adults from Lyon, who were joined for the end of their stay by their archbishop, Cardinal Barbarin. There was also a group of young American Protestants, as well as individual visitors from Japan, Sweden, Australia and from Mexico. Two groups of Italian priests, from Brescia and from San Giovanni Rotondo, spent several hours in Taizé with their bishops. From Poland, a group of adolescents from problem families and who are living in care hostels were given a special welcome.
We were all listening, with sincere interest
Rainar (Estonia)
It is two years since I was last in Taizé and once again I am surprised to see just how simple it is here to open your heart. There were ten of us sitting outside, in the end of the winter sunshine. We were discussing the “Letter from China”, with examples from our daily lives at home. I suddenly realised how much the others were speaking without pretension about what they were thinking and how they lived. And even more important, we were all listening, with sincere interest. Now that I am back home, I am trying to maintain that joy and spirit of openness wherever I go. In everything I do, I would like to communicate to those I meet something of that beauty of life: what I received, I want to share in my turn.
“Many initiatives of sharing are within our grasp”
Adri (Argentina)
This week, five of us from South America had the opportunity of presenting a theme workshop. It was a most enriching experience that enabled us to communicate to the young Europeans something of our Latin American reality. It was a time for sharing our activities in the church and in society, and to give examples illustrating the sentence in the “Letter from China”: “many initiatives of sharing are within our grasp”. As young adults, who are studying or working, God has enabled us to live also a missionary vocation, either in the villages in the countryside, or in working with children and young people, or in helping the homeless in our cities.
February, Taizé in the snow
Like many other places in Europe and beyond, the beginning of February was marked by cold and snow. And since in some countries there are high school vacations at this time of year, the numbers of people in Taizé are well up in comparison with January, with up to 750 people welcomed. With numbers like these, the meal distribution could only be done outside, in the snow…. But thankfully everybody could find a warm place to sit down and eat.
That is how Lent began. For Ash Wednesday, Brother Alois and other brothers had just returned from the meetings in Manila and Porto. Apart from the numerous high school students from France, especially from the South, there were also groups from Germany and the USA, pastors from Switzerland and several places in France, and fifty young Protestants from Korea. Many priests from Italy and Latin America spent several hours in Taizé, as did seminarians from Prague.
Serving others
Claudio (Chile)
"Usually, you think of the barriers that separate us from people who come from elsewhere. It is true, there are many of them: language, culture, or the way of relating to others. For two weeks, I took part, as a volunteer, in looking after the place where the young people come together to share meals and meet one another during their stay in Taizé. Thanks to this work, I realised that beyond the barriers that separate us, when we help one another, these obstacles are overcome. For me it was a real joy to see how the young people responded and were ready to help when we asked them: for the food distribution and for the clearing up and cleaning. I thank God for giving us such a richness, and enabling us to respect each other like brothers and sisters.”
Taizé in January
Like every year, following the European meeting in Poznań, the rhythm of the meetings in Taizé was slower than usual. For the brothers, this is above all the time for the yearly council of the community: five days of prayer, sharing and reflection. During the final prayer of the council, Brother Alois asked for the reading of the message received from Richard, a young person in Haiti who was a volunteer in Taizé in 2006.
Taking advantage of this calm period, the volunteers had a week of reflection centred on the Bible texts linked to the “Letter from China”. For the Week of prayer for the unity of Christians, leaders of different Christian denominations, as well as friends from the region, came to Taizé for a time of prayer together.
Among those who came were groups from Belgium, the Czech Republic, and from Poland, including fifty priests from Szczecin. There were also young people from the USA, Argentina, Canada, South Africa, Scandinavia, as well as two pastors from Korea and two bishops from Argentina. At mid January, several hundred leaders of the Scouts of France organised their “faith assembly” at Taizé.
Finally, for the Feast of the Presentation, two discreet turtle doves were placed in the choir of the church, just beside the icon representing the meeting of Simeon with the child Jesus (Luke 2, 22-35).
Scouts and guides of France at Taizé
Pierre-Yves (France)
“The Scouts and Guides of France held their faith assembly on January 16-17 at Taizé. It was a very powerful moment for our movement, a weekend in which faith was really at the heart of every encounter, of every moment we spent together. The faith of adults and the faith of young people – it is often easy to distinguish them – were in communion on the hill. For the first time the turnout was very high, more than 600 participants, three times the number in 2008. For the first time, many young people came (over 150 of them) to the assembly, which is usually a little dusty and does not hold much interest for them. For the first time, many Scout leaders came to this hill so familiar to young people, and discovered this motive-force of the faith of young French people today. For the first time, fellowship between generations – often desired but not so often experienced – was experienced in the movement. For the first time, and hopefully not the last!”