Perspectives on Taizé
During his visit, Archbishop Anastasios prayed at the grave of Brother Roger and had discussion with Brother Alois and brothers of the Community. He took part in the midday prayer and the meal afterwards. Before the prayer, he met with the young Orthodox, together with their priests, who were in Taizé that week.
Sorina, a young woman from Romania, writes about the visit:
“It was very impressive to hear the Archbishop tell us about his first visit to Albania, after the political change over in 1991. As he was standing in the ruins of the last church, a friend turned to him and asked how he could still affirm right there that Christ was risen. His reply was very simple: ‘I asked each person to take a candle and light it…. What this symbol is expressing is the fact that I receive the light in order to share it with others. And if the candle goes out, I can light again thanks to the others.’ His message for us was the same – we must not keep this light for ourselves. We must share it with others in joy and humility.”
During the midday prayer, Brother Alois invited the Archbishop to pray. The following beautiful prayer, pronounced spontaneously, was recorded while the Archbishop spoke.
O Lord our God, who is, who was, who is to come. Glory to you. We thank you for this great gift that you give us to address to you and to hear our hopes and dreams and sufferings. O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Holy Spirit, give us your fruit—love, joy, peace and all the others. Give us the courage to hope, the courage to see our responsibilities and duties. We know that we would like to know you more. When we see our life we see that perhaps you have many complaints from us, but you know that we try to love you and we don’t succeed. Still, we are trying, during our youth, during our whole life. Reveal to us your person and help us more and more to search for your presence in our everyday life. Help our Churches, our continent, our world, give us the possibility to be a flame of the resurrection in a suffering world, to experience the cross and the power of the resurrection in every minute of our life. Help us to live in the concrete gazing at the universal, to live our concrete time in the perspective of eternity. Lord, be with us until the end of our life.
Amen.