[1] This vigil took place on 30 September, 2023. See together2023.net for further information.
[2] Brother Alois, prior of Taizé from the death of Brother Roger on 16 August, 2005, until 2 December, 2023. How can we express our gratitude to him for these 18 years as the Servant of Communion in our community, his constant ecumenical endeavours and desire always to seek paths of solidarity with people in need?
[3] What is the call that God is addressing us faced with the suffering brought about by the conflicts in Ukraine, Palestine and Israël, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Pakistan, Haiti, Nicaragua, Sudan and so many other places in the world today?
[4] From 28 December 2023 to 1 January 2024.
[5] St Benedict of Nursia, (c. 480 - c. 547CE) was the father of Western monasticism. The rule he wrote was adopted throughout Europe as monasteries developed and influenced many later monastic rules.
[6] During the Together vigil, Pope Francis spoke about silence : “This evening, we Christians have been silent before the San Damiano Cross, as disciples listening before the cross, the Master’s throne. Ours was not an empty silence, but a moment filled with faith, expectation and readiness. In a world full of noise, we are no longer accustomed to silence; indeed sometimes we struggle with it, because silence forces us to face God and ourselves. Yet it lies at the foundation of the word and of life (...) Silence, in the ecclesial community, makes fraternal communication possible.”
[7] In many cultures, sitting at the feet of someone or touching their feet is a way of honouring them. What could it mean for us to sit at the feet of Jesus?
[8] Jesus’ death on the Cross shows us that God is with those who suffer and never on the side of the authors of suffering. Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus; and his resurrection shows us that death and suffering will never have the last word.
[9] Sometimes we experience such times in our life where we cannot see any goal, for a variety of reasons, There are moments where we have to accept to be in a no-man’s land.
[10] See Matthew 11.30. When our heart becomes more gentle, is that not a sign that we are walking with Jesus ? The opposite to love is not anger, or even hatred, but hardness of heart.
[11] Humility has nothing to do with submission or humiliation. On the contrary, it requires great inner strength and never crushes the gifts or qualities of a person.
[12] “The only way to get to know our stories is to get to know the people and then they might tell you the story. (…) Stories, and especially songs, help us remember. That’s why I tell stories and sing in my Adnyamathanha language, because it helps me remember who I am. It helps me remember that I am made in the image of God and that God as Creator has made all things. And I remember that.” Aunty Denise Chapman, Adnyamathanha elder and Uniting Church Pastor in South Australia. From the book “Yarta Wandatha” © 2014 Denise Chapman.
[13] See Pastor Anne-Laure Danet: “Divisions are not the same as diversity. It is not the diversity of the Churches that is in question. This is normal, even necessary, because it takes account of our respective identities: cultural, historical, social, ethnic, sexual, etc. If these identities are secondary because in Christ "there is no longer Jew or non-Jew, slave or free, male or female" (Gal 3.28), they do exist and it is in them that the existence of believers is embodied. From the moment they remain secondary, they become riches by allowing for a certain porosity. (...) Far from smoothing away identities, they strengthen and refine them without separating them, (...) but, on the contrary, recognising in the other the gifts and action of the Holy Spirit. They thus make it possible to forge a shared identity. This is a further step in the ecumenical movement, which has moved from unity in diversity (rejecting all forms of uniformity) to unity in reconciled diversity. (Translated from “La diversité en Église, de la division à l’enrichissement mutuel” in Contacts, Revue Française de l’Orthodoxie No. 282 April-June 2023)
[14] See St Maximus the Confessor; “Let us show sympathy for one another and by humility heal one another.” (The Ascetic Life, 41; trans: Polycarp Sherwood osb, Newman Press 1953)
[15] During the Together ecumenical prayer vigil, we invoked the Holy Spirit using the ancient prayer “Adsumus Sancte Spiritus (We stand before you Holy Spirit)” which was prayed before the Ecumenical Councils since the earliest times to ask the Holy Spirit to show the way. See https://tinyurl.com/Adsumus
[16] “The ‘Reign of God’ is not the object of an ideal vision but is rooted in ‘reality’. ... A vision that is not rooted in the reality of this world is an illusion. An illusion is created by the inability or refusal to face up to life’s problems. It is an escape into the realm of the unreal, out of the world of reality.” Choan-Seng Song, Taiwanese theologian, in Jesus and the Reign of God, Fortress Press, 1993, p. 77
[17] In her Revelations, the 14th Century English anchoress Dame Julian of Norwich wrote: (God) wishes us to know that not only does he take heed of noble things and the greatest, but he also attends to little and small, to low and simple, as much to one as to the other. This is his meaning when he said, “All manner of things shall be well”; for he wants us to know that the least thing will not be forgotten…
[18] “Our sense of the presence of God will be distorted if we fail to see God’s reality in terms of our neighbor’s reality. And our sense of our neighbor’s reality will be disfigured unless seen in terms of God’s reality.” Kosuke Koyama, Japanese theologian, in Water Buffalo Theology, Orbis Books, 1974, p. 91
[19] See “Ascertaining the Truth”. We accept that this is an ongoing learning process through which we listen to those have been hurt, acknowledge their suffering and do everything we can to ensure a safe environment for all.
[20] St Augustine of Hippo: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. (…) You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain your peace” (Confessions 10.27.38)