This week, it is a special joy to welcome several groups of Orthodox Christians from different countries among us for this week of witness and sharing of Orthodox faith. Historically and still today, many Orthodox Christians live in the eastern half of our European continent.

Tomorrow, instead of our usual evening prayer, there will be the celebration of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy at which we can all assist. The blessed bread will be distributed by Taizé brothers to those of us from the Western Churches, as our Orthodox brothers and sisters receive the communion.

Pope John Paul II said often that the Church must breathe with her two lungs: the Eastern and the Western lungs. This week, we saw this take place among us through the different workshops and times of celebration. Though divisions remain, we sense also something of the undivided Church which is one in Christ, who cannot be divided.

So, I would like to say thank you to our Orthodox friends for your presence and testimony this week. In some way, your tradition is always visible here in Taizé because of the icons in our church. Many of them have been blessed by Orthodox bishops. Through the window that opens as we pray before these icons, we are able to enter in prayer into the mysteries of the life of Jesus, his death and resurrection and of the Trinity.

During these days, as a community, we have been remembering Brother Roger, who initiated the community life here in Taizé​. Last Saturday 16 August marked 20 years since his violent death in this very church. A video of the round table we held to commemorate this is available on our website, as well as the evening prayer where we gave thanks for his life.

As a young man aged 25, he left his native Switzerland to settle in the village of Taizé. It was 85 years ago, on 20 August, 1940, that he arrived here.

Taizé became a home for reconciliation among Christians. But when Br Roger​  arrived here in 1940 — by bicycle from Cluny — he came seeking community life and solidarity with the poorest. An old woman, hearing of his wish to buy a house, told him: “Stay here, we are so alone.” He later said he heard God’s voice in her words. He bought a house, began to pray, work, and welcome refugees, including Jews. After the war, he and his companions welcomed German prisoners of war.

Brother Roger often told us about Orthodox believers, exiled from their homeland, that he met during his youth. Later I can remember how brothers went to visit Christians, some of whom were Orthodox, in communist Eastern Europe behind what was called the Iron Curtain. For Brother Roger, it was their faith in the Resurrection of Christ that enabled these believers to hold firm in situations where they were often persecuted because of the Gospel.

I remember the first Orthodox priest I saw in Taizé in the late 1980s. Brother Roger asked him how it was possible to continue believing despite the harshness of the regime, without their being freedom to worship or access to the Bible. The priest replied: “The mysteries of the Kingdom of God are present always in our midst, in our hearts and the Holy Spirit does not abandon us.”

Later, together with other brothers, ! was myself able to visit Orthodox believers. The beauty of the worship touched me deeply and even if I could not understand everything, something of heaven on earth was present. The joy of the Easter celebrations will never leave me, with the greeting “Christ is risen – he is risen indeed!” repeated wholeheartedly so many times.

So to the young Orthodox believers who are among us, I would like to say, remember the treasure of your faith which has held firm often in very difficult circumstances. Even when faith has been instrumentalised by regimes, the simple trust of ordinary believers in the Resurrection of Jesus, the understanding that death and suffering will never have the last word, has enabled prepared paths of liberation and even of peace.

This evening we heard Jesus say to us “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” It is not about denying who we are as people, but of fixing our eyes on Jesus and walking with him. That may lead us to encounter the cross, but if we content ourselves with simply holding onto what we have, how can we discover the fullness of life, that life in the resurrection, that he offers to us all?

Are we ready to take the risk of following Jesus at each moment of his journey? That is the challenge that lies before us all.

And now I ask Nazar, a young Orthodox seminarian to share some words with us:

The moment is what Ukrainians learned to value most during the war. Moments of joy and boundless happiness are intertwined with despair, pain, and death. The war has touched everyone, and no one has remained aside. For burying an entire family; kissing for the last time the cold body of a newborn baby, just pulled out from the rubble of a destroyed house; and going to a combat position, realizing that you may not return – all of this softens even the hardest heart.

Ukrainians have learned to truly love and to see people for who they really are, to live under fire and to play the piano in the walls of destroyed schools. We have learned to live despite the death that war brings, thanks to God and his infinite love.

Separation is what Ukrainian families faced on February 24. On our way to Taizé, we stopped in Wroclaw, where we met with my father. A meeting that was filled with the greatest joy in the last four years... I cried during the entire 5 minutes conversation... five minutes that are forever in my heart.

I appeal to everyone: “Ukrainians are grateful for the support and your prayers, so we ask everyone: pray for peace in Ukraine, pray for our children and our families”.

To the young people of Ukraine, the Bishop Efrem and the priests who have come with you this week, I would like to say that we will not forget you. I hope in the very near future that two of my brothers will be able to come and visit you. It will be a small sign of our solidarity with you in this ongoing time of trial for your country.

I would like to invite all of you to come already at 8pm tomorrow evening to church to join us as we pray for peace in our world. We will pray for peace and justice in Ukraine, but also in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank, in Sudan, Haiti, Nicaragua and other countries hit by war and violence. We will pray also for people struggling for freedom under oppressive regimes and for all hostages held back against their will.

Our prayer will be in silence, because so often it is difficult so often to find the words to express what needs to be said. But that pray is already solidarity with those who suffer.

Finally, we hope to see all of you who are between 18 and 35 in Paris and the surrounding Ile-de-France region between December 28 and January 1 for our annual European meeting. Very soon, brothers, sisters and volunteers will be setting off to prepare the meeting. With a warm welcome from the Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Churches, there will be space for each one of you!

Can this meeting be a sign of peace and fraternity, a reflection of the Kingdom of God, in Europe and in the wider world, where division and polarisation seem so often to take the upper hand? Come and join us!