Visits to Mexico and Costa Rica
May 2025
Eleven years after the Latin American meeting held in Mexico City in 2014, a brother from the community returned to Mexico to renew contacts with the Church and to participate in prayers with Taizé songs. He also visited several places in Costa Rica.
In Mexico City, an ecumenical prayer organised by the Catholic Bishops' Conference took place on the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. Representatives from various churches participated. The following day, an ecumenical prayer service was also held in the parish of La Sagrada Familia. For ten years, a group there has been regularly preparing prayers with songs from Taizé. Afterwards, the brother participated in a meeting with one of the mothers searching for their missing children and people from different churches who support them.
The visit continued in the small town of Apaxcoa in the north of the state of Mexico, in a Methodist parish that runs a hostel for migrants located along a railway line. Since October 2024, there have been far fewer migrants passing through, but there is still a team ready to help those in search of a better future who need assistance.
In Guadalajara, a team of friends and people who have come as volunteers to Taizé in recent years helped to prepare prayers in several parishes. Meetings and prayers also took place at the Jesuit university ITESO and at the diocesan seminary. A meeting with some parishioners took place in the parish of Santa Cecilia, where Brother Roger and a group of brothers participated in a youth meeting in 1974. It was on this occasion that, for the first time, participants in a meeting organised by Taizé were hosted by families from the parish. Since then, hosting in families has become a tradition in the meetings that the community organises at the end of each year in Europe.
The last stages and prayers of the visit to Mexico took place in Aguascalientes and in the state of Colima, where for several years a group of people has been leading prayers with songs from Taizé.
For years, the Taizé community has maintained good relations with the Catholic Church's youth ministry in Costa Rica. With the help of Operation Hope, young Costa Ricans are regularly able to come to Taizé for a three-month period of voluntary work. This enables them to represent their country at the international meetings in Taizé and, on their return, to share what they have learned during their stay with other young people from the church groups to which they belong. A visit by one of the brothers was an opportunity to strengthen this collaboration and to introduce more people to prayer with Taizé songs. Prayers were held in Puntarenas, Filadelfia (Guanacaste province), Limón and the San José metropolitan area.
Published on Jul 7, 2025