After three busy weeks in February, the end of the winter calm has returned to Taizé. For everyone present, the season of Lent enables us to turn towards God, as we were reminded during the evening prayer on Ash Wednesday, by the words addressed to all those who received the ashes on their foreheads: “Trust in the Gospel.”
As Easter approaches, the group of volunteers gets bigger: some of them come to spend the weeks of Lent at Taizé, others prepare to stay for a longer time. There is a great diversity among them: young adults from Latin America and the Pacific have joined up with very numerous Europeans. And when they come together their joy is so communicative that it is sometimes difficult to hold back an Alleluia!
Visitors came from all over Burgundy to take part in the “open days” of the ceramics workshop. Like many potters who offered the same welcome throughout France, the brothers spent their weekend explaining their different tasks: from the preparation of the clay to the glazing, including the decorating and the firing. Since the brothers earn their living entirely through their work, this was an important aspect of the life of the community that exceptionally was being presented to the public.
From Japan to Libya, from Pakistan to the Ivory Coast, the world news is followed attentively in Taizé. The victims of the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan were mentioned several times in the intercessions during evening prayer over recent days during which four people from Japan - a pastor, a volunteer for a year, and two other young visitors - were present.
Following the earthquake and the tsunami, Brother Alois wrote a message for the friends of Taizé in Japan.
With all our brothers, both in Taizé and in the fraternities, we share in the ordeal that has struck Japan, for you know how much your country is dear to us. Our hearts suffer and weep with those who are suffering. When we are bewildered by the incomprehensible suffering of the innocent, we wish to be witnesses to the compassion of God, and through our prayer we wish to support you in your grief; you, your families, the Churches in Japan, so many young people that we know, and all the people of your country.
Right from the first day, in the church in Taizé, we have confided to God all the victims of the earthquake, and in church today I said this prayer: “Christ Jesus, we wish to remain close to you and to confide to you the sorrow of all those who know human suffering on the earth. We pray to you for the victims of the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan; we confide to you those close to us and our friends who live in this country in its distress. On all of them, we invoke your presence of compassion.”
In response to two invitations, Brother Alois went to Lucerne and Vienna.
In Lucerne, in the beautiful baroque church of the Jesuits, he gave an address which explained in detail the way of Brother Roger and the community towards the reconciliation of Christians. “We do not pretend to have found the solution. Our way of doing things is imperfect. We know that our situation is provisional, waiting for unity that is fully realised. But we are trying to enter into a dynamic of reconciliation.”
The links between the Taizé Community and the people of Vienna go back a long way. Well before the European meetings in 1992 and 1997, there were regular prayers in the city. Brother Roger himself went on various occasions. At that time it was scarcely possible to come to the Austrian capital from the neighbouring countries. Most thankfully everything is more simple today. Brother Alois and another brother went to Vienna for a stage of the pilgrimage of trust. And what a joy it was to see young people from the neighbouring countries arriving for the meeting! On Friday evening, the church was “bursting at the seams” and the prayer around the cross went on till very late. The people of Japan were particularly remembered in the prayers. The young people who came from far way were warmly welcomed by host families.
Five months after the meeting that Taizé brothers led last year in Sarajevo, on the invitation of Cardinal Puljic and Orthodox Metropolitan Nicolaj, one of the brothers has been back in the region recently.
“The first stage of the journey was a day spent in a village in the North East of Serbia, near the frontier with Romania. The people there speak Slovak and most of them are Lutherans. The pastor, who knows Taizé well and who took part in the meeting in Sarajevo, invited the young people and the less young to take part in the prayers and sharing. Young adults from the surrounding region came to join in. The Bible readings were in Serbian, Slovak, Hungarian and Romanian and the songs were accompanied by seven violins, two guitars and two double basses.
Another stage was the Orthodox faculty of theology in Belgrade. It has a beautiful chapel where many students take part in the daily prayers. Following Vespers, I was invited to share what we are living in Taizé. A beautiful poster in the hall announced the theme: “Taizé, a place where Christians pray and meet one another”.…
In Chile everything starts at the end of the summer. The first Friday in March, a hundred and fifty young adults came together for an evening prayer in the parish in the neighbourhood of Santiago where the Taizé brothers continue to live.… It was a very joyful occasion for it was an excellent opportunity to meet up with those who had taken an active part in the preparation in the parishes of Santiago.
The following Saturday, we came together again, this time, to read the “Letter from Chile”. After a time reading the letter individually in silence, we split up into three groups according to the three options proposed in Brother Alois’ letter: joy, compassion and forgiveness.…
In one of the groups, somebody explained that these small meetings are not a sign of nostalgia for the big meeting last December, rather they are a step forward in the pilgrimage of trust: a step that allows us to continue to search together.…
During Lent, a “pause in God” is proposed every day; from Monday to Saturday, at 13.00: songs from Taizé, a light lunch in silence, a time to breathe and get your strength back in the middle of the day in a university campus: Iglesia San Lazaro, calle Ejercito 415, metros: Héroes and Toesca.
Elise, from Paris, took part in a prayer at the beginning of Lent in the Church of Saint Eustache. She writes: “After a stay in Taizé, going back to Paris seems hard sometimes. God seems to me to be quite far away, when I’m in the metro, at university or in the street. And the season of Lent, which invites us to turn towards God, is sometimes hard to live when you feel isolated; lost in the anonymous hubbub of the city. That is why to my mind this evening for the beginning of Lent is so important. Hearing the songs of Taizé resounding under the breathtaking ceiling of Saint Eustache, while feeling the metro vibrate under your feet, is a kind of way of telling yourself that God is also present in Paris.
And so Paris becomes no longer the deafening and stifling city in which you feel jostled from every side, but a city full of life, which brings together people from all over. One image that will remain in my memory is that of the young woman from Estonia and her little daughter, singing the Estonian version of Nada te turbe. This prayer invites us to turn towards Christ, to prepare ourselves for the joy of Easter, but also to turn towards our neighbour. Seeing so many people from such different backgrounds gathered together, kneeling on a big carpet, and seeing a queue of people waiting to lay down their burdens on the Cross, that comforts me: I am not alone in Paris.”
Friday 25 March, there will be a prayer with songs from Taizé in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.
Christ Jesus, through your Gospel, we understand that you come to bring light where we are weak. And the worries in our heart can be transformed into a humble trust, a deep joy. We would like simply to look towards your light until the morning star rises in our hearts.