In recent weeks, after two months, December and January, quieter than any other time of the year, youth groups are back in Taizé. The meals are always taken in an indoor dining room, Room 10, but the large tents are already being put back. As for El Abiodh, the guest-house, it is being renovated. Among the countries represented recently include Poland, with a group of young people from different children’s homes, the United States, France with in particular a large group from Seine-Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris. At the beginning of Lent, over 700 Portuguese will be present.
The Letter 2012-2015 "Towards a new solidarity", published in Berlin, continues to be the basis of the common journey that is leading us by stages to 2015. It commits us for the year 2014 to "seek visible communion among all who love Christ." The topic of the meetings in 2014 was inspired by these texts. Each day of the week we will look at a text of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles and a paragraph of the "Proposals" for 2014.
In recent weeks, as violence raged in Kiev, the people of Ukraine have been very much in the thoughts and prayers of all in Taizé. To express solidarity, on several occasions during the common prayer a Taizé song was sung in Ukrainian. Among the visitors in the last week of February, a young woman from Ukraine shared her experience of recent events in Maidan. A brother will visit this country for a visit of friendship in March.
A few weeks after the European meeting in Strasbourg, four volunteers from Taizé are now visiting Christians in towns and villages around Prague, before the next European meeting to be held there at the end of the year. Two of them, Franziska and Veronika, write: “For a week now we have been in the area north of Prague. We’ve been to several places: Roztoky, Kralupy, Neratovice. Today we are in the beautiful town of Melnik. We are grateful to all those who have welcomed us and given us the opportunity to meet other people in these cities. We enjoyed praying with them. During these days, we have experienced that it is possible to find God every day in a different place.”
Pilate begins his interrogation with a direct question, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answers with another question: “Is it you who are asking this, or have others told you about me?” While apparently evasive, Jesus’ response is in fact deeply probing. We might paraphrase it in this manner: in what way is Pilate going to engage with Jesus? Will he ask his own questions or else just repeat the questions of others?
Books, records and DVDs published by Presses de Taizé or in collaboration with other publishers are available not only in Taizé but also in many countries. Here are some recent releases :
To see the full list for your area: Books, CDs et DVDs. An online shop is found at shop.taize.fr.
Christ Jesus, you ask us to love even those who hurt us. If you did not do this, we never could consent to take such a step. You understand everything in us and your love is without limits. So we pray to you: make our hearts larger so that we can follow you.