The first week of March was marked in Taizé by the arrival of a very large number of young people, more than 2000, from various regions of Portugal and others from France, Germany, the United States, Japan and Korea.
With all these young people, the start of the season of Lent included two liturgical signs, ashes and an anointing with oil, that Brother Alois explained: “The second sign is a liturgical gesture that comes from the Orthodox tradition. During the evening prayer, those who wish can receive an anointing of oil on the forehead. In making the sign of the cross, the brothers will say to each person: ‘Here is the oil of healing, the oil of gladness.’ The ashes and the oil we receive tomorrow are two symbols that invite us to forgiveness and celebration. May this Lent be a time of joy for each and every one of us. The joy of forgiveness, the joy of reconciliation.”
As these last few years, for Palm Sunday everyone is invited to gather at the Saint-Étienne spring to walk up to the Church of Reconciliation for the Eucharist. The timetable for Holy Week and Easter are given online. NB, The Easter Sunday celebration is Sunday April 21st at 6:30am!
A note: throughout Lent, Radio RCF publishes daily a short reflection in French by a brother on issues of faith in the context of the series “One minute of joy”.
This Friday, March 22, many young people from various countries in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere will gather in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, for four days of prayer, meetings and sharing: this will be the first meeting of Taizé in the Middle East, at the invitation of the Churches of Lebanon and the Middle East Council of Churches.
On March 25, a holiday in Lebanon, characterized by the organization of various meetings and exchanges between Muslims and Christians, initiatives will be proposed as part of the international ecumenical meeting.
The meditations of Brother Alois will be published day after day on the Taizé website. Other echoes of the meeting will appear on social networks and in the next news by email.
In Cape Town, preparations for next September’s meeting are entering a more concrete phase for the parishes and local churches that will welcome the participants coming from outside the country. Preparatory teams will be set up at eighty welcome points throughout the vast urban area.
Preparations are also advancing in the rest of the country, elsewhere in Africa and beyond, groups are already announced coming from Madagascar, Kenya, Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Zambia and countries bordering on South Africa. Some practical information and the registration form are online on the Taizé site.
For the month of March, the commented Bible passage is taken from Luke 10: 38-42. “Let us allow this text to question us: how can we keep, in our activities and commitments, a place for the essential, a place where we return to the roots? Yes, there is an inexhaustible wellspring in the Word of God, which should never lead us to oppose active life and contemplative listening but, on the contrary, encourage us to live both. This is what Mary understood and we can discover in our turn: an attitude of welcoming, of attentive listening that leads to loving in our daily lives. Perhaps this is the only thing we learn from death: how urgent it is to love.”
God of goodness, you know our darknesses and our doubts. Grant us to believe in your light within us and to see it in the lives of those you entrust to us.