Portraits of witnesses to Christ

Franz Stock (1904-1948), a Life Given for Reconciliation

The first known act of the young German Franz Stock in favor of peace was his participation in 1926 in the meeting of Bierville, south of Paris, where ten thousand young people from all over Europe came together for peace. At Easter 1928, as a young seminarian, he moved to Paris to continue his studies. As his friend Joseph Folliet later wrote, “To welcome a German student at the theological faculty of Paris was something inconceivable for the mentality of 1928.” Ordained in 1932, he was (...)

17 March 2012

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955): Taking the World Seriously

A brother of the community wrote the following reflection on the vision of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin regarding the importance of not separating faith from a concern for this world.A child holds a piece of wood tightly in his hand. But a thought takes hold of him: the wood will eventually rot. Now he has grabbed a rock, but he knows that the stone, too, is doomed to crumble. Here is an iron object. Finally, he believes he has something that will resist decomposition. As a child, Pierre (...)

17 March 2012

Saint Augustine (354-430)

Who was this man who influenced so deeply the thinking of the West? For some he spoke of an unsurpassable way of grace, of God’s love. For others he was guilty of a pessimistic view of human beings marked more by sin than by God’s love. In the course of history, schools of theology of the most diverse sort claimed his authority, sometimes giving rise to bitter controversies. But what has always fascinated people is his journey towards faith. By describing it in his Confessions, he helped many (...)

9 May 2009

A prophet who comforts (Isaiah 40–55)

How can we describe someone who remains completely anonymous? Chapters 40 to 55 of the Book of Isaiah constitute a short collection of prophetic texts that make up a clear literary unit, whose author has effaced himself behind his message. We know neither his name nor the place from which he speaks. All we know is that his message concerns the events which took place around 538 years before Jesus Christ, when Cyrus, king of the Persians, allowed the Jews exiled in Babylon to return to their (...)

16 February 2009

A Path of Reconciliation : Brother Roger

On several different occasions, Brother Roger attempted to articulate his vision of Christian unity. In the text A call for the reconciliation of Christians, Brother Alois quotes these words of the founder of Taizé: Marked by the witness of my grandmother’s life, following her I found my own Christian identity by reconciling within myself the faith of my origins with the Mystery of the Catholic faith, without breaking fellowship with anyone.Brother Roger’s personal journey begins with an (...)

11 October 2008

Jeremiah

If I had met Jeremiah in the streets of Jerusalem six centuries before Jesus Christ, what impression would he have made on me? It is true that the book that bears his name is at times hard to take: too many announcements of misfortune. But if I looked closely at his face, would I not have discovered a man who was open, sensitive, and farsighted, who dared to express his opinion, but who was also humble, even tender, able to be moved while speaking of God’s love? One day, I would have seen (...)

2 July 2008

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

The Letter from Cochabamba refers in a note to words written by Irenaeus of Lyons: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, through his transcendent love, became what we are, that he might bring us to be what he is himself.” The figure of Irenaeus has a particular fascination because he brings us so close to the very first Christian believers. He was born in the second century and grew up in the town of Smyrna, on the western coast of Turkey, where he heard the elderly bishop Polycarp teach. Polycarp had been (...)

19 February 2008

Dorotheus of Gaza (Sixth Century) Humility and Communion

The Letter from Calcutta quotes this text from Dorotheus of Gaza on page 4: “Imagine that the world is a circle, that God is the center, and that the radii are the different ways human beings live. When those who wish to come closer to God walk towards the center of the circle, they come closer to one another at the same time as to God. The closer they come to God, the closer they come to one another. And the closer they come to one another, the closer they come to God.” (Instructions VI.) (...)

4 October 2007

The Relevance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young pastor who symbolized the German resistance against Nazism, is counted among those who can support us on our road of faith. In the darkest hours of the twentieth century, he gave his life to the point of martyrdom. In prison he wrote these words we sing in Taizé: “God, let my thoughts be gathered to you. With you there is light, you do not forget me. With you there is help, with you there is patience. I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me.” (...)

19 June 2007

Saint John Chrysostom (344 – 407): an astonishing modernity

The Letter from Kolkata quotes on page 3 a text from St. Jean Chrysostom that recalls the unbreakable link between the Eucharist and solidarity with the poorest: “You wish to honour the body of the Saviour? The same one who said: This is my body also said: You saw I was hungry and you didn’t give me to eat. What you did not do to one of the least, you refused to me! So honour Christ by sharing your possessions with the poor.” (Homily 50 on Matthew.) Who was this man who the Christian East (...)

19 June 2007

Mother Teresa

Brother Roger wrote these lines in homage to Mother Teresa at the time of her beatification, in 2003.We live in a world where light and darkness coexist. Through the life she lived, Mother Teresa invited people to choose light. In this way she opened a road to holiness for many others. Mother Teresa made words written by Saint Augustine four centuries after Christ comprehensible to us: “Love and say it with your life.” Trust in God becomes credible and is communicated above all when it is (...)

19 June 2007