Summer meetings have begun in Taizé

Youth participants gather with Taizé brothers for evening prayer. Image: Katja Dorothea Buck/WCC

After two years marked by the pandemic, international meetings at Taize were able to resume "almost as before". At Easter, for Ascension and in the week after Pentecost, thousands of young people gathered together once again. The organisers hope the summer of 2022 will go well in Taizé. Already, events are being prepared, for example a friendship meeting between young Christians and Muslims (see below) and the week of reflection for 18-35 year olds, from 21 to 28 August with, for those who wish, a special course on safeguarding biodiversity.

A few days after Pentecost, Brother Alois spoke to the young people and he began like this: "We brothers love to welcome you, especially in our common prayer. And we would like all those who enter this Church of Reconciliation to be able to feel that God himself welcomes us."

Since February 24, the community has sought various ways to express its solidarity with the Ukrainian people: prayers for peace, welcoming refugees and groups on their way to the Iberian Peninsula, launching a platform for housing with welcoming families, collections of medical equipment. In addition, three brothers were recently able to visit Ukraine and three countries where many refugees are being hosted: Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

From July 13 to 17, 2022, a new friendship meeting between young Muslims and Christians will take place in Taizé. It will be an international meeting, with young people from various countries in Europe and elsewhere. Every day, regular prayer times will be offered and a specific place for Muslim prayer will be set up in one of the rooms usually dedicated to the welcome. Muslims and Christians will be able, if they wish, to discover what it means to "pray" for young people from a religious tradition other than their own. This year the emphasis will be on small group exchanges, and the opportunity to meet with others during informal free time.

In collaboration with the Churches of the Holy Land and the Ecumenical Institute of Tantur, the community of Taizé led an international meeting of young people from 8 to 15 May in the Holy Land. The meeting took place not only in Jerusalem, but in Bethlehem and nearby towns, as well as in Galilee, Nazareth and on Mount Tabor. 300 young people from many European countries and also from other continents took part in this meeting. Exchanges with young people from the Holy Land took place every morning in the Churches as well as in the host families.

For the month of July, the biblical text with commentary on the Taizé website is Luke 1, 46-55. "The Song of Mary, commonly known as the 'Magnificat', is one of the most important songs in the liturgical tradition of the Church. The part that people often memorize is the first sentence: "My soul magnifies the Lord" (Latin: Magnificat anima mea Dominum). A beautiful sentence. However, the song of Mary does not stop there. In the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke we find the complete song."

Prayer

God of peace, there are many on earth who experience trials, war, poverty, disease, hunger. And we ask you: make our prayer and our compassion more ardent. May your kingdom come!

For more information visit: www.taize.fr/en