A Wednesday at Taizé . . .
When I awoke this morning it was a crisp autumn day. The night sky still dark at 6:30 a.m. illuminated only by a sliver of a moon rising above the hills to the east. I took my Bible, journal and cushion and entered the Church of the Reconciliation–the main sanctuary of Taizé–where I found a bench near the right front. The heat had been turned on–a pleasant bonus to this early morning. After reading scripture and making entries into my journal, the bells sounded for the beginning of a new day and a new opportunity to pray together.
For each service, the brothers enter in silence in a wide corridor centered before the chancel. The corridor is bordered by green plants. The brothers walk to their spot and turn to the chancel and kneel on the floor. Some of the older brothers or those with back problems, sit in wicker chairs. There is balance in the acitivities of Taizé, a yin and yang to the experience. We worship as a group at the prayer meetings. We meet in small groups. In the small group there is intimacy, in the large reverence.
For the Bible Study on this day I served as a translator for the lone participant who traveled from Spain. The Brother gave his lecture in German, which was translated into English and then I translated into Spanish. Have you ever played telephone line? I wonder how different the lecture ended up being in Spanish than when it began in German. We pray that the Holy Spirit allowed for a lesson to be learned despite our human shortcomings.
How wonderful to share in small group study with fellow Christians from Germany and Portugal. Despite differing theological views, there was no sense of judgment, just an openness to listen to one another and to share. There is a spirit to the sharing that echoes the first verse of Psalm 133: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!”