Taizé songbooks float around Harrisonburg, and every so often someone feels inspired to host a weekly Taizé song night for a little while. Before coming to France, my understanding of Taizé had been formed by the impression I got from the songbook, and hearsay: Taizé is made up of committed brothers, but isn't a monastery. Rather, it's an ecumenical community that welcomes anyone for a visit to pray and sing songs from their songbook in 50+ languages. I had put Taizé on our list of "places we'd like to visit if possible" between the end of the apprenticeship with the Ark in early November and our return trip across the ocean in December, but that list was long and we didn't really know which hopeful places were actually realistic. Little did I know, Nico had plans for a visit to Taizé before the end of the year...
Weeks before my birthday in early May, Nico began researching and cordinating the possibility of me going on a solo retreat to Taizé as a surprise birthday gift. He compared schedules between the Ark, Taizé, his mother, and various transportation options: the national train system, rideshares, and buses. He made reservations in my name at Taizé for May 19 through 27, the same week he had a pre-scheduled day off in the bakery for Pentecost, and that his mother could visit to be with the boys on his work days.
Now, this is a big deal. Nico tends to be a big picture kinda guy, and had to swim through lots of little details to coordinate this trip. In addition, he's one of the most truthful people you'll meet, so secret keeping is a little bit challenging. He said he almost blew the surprise a handful of times... but didn't after all! He put together a packet of little cards that each stated a completed step in the process of coordinating how on earth I could disappear from my commitments and responsibilites for a whole week. Wrapping the cards together with a copy of the Taizé songbook, he presented the loving gift... and I have to admit I was shocked and terrified at first. The only times I've travelled alone in an English speaking country were in a personal vehicle driving to and fro across the state of Virginia. How could I travel across France alone, leaving my identity - my children - behind??
But the more I thought about it, the more excited I felt. Well, first my internal dialogue bounced back and forth for a little while:
Wow, how nice, a week alone... But what will I do without my children? And what will they do without me? ... Well, I guess I can just shower whenever I want to, and only fill a single plate at meals... But how can I leave them? ... Oh certainly people do this all the time... But who are people anyway? Perhaps it's not such a big deal to leave Moisés for this long for the first time in five years and eight months, but poor Yanni's only two and a third!Eventually I realized that I'd probably suffer more than they would, since they'd have their Papa nearby and a doting Abuelita as caretaker, so I resolved that I would happily take advantage of the time - free of responsibilities to anyone but myself - and participate in every possible activity on the schedule, which I basically did. :)
Travelling to Taizé
My journey began with an eight hour overnight bus to Paris from Quimper. A four hour high-speed train going the same route was unavailable due to a three-month-long, country-wide intermittent strike in SNCF, the Amtrak of France.
The next bus took me to Mâcon, the closest train and bus stop to the south of Taizé, where I had to wait a couple hours for a regional bus to take me to the doorstep of the Taizé community. Without anyone else needing me to solve problems or entertain them, I leisurely strolled around Mâcon, and down to the beautiful Saône River.
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| The Saône River. |
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| "Oh great! Hey look everybody, there's a playground! Let's go!" ...Oh, I guess I don't need one here all by myself... :( |
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| Over the tops of apartments and stores, I saw the steadfast belfry of Mâcon's old church building and weaved my way over to it. I spent some time walking silently (without having to shush anyone!) through the cool interior of the Église Saint-Pierre to take a short break from my hiking backpack. I love the old chapels, churches, and cathedrals found in every city and town of France and never tire of seeing the art they preserve or reading their histories. |
I navigated the regional bus system (in French!) and after a quick tour of central French countryside, I rather quickly found myself riding up a hill in a different time period, through a small collection of venerable structures built of yellow stone, to the heart of the renowned community. Taizé suggests that visitors stay for a week - Sunday to Sunday - and have a program set up that the brothers offer each week. Since I arrived on Saturday, I was one of the first of 3,000 new people to transition in for the next week.
A Brief History of Taizé
On Sunday afternoon there were only a handful of people settled in enough to watch a film on the history of Taizé, focusing on the life of Brother Roger, Taizé's founder. I was thankful to start my week by learning about the history of where I was and the movement that Taizé has become. I gained great respect for the people that have humbly participated in making this place what it is.
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The town of Taizé - not more than 15 stone buildings tucked into a small hill. It hasn't changed much since Brother Roger first arrived. The ecumenical community has expanded along the road just outside the town to the North over the last 50 years, with more modern-looking brick and plaster buildings.
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It was the end of the 1930s, and many of Roger's siblings returned to their family home in French-speaking Switzerland as the rumor of war was spreading around Europe. Roger's brother, who had recently fled from France, shared the harsh realities of life in a country under ever-increasing Nazi control. Roger immediately knew in his heart that this was where he had to go. He travelled by bicycle from Switzerland to the tiny town of Taizé, just barely outside the border of Nazi-controlled France during WWII. Taizé became part of an escape route for Jews and others fleeing Nazi oppression. After the war was over, the townspeople of Taizé were so thankful for Roger's presence that they begged him to stay.
Brother Roger wrote a number of brochures on the topic of Christian community, and after sharing them with several friends, the first three brothers joined him in 1941. The community's rule focused on simplicity and serving the poor. Seven additional brothers joined in 1949, and more continued to join over the following six decades. Today there are over 100 members living and working in the ecumenical community. In the film I watched, several of the original members, now in their 80s and 90s, shared anecdotes from Taizé's history. One brother remembered how he was impressed early on by the way Brother Roger spoke of the church fathers as real people, not only historical figures, but as if he knew them.
As the community of Taizé grew, the group of faithful men eventually caught the eye of Pope John Paul II, who delighted to know Brother Roger. In the film, one of the brothers proudly remembered that the Pope considered Brother Roger to be a modern day Saint Francis, and that the two became good friends.
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The original chapel of the town of Taizé. I took this photo from the cemetery, where you can see, in the bottom of this photo, simple crosses marking the graves of brothers who have passed away.
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For whatever reason, he didn't go to the construction site until just after the scaffolding holding the concrete form was pulled down... the church was bigger than he had understood or imagined, and did not feel simple.
Before he died in 2005, someone had recorded a thorough video interview with Brother Roger about his life and the history of Taizé. Clips of the interview were shown throughout the film I watched. At one point, he shared about his first impression of the church that day the scaffolding was taken down. He was shocked and terrified, but it was already done. He gathered himself and accepted, with thanksgiving, a church he considered to be more gigantic than they'd ever need.
In the 1970's, the Holy Spirit took Taizé in a new direction. "Young people" were disillusioned with the church, the state, everything, and they came to Taizé in droves, searching for meaning in life. The community shifted their energies to focusing on and listening to these young people that were aching to be heard. Quickly, Taizé became known for encouraging young people on their spiritual journies and the community was instrumental in kicking off a youth council within the Catholic church in the 1970s.
In the 1990's, in addition to welcoming thousands of travellers onsite, the community began holding prayer and worship events around the world with their growing repertoire of simple meditative songs in dozens of languages. Their explosion in popularity meant that a few times over the years, they knocked down the walls of the previously "gigantic" church to expand it!! In the video, Brother Roger laughed as he recalled the joy of making decisions to increase the size of the Church of Reconciliation that he had originally mourned for it's large footprint.
I delighted in learning the history of Taizé, specifically that their famed songbook, which is what they're known for now, and in fact, how I know of them in the first place, was not the original goal or mission. Through following the breeze of the Spirit, the community at Taizé has become an inspiration and blessing to so many.
The Church of Reconciliation
Prayer provides the heartbeat of the daily schedule at Taizé. The Church of Reconciliation fills and empties before breakfast, before lunch, and after dinner, with all other daily activities finding their place within the security of the regularly pulsing rhythm. During prayers, we sang songs mostly from the famed Taizé songbook; we heard a scripture passage read in two languages, followed by a key phrase from the passage read in four or five additional languages; we sat in stillness for eight to ten minutes; and we sang a chorus between prayers that were spoken or sung by the brothers, in a variety of languages. I cherished the experience of being surrounded by the volume of 3,000 voices singing, juxtaposed with a time of stillness and silence with so many people together.
In fact, as I sat and sang and listened one day at prayers, I really wanted to take home with me the sound of those 3,000 singing voices. Unfortunately, there was a sign on the door of the church asking people to refrain from photography except for the single hour of 1pm to 2pm, when, of course, there are no prayers or singing. So I pointed my camera at the floor and took a video, just as a sound clip! Here is a selection of some of my favorite songs. Even though the microphone of my old camera and your computer speakers won't give justice to the real sound, you can at least get a taste. :) I tried to get two rounds of each song.
English
Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. (x2) |
Italian
Tu sei sorgente viva, tu sei fuoco, sei carità. Vieni Spirito Santo, vieni Spirito Santo! |
English translation
You are the living source, you are fire, you are love. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit! |
German
Frieden, Frieden hinterlasse ich euch. Meinen Frieden gebe ich euch. Euer Herz verzage nicht. |
English translation
Peace, peace I leave (with) you. I give my peace to you. Your heart does not despair. |
Latin
Da pacem Domine, da pacem O Christe, in diebus nostris. |
English translation
Give us peace Lord, Give us peace O Christ, in our time. |
The Church of Reconciliaton holds up to 5,000, so when I was there we didn't pack it out, but all the wings were open. The community has to be flexible since the campus population can change drastically from week to week. So, for example, the church cavern is built to easily expand from accommodating 500, as in the week prior to mine, to accommodating 3,000 within 24 hours. Opening or closing multiple sections and wings provide for the quick weekly transitions and also allow for smaller meeting rooms to be easily created for the afternoon workshops.
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| The brothers wear white robes and sit within this hedged area. There are several microphones hidden in the bushes that the brothers can inconspicuously pick up to take turns leading a song or a prayer. |
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| On the right side of the original church cavern, eight or so small, stained-glass windows perforate the wall. Here, John the Baptist leaps within Elisabeth's womb when Mary arrives to visit, pregnant with the "lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" |
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| The warm, colorful altar, which I only saw used on Sunday for a Catholic mass. Construction hides behind the large decorative curtains, where they are increasing insulation on the previously uninsulated back wall. |
A Photo Tour of Taizé
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| The first thing you see as you step off the regional bus is "Casa", the welcome hut, where I received a brief introduction to Taizé and the week's schedule. |
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| The ecumenical monastic community of Taizé has slowly grown up along the road that leaves the town of Taizé to the north. They maintain extensive hedging along that main road to offer a protected footpath on either side. |
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| Taizé boasts a great quantity of several different varieties of accommodation. There are dorm-style rooms in buildings, large army tents, and the smaller tents as pictured above, which I heard are stocked with quite comfortable air mattresses. I didn't know any of these options beforehand and brought my own tent, which turned out to be slightly cheaper anyway. :) |
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| My solitary tent on Sunday morning, after the previous week's prayerful participants had left, and before my week officially started. Eventually this field filled right up. |
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| The five-bell tower cheerfully clangs along for 10-15 minutes to call everyone in to morning, mid-day, and evening prayers. |
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| One afternoon I took a hike down to Saint Stephen's Spring, which turned out to be much larger than it appeared on the Taizé map. A maze of footpaths snaked through the forest and down to this beautiful lake. Silence was requested in this expansive nature reserve, which was only broken by a chorus of frogs. |
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| Beautiful wood carvings depict scenes of Jesus' life in a stations-of-the-cross-type walk through the forest surrounding Saint Stephen's Spring. Here, Jesus carries his cross to Golgatha. This station is probably accidently surrounded by Nettle, which is the perfect plant to symbolize this scene. If you touch Nettle you receive a painful sting, but if you cook it or dry it, that is to say, if it dies, you can consume it as a food or tea and receive its great healing properties internally. |
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| One afternoon I ventured out to the small town of Cluny, a 10 minute bus ride away, to do a load of laundry. I felt like the town had big secrets and I wished I could've had more time to explore around. After returning to the Ark, I learned that there was once a massive Benedictine abbey located there, that was ransacked by the revolutionaries in the late 1700s. In it's heyday, the 10th and 11th centuries, the abbey was second only to the pope in religious influence throughout Europe. This photo is for Emily Wettig, who likes to take pictures of normal life in different countries... this is what a regular old street looks like in modern day Cluny, France. |
I was deeply impacted by my visit to Taizé. See the next post to read about my personal experience!
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