I have now been in Taizé for almost a week. I have mentioned Taizé several times in my blogs, but what is Taizé actually?
Taizé is a small village in Burgundy, France. About 800km drive from Utrecht. Here is a monastery with brothers.
The Swiss Roger Schütz arrived here in 1940 and bought a house here with an idea to start a kind of monastery, but it really took off later. In wartime he received people here who needed help. He returned to Switzerland from 1942 to 1944 because of the war. He then returned to Taizé in 1944 and a community of brothers was formed here. Frere Roger was a Protestant like the first other brothers, but in the late 1960s the first Catholic brother entered and it has been an ecumenical community ever since.
Soon many young people also came to visit the brothers. Often young people from various backgrounds, Protestant, Catholic Eastern Orthodox and also many people who are looking. Every week on Sunday, the new people arrive who stay for a week. In other years, this was often 2 to 3 thousand people a week in the summer months who are received here. People sleep in tents and barracks. But this year because of corona, a maximum of 500 are allowed but there are less than 200 people this week. I have been coming here for about 9 years and it is very different for me now to be here because we are such a small group, but despite that it is very good.
But what can one do during a day in Taizé? I will write that below.
8.15 am morning prayer with song, silence, reading and communion. then my favorite breakfast of bread, chocolate bars (those are the chocolate bars that are also used to make chocolate croissants) and tea or chocolate milk.
The Bible introduction is by a brother at 10 am. Everyone gets a sheet with Bible text and a number of questions to think about. Not only questions about the biblical text, but especially personal and deep questions such as “what would you like to get out of this week?”, “Is there anything that you want to change in your life or in society?”, “How do you experience God in your life?”. After the brother’s explanation, there is a time of silence in which you can think about those questions yourself.