The Community of Taizé

The Communauté of Taizé is a monastic community based with Taizé (Saône-et-Loire) joining together various confessions.

Foundation

Frère Roger Schutz is the son of Swiss Pasteur. Young student in theology, it feels thorough in 1940 with “ to build a common life in which the reconciliation according to the Gospel would be a concretely lived reality ”. He settles with Taizé in Burgundy in 1940, where he hides then Juif S, deserters… The Gestapo is about to stop it; it turns over at the time in Suisse in 1942, until the end of the war.

It turns over then to Taizé where very quickly join some companions of various Churches. The small monastic community lives of its work in simplicity. It accommodates thousands of young people each year who come to request a very oecumenical experiment there. Frère Roger known as of him: “ I found my identity of Christian by reconciling in myself my evangelic origins with the faith of the Catholic church ”.

He is stabbed with death, the August 16th 2005, at the time of the prayer of the evening by a mental unbalanced Rumanian young person, Luminița Solcan which apparently wanted only to draw its attention. Frère Aloïs then becomes the new prior of the community; he had been chosen by brother Roger and the community in 1998.

With the passing of years the community of Taizé develops. Companions unite with Roger brother: the community is composed at present of brothers coming of about thirty nations and various Christian origins (including 70 in Taizé and about thirty others in other small communities). The community does not accept for itself any gift. The brothers earn their living by their work: they manufacture potteries which they sell in a shop located in the community. Their personal heritages, they give them the most stripped to.

“One of the pure joys of Gospel is to always advance still and towards a simplicity of the heart which involves with a simplicity of life” (Roger brother).

The songs of Taizé, with resumptions and use of various languages, are sung by a requesting community. Thus, at the time of the celebrations, long times of quiet meditations are envisaged.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation: it is the gasoline of Taizé. The thousands of young people of the whole world who have broken in Taizé “with the regularity of the waves” for several decades are of all kinds of religious denominations. It does not matter, they find in Taizé what they come to seek there: a respectful reception their beliefs and this Prayer jointly very simple and very rythmée which links them the ones with the others. “Among them, of the orthodoxe young people of Russia, Ukraine, etc Like all, they wait to be liked. They know that they come from tested countries, which still know tensions. However, they are carrying treasures of humanity, we have to learn from them. ” asp

The church of the Reconciliation was built in the years 1960 on the initiative of a German organization wishing to make a symbolic gesture of Franco-German reconciliation.

The Council of the young people

At the end of the Sixties and especially the movements of May 1968, from many young people go to come to Taizé to seek a new faith after the questioning of the world of the adults into 1968 which did not save any Christian Church. At the time of Easter, in 1970,1971,1972… they will be sometimes up to forty thousand to follow one another to gather around the community. One starts to increase the Church of Taizé by capitals. Each one is invited to take part in the Concile of the young people, in the “dynamics of provisional”. The brothers of Taizé thus expressed their very lively interest for the interrogations of the young people of all the continents and all the political regimes, and thought of helping them to include/understand the word of God vis-a-vis the world which they wanted to build. This council not was instituted, but relayed near the Churches so that the religious structures open with these new aspirations. One invited each one with enraciner in communities of prayer, sometimes of life, in his parish.

International exchanges

Well before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the brothers of Taizé were going discreetly in the countries of Europe of the East to meet young people. From where the privileged contact of Taizé with Eastern Europe.

“For the young people, we wish to be above all the men of listening, never of the spiritual Masters. With them, we would like to go to the sources of the confidence of the faith, in particular through the irreplaceable common prayer which, by its beauty, comes to touch the bottom of the heart. ”

“In fact vast knowledge imports at the beginning. They will have their great value. But it is by the heart, in the depths of oneself, that the human being starts to seize the Mystery of the Foi. An interior life is worked out step by step. ”

Since 1978, Taizé organizes with modest means of the five days meetings in various countries of Europe. Hundreds of thousands of young people assist and are lodged to with it in the families or the community centres. Last year, this meeting took place with Zagreb December 28th 2006 at January 1st 2007. This year, the town of Geneva will accommodate this European meeting.

European meetings of the young people organized by Taizé:

1978 - France, Paris
1979 - Spain, Barcelona
1980 - Italy, Rome
1981 - the United Kingdom, London
1982 - Italy, Rome
1983 - France, Paris
1984 - Germany, Cologne
1985 - Spain, Barcelona
1986 - the United Kingdom, London
1987 - Italy, Rome
1988 - France, Paris
1989 - Poland, Wrocław
1990 -, Prague
1991 - Hungary, Budapest
1992 - Austria, Vienna
1993 - Germany, Munich
1994 - France, Paris
1995 - Poland, Wrocław
1996 - Germany, Stuttgart
1997 - Austria, Vienna
1998 - Italy, Milan (100 000 young people)
1999 - Poland, Warsaw
2000 - Spain, Barcelona (70 000 young people)
2001 - Hungary, Budapest
2002 - France Paris (80 000 young people)
2003 - Germany Hamburg (70 000 young people)
2004 - Portugal Lisbon (40 000 young people)
2005 - Italy, Milan (50 000 young people)
2006 - Croatia, Zagreb (40 000 young people)
2007 - Switzerland, Geneva

The community also organizes international meetings of young people, of less width. In 2006, it took place with Calcutta, and in 2007 in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Famous songs

Cantarei ao Senhor

Bless the Lord

Magnificat

Venite Exultemus

Laudate Dominum

Wait for the Lord

Bóg jest Miłością

Jesus Christ

Ubi Caritas

External bonds

the site of Taizé
Frère Roger: Photographs of funerals

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