My week in Taizé!
It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog, sorry everyone! I’ve been doing so many different things it’s been hard to find the right frame of mind for writing.
I’ve just got back from a week at Taizé, which was amazing. It’s the first time I’ve been to Taizé since 2004, so it was quite a significant experience. As those of you who know my music will remember, the chants sung at Taizé are my inspiration and my experience of Taizé when I was 17 was the beginning of my path with God.
On the Friday evening the community has a prayer around the cross. When the evening prayer is finished, the monks place the icon of the cross on the floor and then move aside. The congregation queues up and then take their place around the cross, putting their forehand or hands on the icon of Jesus crucified.
During the week this was the first time I felt really moved beyond a general happiness to be there and interest in the discussions we were having. It was the first time I felt a presence of God, and I spent quite a while writing. I will write up what I wrote on that evening as an introduction to some Taizé-inspired blogs.
The church is filled with the chant ‘Jesus Remember Me’. 5,000 voices calling out to God. 5,000 people whose hearts are crying out to be welcomed into the arms of the Father. And Jesus hears every single voice and knows every one of their names. Human and deity are united by a mutual longing for each other. ‘Man is never more fully man than when he gives himself totally to God; and God is never more fully God than when he gives himself totally to man.’ We try to meet God in a way we can understand – we place ourselves at the foot of his cross, but God’s work is so much more deep. As we welcome Him one again into our lives he once more opens our hearts to a love that is beyond description, even beyond comprehension.
All differences forgotten, all divisions ignored, we come to Him each as fragile and broken as each other. And as a loving mother and father, God welcomes us. For this short time, all voices are one, calling out to the love and grace of our Lord. And God comes to us, no matter what we have done and no matter what we’ve thought. He welcomes us and welcomes us, healing our bruised hearts with his outpouring of divine, never-ending, unconditional love.
God loves us. God loves us. God loves us.