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Open Hearts Open Minds
Open Doors
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Taize is a village in Burgundy, in eastern France, where in August 1940 Brother Roger Schutz came from Switzerland to establish a witness of service; he sheltered and thus helped a number of Jews to escape death at the hands of German Nazis as he helped smuggle them from occupied northern France to the south of France. On Easter Day 1949, seven lay brothers joined Brother Roger in establishing the Taize Community, which now numbers over 100 brothers, some of whom live in many other parts of the world, giving succor to disadvantaged persons. On August 16, 2005, Brother Roger was murdered during the regular Taize community evening service. He had been in frail health for several years, and has already transferred the functions of leader of the community to another brother of long standing, Brother Alois. From its beginning, the community has devoted its efforts to the renewal of the devotional life of the Christian church through the rediscovery and composition of simple songs and rounds, the composition of extended canticles and other liturgical texts utilizing the form of a chorus or antiphon sung in Latin and the body of the text sung in a living language by a cantor or song leader. (All of them have been translated and published in English.) Many of the current chants were composed by the late Jacques Berthier, a Paris organist of worldwide eminence; the work now goes forward through Joseph Gelineau, another noted French organist and composter. The songs of Taize, with their simple melodies, are easy to sing and enable us to keep on praying when we are alone, by night and day, and sometimes in the silence of our hearts when we are at work. The accompaniment of instruments like guitar, harp, violin, cello, flute and recorder confers a meditative character to the brief repeated chants. Scriptures are read contemplatively within the traditions of lectio sacra. Silence, sometimes briefly following a scripture passage or extract from devotional literature, sometimes extending for several minutes, is vital to worship in the manner of Taize: in silence we listen and are present to God, as we wait for a sense that God is with us and is ready to transform us more and more into the image of Christ - if only we wish to be that. When we sense that we are in communication, in communion with God, when we are conscious of being in God's presence, then we are in prayer. |
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