April 5, 2010

  • Pasqua a Taizé

    In one word: magical


    www.taize.fr

    In more than one word...

    Like so many of the best things in life, an experience at Taiz

    é is one of those that it's very difficult to do appropriate justice in a description of it to anyone who hasn't been there themselves. It's very hard to describe the wonder of it, and I recommend that anyone even a bit interested takes the opportunity to go there and see!

    This was my 3rd trip - the first two were in the summer so this was the first time at Easter. I also went to the European Meeting in Poznan, Poland at new year. Each time has been slightly different for various reasons (company, accommodation etc) but always with the constant that is the wonder of thousands of people (6000 this time I believe) from all over Europe and the world, all there for the same reason.

    Whilst the past 2 times I've been with UK groups, this time I went on the coach from Italy which was fun, if a little daunting. I'm so grateful to the lovely people I was with for making me feel welcome. It was strange as well actually being one of the youngest in the group, while I am used to being one of the oldest.
    Actually, having hit the 25 mark I was in the 25-35 group this time, which was good. Once you are 30 you become an "adult" and have to eat etc in the adults area... I'm quite happy to be a youngster for another 5 years thank you very much!! But it was good to be at the bottom of the age range rather than being 24 in the 17-24 age group like last time.

    For the first time ever I didn't join the little choir. I had always said to myself that it wouldn't be Taizé without being in the choir, but actually I really enjoyed doing the things I did instead. I still went to the song practice from 2-3pm, but instead of staying on after (except the first day, when I did), I went to other workshops and stuff. For example I would have missed one of the three small group meetings if I'd been in the choir, and in fact, the small group was one of the highlights this year. They can be a bit hit and miss, and I really felt like this was the first time I definitely got something out of it. I only took 3 photos during the whole trip and this is one of them... we were made up of 5 Spaniards, 2 Finns, 1 Italian (Mauro, from Brescia) and me. Their linguistic skills (and in fact everybody at Taize's) really put mine to shame!

    In terms of the workshops, the first one I went to was "The Eucharist and the Early Christians" which was fascinating. Brother Emile was talking a lot about how the eucharist is community and life rather than being about the ceremony. A lot of what he was saying reflected my own thoughts and frustrations about not being able to take communion in Italy, and at the end I went up and asked him about it. He agreed that it's a great shame, but said that maybe soon the Catholic church will change their mind because it is something which is supposed to bring people together and not divide them...  I doubt it, but we'll see!
    I've just remembered that he also said that I should write to the bishop of Brescia because Eucharistic Hospitality DOES exist, which means that I should  be allowed to take communion in the absence of an Anglican church. He said that individual priests SHOULD know about this... the three asked so far in Brescia haven't seemed to... writing to the bishop seems a bit extreme, but perhaps I should!

    Other highlights included the UK regional meeting which consisted of the lovely Brother Paolo, myself and one other girl! In fact the first 10 minutes were just Brother Paolo and me, until Serena turned up. I think the UK could have done a bit better than that, but then in fact it was nice to have a chance to really chat to Brother Paolo. Normally there are so many people that you can't really talk like that. He was telling us about he chose to be Paolo because he loved Italy so much (he had to choose a new name overnight because there was already a Brother Paul).  I was also chatting to him about living in Italy and the communion issue, and his response was "poor church". He said that he would have just taken communion and not said anything. I'm still inclined to just go to a new church and do that, but it would be difficult to pretend in all seriousness to be Catholic for other reasons, so I'd soon be "found out"! I am dying to find a nice church community here, not to cut myself off from them all by breaking the "law" !

    On Saturday night a new brother made his life committment which was a very special moment. It gave me goose pimples! His family were there and his mum was crying like at a wedding, and when he hugged her and the rest of his family I thought I was going to cry too!! I was sitting in a perfect viewing position for that, right opposite. It was lovely.

    Easter Sunday was something else. I didn't take the picture at the top obviously, but we had the candles during the Eucharist just like that. Incredible to be celebrating the resurrection with so many other people. The best bit had to be afterwards when they went through the "Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!" sequence in every language under the sun, with all the various nationalities shouting out the response from the various corners of the enormous "airport hangar" church!

    After the service we went and toasted Easter with a drink at good old Oyak. Then went and queued up for lunch, all at the adults' tent so we could eat together. There was a moment of hilarity when the chant sung before lunch was the very slow and reflective "De Noche" (by night) - at 1pm in the sunshine, on Easter Sunday. Oh well!!

    After lunch some people had brought Easter Eggs which they very kindly shared. This picture below makes me laugh because of the German woman on the right, who totally cracked me up. She and a friend somehow ended up sitting on the table with us but they had got up to leave just before the eggs came out. They were standing by the door, and when that woman saw the eggs her eyes lit up and she said something to her friend, then sort of sidled her way back to the table and sat down! She was very happy to help eat the chocolate, and then as we were packing up to go to the coach, she asked if she could take a small egg as a "souvenir" for her husband in Germany. Claudia said yes, at which point the woman helped herself to three eggs!! I found it really funny! I like this photo because you can see that she's got her eye on the bowl of eggs!!

    Sadly there always comes a point when it's time to leave Taizé, and for us it was at 2pm yesterday.  I bought the newly released 2010 CD Mane Nobiscum which will keep me going for a while. I'm pleased because it's got several of the chants that I wished were on other CDs I've got. I can't wait to go back again though and will certainly try and make it in the summer. Brother Paolo actually suggested that I go for 4-6 weeks! Not sure I'll manage that, but it's a nice idea!