#Taize

[psalmsofhope]

Lift Up Thy Heart

If you are struggling, embrace Him...

"I love each of you with the same love that the Father loves me.

You must continually let my love nourish your hearts." (Jn. 15:9)

[divinum-pacis]

Taize: Stay With Me

[sethian123]

Trip to Taizé (haibun poem)

In days long past, my school did a pilgrimage to a small land of peace and reconciliation, that lay in the nation of passion and revolution. As a community from nations near and far, we all ate simple food in the daylight flavouring the fresh air, allowing us all to discover joy in pearls hidden in fields. I listened and sang hymns of honey given by the monks dressed in white. Through the songs on my tongue, I tasted gladness of heart and peace in mind, though sometimes the words were a mystery to me. I spent my personal time in the chapel, sitting in silent worship amid polished stone with orange windows. I listened to the peace of flowing milk around me, and the occasional drip touching my tongue. I did not understand the divine flowing all around and within me, though I felt its gentle touch. It was a mystery to me, incompressible and veiled by my shackles. A mystery that I had not comprehended at that time, till I took a bit of fruit in years after. But the hymns of sweet honey and the flowing milk was but a faint taste to me. I was not a Christian back then as I am now. I was still led along by the hope of a New Age back then. Though the milk and honey were sweet to my tongue, I could not have swallowed the medicine they contained within. Yaldabaoth had chained my neck tight by his words and by his mirages of the desert, until I found the Tree of Gnosis that unlocked my neck and heart later in life. As such, the milk, honey or any beverage of the spirit were not my found treasure there, but the friends that journeyed with me. They were a mountain filled with greenery for me. Birds were tweeting in laughter, and the trees were rustling in chatter. Wind was playing games in the branches, and the sun was shining over this all. We all slept and hung out in tents at night when there was no blistering sunlight showering us. That was a mountain of friendship I never climbed before and never climbed up again. Only memories of the mountain peak of shining white remain. I can no longer see that princess of moonlight now, though I was closest to her on the mountain peak. I felt her cool breath amidst the stars, and I heard her laughter among the trees at daylight. 

On the green mountain

With honey and pearly milk

Laughing with the moon

[normalbeing404]

yesterday I forgot to blog

so I'll just do it now

the night and morning were stressful because there was heavy rain in the night

my tent got a bit flooded

luckily it's on a slight incline so all the water went to one corner

i just laid my bigger towel in that corner to soak most of it up but it wasn't enough

so in the morning i had to wring it out and let it soak up the rest as well

i later laid out all of the stuff that got wet

but the rest of the day went well

we played the sketch we came up with the day before!

i also bought some yuca chips and they are so good i had to look up what yuca is

[cana--merula]

I lived in the same house all my life, even when I left for university I would come back every weekend. This is my home. And I like the flat I live in now, but I still wouldn't call it my home in this sense of ultimate belonging. The only other place I ever felt that way was in Taizé. And I'm so happy to go back in a little over a week.

If you're not european and christian, you probably never heard about this place. It's a little village in the french countryside where a community of brothers are living and offering a safe space for thousands of young people from all over the world to meet up, connect and discuss whatever matters to them (that being religion or philosophy or life in general).

I first went there when I first finished school. Legally I was already an adult but I didn't feel that way. My future was still uncertain, I didn't knew if uni would work out. Even so, I didn't have many questions. I found the answers anyway.

I came back while studying. I knew what I would be doing in the next three years, how my life would look like (at least I thought so, this was in 2019). I had even fewer questions. I still got more answers.

Last time I went after finishing uni and I stayed a bit longer as a volunteer. I had a job that I could probably start after coming back, but nothing for certain. My whole life was changing again. This time I had more questions and I got answers to most of them.

I'm going back in a week and I'm trying to find my questions. I know they will come out as soon as I sit down in that church to sing the first song and I'm excited for them and for the answers. As soon as I reach that hill, I'm gonna be back in my second home. I can't wait. ♡

[bauerntanz]

8. Lange Nacht der Kirchen

Am Samstag in der #Lingen-er Innenstadt: Die 8. Lange Nacht der Kirchen.

An diesem Samstag findet die 8. Lange Nacht der Kirchen in der Lingener Innenstadt statt. Dazu laden die Veranstalter in Lingen herzlich ein. In den drei Innenstadtkirchen, in der Jüdischen Schule, im Emslandmuseum und auf dem Marktplatz wird es ein vielfältiges Veranstaltungsprogramm geben. Eröffnet wird die „Lange Nacht“ um 19.00 Uhr und beendet um 23.30 Uhr mit einem Abendsegen auf der…

[stanthonywalnuttree]

“Wait..” Advent Season

“ Wait for the Lord; whose day is near! Wait for the Lord; Keep watch, take heart!” Taize

[errantabbot]

On the Realities of Contemplative Practice and Contemporary Church Life:

When it comes to ministry and to spiritual direction and various contemplative practices in particular, the experience and realization of the facilitator is of significant importance, and a seminary degree alone is frankly inadequate preparation for the tasks, which are not chiefly academic exercises.

It is in vogue right now for struggling spiritual institutions to mime many practices that are neither natal to the institution nor home to the facilitators attempting to co-opt them.

Spiritual direction, Taize, labyrinths, and all other manners of trying to leach off the gravity of the contemplative and wisdom traditions of the world are nothing but more empty promises when not facilitated by realized practitioners who have made their home in them.

What’s worse, many a rank-and-file church attempts to engage these practices as little more than bait and switch campaigns, forays at best, into the normative life of their institutions which usually amounts to commodified spiritual entertainment- sitting in a pew, watching a show, paying a tithe, and if they would be so lucky, serving on a committee. It’s absurd and inauthentic.

When an institution has to drift from its normative forms to attempt to catch somebody, anybody, especially the ever illusive “young people,” it’s probably time to evangelize and poach a little less, and really critically examine what it is they have been doing, why it’s no longer connecting of its own pull, and how it might need to significantly and in good faith evolve, or in similarly good faith, wind down and call it a day.

~Sunyananda

[bookkats]

Maundy Thursday Taize Communion/Footwashing Worship

Taize “Laudate omni Gentes” On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they…

[psalmsofhope]

Taize Tuesday

Joy Rises with the Dawn!

[divinum-pacis]

Taize: O Lord, Hear My Prayer

[normalbeing404]

this is a typical Taizé breakfast: some baguette 🥖, a bit of butter 🧈 and two sticks of chocolate 🍫. you can choose between tea and cacao to go along with it.

it's best prepared by ripping the bread open, smothering it with butter and laying one stick of chocolate inside (the other one is a snack for after).

i took that photo this morning.

i also watched a film about the founder of Taizé today, i would have loved to meet him!

in bible discussion we talked about social injustices and our strengths and weaknesses!

[hymnsofheresy]

يا رب السلام أمطر علينا السلام

يا رب السلام إملاء قلوبنا سلام

Translation:

"O Lord of peace, rain down upon us your peace. O Lord of peace, fill every heart with your peace."