Taize & Easter

I celebrated Easter Sunday morning, waking a bit too early for my liking but gave me a chance to rise before dawn and go to the Taize church with only a handful of people in it and spend some time there before the church was filled at 10:00am with literally around 6,000 people! It was quite amazing! The size of attendees had grown considerably over the week, with people coming from all over the world.

After the regular Taize song style prayer service, 'Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!' was translated into around 15 languages. The first phrase was said from the front followed by people all over the church shouting back their responses in their own languages. Sometimes there were 4 respondents, like Swahili, whereas when it was said in German it sounded like half of the church shouted back the response! It felt very appropriate to celebrate Easter with such a huge number of people speaking so many languages.

Halfway through the week, it was estimated there were 500 Spaniards, 500 Portugese, 1000 germans, and who knows how many from Netherlands, Poland, France, Italy, Russia, Lithuania, and on and on! Including me, there were 4 from the US, and 4 from Canada! After a daily bible study led by one of the brothers (monks), I was in a delightful discussion group with people from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Belgium.

Still, my initial longing for a personal retreat, felt a bit out of question at moments, especially as i stood in line for food with maybe a thousand youngsters from all over Europe. so, I headed off on my own to walk the beautiful countryside. I also spent Friday and Saturday at a silent retreat place, 1km from Taize, still attending the prayer services, but getting a much delighted in time of real quiet and peace.

Im incredibly grateful for this time, as well as time afterwards with my dear aunt and uncle. I feel restored, rested, and aligned more fully with the Risen Lord.