Love
Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.
-James Baldwin
Though it came to be known for its global ecumenism and a gentle style of contemplative prayer and worship that continues to resonate with young people around the world, the monastic community of Taizé has its origins in a wartime refugee crisis and one young man’s desire to serve those in need.
In 1940, a twenty-five year old theology student named Roger Schütz-Marsauche rode his bicycle from his home in Geneva to a small town called Taizé in the unoccupied part of France, not far from the German line of occupation. Roger had recently recovered from a bout with tuberculosis, and felt an urge to do something to help those whose lives were being upended by the war in Europe. In Taizé he negotiated the purchase of a small house and, together with his sister Genevieve, began to welcome and shelter Jewish and Christian refugees as they fled from Nazi oppression and persecution. The siblings did this for two years.
In 1944, Roger returned to the place and founded a tiny community dedicated to poverty and obedience and hospitality and prayer. Like the safe house he opened with Genevieve, it was to be a place of refuge and hope for anyone in search of peace. The simple monastery at Taizé became the heart of a worldwide movement described as “a pilgrimage of trust on earth.”
Brother Roger’s teaching was simple and ecumenical. He trusted that God was love, and that our experience of love is also an experience of God. He invited young people to pursue lives characterized by commitment to humanity, to engage their local faith communities, and to have confidence in God whose deepest heart is revealed in the person of Jesus.
Here’s an Easter prayer from Brother Roger of Taizé:
O Risen Christ,
You go down to the lowest depths of our human condition,
And you burden yourself with what burdens us.
And even when within us we can hear no refrain of your presence,
You are there.
For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
-Isaiah 54.10