Br. Roger of Taize - Rest in Peace

When I was young, at a time when Europe was torn apart by so many conflicts, I kept on asking myself: Why all these confrontations?  Why do so many people, even Christians, condemn one another out of hand?  And I wondered:  is there, on this earth, a way of reaching complete understanding of others?  Then came a day - I can still remember the date, and I could describe the place:  the subdued light of a late summer evening, darkness settling over the countryside -- a day when I made a decision.  I said to myself, if this way does exist, begin with yourself and resolve to understand every person fully.  That day, I was certain the vow I had made was for life.  It involved nothing less than returning again and again, my whole life long, to this irrevocable decision:  seek to understand all, rather than to be understood.

Br. Roger of Taize 1915-2005

On August 16, during a prayer service at Taize,

Brother Roger is fatally wounded by a mentally unbalanced assailant.

  He dies at the age of ninety.

The Witness of Prayer

Very often a man or a woman who dared to pray alone in a church has been, by their perseverance, a living appeal to others.  It only takes one for many to be drawn along in the end.

Br. Roger of Taize

Young and Old

Every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom new things as well as old. (Mt. 13:52)

I was brought up in the old traditions, but listening to younger people and sharing in their private struggles rids me of certain reflexes of fear. Without these thousands of young people here on the hill, where would I be now, in spite of my desire to be open.

Br. Roger of Taize

Teaching with Heart

“[The heart is] the loom on which the threads [student, subject, and teacher] are tied, the tension is held, the shuttle flies, and the fabric is stretched tight.”

• • • • Parker Palmer

Teaching and Community

• “To teach is to create a space where the community of truth is practiced”
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• Parker Palmer

Discernment and Entering Community

“As the Rule [of St. Benedict] describes, entering a community is a process and requires discernment. This is not because the community is any kind of elite. But because the full benefit of entering demands the clearest possible understanding of one’s reasons and of the call to which one is responding.”

Laurence Freeman, O.S.B.

Community and Conversion

“The monks have come to know that their community is constituted by their commitment to conversion. And they know that conversion is turning from themselves to their brethren in community; and to Christ in prayer; and to God in Christ.”
John Main, O.S.B.

Community and Evil

“True community is different [than issue-oriented groups] because of the realization that the evil is inside – not just inside the community, but inside me.”
Jean Vanier

Community and Growth

“Frequently, a call of Jesus is revealed to us as we feel truly at home in a community and discover that the community for us is a place of growth in love and in total acceptance of the good news of Jesus. That is one of the signs that Jesus is saying to us: ‘Come and live with these brothers and sisters who may squabble together like the first of my disciples, but this is where I am calling you to be today. It might be difficult but it will be a place of growth in love for you. It is there that I will reveal to you my love.’”
Jean Vanier

Community

“We will only stay in community if we have gone through the passage from choosing community to knowing that we have been chosen for community.”
Jean Vanier

Resurrection

“A community which trusts in God rather than in the righteousness of its “cause” can always be crushed, but from that crushing will come resurrection. There is a hidden strength in being vulnerable, open, and non-violent, in being a people of the resurrection, knowing that we are loved and that God is guiding us, in all our fragility and littleness.”
Jean Vanier