April Taizé: Hope & Trust

As we enter Holy Week, when we celebrate both Good Friday and Easter. When we look at world events, we can personally get discouraged, like Job who cried out: “Where then is my hope, and my prosperity, who shall see? Will they descend with me into the nether world? Shall we go down together into the dust?”

Download a program for the service here: Taize Service Worship Aid for April 7, 2022.

We need to remind ourselves that God is there for us like Isaiah says: “A nation of firm purpose you keep in peace; in peace, for its trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever! For the Lord is an eternal rock.” (Isaiah 26:3-4), and as it says in the Book of Joshua: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

The Paschal Mystery prescribes the law of life coming through death and by means of death. That we are governed as humans by the law of death is a reality we ignore as much as possible; that we are governed as Christians by the law of life coming through death and by means of death is a mystery we struggle to understand.

As we prepare to begin this Taizé Prayer Service, I invite those of you in the room to stand, come forward and bless yourself with these blessed waters as a sign of your willingness to enter into the death of Christ, so that you can rise with Christ and experience God’s abundant love and grace.

What is Taizé?

Taizé prayer is practiced throughout the world. It is a meditative candle-lit form of community prayer that includes simple chants sung repeatedly, silence and prayers of praise and intercession. In prayer, we enter the silence, stilling the mind, opening the heart, surrendering to the action of the Spirit ever molding us into the image of Christ. The candles used in the service symbolize the presence of the risen Christ, who conquered darkness and sin and offers new life to all humankind.

Taizé Prayer comes from an ecumenical, monastic community in France and has spread to numerous spots around the world.

From the depths of the human condition, a secret aspiration rises up. Today many are thirsting for the essential reality: an inner life, signs of the Invisible. Nothing is more conducive to communion with the living God than meditative common prayer. When the mystery of God becomes tangible through the simple beauty of symbols, when it is not smothered by too many words, then a common prayer awakens us to heaven’s joy on earth.

All the videos of our Taize prayer services are available here.

Photo by Анна Рыжкова from Pexels

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