Taize Monastic Community

[onajourney]

Very new here and still finding my way around.  I searched, but did not come up with much on this forum regarding the Taize Community (not the Taize services that are held in various parishes, but the actual Taize Monastic Community in France).  I've never been able to find much information about the Community itself online- requirments for admittance, formation, Rule/Constitutions or way of life, (other than the retreats they hold), etc.  Does anyone have information or can someone point me in the right direction?  Thanks.

[beatitude]

I love this community very much, but I do not know much about their entrance and formation procedure other than what I picked up when I was chatting to individual brothers about their personal vocation stories. I wouldn't want to give incorrect information, so I think your best option would be to e-mail the community directly with your specific questions. They are a beautiful community - so warm and hospitable, and doing ecumenism right. :)

[Lily May Gath]

Yep, spent 18 months with them as one of their volunteers, have known them for 25 years.

 

Normally you go as a visitor/pilgrim for a week Sunday to Sunday. Then boys or girls stay for a longer time as volunteers, initially on a week by week then month by month basis. The discernment is usually done alongside the brother or the Sister of Saint Andrew who accompanies you, and you meet with weekly.

 

No requirements. The brothers will all have spent time as volunteers. Many young people of college age volunteer for the summer, and some take time out during or after their studies. For the brothers formation is done within the community. They enter as 'young brothers' or novices and make their life vows when they are ready after around three years. A couple of the Brothers have also gone on to be ordained to the Catholic priesthood to serve very discretely within the community. The community is around 130 of many nations and denominations including Anglicans and Lutherans.

[Lily May Gath]

Rule of Taizé ISBN 0281068275 SPCK

 

Taizé is an Ecumenical community that does not come under the auspices of any of the Churches. The Brothers make their life promises to the Community and the Prior. They have had close relationships with the Popes since John XXIII and Frère Aloïs, the Prior has an annual private audience with the Pope. Most of the information is found in the Community section of the website and in the main books on the history of the community.

[onajourney]

Thank you!

 

[petitpèlerin]

I went to Taizé for an evening prayer service while I was living in France. I was very impressed with everything I saw there and I've heard nothing but good things about them from Catholics I trust. I agree wholeheartedly that It's ecumenism done right: rather than losing something of its holy character by being open to people of other faith backgrounds it maintains it, in a very quiet and hidden way, and attracts others to it. I wish I had encountered it when I was young and agnostic, it's exactly the kind of thing I was seeking and never found.

 

A Catholic friend of mine did a week-long retreat with the community in Taizé while we were students together. She loved it and it was a great experience for her that enriched her time in France.

 

I presume you've been to their English-version website: http://www.taize.fr/en

 

One more thing: I have heard that it is a beautiful community that is seeking holiness together, but it is indeed challenging to live in community with members from different cultures and different faith backgrounds. That's what it's about, and it sounds like it brings its blessings and its challenges.

Edited September 9, 2014 by petitpèlerin

[John Paul]

I brought this to the first page because I thought Nada de Turbe would like this.

[marigold]

I brought this to the first page because I thought Nada de Turbe would like this.

​That's so nice

[NadaTeTurbe]

Ooooh, that's nice !! 

I'm in love in Taizé but... i've never been there  I discovered it by their song. Surprise, my favorite is Nada te Turbe. We have a Taizé prayer group once every two week in my diocese. it's so quiet. It's a good time. I am in other prayer group, but it's the only group where I don't speak before and after with the other young. 

Also, I love the fact that they are independant ! The religious community next to me have brother, sister, and family, living & working together, but still, they take food at the food bank for the homeless, the CMU (a healthcare for poor people). etc... So I love to see a religious community who use it one strenght to live. I don't know if i'm clear ?

Plus, they are stable. Catholic told them they are too protestant ? They don't change. Protestant told them they are too catholic ? They don't change. They are the future ecumenism.

I'm reading a book by bro.Roger, Struggle and contemplation, and it's very profound. I highly recommend to read books by brother Roger to have a "contemplative" spirit !  

[juchu]

I'm reading a book by bro.Roger, Struggle and contemplation, and it's very profound. I highly recommend to read books by brother Roger to have a "contemplative" spirit !  
 

​I can really recommend the writings of frere Roger. The last years the brothers started a reedition of several books that were no longer available, it is only in french, but for those of you able to read french, there are 4 books so far:

http://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_fr_FR=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=les+ecrits+de+frere+roger&rh=n%3A301061%2Ck%3Ales+ecrits+de+frere+roger

Otherwise I highly recommend to read the "Rule of Taizé" and the "Sources of Taizé". And also, my second favorite: "Unanimité dans le pluralisme"

 

[savvy]

This sounds interesting. Do they have communities for sisters as well, or just for brothers?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lily May Gath]

No, there are no Taizé sisters. Just the brothers in this ecumenical community. They have had the Sisters of St. Andrew from Belgium working alongside them since the 1960's and the Polish Ursuline Sisters since the 1990's. They do have historical links to other protestant communities of sisters that were formed around the same time - 1940's, like the community in Grandchamp, Switzerland, and also the Little Sisters of Charles de Foucauld.

[Lily May Gath]

No, there are no Taizé sisters. Just the brothers in this ecumenical community. They have had the Sisters of St. Andrew from Belgium working alongside them since the 1960's and the Polish Ursuline Sisters since the 1990's. They do have historical links to other protestant communities of sisters that were formed around the same time - 1940's, like the community in Grandchamp, Switzerland, and also the Little Sisters of Charles de Foucauld.

[juchu]

No, there are no Taizé sisters. Just the brothers in this ecumenical community. They have had the Sisters of St. Andrew from Belgium working alongside them since the 1960's and the Polish Ursuline Sisters since the 1990's. They do have historical links to other protestant communities of sisters that were formed around the same time - 1940's, like the community in Grandchamp, Switzerland, and also the Little Sisters of Charles de Foucauld.

​Dear Lily May Gath, you are mixing things up a bit.

You are right, that there are no "Taizé sisters". There are though, protestat communities, like the Communaute de Grandchamp which adaped in the ealry 50s the Rule of Taize and the office books. Also other Communuties, like the Communaute de pomeyrol and the Deaconess de Reuilly were influenced by the old taize liturgie (it was rather monastique, not the "taize songs" we know today)

There were, until at some point in the early 90s, also sisters of Grandchamp in Taize who lived in a small fraternity and worked at Taize, like today the Sisters of St. Andre and the Ursuline Sistsers. 

The Little Sisters of Jesus, inspired by the spirituality of Charles de Foucauld, founded by little Sister Madeleine, after the death of Charles de Foucould, are a catholic community. They have links to Taize and Grandchamp and other protestant communites and are very open to other confessions and religions, since they have had a big insertion in the arabic world since the very beginnings.

 

 

[Egeria]

I remember the former prioress of Grandchamp once saying that they were once seen as a sort of female equivalent of Taizé (without being that officially) but that at a certain point their community consciously broke away from that idea in order to develop in their own way - although they retained good relations with the brothers. I'm not sure whether that was when they ceased to have a community at Taizé (I had thought it was earlier than that) but I imagine that it may have been. FWIW....