LIFE AT TAIZÉ It is possible that from the other blog entries about Taizé that one could get the impression that life at Taizé is perfect. This is not the case. Like life everywhere, life in community at Taizé is filled with challenges. For example, there are many rules at Taizé. For someone who has never been before, you learn the rules as you go along… sometimes by breaking them. Many of the rules center around worship (which makes sense because ...

STUDY AT TAIZÉ Those who come to Taizé with a family live in a separate area called Olinda, which is about a 10-15 minute walk from the main Taizé village in the village of Ameugny (I'll try to pinpoint exactly where Olinda is on the map for this blog entry). All of our eating, sleeping and studying is at Olinda and we only go to Taizé for prayer three times a day or if we want to go to the Exposition (the Taizé bookstore) or if we want to hang out at Oy...

WORSHIP AT TAIZÉ Bells ring in dissonant chaos inviting wandering souls from around the world into worship at Taizé. As you approach the entrance a young adult holds a sizable sign with just one word. This one word is three things: command, invitation and announcement of what you will find inside. This one word is simply "silence." The sanctuary is spacious. It is clear that it has been expanded several times, always to make room for all; though some ha...

CROSSING BORDERS, THRESHOLDS As long as I can remember, I've always had a certain reverence for crossing a border. When I was young, it was usually the Canada-U.S. border. One time we went to Winnipeg for a family vacation. Another time our 4-H group went to the waterslide park in Kanose (don't ask me why a 4-H group would do this, other than for fun). I think this reverence for border crossing was learned from my father. My father was almost always the o...