Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Weblogs: 'Tis the spring of the soul today

(via Loose Canon after the murder of Brother Roger of Taize, one of the most seminal and in one sense relatively unsung religious figures of the last century)

"One can't help noticing that Taize is near Cluny, one of the great centers of monastic reform in the in the Middle Ages. As with earlier monastic communities, the Taize movement put great emphasis on music. Brother Roger was a classically-trained musician, and the chant he developed is now used in churches all over the world.

A mixture of Catholic and Protestant traditions, Taize is a magnet for pilgrims. As Dominican priest Patrick [J.] Burke observed [in Spirituality Today]:

'Each day the Prior and community at Taize invite and welcome visitors to participate in their common prayer. Three times a day the Church of Reconciliation is packed to capacity for the hour-long services of praise and intercession. The structure of the prayer is similar to that of the 'Divine Office' from the Catholic monastic tradition consisting of a hymn, psalms, scripture reading and intercessions. Roger encourages simplicity in the Rule concerning prayer and warns of the danger of multiplying signs and symbols which only lead to confusion. Common prayer is not an end in itself but only leads to the love of Jesus growing in our hearts. Neither does it dispense us from personal prayer; rather the two support and nurture each other.

'All prayer is a surrendering to the living word of God, allowing it to penetrate our inmost being, 'melting and molding us' into the image of Christ himself. It is a listening, a searching, a seeking, a place of hunger and thirst and yet also a place of joy, jubilation, and fulfillment.'"

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