The first time I heard something about the Community of Taizé was in 10th grade at school. For a few months we looked at different persons who had committed their lifes to others and one the persons we talked about was fr. Roger. I remember that we watched a very old video and had to answer different questions. What are the brothers doing, how did it all start, what do people search for in Taize. When we were through with that topic I could not remember much of it but I often thought of this video when I did passage groups. Talking about the Community I now associate with Wortschatzsuche and patient French couples.

The Community is the place were people cannot sleep during the meeting even when they have had personal contact with fr. Roger before. It’s the big mystery only the boys get a glimpse of, it’s the privacy of those whole welcome us, where all the brothers ultimately disappear to, where you shouldn’t be late for supper and where you eat in silence. The food is said to be delicious. It’s where people phone to when they don’t find the number of the different courriers, or when they missed their bus in Cluny and come late to work. It’s the monastic place you want to defend when you see 16-year-olds running around in their bikinis. The Community is who sets the frame for the life we are able to live in Taize. It’s a community of brothers, of men, of humans.

Detailed information about the Community and the meetings in Taizé you can find on the Community’s website. Just so much:

The Community was founded in 1940 by fr. Roger. A few years later the first brothers committed their lives to material and spiritual sharing, celibacy, and simplicity. In the beginning, fr. Roger gave refuge to Jews and prisoners-of-war, later the Community started to welcome young people and organize meetings in Taize as well as in major European cities and on other continents. Some of the approx. one hundred brothers live in small franternities among the poorest in South America, Africa, and Asia. The brothers come from 25 nations and various Christian backgrounds and live solely from their own work.