A Year On...Reflections on Taizé

I am sat here listening to Taizé chants and it got me thinking that it is just over a year on since I was there. With that in mind I thought I would write down a few things that I learnt from that week that have helped me to be where I am today.

Firstly and probably most obviously to myself is the appreciation of silence. The world that we live in today is so busy and noisy that often we forget to just be still and listen. I have seen a development in myself of the practice of this since returning. I started off by having a few minutes of quiet in the morning just before I started my day. Although this had the benefit of focusing my mind before the day began it soon became quite a rush to fit everything in. I then changed to spending time in my lunch break which helped to break up the day and focus my thoughts back on God ready for the afternoon. As time went on though the regularity of this did begin to decline until it was no longer there. After quite a break I have not necessarily started up specific times for silence, instead the moments of silence that I encounter in the day I gain a new appreciation for. A time to rest and just listen for God's voice amid the business of life.

'For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him'- Psalm 62:5 ESV.

The second change which I have noticed is a change in perspective about worship. The experience of worship in the Taizé community challenged a lot of attitudes and preconceptions about what worship is and how it should be done. Even a year on my attitudes are still being challenged and rebuilt up after a great "stripping back" that the week initiated. There is great power in both personal and collective worship, so long as our focus is completely on God.

'Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!'- Psalm 95:6 ESV

Thirdly, I did not go to the Taizé community just to receive for myself but to serve. The community runs on a servant-hearted ethos where everyone who visits is expected to help in the general running of the community. Strangely enough I felt as though I learnt more through the serving than in the times when I could receive personally. It was a time of seeking God in the every day tasks and serving both the community and God at the same time. Perhaps one of the most poignant memories was on my birthday; a day where I would usually expect to sit back and relax was instead taken up serving people food and vacuum cleaning the church! At Taizé it was easy to find time to serve each other, but the challenge was coming back to my every day life and trying to alter my own attitude towards how I lived my life previously so that I could find ways to serve others rather than myself.

'For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'- Mark 10:45 ESV

Perhaps one of the hardest transitions for me in coming home was adapting back to a place where noise was commonplace and worldly possessions surrounded me. After a week of quiet and simplicity, my life back in England felt incredibly cluttered and noisy. It gave me a new appreciation for the possessions I own, but also an understanding that hardly any of them are really necessary in my life.

I cannot deny the fact that while I was there I hated the experience, but on reflection and having time away I quickly developed a great appreciation for the life style of the Monastic community and also the many things I had learnt there. If you ever get the opportunity I would encourage you to go and experience the life of the Taizé community and seek God in a whole new way. X