August 20, 1940, a young man, now known throughout the world as Brother Roger, arrived in a small town in France with the hopes of building a community of love. Through its 70 year history, Taizé, France has become a ‘parable of community’, a symbol of how we may live and worship together.
The term Taizé has also become associated with a service based on prayer, song, and meditation, in which singing together and sitting in silence together play an equally important role in worshipping together.
“To open the gates of trust in God, nothing can replace the beauty of human voices united in song. This beauty can give us a glimpse of ‘heaven’s joy on earth,’ as Eastern Christians put it. And an inner life begins to blossom within us.”
Taizé, Meditative Singing www.taize.fr