• >
  • At the Wellspring of Faith >
  • Meditations and Reflections >
  • Weekly Meditations by Brother Alois >
  • Trust in God’s love was at the heart of Brother Roger’s life
  English
  • Community
  • At the Wellspring of Faith
  • Coming to Taizé
  • Around the World


 
  • Prayer
    • Prayers by Brother Alois
      • Daily Prayers by Brother Alois
      • Prayers by brother Alois 2015-2016
      • Easter 2017: Prayer by Brother Alois
    • Bible readings for each day
    • Prayer for Each Day
    • Prayer intentions
    • Podcasts
    • Young adults and prayer at Taizé
    • The value of silence
    • How to prepare a prayer service
      • Preparing a time of prayer
      • Prayer Vigil for the Care of Creation
      • Preparing a welcoming space for a meditative prayer
      • Icons in worship
  • Songs
    • Meditative singing
    • Learning the songs
  • Meditations and Reflections
    • A Way of the Gospel at St Stephen’s Source
    • “A very simple reality”
    • Feeling that we are not alone can strengthen our hope
    • Brotherhood begins by listening to others
    • Short meditation of the day
    • Commented Bible Passages
    • Questions on the Bible and the Christian Faith
      • Baptism
      • Children: What does it mean to “welcome God’s kingdom like a child”?
      • The Mystery of Christmas
      • The Church
      • Church and State: What does the Bible tell us about the attitude of believers towards the wider society?
      • The commandments
      • The Cosmos: The Cosmos: What is the place of human beings in the universe?
      • The Cross
      • Death: What enables us to say that Jesus died “for us”?
      • Dialogue: Religions and The Gospel
      • Eucharist
      • The Eucharist Seen by a Christian of the Second Century
      • What does it mean to evangelize?
      • Faith
      • Faith: How does the New Testament speak about faith?
      • Faith: What Is Distinctive About the Christian Faith?
      • Fear of the Lord
      • Forgiveness: If Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him, why did he keep him in the circle of his close companions until the end?
      • Forgiveness: Does forgiving mean forgetting?
      • Freedom: Am I still free if I obey a call from Christ?
      • Freedom: Is everything that happens decided by God in advance?
      • Happiness: Do we have the right to be happy when others are suffering?
      • Hell: Must a Christian believe in the existence of hell?
      • Christian hope
      • Judgment: Why did Jesus tell his disciples not to judge?
      • Love of enemies
      • Mercy
      • Mercy: If God is merciful, why does the Bible contain threats?
      • God’s presence: If God is present in everyone, what does faith add?
      • Reconciliation: What are the presuppositions for a true dialogue between Christians of different confessions?
      • Reconciliation: How can we bring together diversity and reconciliation?
      • Sin: Should we regret our sins?
      • The suffering of the innocent
      • Are the differences between Christians a problem or an asset?
      • The world : Can we really make the world better?
    • Portraits of witnesses to Christ
      • Saint Irenaeus of Lyons
      • Mother Teresa
      • Saint John Chrysostom (344 – 407): an astonishing modernity
      • Saint Augustine (354-430)
      • The Relevance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)
      • A Path of Reconciliation : Brother Roger
      • Jeremiah
      • Dorotheus of Gaza (Sixth Century) Humility and Communion
      • Franz Stock (1904-1948), a Life Given for Reconciliation
      • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955): Taking the World Seriously
      • A prophet who comforts (Isaiah 40–55)
    • Short Writings from Taizé
      • 1. I Believe; Help My Unbelief
      • 2. Saved by the Cross of Christ?
      • 3. What Is Distinctive About the Christian Faith?
      • 4. Dialogue and Sharing with Believers of Other Religions
      • 5. Thrice Holy God
      • 6. Do We Need the Church?
      • 7. The Eucharist and the Early Christians
      • 8. It Is the Word That Is the Bread of Silence
      • 9. The Two Faces of the Cross
      • 10. Brother Roger, Founder of Taizé
      • 11. Blessed in Our Human Frailty
      • 12. Easter Voices
      • 13. Is Christ Divided?
      • 14. Pleasure, Happiness, Joy
      • 15. “Rooted and Built Up in Christ”
      • 16. Icons
      • 17. “Make the Unity of Christ’s Body Your Passionate Concern”
      • 18. “I Have Come That They May Have Life”
      • 19. The Rainbow After The Flood
      • 20. Does the Book of Revelation have something to say to us today?
      • 21. Toward God, in God
      • 22. Voices from the Beginning
      • 23. Should We Fear God?
      • 24. Unfailing Faith
      • 25. “Go, I am with you”
    • Weekly Meditations by Brother Alois
      • The Church of Reconciliation at 50
      • Christ brings us together beyond all borders
      • The Risen Christ Makes Us Passionate Seekers of Communion
      • The Wellspring of Hope
      • Visits to Keep Alive a Flame of Hope
      • Prayer with the Lakota in South Dakota
      • God’s Love, Source of Human Solidarity
      • The Courage to Be Peacemakers
      • In Memory of Brother Roger
      • In Communion with Eastern Christians
      • Christ is our hope, he is alive
      • When we share God gives us the joy of living
      • Close to Wounded Humanity
      • Promoting Universal Friendship
      • Committing Your Entire Life
      • Let us be peacemakers wherever we live
      • All of us can plant seeds of unity
      • A little parable of this universality of God’s love
      • By welcoming refugees, we receive more than we give
      • Looking towards the Light of Christ
      • Trust in God’s love was at the heart of Brother Roger’s life
      • The goodness of God will have the last word
      • Easter 2017 / Meditation by Brother Alois: Witnesses to the Risen Christ
      • Ascension 2017 / Meditation by Brother Alois: Let us set off toward new horizons
      • Find a source of hope
      • Stand firm in hope
      • Looking towards the light of the transfigured Christ
      • Simplify our lives in order to share
      • The friendship of Christ for each and every one of us
      • Allow friendship to grow in order to prepare peace
      • The Bible is the story of God’s faithfulness
      • Christ calls us to be, together, a sign of his peace among humans
      • Widening Our Friendship
      • Going together to the wellsprings of joy
      • Lent: Singing the Joy of Forgiveness
      • Easter 2019: Let the Joy of the Resurrection Spring Up!
      • Pentecost 2019: Make sure that Taizé remains a place of trust
      • The Joyful Radicalism of Saint Francis of Assisi
      • The Earth Is a Precious Gift of God
      • Christ Is Our Peace
      • Responsible for our wonderful planet
      • To Bring Everything to Light
    • Letter for the year
      • Brother Alois 2019: Let us not forget hospitality!
      • Brother Alois 2018: Inexhaustible Joy
      • Brother Alois 2017: Together, Opening Paths of Hope
      • Brother Alois 2017: A Call to Church Leaders for 2017
      • Brother Alois 2017: Towards the Unity of the European Continent
      • Brother Alois 2016: The Courage of Mercy
      • Taizé 2015
      • Brother Alois 2012-2015: Towards a New Solidarity
      • Brother Alois 2015: Four proposals in order to be “salt of the earth”.
      • Brother Alois 2014: Four Proposals for “seeking visible communion among all who love Christ”
      • Brother Alois 2013: Four Proposals to Uncover the Wellsprings of Trust in God
      • Brother Alois 2011: Letter from Chile
      • Brother Alois 2010: Letter from China
      • Brother Alois 2009: Letter from Kenya
      • For an open Europe, a land of solidarity
      • Brother Alois 2008: Letter from Cochabamba
      • Brother Alois: Letter to those who want to follow Christ
      • Brother Alois: A call for the reconciliation of Christians
      • Brother Alois 2007: Letter from Kolkata
      • 2006: Brother Roger’s unfinished letter
      • Brother Roger 2005: A future of peace
    • Letter from Taizé: Testimonies
      • Sharing what we have
      • What are you doing with your freedom?
      • For a Fraternal World
      • Opting for Joy
      • Unlimited Compassion
      • Desire for Forgiveness
    • Towards a new solidarity
      • "Towards a new solidarity": 2012-2015: Three Years of Searching
      • Reflection Group "Towards a New Solidarity": In Taizé, reflecting more deeply with young people
      • Themes
        • Leaping Over Walls of Separation
        • Solidarity with All Creation
        • Indignation, Passivity or Commitment
        • Peace to Those Who Are Near
      • Listening to young people...
        • Listening to the Young People of Asia
        • Listening to the Young People of Europe
        • Towards a new solidarity: Listening to the Youth of America
        • Listening to young people from Oceania
 

Trust in God’s love was at the heart of Brother Roger’s life

This week we remember Brother Roger, who was killed here in the Church of Reconciliation on August 16 eleven years ago. I want to tell you so many things about his life. But where to start?

Our community remains marked by him. For it, he wanted a minimum of structures. He wanted us to be first of all like a family, not an institution, and for our life to be based primarily on mutual concern and brotherly love.

If we welcome refugees—today from Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria—Brother Roger already did that. Shortly after arriving in Taizé when he was 25, in 1940, at the beginning of World War II, he sheltered people who were fleeing, among them Jews. And throughout his life he continued to do this.


He loved to sing. If our community prayer has become increasingly a sung prayer in which all can participate, around a few central words of our faith, this really is due to him. "Sing until you are joyful and serene," he said.

He wanted a long time of silence during prayer. The reasons are a bit mysterious. He was acutely aware that our words remain poor in front of God, but our presence is already a prayer, yes, we also pray with our bodies. He reassured everyone: even if your prayer is poor, God will listen to you. It is important first of all to welcome his love.

He liked the time of prayer that lasts in the evening, with singing. During that time, he listened personally to all those who entrusted to him their suffering, a question or their joy.

Through this listening he was able to allow trust to be born or reborn in countless people. To us brothers, he often said: "Do not give advice; listen." He took every person seriously; he gave them so to speak a place in his own life.

There is so much suffering, so many questions with no human answer, illness, disability, poverty, abandonment, the death of a loved one. There are visible wounds and hidden wounds. There is doubt that leads people to say: what is the meaning and value of my life? And there is the humiliation that wreaks havoc in personal life, already in children, the humiliation of entire peoples that goes to the point of creating conflicts and wars.

Brother Roger was convinced that these injuries had to be healed at their roots. He suffered with people and longed for God’s love to touch them.

Yes, trust in God’s love was at the heart of his life. But we must realize that this involved an inner struggle for him, he had to, as he put it, "set out a thousand times in life" on this path of trust.

"All God can do is give his love": these words of a believer of the seventh century expressed for Brother Roger the center of our faith; that is why he asked that they be made into a song.

This love of God is compassion; it is mercy. This means: God loves you now, at this moment, just as you are. Through Jesus Christ he suffers with you and by the Holy Spirit he renews in you the hope of resurrection.

God does not give his love by parts; he does not give more to one and less to another; he pours all his love into you. Living in that trust is a risk. There are many arguments that threaten it.


To take the risk of trust we need to be supported by others. Brother Roger’s memory can provide such support. You also know other people on whom you rely. And for all of us there are Christians who have gone before us, beginning with the apostles and the Virgin Mary.

Last Monday we celebrated the memory of the Virgin Mary. What a joy to think of her! When she was till very young, she ran the risk of trusting. She believed that her child was the Messiah. But she had to accept that Jesus was different than what she and the people were waiting for: Jesus was a poor messiah.

Mary had to understand that Christ did not bring paradise to earth externally. By his life and death he wanted to bring God’s love into the greatest darkness, into violence, humiliation and death. And God raised him from the dead. Death and hatred no longer have the last word.

Since his resurrection Christ invisibly accompanies every human being, as is shown in the icon that we have placed in the front of the church. It was Brother Roger’s favorite icon; he called it "the icon of friendship." Even without our being aware of it, Christ Jesus is present; he opens a path of life for his friend.

Saturday night we will have a little festival. During the prayer we will welcome a new brother into the community, Raphael. He comes from Ticino in Switzerland. He stayed with us as a volunteer for over a year. Now he will prepare himself to commit his life to follow Christ in our community.

I talked a lot to you about Brother Roger, some of his gifts. I would add that he was very conscious of being "one of God’s poor," as he used to say. He was extremely sensitive and vulnerable. But as the prior of the Grande Chartreuse wrote after his death: "He cultivated vulnerability as a door through which God can preferentially come to be with us."


Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Jean Vanier for his presence among us.

Jean Vanier founded the Arche communities where people with disabilities and people without disabilities live together and find in this life together mutual support to build trust. We need each other, those who are weak and those who are strong. Jean Vanier will speak tomorrow afternoon in a workshop.

Margaux will now mention the countries represented here and the children will distribute flowers to all. The first flower is for Jean Vanier. We feel in deep communion with him.


Margaux: There are flowers for those from Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Afghanistan, India, Syria, Iraq and Israel.

For those from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.

For those from Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

For those from Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Britain and Ireland.

For those from Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland and France.

For those from Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

For those from Australia and the United States.

For those from South Africa, Mauritius, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Chad, Benin, Senegal, Sudan and Egypt.


Let us now sing the words of Saint Augustine, "Jesus Christ, inner light, do not let my darkness speak to me, Jesus, Christ, inner light, enable me to welcome your love." This is a song that was important for Brother Roger. If in all of us, and around us in the world, there are shadows, inner contradictions, injuries, and unresolved issues, we can still, at this very moment, already welcome Christ’s love.

Last updated: 20 August 2016

Daily Bible Reading

Sat, 14 December
Peter writes: Once you were not a people at all, and now you are the people of God.
1 Peter 2:4-10
more...

For the Diary

 Search events

Podcasts

2019-12-12 : Espère en Dieu + Psalms 90 / Mt 3,13-17 / Bogoroditse Dievo II / Prayer by Brother Alois / C’est toi ma lampe
IMG/mp3/podcast_2019-12-12.mp3
12 December 2019
2019-12-05 : Espère en Dieu + Psalms 80 / Eph 2:19-22 / Wait for the Lord / Notre père / Prayer by Brother Alois / Nimm alles von mir
IMG/mp3/podcast_2019-12-05.mp3
5 December 2019
more...

New CD: «LAUDAMUS TE»


Community

  • Some Recent News
  • Visit of Patriarch Bartholomew to Taizé
  • Vocation and History
  • Brother Roger, Founder of Taizé
  • Other people on Taizé
  • Brothers living in other places
  • The Brothers’ Work
  • Solidarity: Operation Hope
  • Anniversaries 2015: Towards a new solidarity

At the Wellspring of Faith

  • Prayer
  • Songs
  • Meditations and Reflections

Coming to Taizé

  • Youth Meetings
  • Specific information for 2019
  • Specific information for 2020
  • Travel to Taizé
  • UK School & College Weeks
  • UK University Weeks
  • Testimonies by young adults
  • Multimedia
  • Some Recent News

Around the World

  • Small Provisional Communities
  • Africa
  • Americas
  • Asia Pacific
  • Europe
  • Middle East

Copyright © Ateliers et Presses de Taizé

This website

[ top | Sitemap | Home]

  • Contact
  • Times of prayers at Taizé
  • News by email