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    • The value of silence
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      • Preparing a time of prayer
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      • Icons in worship
  • Songs
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  • 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
    • 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

Portraits of witnesses to Christ

19 February 2008

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

The Letter from Cochabamba refers in a note to words written by Irenaeus of Lyons: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, through his transcendent love, became what we are, that he might bring us to be what he is himself.” The figure of Irenaeus has a particular fascination because he brings us so close to the very first Christian believers. He was born in the second century and grew up in the town of Smyrna, on the western coast of Turkey, where he heard the elderly bishop Polycarp teach. Polycarp had been taught by the apostle John. Irenaeus later became (...)

19 June 2007

Mother Teresa

Brother Roger wrote these lines in homage to Mother Teresa at the time of her ­beatification, in 2003.We live in a world where light and darkness coexist. Through the life she lived, Mother Teresa invited people to choose light. In this way she opened a road to holiness for many others. Mother Teresa made words written by Saint Augustine four centuries after Christ comprehensible to us: “Love and say it with your life.” Trust in God becomes credible and is communicated above all when it is lived out. I had many opportunities to converse with (...)

19 June 2007

Saint John Chrysostom (344 – 407): an astonishing modernity

The Letter from Kolkata quotes on page 3 a text from St. Jean Chrysostom that recalls the unbreakable link between the Eucharist and solidarity with the poorest: “You wish to honour the body of the Saviour? The same one who said: This is my body also said: You saw I was hungry and you didn’t give me to eat. What you did not do to one of the least, you refused to me! So honour Christ by sharing your possessions with the poor.” (Homily 50 on Matthew.) Who was this man who the Christian East called “Golden Mouth” because of his poetical gifts in (...)

9 May 2009

Saint Augustine (354-430)

Who was this man who influenced so deeply the thinking of the West? For some he spoke of an unsurpassable way of grace, of God’s love. For others he was guilty of a pessimistic view of human beings marked more by sin than by God’s love. In the course of history, schools of theology of the most diverse sort claimed his authority, sometimes giving rise to bitter controversies. But what has always fascinated people is his journey towards faith. By describing it in his Confessions, he helped many people to find Christ. His searching took many (...)

19 June 2007

The Relevance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young pastor who symbolized the German resistance against Nazism, is counted among those who can support us on our road of faith. In the darkest hours of the twentieth century, he gave his life to the point of martyrdom. In prison he wrote these words we sing in Taizé: “God, let my thoughts be gathered to you. With you there is light, you do not forget me. With you there is help, with you there is patience. I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me.” What is touching about Bonhoeffer is how he resembles (...)

11 October 2008

A Path of Reconciliation : Brother Roger

On several different occasions, Brother Roger ­attempted to articulate his vision of Christian unity. In the text A call for the reconciliation of Christians, Brother Alois quotes these words of the founder of Taizé: Marked by the witness of my grandmother’s life, following her I found my own Christian identity by reconciling within myself the faith of my origins with the Mystery of the Catholic faith, without breaking fellowship with anyone.Brother Roger’s personal journey begins with an inner reconciliation. Jesus proclaimed and expressed (...)

2 July 2008

Jeremiah

If I had met Jeremiah in the streets of Jerusalem six centuries before Jesus Christ, what impression would he have made on me? It is true that the book that bears his name is at times hard to take: too many announcements of misfortune. But if I looked closely at his face, would I not have discovered a man who was open, sensitive, and farsighted, who dared to express his opinion, but who was also humble, even tender, able to be moved while speaking of God’s love? One day, I would have seen him walk through the city with a yoke on his (...)

4 October 2007

Dorotheus of Gaza (Sixth Century) Humility and Communion

The Letter from Calcutta quotes this text from Dorotheus of Gaza on page 4: “Imagine that the world is a circle, that God is the center, and that the radii are the different ways human beings live. When those who wish to come closer to God walk towards the center of the circle, they come closer to one another at the same time as to God. The closer they come to God, the closer they come to one another. And the closer they come to one another, the closer they come to God.” (Instructions VI.) Son of a wealthy family, very cultivated, so (...)

17 March 2012

Franz Stock (1904-1948), a Life Given for Reconciliation

The first known act of the young German Franz Stock in favor of peace was his participation in 1926 in the meeting of Bierville, south of Paris, where ten thousand young people from all over Europe came together for peace. At Easter 1928, as a young seminarian, he moved to Paris to continue his studies. As his friend Joseph Folliet later wrote, “To welcome a German student at the theological faculty of Paris was something inconceivable for the mentality of 1928.” Ordained in 1932, he was appointed in France, two years later, to be in charge (...)

17 March 2012

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955): Taking the World Seriously

A brother of the community wrote the following reflection on the vision of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin regarding the importance of not separating faith from a concern for this world.A child holds a piece of wood tightly in his hand. But a thought takes hold of him: the wood will eventually rot. Now he has grabbed a rock, but he knows that the stone, too, is doomed to crumble. Here is an iron object. Finally, he believes he has something that will resist decomposition. As a child, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, born in 1881, had a similar (...)

16 February 2009

A prophet who comforts (Isaiah 40–55)

How can we describe someone who remains completely anonymous? Chapters 40 to 55 of the Book of Isaiah constitute a short collection of prophetic texts that make up a clear literary unit, whose author has effaced himself behind his message. We know neither his name nor the place from which he speaks. All we know is that his message concerns the events which took place around 538 years before Jesus Christ, when Cyrus, king of the Persians, allowed the Jews exiled in Babylon to return to their homeland. The name “Second Isaiah” was given to the (...)


Community

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