Spending a week in retreat from the world helped me to practice holistic nourishment of self and others. But the point of Taizé (an ecumenical monastic community in France) is not that it is only available to those physically present in its space. We must strive to find the peace-filled, balanced existence of Taizé in our own routines. This does not mean spending 12 hours in contemplation, but it does mean incorporating lessons from the monastic community into aspects of our own lives. We can make space for some form of mediation each day, even for 10 minutes, to give our minds liberty and clarity. We can slow down, stop multitasking, and find and water seeds of joy in our own lives and those of our neighbors.
Embracing Taizé every day means opening my heart more fully to the people with whom I interact, allowing God’s spirit of love to shine through me.
This message is excerpted from “Traveling to Taizé” by Chelsea Jaeger in the January/February 2016 Gather magazine.
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