September 22, 2024 Essay: Journeying Together: Taizé Community
Kate Noonan: We enjoyed a retreat at the Taizé Community, an ecumenical retreat center in Southern France. Why were you drawn to Taizé?
Adele Gallo: I was actually interested in the music of Taizé, their community being renowned for their chant. The chants are brief and focused. The chants appeal to me because I’m very attracted to sacred music, particularly liturgical music. The Taizé chant really, if you’ll pardon the pun, sings to me.
K: Did you know what to expect at the retreat center?
A: Knowing that their mission is retreats for student groups, I expected to see lots of dorm buildings, but that proved to be wrong. We were truly in an idyllic country setting with little evidence that over 2000 people were at the retreat center with us. It was a very peaceful place, as charming as anything you’d see in a picture, yet it was serving all these young people.
K: How were the retreat days structured?
A: Each day, in a sense, followed a contemporary version of monastic prayer. We met three times a day, morning, noon, and night for prayer, extensive periods of silent prayer and chant. Our all-adult group met each morning after breakfast. Brother Pedro provided—in his charming Spanish accent—a meditation on a scripture reading, breaking open the Word in a thoughtful and challenging way to consider and pray about. He left us to focus on two or three questions to take up later in the day.
K: Each afternoon we met in a smaller English-speaking group to address the questions Br. Pedro had offered in the morning. Can you describe our faith-sharing groups?
A: Oh, I thought they were spectacular from the beginning. Just for starters, the group consisted of people with children of school age, a retiree, a woman whose husband was in another group, a Brother, and a female Methodist pastor. The commonality was we were all there to get closer to God and to do so together. I found the groups really heartwarming. And the biggest surprise was that some of these people had been coming back to Taizé every year for 20-some years!
K: It was during the very intimate, faith-focused discussions our group really blossomed. It was truly a joyful experience.
A: Our facilitator was excellent. He knew when to push and when to step back. It was noteworthy how he drew information, not just as information, but as reflections of our personal spirituality. It was clear that we all reverenced the confidentiality of these conversations.
K: I was introduced to the Taizé community and chants at Yale Divinity School, but I didn’t know much about the Taizé experience. Could you talk about that a little?
A: The ultimate structure was that every week ended in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. Throughout our exercises, we were always headed there. I thought it was significant that, unlike other retreats I’ve been on, there was no daily Mass. As we approached Thursday, reading again Jesus’ address to his apostles at the Last Supper, and moving on to when these very apostles abandoned him, handed him over to the executioners, it all came as a new affront to our Savior. Friday evening, we had the opportunity to venerate the Holy Cross. And so it was that the Resurrection surprised us, like a rewrite of the final episode. I thought I knew the story so well…turns out I didn’t. Alleluia!
K: On Sunday our week concluded with a Catholic Mass. One of our new retreat friends made it clear it was not to be missed. Please tell me your impressions of the Catholic Mass.
A: Well, I was happy to be back on familiar territory. The week without Mass reminded me of the days when our parishes were closed down during COVID. I remember crying because we couldn’t receive Communion, only watch the Mass online. We could see the Mass being celebrated, but we couldn’t be there. It created a terrible sense of hunger. When we had Mass on Sunday morning, I recognized the feeling. We were finally being fed. That was a really joyous experience.
K: When I received Communion that Sunday, it brought me to tears. I too was hungry for the Eucharist.
A: I am in awe of the structure of the retreat week. It’s really well thought out, and yet you’re not aware of, you know, go do this at such and such a time, go do that. Day by day, scripture reading by reading, we were always moving through salvation history, always hearing the call of God to come closer. The invitation does not limit, does not discriminate, but is offered in the freedom of God’s love for each individual.
— Kate Noonan, Director of the Interparish Religious Education & Adele Gallo, Teacher at Convent of the Sacred Heart