Taize 2

My first full day at Taize was a Sunday and it was pretty neat to see all the buses full of people arriving.  Unfortunately, it was still raining and I wouldn't get my new room assignment for a few hours yet.  We first had Mass (in French!) and then I spent some time in the church and later chatting with the friends I had made so far.  After getting a room, I followed the normal schedule to start my week.

The church's design is unlike anything I have seen before. There are all these rooms with essentially garage doors so that the church can expand as necessary. There are no chairs and the floor is built on an incline, like stadium seating, so that people in the back can still see.  You see some people with prayer stools to alleviate the sitting on concrete thing.  I started bringing my travel pillow for the times I couldn't snag a prayer stool. I only took a picture of the altar because in all honesty, I really did not care for the church.  The colors were a little garish and overall it was too modern and ugly for my taste.

At least the candles are pretty.

I then explored the rest of the "compound."  Taize has a church, the dining pavilions, workshop/meeting rooms, a building for the brothers, a building for the sisters, dorms, and the welcome casa.

Lining up for meals at the dining pavilion.  Even though we were in France, this place ran with German efficiency.

Workshop room. Brother Paulo in the white shirt.

Oyak at night. Sorry for the crappy picture.

Oyak prices - yeah, you are reading that correctly.

As my Czech friend kept joking, "These are not Christian prices!"

Here was the daily schedule:
Monday - Saturday
8.15 am Morning prayer, then breakfast
10 am Introduction to the day with a brother of the community followed by quiet reflection or small group discussion
12.20 pm Midday prayer, then lunch
5.15 pm Tea
5.45 pm Theme workshops given by different brothers
7 pm Supper
8.30 pm Evening prayer, then vigil with songs in the church, followed by night silence
Friday - evening prayer is followed by prayer around the Cross.
Saturday - evening prayer with candles to celebrate the paschal mystery

Sunday
8.45 am Breakfast
10 am Morning Eucharist
1 pm Lunch
7 pm Supper
8.30 pm Evening prayer

 You can read more here.

Coming "home" to Barcelona.

I'm finally back to the civilized world! Leaving France and coming back to Spain felt like I was coming home.  I returned to a place where I know the language, where I knew how to get to my "house," and generally knew what the heck was happening!

Taizé was overall a good experience, but definitely not what I was anticipating.  If I ever return, I definitely know what I will and won't be doing. In the next few days, I will be posting some of the entries I wrote while there with pictures! I'll do my best to keep them in chronological order and as concise as possible.  If you have other questions or want to hear the full story, let me know!

Now, since I returned sick and I'm in bed at 8:00pm I will leave you with a little ¡yay! story and a few pictures before I type up those other posts.  The people I'm staying with must think I'm über lame.

Today I was on the bus to Parc Güell (whoa - two umlauts in one post) and this woman sat beside me.  I wasn't 100% sure of where I was going but from eavesdropping I found out lots of people were headed in the same direction. Seeing as I kept craning over her to look for the next stop, the woman asked where I was going. I told her and she informed me she worked there.  We began to chat a bit and eventually she asked where I was from because my Spanish was really good!!! Oh yeah, doing all of my Bible reflections in Spanish last week was worth it. (More on that later.) And for all of my readers from the Valdivia clan, she was Cuban :)

Now for fotos...

My view from the bus. So quaint.

The top of the church which has a very interesting interior. There were a few of these.

A little waterfall - part of the "silence" garden.

The view from Taizé. Umm I think I stepped into a painting or a set from Pride & Prejudice.

ACErs, I found Kubb!

And just in case you missed me.