PLATTSBURGH — A Taizé Prayer Service will be held 7 p.m., Thursday, March 14, at Our Lady of Victory Church, 4917 South Catherine St., Plattsburgh. The service will be approximately 45 minutes.
“It was a prayer developed by a group of monks back in World War II,” Anita Soltero, assistant director Faith Formation Eastern Region and director of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Ogdensburg, said.
“It was designed to bring peace, unity and calming, and that kind of thing. It’s a nondenominational service. It’s for all Christians. It’s not necessarily Catholic or Protestant or Baptist. It centers around the cross. It, again, is just designed to be kind of a meditative service that kind of brings you calm and peace and reflection.”
AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANITY
When the Second World War began, Roger Schütz — “Brother Roger”— had the conviction that without wasting time he should come to the assistance of people going through this ordeal, just as his grandmother had done during the First World War, according to www.taize.fr/en.
The small village of Taizé, where he settled, was quite close to the demarcation line dividing France in two: it was well situated for sheltering refugees fleeing the war.
Today, the Taizé Community is an ecumenical Christian monastic fraternity in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France. It is composed of more than 100 brothers, from Catholic and Protestant traditions, who originate from about 30 countries around the world.
“We usually try to do this during the Lenten season where we’re really reflecting on the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday,” Soltero said.
“And so during this penitential time in the church, we do extra prayer, extra reflection, extras services and things like that. This is just another option of a type of prayer that we offer for people who might want to participate in something that we don’t normally do on a regular basis.”
Taizé uses music, scripture, silence, prayer, and ritual actions such as candle lighting during the quiet reflection.
“We announce that in the beginning, and then we tell the people what to do,” Soltero said.
“And then we have the different songs. Usually, they are done acapella. We have a lovely young lady, her name is Jen Toohill. She does the singing. She has an absolutely beautiful voice. It’s very angelic. We do it with no musical accompaniment. It’s just her voice, and so it’s very stirring. It invites reflection. It’s very, very simple. Most of the songs are echoed back like she would sing a couple of verses then the congregation joins in and we just kind of echo back and forth, back and forth for a while, then we move on to the next section.”
Taizé songs include “Jesus, Remember Me,” “Stay With Me,” “O Lord, Hear My Prayer,” “Shepherd Me, Oh God,” and “Adoramus te Christe.”
“Behold the Wood talks about hold the wood of the cross,” Soltero said.
“Veni, Creator Spiritus is asking for the Holy Spirit to come. Stay with Me talks about why we would stay with the Lord and watch Him through the night. Adoramus te Christe is in Latin. It’s basically an Adoration of Christ. The last one, Jesus, Remember Me, is also a song we use during Lent that says remember me when you come into your kingdom. We pray to Jesus to always remember us.”
There are scripture and Gospel readings as well as the Veneration of the Cross.
“Where people in the congregation can go up and touch the cross or kneel down in front of it or pray in front of it for a brief period of time,” Soltero said.
“We also include an opportunity for people to offer up their own prayer intentions by lighting a candle and bringing it up and placing it near the cross.
“We have quite a few candles around. We keep the church dimly lit and let the candles be the reflection. We do a display around the altar including a cross and more candles than you normally see in church to provide that kind of serene atmosphere.”
This is the first time Taizé is hosted at Our Lady of Victory Church.
“We’ve always done it at St. Peter’s because up until a few years ago we were separate parishes,” Soltero said.
“But now that we are united as one parish, Holy Cross Parish, with three churches. Last year, we did it at St. John’s, and this year we’re doing it at Our Lady of Victory. So, we will probably continue to do that rotation in the future. Pastor Kevin McEwan of Holy Cross Parish, he’s always very supportive of us offering this prayer opportunity.
“Usually, all the priests come. If there is a priest there, they will give the final blessing. But it can be done by lay people. It doesn’t require a priest. It’s just a general prayer service.”
Besides Soltero, Toohill, Susan Pombrio, Mary Skillan and Starr Burke comprise the Taizé Committee.
“We’ve been doing it a long time,” Soltero said.
“We’ve been doing it for probably about 20 years. Various people have helped us with it, but we have a standard group of people that have been doing this for a number of years.”