Taize Thanksgiving Prayer Sunday October 11th is CANCELLED

It's impossible to know how to reach everyone who might want to attend Sunday's Taize Prayer at St. Thomas D'Aquin, but it turns out that there won't be enough musicians available to lead the prayer. If you know anyone who was planning to attend, please pass the word along.

Heartfelt apologies to those who might not receive this news. Hopefully we'll all meet again soon.

Happy Pentecost!

Please join us for a special event Sunday evening if you're in the neighbourhood...



If you're not able to join us, here's a special Taizé chant to celebrate the day... It's one of the first chants I ever heard, and one that fills me with an inexplicable, deep joy every time I hear it, the Holy Spirit's doing, I'm sure...

I never used to give the Spirit much thought, as relating to the Father and the Son seemed more natural in my younger life... but of late, it's the third person of the Trinity whose name is on my lips the most, the wild and windy Spirit that creates and blesses in unexpected ways... Come, Holy Spirit, has become my favourite prayer. Simple, yet to the point in every situation!

Words from today's prayer on the Taizé website:

Come, Holy Spirit, from heaven shine forth with your radiant love.
Come, Father of the poor; come, generous Spirit; come, Light of our hearts.
Perfect Comforter, you make peace to dwell in our soul:
Come, Holy Spirit.
Wonderful refreshment, in our labor you offer rest; in our trials, strength:
Come, Holy Spirit.
Kindly Light, enter the inmost depth of our hearts:
Come, Holy Spirit.
Bend our rigidity, inflame our apathy:
Come, Holy Spirit.
Send rain upon our dry ground, heal our wounded souls:
Come, Holy Spirit.
Give us lasting joy: Come, Holy Spirit, from heaven shine forth with your radiant love.
Come, Holy Spirit!

An upcoming special event...

Brother Roger Schutz, the founder of the Taizé Community, was born on May 12, 1915, and we are celebrating the anniversary of his birth on Pentecost Sunday, May 24^th. The guest of honour is already a Saint in God's heaven, I am sure, but we’ll have birthday cake regardless. All are welcome. Bring a friend!

Trusting the Holy Spirit

My main work this week (and odd days before that) has been preparing for our Taizé Prayer in 2015, and in particular, for tonight’s prayer to kick off the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Done in little spurts, it never seems like much effort, but if I added up all the hours spent contacting churches to set dates, designing the schedule, and choosing and organizing music and readings for the prayers, it's probably more than I think. But that's quite alright -- I get so much more out of the prayer than I put in!

This January prayer has been a particularly challenging one, due to factors beyond my control, and a few less-than-wonderful decisions on my part. To make a long story short, our singing group is rather small this time because several musicians can't come, I chose a few too many new chants, and we'll likely have more new participants than usual because of an article published in yesterday's Edmonton Journal (don't get me wrong -- it's always exciting to have new people pray with us!) The thing about Taizé prayer is that it's the work of the Holy Spirit, and no matter how we human beings do things, the Spirit always makes it into something beautiful.

I'd like to take this opportunity to invite you to join us for our prayer this evening at Providence Renewal Centre (3005 119 St) at 7 p.m. We'll be singing the chant below, but using these English words, mostly (though I love the original Portuguese in the video):

I will sing to the Lord my whole life long;

I will worship my God as long as I live.

For the Lord brings joy to his people.

For the Lord brings joy to his people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVs0QAODPx4

Come, Holy Spirit,
bring us all to reconciliation
and unity.
+Amen.

Monday, January 19th

For the record, it was a beautiful prayer last night. The Holy Spirit definitely did her/his thing, praying through us. Thanks to all who joined us.

Taize Prayer 2015

If you’ve never experienced Taizé Prayer, I would encourage you to visit the website at www.taize.fr, and check out a playlist of music on YouTube by clicking here. Taizé is a beautiful place, with only one mission – to bring Christians together to focus on our similarities, not our differences, that all may be One in God.

If you would like to spread a little ecumenism, you can email me by clicking on The Moodler -- the email address is in my profile -- and I'll email you a file to print and share. Hang it wherever Christians gather, and spread the word!