This is just a bare beginning of trying to back up to Taize. First, the kids ended up having a good time and good attitudes with lots of frisbee playing and dirty feet and church attendance and living in rainy tents.
On our final night in Paris last week Greg and I had an excellent French meal but I no longer even remember it! Entrecote with pepper sauce, green beans and a rainbow over the Les Halles Forum is what my notes say.
I fell again on the badly bruised knee but did no harm and the blood from the original three week old bruise has finally completely dissipated. I had a black and blue right sock for nearly three weeks.
A German nun in my small group said that non Christians come to Taize to see how Christians act. If so, that is good news. Another group member named Kirsten who is a nonbeliever lost her billfold with all documents and money in the toilet but less than 30 minutes later it was returned to her intact! Rest of my group were a Catholic preist from India, another seeking non believer who says that he is looking for room to rent after hearing about the last woman in this list, two female California Presbyterian pastors, an Episcopal layman from Minnesota, and a German woman who says the church has always been her home.
OUr brother from the community was Fr. Wolfgang who does his own translation from German to English to French. HE is a native German speaker and is hilarious in English but really had them in the aisles in GErman. The French speakers did not laugh. OUr first night was so windy that we feared that our tents would be lifted and left in Oz but we survived that storm too. Saw a young boy on a black and yellow unicycle next morning.
Deep thoughts from first day included:
Every man who opens the womb of a woman is holy.
Sometimes people bring love to us but it is hard to bear because of our woulnds, history, and such.
Love**it is history. It is said. You can't put it back. In India all people have religion
Without religion how could they think? That was from Indian FR. Josef.
SEcond day
Presby pastor Susan was at Plum village last year in July but did not see or learn anything of the longevity stick exercises which I am now practicing and teaching. Probably because she was on the breakfast preparation family and we practiced at 7 am.
Ecclesiastes says unhappy is the man who falls and has no one to help him up. Fr. Wolfgang says when two sleep together one can keep the other warm. I love his Biblical interpretations!
Who has seen About A Boy with Hugh Grant? Everyone says I must see it in association with our study of interdependence. Every morning Fr. Wolfgang talks and in the afternoon the small groups meet to explore and respond. Sr. Maria Katerina is unsteady in her English and always calls God She. SHe want I should be happy. Right on, Sister.
Kirsten from my group told me about and showed me Globoli which are tiny pills that are part of German homeopathic medicine. She says they are sugar coated dilutions of chemicals that are supposed to work on your psyche more than your body.
The two lady Presbyterian ministers and I became good freinds sharing church employmetn horror stories. Amy finished and emailed her master's thesis while we were there so we all celebrated with some very fine chocolate at breakfast furnished by Ty who is an official of the diocese of Rhode Island and a freind from past Taize visits. HE was in Laura Holladay's small group.
My job was washing dishes under the supervision of Lucianna from Argentina in El Abiodh, the center where the sisters take in guests, operate an infirmary, cook for the staff, and generally provide help and hospitality. The staffers let me taste all sorts of goodies that had been prepared for the staff and returned uneaten--ham and cheese quiche, fish pie, sausages fo various sorts, and best of all a big handful offresh cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes! Lu supervised us in the use of long handled broooms and squeegees tomop the floors.
There will be more of Taize in another post but now I must try to recapture the last 36 hours before it vanishes from my sieve-head.
Love, Lowell
No comments:
Post a Comment