This is a guest blog post by Brother Emmanuel. Brother Emmanuel is from the ecumenical Taizé Community in Taizé, France.
“United to the Source of all Mercy: From Worship to Community”
Wishing to be a reflection of God’s mercy requires to be ourselves united to… the Source of all mercy! How worship can support this divine-human union in order to draw from it the inner strength and motivation to go to community and radiate this divine mercy offered to all? First by becoming a space where we acknowledge that the “cry of the poor” is also our own secret cry: we are the first poor to be taken care of by ourselves and by God, since the most universal and deepest poverty is linked to the gap between our limited interpersonal life and our unquenchable thirst to be loved and to love intensely.
Dealing with our own frustrations, disappointments, hurts, feelings of guilt, hidden fears, we have to rediscover God’s presence as the Presence who wants to heal the secret wounds of our heart. Dealing with our innermost desires, we also have to rediscover God’s presence as the Presence who eagerly desires to love us intensely but also who eagerly desires to be intensely loved by each one of us, “with all our heart, soul, mind, strength”. Dealing with so many requests -ours and others-, we have to rediscover God’s presence as the Presence who does not have an absolute control over every life as a Dictator showing no respect for human freedom, as the Presence who does not have a magic wand as a Magician solving instantly all difficulties, but as the Presence who stands by our side in this fight against all forms of evil here below, who always listens to our cry and associates our love to the creative force of a tireless divine love in continual activity that will have the last word.
When worship becomes this space that supports the entrance into a real reciprocity of love with God, when worship becomes this space where can grow our trust to be loved intensely, our trust to love intensely Someone who is so much waiting for it, our trust to be united to God in the same fight for the victory of love, then we can draw from this spiritual experience the strength and motivation to go to community, to radiate divine mercy and make life more beautiful for those God entrusts to us.
- Brother Emmanuel