Taizé Meeting in Syria

“Give us today our abundant life!” – “حياتنا الجوهرية أعطنا اليوم” – over 800 young people in the age between 18 and 25 from all over Syria and from over 10 different churches gathered under this motto in the end of April in Homs. They followed an invitation of the Taizé brothers for the first Taizé meeting in Syria. The meeting was organized as a collaborative event of all the churches of Homs and coordinated by the Jesuit Community there.

The title represents the journey that the participants went during these four days. Within the troubles, and struggles we live in, it is a cry for help for God to be with us in this time and give us a life that is worth living. Therefore, the first two days were dedicated to reflect and pray upon the past. The young people tried to face the wounds inflicted on us during the war and in their personal biography, but also to discover the traces of his grace in their life, so that they will not be stuck in the past but find reconciliation with it and live more freely in the present. The topic of the second two days was about the future. We live in a time of great uncertainty where a lot of young people don’t see a future in their own country. So we asked god to give us trust into the future and his accompaniment in our present life so we are not imprisoned in our worries about the future.

We followed these ideas in the different activities around the day. There were prayers in the different rites of all churches in Homs, sharing groups about our lives, Taizé prayers but we also enjoyed our time with workshops, dances or just free time to get to know each other better. The most important and beautiful thing about the meeting was the testimony these 800 participants and volunteers gave to the people of Homs and Syria just by living these days in peace and love and by the will to continue their lives in this spirit to be real ambassadors for hope in this country Syria.

Gerald Baumgartner SJ