NEWPORT, R.I. - The Taize prayer and sacramental healing rite, a contemplative prayer in the tradition of college students who gather every summer in Taize, France, will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18 in Ochre Court. Through songs, meditation and healing prayers, participants of all Christian traditions will focus on God's love, mercy and compassion for us.

"We hope that many faculty, staff and students will take this opportunity - only an hour - to pray, meditate and receive the healing presence of God," said Philip Fiadino, campus minister.

The prayer service will commemorate the central mystery of the Christian faith: the dying and rising of Christ. This mystery sheds light on our own lives as followers of Jesus, as we constantly "pass over" with him from doubt and anxiety to confident trust, through little deaths to new beginnings. Prayer around the cross is a way of expressing an invisible communion not only with the crucified Jesus but with all who suffer.

France's Taize community is composed of approximately 100 brothers who come from different Christian traditions and from more than 25 countries, and make a life commitment to live together in joy, simplicity and mercy as a "parable of community." Around the brothers, tens of thousands of people, mainly between the ages of 17 and 30, come throughout each year to spend a week going to the roots of the Christian faith.

The Taize prayer service is sponsored by the Mercy Center for Spiritual Life. For more information, call Fiadino at Ext. 2227.

Back to SALVEtoday.