Taizé - France

I've already mentioned Taizé a few times because of the european meetings but i've never explained what Taizé is.

The Taizé Community is an ecumenical Christian monastic order in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France. It is comprised of a little over 100 brothers who come from Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions. Over 100,000 young people from around the world make pilgrimages to Taizé each year for prayer, Bible study, sharing, and communal work.

Throughout the year, meetings for young adults between 17 and 30 years old (and, within certain limits, for adults and families with children) take place in Taizé. The number of visitors reaches more than 5000 during the summer and on Easter. Meetings usually last from Sunday to Sunday, though it is also possible to just come for a few days, or, for young volunteers, to stay for a longer time. These meetings are the community's priority.

Every year around New Year (usually from 28 December to 1 January), a meeting in a large European city attracts several ten thousand young adults. It is organized by brothers of the Taizé Community, sisters of St. Andrew, and young volunteers from all over the Europe, and the from the host city.
The participants stay with local families or in very simple group accommodations. In the morning, they take part in a program organized by the parish closest to their accommodation. For their midday meal, all participants travel to a central location, usually the local exposition halls. The meal is followed by a common prayer, and the afternoon is spent in workshops covering faith, art, politics and social topics. In the evening, everyone meets again for the evening meal and an evening prayer. - in: wikipédia

I've never been to Taizé but i've already been to 3 European Meeting, Lisbon in 2004, Milan in 2005 and Zagreb in 2006. I loved all these experiences. I met some wonderful people, seen beautiful places and bought a lot of cards :P

This is a picture from my 1st meeting in Lisbon. I went to the meeting with 2 friends. The picture was taken in The Park Expo, a beautiful and modern area in Lisbon.

This is one of the last pictures of the Lisbon meeting. When we arrive to the host city we go to different parishes around the city and stay with local families. This was all the group that stayed in my parish.

Now a picture from the meeting in Milan. I went to Milan with Cristina, i met her in the Lisbon meeting. We stayed with the Mattioli family.

And now pictures from Zagreb. I say all the time that miss Zagreb and Croatia and thats mainly because of Mr. Ante and Mrs Maria. They were so great even if it wasn't easy to communicate because they didn't understand english and i didn't speak croatian.

I went to Croatia again with Cristina and i already knew some people from the previous meeting in Milan. It was a wonderful trip. I really want to go to another meeting in the future. Too bad i can't go to Poland this year but i'll go to another one next year :P