Taize - Lisieux - Alps

Well, I’m back from my third two week vacation. 

Taize

                The first week of my holidays was spent at Taize.  I took the bus with a group of high school students from Aveyron.  I was a chaperone with this group.  We stopped in some town and celebrated Mass after which we ate lunch.  We continued the drive and only got to Taize at 5:15pm and we had left at 8:30am.  It took a while to get settled in as 80 teenagers had to be roomed with their friends.  I felt compassion for the priest with our group who was handling all of this.  I probably would have just said, “You’re sharing a room with these people, deal with it.”  In the end, I only had 3 teenagers in my room and they were all great, coming in at curfew every night, so I didn’t have any problems with them.

                Everyone complains about the food at Taize, but it’s really not bad.  Seeing as I heard this from French high school students though, I’m not too surprised they didn’t like the food.  I thought it all tasted good.  The only problem was that they don’t give you very much food, but I think that helps cut down on waste from the fussy people.  The first night waiting in line for supper I met girls from Lithuania, Korea and France.  I was rather happy to meet some young adults amidst the chaos of high school students. 

                After supper we had prayer and I had a hard time entering in as I was at the back and so there was more noise.  For the remainder of the week I sat close to the front. 

                Everyday starts with Mass at 7:30am which is optional of course.  The first day there were 20 priests and 2 bishops celebrating Mass and it was amazing to hear so many voices joined together during the consecration (as we weren’t in the big church area you could actually hear everyone and not just those using a mic). 

                At 8:20am, there is morning prayer.  (I found that the prayer times had quite a few of the elements of the Liturgy of the hours.  The three daily prayers have songs, a scripture reading, and a 7-8 minutes of silence.)  Then there is breakfast, followed by a Bible introduction and small group discussions.  I was a small group leader with a couple other ladies.  Everyone asked me how this went and how the discussion was and to be honest I don’t really know.  We were usually in a room with several other groups and so it was loud and if I can’t hear French well I have no idea what’s being said. 

                Midday prayer is at 12 ish and then lunch to follow, I usually had about an hour of free time from 2-3pm where I would go for walks in the country before meeting again with our small groups.  Before supper they often had workshops with a talk, followed by supper at 7:30pm and then evening prayer. 

                Now for some stories: 

There were two Korean Dominican sisters with our group.  One day there was a group of students from Korean who were travelling around Europe and stopped for a day in Taize.  At supper, a man was trying to get everyone to quiet down and then we see a youth from that group and these two sisters in habit busting out the “gannam” style move and more.  One of the sisters was already older and one was younger.  I found it so beautiful and different from how I usually view religious.  Even though it seems like every time I actually get to know religious I see how human and how much fun they are.  My thought: Christ has such beautiful spouses. 

                At one lunch I met a high school student who afterwards started tagging along with me, so as I was going for a walk to pray the Rosary, I asked her to pray it with me.  She wanted to sing the Hail Marys and it was really a beautiful experience.

                After lunch one day with a few of the girls I had met we played ninja, frozen tag, and rock paper scissors with cowboy ninja bear instead.  Gotta love being a kid again.

                I met other young adults from all over: an Australian lawyer who quit his job to spend a year at Taize, a Korean lawyer who also quit her job to travel once more and stay at Taize before getting married, a girl studying to be a pastor in Sweden, a Chilean dentist, a German woman who had studied linguistics and had learned about Michif, and the list continues.  English is definitely the universal language.  It’s great meeting people from other countries and learning about how life is there, I think that’s one reason travelling is such a great education, plus I think you remember it more when it’s something you’ve lived rather than learned from a book.

                My general impression of Taize:  I’m glad I went and I felt a lot of peace while being there.  However, I still don’t know how I feel about it.  Everyone (who I’ve talked to) who has been there is very positive about the experience, but I just don’t know what I think.  I think I need to learn and understand more.  It is a truly beautiful experience in terms of the prayer with song, the simplicity, the service, the community life, etc.

                My experience was different than the “typical” experience because I went in the winter with a group of high school students and I didn’t have any chores to do.

Lisieux

My next stop was Lisieux and I got to take one of those high speed trains.  I totally sat in someone else’s spot upon getting on the train, I think this happens a lot, so I found my place and whizzed through the middle of France to Paris where I had to change train stations by using the metro.  I was able to do this no problem and felt very proud of myself. 

I got to Lisieux when it was already dark and realized I had printed off the wrong directions to where I was staying.  Luckily Lisieux isn’t very big and after asking at one place where “le Foyer Louis and Zelie Martin” was I found my way.  I stayed with consecrated lay women who have this home to welcome pilgrims and it’s a really nice place to stay, maybe even nicer since there were hardly any pilgrims there so I had a whole floor to myself. 

Lisieux is beautiful, there seem to be flowers and song birds everywhere, plus the sun was shining during my stay.  I visited the Carmel and the relics of St. Therese.  It is so great to pray with saints.  I went to the Basilica built in her honour, which is massive and really beautiful, but I hardly stayed in there because it was so cold.  In the crypt of the basilica are the remains of St. Therese’s parents, Blessed Louis ad Zelie Martin.  Behind the basilica you can pray the Stations of the Cross that are set up on a little hill.  Under each station is a line by St. Therese which I found really helpful in my meditation.  I also visited the home where St. Therese lived before entering the Carmel. 

I think St. Therese really helped my prayer life when I was there and I was able to really focus and enter in.  That being said, I did have some little things that sure preoccupied me.  First, I lost a mitt somewhere between Taize and Lisieux and I needed mitts or gloves to go skiing so I ended up trying to walk to this intersport store one afternoon and then gave up because it seemed too far.  Second, I put in the wrong pin number on my French bank card and so it locked on me and I was no longer able to use it.  I didn’t have a credit card because mine had expired, so I was left with cheques and my Canadian debit card, which ended up being fine, but it’s these little things that distract and make me worry.

One night it was just me and one other pilgrim for supper and we got to talking.  This guy is a Parisian so he really talks quickly, my goodness.  When he found out that I’m 22 and want to get married and have kids, I found his reaction funny.  He was like, “If you’re already 22, you should have your kids soon because it’s best to have your kids young so you can raise them... etc.”  I thought this was funny because I’m so used to everyone telling me I’m young, that someone telling me I need to hurry and get married and have kids was surprising.  He was fairly young (early 30s I’d say) and secular which also made his reaction interesting.

Luckily, it was the day before I had to leave that the train schedules were changed because of a  “mouvement social” so I was able to get to the Alps without any troubles. 

Alps

                I got to the Briancon in the Alps and quickly found a store that sold gloves and bought some before rushing back to catch the bus to where I was staying/skiing.  In the end, a lady ended up offering to take me to my hostel.  Usually, I would have said, “No.” for safety reasons.  I agreed though, which was good since I don’t know if I would have found the hostel otherwise. 

                The first night I sat down at a table with high school students and that’s when I realized, that almost everyone at the hostel was either high school students or a family.  So I was sort of disappointed because I was hoping to meet more people my age.  However, the next day, I got a roommate from Russia and we ended up skiing together for some of the day.

                The first two days of skiing, the snow conditions were great but the visibility was terrible with clouds, rain, and snow.  The last day was clear, sunny, and beautiful with great snow conditions.  I really enjoyed it.  The Alps are different than the Rockies.  I think the Rockies have more trees and there’s more runs off the chairlifts.  It seemed at the station I was at they could have a chair just for one run.  The mountain was huge too and I really only got to ski half of it.

                After another 12.5 hours of travelling, I arrived back in Rodez.  I now have only 5 weeks left of teaching.  I’m excited to go back to Canada.  I have enjoyed my time here- the free time, volunteering, praying, travelling- but I miss Canada.