CHAPTER 4: MONASTIC VOCATION WITH ECUMENICAL IMPLICATIONS 131 about their experiences, TC was first introduced to the community. It would be a turning point for him: he decided to attend several other Taizé-meetings in the United States. This, he says, “corresponded to a rediscovery… what faith meant in a more personal way.”314 Later that year, in 1974, he traveled with the sister and a group to the Taizé community in Europe for a one-week stay. He decided to return shortly after in order “to think about my future… maybe my call, I sensed some type of call, I wasn’t sure if it was the priesthood, or ministry, or….”315 He continues: “when I came, of course, I discovered… the ecumenical movement more through… yeah, through a lived experience, through the beauty of the prayer and the hymns.”316 In Taizé, he encountered for the first time the richness of the spiritual resources of other traditions. The encounter with Taizé, thus, meant a rediscovery of the faith of his youth, as well as a discovery of the spirituality of other Christians. As a side note, this double and mutually enriching experience may be representative for many of the youths visiting Taizé. Brother TB, too, only mentions a few particular examples of ecumenical encounters, at least when it comes to Catholics. For example, he recalls as a significant connection (“the strongest contact with the Catholic Church”) the cargo train track that ran behind his house: his mother would sometimes chat with the Catholic train driver when he stopped the train there.317 Yet, TB also speaks of his childhood intuition that churches ought not to be separated: When I was in high school, I read a bit of theology already, sort of my interest... And, I, I was so, so... upset sometimes, that they would so much quarrel and not agree and... and... so many divisions in the Protestant world, particularly. Because you don't agree on that, then you make a new church... And I said, if ever I study theology, I want to talk with my friends as long.... that we can at least accept each other, and... and be together. So that for me was quite... even as a child, I remember, we had sometimes missionaries coming from different countries, um... ... and this sort of intuition, that, if Jesus is the savior of the world, then everybody has to... to belong to each other, that was a child intuition. That I remember clearly. And, but it had nothing to do with Protestant or Catholic, it had something to do with, if Jesus is... if God has so much loved the world, to give his only 314 TC-1,2. 315 TC-1,4b. 316 TC-1,4b. 317 TB-1,24 and 26.
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