134 PART TWO: AN EMPIRICAL ACCOUNT enriched and shaped his own understanding of what it is to be Christian, especially together with other Christians. It also expresses the fullness of the experience: it is something that concerns and connects multiple levels or dimensions of life. Again, we can see the fundamental value of a shared common life as the basis for ecumenical encounter. Both in Groningen and in Taizé, TA experienced this dimension of essential significance for ecumenical contacts. In this way, his life in Taizé is a continuation and intensification of the ecumenical life he discovered during his studies in Groningen. 4.3 RESPONSES TO NEWLY ENCOUNTERED LITURGICAL TRADITIONS The interviewees have encountered liturgical traditions other than their own within and outside the communities. When mentioning them, different types of responses can be identified. I distinguish three main reactions, characterized respectively as discovery, recognition, and alienation. Discovery In the first category, BF vividly recalls his earliest liturgical experiences, serving as an altar boy at the pre-conciliar Tridentine Mass. He consciously experienced the liturgical reforms following Vatican II. Under supervision of his parish priest, his youth group learned about the changes initiated by the Council.325 Analogous to his introduction to ecumenism, BF elaborates on this experience as a thrilling, promising new era. Thus, for BF, the discovery of Bose and the new liturgy were parallel experiences. In his interview, he distinguishes between the pre-conciliar Roman Catholic Church marked by the Tridentine liturgy and its rejection of ecumenism, and a post-conciliar church marked by ecumenical commitment and liturgical renewal. Bose, in that sense, is for him a manifestation of the latter, a ‘new world’ for him to discover. Brothers TA and TB both come from ‘low-church’ Reformed congregations. They encountered more elaborate liturgies at Taizé. TA is the most outspoken about his discovery of the Catholic liturgy in Taizé. In his childhood, he did not perceive of the Holy Supper as something particularly important nor did he get the impression that others felt differently. In a somewhat fragile quote, trying to articulate his own experience, TA says: I have said once: ‘but that is not at all important to us,’ and I have so offended someone with that, so I won’t say that anymore, because, I 325 BF-1,2a-b.
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