192 PART TWO: AN EMPIRICAL ACCOUNT I do question that, you know, whether we should do it like this, but every brother experiences that… (…) And every time that I do that introduction, I always feel a bit uncomfortable, you know. Because I think, well, I understand, I can’t take two hours now… uh, for this to explain it, and cannot, when you have to speak in front of 300 people, respond to every pastoral situation, still, I have to address it and I am very much aware that what I say, for a number of people, they’ll think: ‘what, what does this man say? What’s this?’ you know. And I can’t, I don’t have the opportunity to… uh, comprehensively address it….445 He speaks of Taizé’s practice as something beautiful and painful at the same time. TA is very much aware of the struggles it can cause the community’s guests. Reflecting on the questions both Catholic and non-Catholic guests face, he says: But that it has a very painful side to it, too, but well… … that is inherent, I guess… … …. So, a painful side to it, because we, we discussed this already, because it reminds us… how big the divisions between churches, um… … and what a sensitive topic it is with the churches, and what a sensitive topic it can be for many of those who come here, who have to ask themselves: ‘wait, what’s this, how does it affect me? Where do I come from, um, can I and do I want to participate in this?446 BF speaks in similar terms about the guests in Bose. They, too, struggle to make sense of the situation. This struggle does not leave the monastics unaffected. Even though they themselves are now familiar with Eucharistic sharing as a default situation – which, indeed, alleviates the pain of division without fully eliminating it – the guests confront them with the wounds of disunity: I think that sometimes we need this. Uh… we need a shock that asks us to go deeper, to go back, to go at the main reason of the Eucharist. I… and this, in…with all the wound of limits that I’ve told you before, is what I felt sometimes when, especially when there are some um… um… non-Catholic, not from our community, because now for us it’s normal, huh? But if you have people that you know uh, probably, you can even imagine the cost that it has for him or her, to have this, to receive the Communion. Because it’s not so normal, well, we say, you are invited, you can come, but it’s still a Catholic Mass. For instance, 445 TA-2,18a. 446 TA-2,14.
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