On April 17, 2019, the Wednesday of Holy Week, the Young Adult Community at our Shrine of St. Anthony (Ellicott City, MD) held an Ecumenical Taizé Service of prayer, contemplation and candlelight procession. According to br. Franck Lino, OFM Conv., one of our friar students in formation, whose ministry assignment during his years of study at The Catholic University of America is to the Young Adults at the Shrine – it was by far the most beautiful Taizé service they have facilitated:

“The chapel was filled, leaving standing room only. We ran out of programs for the faithful who were in attendance, even though we printed over 100 copies. In addition to young solemnly professed friars and student friars from our Order who are serving and studying from Baltimore, Washington DC and Silver Spring, many of our Franciscan brothers from other Orders were also present (OFM postulants from Holy Name College, Capuchins from the DC House of Studies).
The atmosphere was very prayerful. At the end of the service a lady came up to me and said, ‘I am so happy I came tonight; it was just what I needed.’ Another said, ‘This is a great thing you are doing here at the Shrine.’ Still another said, ‘The prayer service was profoundly refreshing.’ It was very emotion for some people, you could see tears droping down people cheeks as they came to pray at the taizé cross.
In our society today everything moves at a fast speed. We get lost in the noise that never stops. Hence the silent prayers of Taizé can be dauting or scary for some. But in silence we are able to listen to the voice of God speaking. The founder of the Taizé Community, Brother Roger (Frère Roger Schütz) said, ‘In a breath of silence in a whisper, God speaks to you humbly.’”

The next Young Adult event scheduled at our Shrine of St. Anthony is a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, to end the Spring Semester. If you are a young adult, aged 18 to 39, and you or your young adult group would like to participate, the May 5, 2019 event will begin with the Noon Mass at the Shine with the celebration afterwards. Please follow the link for more information.