With their director, Rob Yenkowski, at the organ, members of the Cantores Christi Regis group lead the singing from the choir loft in St. Nicholas Church during a Taize prayer service on Monday evening. They will lead additional services at other churches through the Lenten season.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
America’s military men and women engage in a widening war with Iran (though some seem to find it hard to use the word “war”). Oil and gas prices seem in flux, as does the stock market. Communities try to figure out how to respond to the demand for data centers. A federal crackdown on illegal immigration seemed to slip from front burner to afterthought — yet talk of converting massive warehouses to detention centers increases. And what, exactly, is going to happen with tariffs?
For most of us, the “roller coaster” metaphor may seem a bit too tame. At least those amusement park rides follow a persistent path of known curves and hills to an assured end. These days, it’s easy to get swept up in the shifting issues, unsure whether the latest headline is critical to our daily lives or just a passing moment. The question may keep coming up: What’s to be done?
We humbly suggest the proverbial “Take a breath.” Or better yet, take an hour’s worth of breaths. Find an event or activity that calms your body and mind equally, and just do that. Let the jumble of the outside world fade, the knots in your brain and body un-kink.
One distinctively local opportunity for such an effort is happening in several places this month. The King’s College Cantores Christi Regis (Singers of Christ the King) are staging Taizé prayer services, and while that clearly suggests a Christian theme, the event can be utterly non-denominational, even secular, if approached as an opportunity for tranquility.
The first of four services was held at St. Nicholas Church in Wilkes-Barre, a series of repetitive chants resonating amid the candlelight. It is, as a story in Wednesday’s paper noted, music and meditation “in the style of an ecumenical monastic community founded in 1940 in the French village of Taizé.”
“It’s very soothing and peaceful.” Anthony Giovinazzo of Edwardsville opined.
“Soul and body, it makes you feel so good,” said Maureen Roughsedge of Wilkes-Barre.
St. Nicholas pastor, the Rev. Joseph Verespy, suggested it is something people may really need these days.
“In a world with all the craziness in it, this is like an oasis,” he said. “The challenges are still out there, but this is a way to clear our minds and center our hearts.”
You can sing if you want, or just let the music wash over you as you slow your breath and clear your mind. You can offer a Christian prayer and venerate the cross, pray on your own terms, or not pray at all. You can be reverent, meditative, or both. Perhaps best of all, you can simply step away from the jumbled world and relax for an hour or so in the glow of candles and the sound of simple chants.
Seems like something most of us could use these days.
There are three more opportunities to experience a Taizé service: 7 p.m. March 16 at St. John the Evangelist Church, 35 William St., Pittston; 7 p.m. March 23 at All Saints Church, 66 Willow St., Plymouth, and 7 p.m. March 31 on the home turf of The King’s College Cantores Christi Regis, in the Chapel of Christ the King, West North Street, Wilkes-Barre.
