Translated into 60 languages (including 21 Asian languages and 9 African languages), this letter was written by Brother Roger for the European meeting of young adults which brought to PARIS for five days, from 28 December 1994 to 1 January 1995, more than 100,000 participants from all the countries of Eastern and Western Europe, as well as young people from 54 countries on other continents. The meeting in PARIS is the seventeenth annual European meeting. It is a stage in the "Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth" animated by Taizé.

By night and by day, as we move forward from beginning to new beginning, a whole life is built up.

Could the human soul be that, too: the secret heartbeat of a happiness almost beyond words?

In the presence of physical violence or moral torture a question plagues us: if God is love, where does evil come from?

No one can explain the why of evil. In the Gospel, Christ enters into solidarity with the incomprehensible suffering of the innocent; he weeps at the death of someone he loves. 1

Did not Christ come to earth so that every human being might know that he or she is loved? 2

When we can sense hardly anything of God's presence, what good is agonizing over it?

It is enough to have the desire to welcome God's love for a flame to be kindled, little by little, in the secret recesses of our being. "Filled by his love, the heart opens to others."3

Animated by the Holy Spirit, this flame of love can be quite faint. And yet it keeps burning.

And the Holy Spirit stirs us up and is at work within us, reorienting the depths of our being, 4 preparing us to dare to live lives of forgiveness and reconciliation.

...And the heart awakens to the wonder of a love.

To let ourselves be refreshed by living water welling up in us, it is good to go off for a few days in silence and peace.

In ancient times Elijah, the believer, set out in search of a place to listen to God. And there he made this discovery: God's voice finds a way of making itself understood in a breath of silence. 5

God is familiar with our longings. He perceives better than we do ourselves our most basic intentions and what lies deep within us. What we have trouble grasping in prayer, God has already understood.

When we pray and nothing seems to happen, does our prayer remain unanswered? No. The fire of a love penetrates even the arid regions, even the contradictions of our being.

In quiet trust in God, all prayer finds some kind of fulfillment. Perhaps it is different than we expected... Does not God answer us with a view to a greater love?6

The beauty of prayer with others is an incomparable support. Through simple words and symbols, it communicates a discreet and silent joy.

Who will find ways of preparing and opening children and young people to the mystery of trust in Christ? 7 Already glimpsed in a person's early years, an intuition of faith develops in their heart of hearts. Even if it is forgotten, it can reappear throughout their life.8

But why are some people seized by the wonder of a love and know that they are loved, and even filled to overflowing? Why do others have the impression that they are neglected, loved little for what they are? 9

Every human being yearns to be loved as well as to love. It is not for nothing that the Gospel alerts us about not becoming locked up in isolation.

When we are listened to, obstacles fall away that were created by frustrations of the heart, wounds from a recent or distant past. Being listened to is the beginning of a healing of the soul. 10

And the breath of a trust arises... And a gateway to freedom begins to open up.

Though there are fragilities in human beings, there is also a fathomless thirst for freedom.

Like the most beautiful of coins, freedom can have an other side. What kind of freedom would it be if, used in a self-centred way, it harmed the freedom of others? Freedom is intimately linked to forgiveness and reconciliation. 11

Here too Christ invites us to a humble repentance. And what does repentance express? It is a surge of trusting by which we place our failings in him, surrendering ourselves to him in silence and in love.

Jesus was a human being. He knows how humans aspire to inner peace. And before leaving those he loved, he assured them that they would receive a comfort. 12

Could there be in us a chasm of fears, doubts or loneliness? Joy! Joy of the soul! The depths of worry in us call out to other depths, the inexhaustible compassion of his love. 13

And what a surprise: trust was at hand, and so often we were unaware of it.14

Jesus, the Christ, never abandons us to the anguish of a solitude where all that remains is greyness, morosity and sadness.

Ever since he rose from the dead, his presence has been made tangible through a mystical and visible communion, that communion of love which is the Body of Christ, his Church.

Finding fulfillment in this communion requires a simplicity of heart and of life. Without such simplicity, how can we go forward trusting in Christ?

Is the Church not entering a period today when it is being stripped to the essentials? Its credibility is at stake. This is all the more the case since, in some parts of the world, people are moving away from the faith.

Trust in Christ is not conveyed by means of arguments which want to persuade at all costs and so end up causing anxiety, and even fear.

In the younger generations, some remain at a distance from that communion which is the Church. The question arises: could they too be victims of age-old and brand-new divisions?

Is it not urgent today to be reconciled by love? And when Christ calls, who can refuse? Who can forget his words: be reconciled without delay?15

Will we have hearts large enough, imaginations open enough, love burning enough to enter upon that Gospel way: to live as people who are reconciled, without delaying a single day?16

When the Church listens, heals, reconciles, it becomes what it is at its most luminous - the limpid reflection of a love and, still more, an abyss of consolation.17

Never distant, never on the defensive, freed from all forms of severity, the Church can let the humble trusting of faith shine right into our human hearts.

A Gospel light, however feeble it may be, pierces our darkness with its rays. 18 It is fire; it is Spirit. It enables us to live Christ's life both within ourselves and for others.

In this period of history, there is an unprecedented awakening of the Christian conscience with regard to human suffering.

Everywhere in the world, there are Christians who are giving their lives. They are trying to be present amidst the increasingly rapid evolutions of society. In the midst of such changes that come faster and faster, an astonishment arises, astonishment at all that is made possible by love. Wherever they live, these Christians take on responsibilities that are often very specific.19

In vast regions of the world, human beings are measured above all in economic terms, and the desire to get rich through the market becomes an overriding obsession.

The consciences of a great many Christians cannot be satisfied by an economic growth that benefits only part of a country's population.

From the time of the apostles, the Virgin Mary and the first believers, there has been a call to live in great simplicity.

One of the pure joys of the Gospel is to go further and further toward a simplicity of heart that leads to a simplicity of life.

Attentive to building up the human family, how can we remain unaware that every people has its own genius? 20 And so many peoples on earth today reflect the mysterious figure of the "suffering servant" 21 : humiliated, ill-treated, with nothing to attract us, they bear our diseases.22

Whatever point we may be at, the Risen Christ searches tirelessly for us and he always comes to us. Let us hear him knocking at our door when he tells us: come, follow me!23

He desires that, with almost nothing, both fire and Spirit be made perceptible in us, above all through the gift of our lives.24

However poor we may be, let us not quench the fire, let us not quench the Spirit. 25 In them are kindled the wonder of a love.

And the humble trusting of faith is communicated like fire spreading from one person to the next.

1 John 11,35-36.

2 "There is no violence in God. God sent Christ not to accuse us, but to call us to himself, not to judge us, but because he loves us" (Letter to Diognetus, second century after Christ). There are physical forms of violence on earth, including war, torture, murder... There are other forms of violence too, those that are concealed in the ploys of mistrust and of cunning, in suspicion, humiliation, an unkept promise...

3 An Orthodox theologian from Bucharest who died in 1993, Father Staniloae, and who had been in prison for his beliefs, wrote words so essential that we would like to know them by heart: "I looked for God in the human beings of my village, then in books and in ideas. But that brought me neither peace nor love. One day, while reading the Church Fathers, I discovered that it was possible to encounter God through prayer. I gradually realized that God was close to me, that he loved me, and that filled by his love, my heart opened to others. I realized that love was a communion, with God and with others. And without that communion, everything is only sadness and desolation."

4 In the depths of our being, a little part of ourselves remains solid, unshakeable as rock.

5 I Kings 19,3-13.

6 Happy those who live in trust of heart; they will see God! How will they see him? Like Mary who, attentive, "kept everything in her heart" (Luke 2,19.51) and saw God with her inward eye. A vision can be given by the Holy Spirit, but it is not the appearance of a person, known or unknown, who stands alongside us. It is an image drawn from within ourselves, clear enough to allow us to "see" a loved or venerated being. It is possible to love Christ so much that we have such a vision, brought into being by the Holy Spirit. But what are visions or ecstasies when compared to an act of love, of forgiveness, of reconciliation?

7Take a child by the hand, go with that child into a church to pray...and he or she can be awakened to the mystery of faith. This is possible at home, too. In the fourth century, Saint John Chrysostom wrote: "The home is a little church." Today, in secularized societies, it is good for our homes to give glimpses of an invisible presence by means of a few symbols of Christ. At home we can set up a corner for prayer, however small, with an icon, a candle... Of course, making one's home a little church, an "ecclesiola," can never mean becoming a closed group and so forgetting the universal dimension of the Church.

8Faith can reappear in adulthood in people who prayed with members of their family as children. When there is a void in childhood, however, it can happen that this void is filled in whatever way possible, using the elements that happen to be at hand. How could a child have the maturity to sort out all those elements?

9As a result of different events, a child can experience a feeling of rejection. And in that child, an inner appeal is born not to be abandoned. It happens that children are wounded by tensions in their family, by explanations given by adults in their presence. Understanding a child, or a young person, requires a great deal of discernment. Often the question can arise: Will someone be present to help them pass through a void that affects them in their heart of hearts?

10Being listened to by someone with experience in reading what lies beneath the contradictions of the human being. To listen, it is not necessary to have a method, but to know how to discern the gifts, the wounds, the thirst for God, in those who come with something to confide. Some elderly persons are able to listen, to understand the young, to unburden them of a load of worry.

11Even under the guise of loving someone, it is possible to keep them captive in that desert which is emotional blackmail. Even in the name of freedom, it is possible to manipulate another person.

12Jesus told his disciples that, when he left them, the Holy Spirit would be their comfort, their support (John 14,16-18.26-27). "God is called the `God of consolation,' the `God of mercies,' because his constant concern is to comfort, to encourage the unfortunate and the afflicted, even if they have committed thousands of sins" (Saint John Chrysostom, fourth century).

13"Deep calls to deep" (Psalm 42,7). Experiencing a kind of inner void, some come to the point of asking themselves: but where is God? There can be doubts in us, and God does not love us any the less for that. Does not the Risen Christ remain alongside every person, even those who do not know him? Some Christians are utterly disconcerted when they hear that their faith is supposedly the projection of an unconsciously infantile attitude. And doubt can creep into the soul. But doubt is not always redoubtable. The maturity of an inner life enables us to discover a way forward that goes from hesitation, or doubt, to a humble trusting in God.

14When it comes to trusting in God, it is good to remain attached to a few Gospel realities and to go back to them constantly: "In all things peace of heart, joy, simplicity, mercy." "Forget in Christ what assails the heart." "God buries our past in the heart of Christ and is going to take care of our future."

15Matthew 5,23-24. Is hope for a reconciliation among Christians vanishing, like a wave that falls back? Perhaps, but does not God always open up new ways? Reconciliation is born from within, in the heart of each person, in their own life. The ecumenical vocation of the baptized is above all to be creators of a reconciliation made concrete each day, both near and afar. Lived out within one's own being, reconciliation acquires a credibility and can lead to a reconciliation in that communion of love which is the Church. What matters is to live as people who are reconciled. Documents will come later. Does not devoting too much energy to documents, in the end, take us away from putting into practice concretely the Gospel call: to be reconciled without delay?

16There are countless Christians who undergo an inner struggle, and sometimes suffering, in their attempt to be bearers of peace in that communion of love which is the Body of Christ, his Church. They are not naive when confronted with abuses that corrode communion. They could criticize the inflexible attitudes of some people. Far from allowing themselves to be drawn in that direction, they strive for silence and love with all their soul. When they express their desires, they are careful not to dig ditches which would separate people still more. They search for all that stimulates us to live as people who are already reconciled. They know that, with a view to the continuities of Christ in the human family, it is so essential for there to appear the reality of a communion, of a reconciled Church, where joy, simplicity and mercy dwell.

17Because of the separations between Christians, some find themselves in a situation where they cannot receive the Eucharist. Rather than becoming upset over this difficulty, it is possible to offer "blessed bread" to every person present at the celebration of the Eucharist, to all without exception, both believers and non-believers. This sign of hospitality is rooted in the story of the multiplication of the loaves: one day Christ blessed five loaves of bread and distributed them to all without distinction (Matthew 14,13-21). This leads us to reflect on the Church's motherly love; because of it she has managed to discover the unexpected. Does not this gesture, brought into being long ago among Eastern Christians, offer a concrete response in certain contemporary situations?

18"God is light; in him there is no darkness." (I John 1,5)

19Among Christians, there are many who refuse to accept any form of exclusion, unemployment, underprivileged areas of large cities... There are young people, as well as not-so-young and even elderly persons, who devote part of their time to volunteer service for others, for example by going to be with children or old people in their neighbourhood. Some support this volunteer work by collecting funds, and this is fine. But it is desirable that young people accomplish such service without any appeal for funds: three or four persons can help others by sharing their meagre resources.

20We are in a period when a crisis of confidence in man is widespread. Particularly noticeable in Europe, it sets before us this challenge: what responsibilities can we take on so that a new confidence can be born, utterly indispensable for the building up of Europe?

21See Isaiah 53,2-4.7.

22Happy those who, in recent years, have done all they could to bring about the freedom of their peoples! Who will uphold these freedoms in places where they are still quite young?

23See Revelation 3,20 and Mark 10,21. Going to the very extreme of the gift of ourselves by a yes for an entire lifetime can be a support for those who take to heart the continuities of Christ. This yes is an anchor for inner freedom and the reminder of a clear meaning of life in the Gospel: to give it forc others. They are well present throughout the world, those who, by the gift of themselves, reflect something of the holiness of Christ without even realizing it.

24John the Baptist announced that Christ would baptize "in the Holy Spirit and in fire" (Matthew 3,11).

25I Thessalonians 5,19.