| We spent our New Year 2016-17 in an ecumenical Taizé meeting in Riga, Latvia, with 15,000 young people who had come together to pray, make a pilgrimage and to meet young people from all over Europe and the world. The four of us were blessed to be placed into host families, me with my sister Anna and Henriikka (you can read her report from Riga here) and Walaa together. We got to experience the warm hospitality of the Latvians and can be grateful. This year the ones of us that had been to Taizé meetings before were happy to see so many friends from previous years. |  |
 | Every day started with a prayer in our home parish. The prayer consisted of Taizé songs, psalm, bible reading, a silence of about 8 minutes, Our Father that everybody said in their own language and some more Taizé songs. When the people of the parish heard about the length of the silence they were a bit shocked, but once we announced that the prayer will now continue with several minutes of silence, nobody resisted. After the morning prayer, we had discussion groups where the topic this year was Together, Opening Paths of Hope. |
On the New Year, we had a Festival of Nations, where all the different peoples get to represent their countries by performing something traditional. This year, as in many other years before, we decided to dance Letkajenkka or Letkis, having considered singing Finlandia or Heiluuliaillallaa. We also got to dance Wiener Waltz, Ukrainian broomstick-dance, Polonaise, listen to beautiful German, Belarussian and Ukrainian singing and answer some quiz questions about Croatia.
At midday, we got some tea to warm us up so we could enjoy our picnic outside at the City square, after which we went to the midday prayer in the churches of the Old Town. We also had some workshops that we could choose from a list. In the evening, we got some food that we could eat inside at the Olympic Centre or at Kipsala Exhibition Centre. After food, it was time for the evening prayer at the Riga Arena or at Kipsala. In Riga, it would have been impossible to fit all the 15 000 people in one place at a time.
| For me this was my fifth Taizé New Year’s meeting. Before this one I had been to Poznan 2009-2010, Berlin 2011-12, Rome 2012-13 and Valencia 2015-16 and I had also been to the community of Taizé in the summer of 2015. Every meeting has been special in their own way and has brought me closer to God and helped me in my prayer. Every year we have felt safe and blessed since we were welcomed by host families that became our own families for the week we spent in the New Year’s meetings. When we start our journey we never know where we will end up, but we’ve been so lucky and everything has been so well organised. |  |
The meeting in Poznan was great since we had a big group of Finnish Catholics from several parishes. Berlin was wonderful since we could all fit in their Exhibition Centre and we got to know some Swedish people. Rome was one of the best since we got to pray in the big Basilicas, meet little sisters of Jesus, there was a Caritas workshop, we had a great parish and the weather was exceptionally warm. Last year in Valencia was an amazing way to begin the Jubilee of Mercy, we had again an amazing parish in Torrent, a lot of tangerines, oranges and palm trees and it was again warm. Riga this year was a sentimental journey and a warm get-together with all the people we knew from previous years.
 | This year the meeting was even more ecumenical than before, since the meeting was arranged by Catholics, Lutherans, Orthodox and Baptists. The biggest nation were the Poles, 4,500 Polish people had come to the meeting. On the last day, we found out that we weren’t the only Catholics from Finland who took part this year: in our parish there was also a Vietnamese boy from Oulu. Taizé meetings make the world - and even Finland - smaller! Mari Malm |
| Last year Mari reported from the Taizé Meeting in Valencia in Finnish. You can read that report - or at least look at the pictures - here. |
About the author
 | Mari Malm has been a catechist for several years and is an active member of the Catholic youth group in Tampere. She is a board member of Caritas Finland, a parish council member in Holy Cross Parish in Tampere and active in the ecumenical World Day of Prayer community in Tampere for quite a few years. My hobbies are languages, arts, crafts, traveling and Taizé, says Mari. |
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