Join us by livestream on January 17 at 5:00 PM for our Taizé Service of Prayer and Healing.

The Taizé Service of Prayer and Healing is a different kind of worship service. Contemplative in nature, it is one of the ways we can get in touch with our mystical selves in the company of others with a similar intent.

Prayer that is silent, spoken, and sung forms the basis of the liturgy in a space of quiet beauty.  The music is repetitive in nature so as to calm the anxious, busy, everyday mind—what our Buddhist friends call “the monkey mind.” That leaves the Deeper Self available to listen to the Holy Spirit for guidance and comfort.

During the healing portion of the service, we usually invite people to come forward to kneel at the communion rail where someone anoints them with oil and prays with them. Since that is not possible online, we invite you to prepare ahead of time by putting a drop or two of oil on a cotton ball or a tissue for each person—an essential oil or even plain olive oil will do. The cotton ball or tissue can help contain the oil since only a small bit is needed to make a cross on the forehead. Simply touch the cotton ball or tissue to moisten the thumb or index finger and draw the two parts of the cross on the forehead, just above the nose and eyebrows.

You can do this for yourself or have someone who is there with you do it, and then you can do it for them.  The traditional words are, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  Other forms use “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer” in place of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Or you might come up with your own Trinitarian formula.

Anointing with oil by drawing the sign of the cross is a time-honored way of sealing the intention of the prayer and the pray-er.