The Universal Language

I just spent a weekend in Montreal at a Taize prayer retreat, which was truly fantastic. The most interesting part of being there were the number of languages that I heard spoken on a regular basis. There were more languages than just French and English which I had expected. I don't even remember how many languages I heard. The most interesting part about listening to all of the languages was how they all seemed to make sense regardless of what I actually understood and could translate.

It was interesting to be in such an international place and still feel at home. In some ways it was similar to being back at L'arche. While many of us speak different languages, have different customs and separate traditions, we still are bound by something, even when we don't necessarily understand it.

Blogger has been adding more languages to the blogs that people can create. I was looking at some of what they had been doing and they had wanted to create a universal language that they called "Love." What they showed made very little sense to me, but the idea was very nice. I think the concept of creating a universal written and spoken language is pointless when a universal language already does exist despite the fact that it is not written. And it has the same name.

Sometimes we get stuck on the idea that when we can't communicate with people when we don't speak their language. We let the boundaries that we can create between ourselves stop us from reaching out. We don't always want to be able to communicate without using words because that is so much more personal than what society expects or requires of us. When we don't use words to reach out to each other, we open ourselves to more possibilities and deepen our relationships. It is then that we speak using the only truly universal language. Love.