You might not know it, but someone is praying for you – on her lunch hour.

When Gloria DaBreo needs to get away from the ringing phones at Ryerson’s continuing education office, she goes to church.

Tucked away behind the theatre school on quiet McGill Street is the Ryerson Catholic Chaplaincy Centre.

Every day, the centre hosts a lunch hour mass, but Wednesdays are special: they’re reserved for Taizé (pronounced “ta-zay”) prayer. Taizé combines song, simple prayers and silence. 

Last Wednesday, DaBreo prayed for Ryerson students who are at the end of their rope with the school year.

“I hope they can persevere with their studies,” she said. Chaplain Kimberley Gottfried followed with a prayer for the Chang school, which recently moved into Heaslip House.

It’s not everyday you see so much good will verbalized at Ryerson. And for a generation that spans the extremes of hyper irreverence and Christian rock, it’s even more unusual to find so quiet a religious ceremony right on campus. 

"Religion is one option a student has to de-stress.”

Gottfried started Taizé prayer at the centre last September. Aside from the short prayers and songs, there is very little speaking, and definitely no preaching, in the half hour service.

“I like to sing,” DaBreo said. The highly melodic and repetitive Taizé songs have a way of lulling even the least religious folk from their daily troubles and into personal reflection.

So do the silences. “How do I see my life in the context of the reading?” DaBreo often wonders during her five minutes of silence.  The service recharges her: “I draw on it during stressful days, bad days and even joyful days – then I become even more exuberant.”

DaBreo carries the experience with her: “I find it humbling, on the train and in the city.”

Krissette Lal has experienced similar emotions, and now Taizé is her favourite form of worship. The fourth-year fashion design student found traditional prayer and sermons too routine – the words eventually lost their meaning.

She sees Taizé as a better alternative. “It’s spending time with God, as well as myself again. School work is hectic, as is balancing work and my social life.” Taizé helped give Lal the strength to face her grueling fashion design schedule, which routinely sees students pulling all-nighters and sleeping over at school to start class at eight in the morning.

With a slew of self-help workshops advertised all over campus – everything from facing fear, anxiety, stress, transition, even shyness – the call to church stands out.

Lal thinks it’s an interesting and often overlooked proposition. “Religion is one option a student has to de-stress.”

As a non-traditional form of spirituality, Taizé has been a hit with European youth since the 1950s, with a surge in popularity in the nineties. Christians all over the world were horrified when founder Roger Schultz, also known as Brother Roger, was stabbed to death during a prayer service in Burgundy last August.

“God hates religion!” proclaims The Meeting House website - Cavey loves to celebrate Jesus the rebel.

Brother Roger founded the ecumenical community in Taizé, a village in central France in 1940. Here, he harboured Jews, refugees and orphans during WWII. Today, Taizé hosts tens of thousands of young people every year: they include Christians, Jews, Buddhists and the unaffiliated.

Taizé hasn’t grown as fervently in North America, partly because it’s relatively new here. What’s more, newer, hipper non-denominational churches are vying for the attention of a growing Christian subculture. Laden with multi-media gimmicks and bold new attitudes, these churches know how to cull the cynicism and dwindling attention span of youth.

Take, for example, The Meeting House, “the church for people who aren’t into church.” Every Sunday, pastor Bruxy Cavey beams in live via satellite from Oakville  —into the Paramount.

That’s right, the movie theatre at King and John streets. Bruxy, or Brux, or Bruximus, as he is sometimes affectionately called, looks like Chad Kroeger and sounds like an enlightened surfer. Cavey touts his non-denominational church’s "irreligious approach to spirituality through the Christian faith.”

“God hates religion!” proclaims The Meeting House website — Cavey loves to celebrate Jesus the rebel.

At least 50 per cent of Cavey’s congregation is under 35 years of age. At the Paramount, a Christian rock band rouses the parishioners from their Sunday morning stupor – the flock likes rocking out.

One holiday mass featured Cavey and C.S. Lewis scholar Michael Coren dissecting the religious undertones of the Chronicles of Narnia. The service included clips from the BBC version, as a well as a power point presentation.

In his pastor’s message, Cavey writes, “I find that many people don’t really want to give up on God at all, but have become spiritually discouraged through their own negative religious experiences. For them, maybe for you, church has become a boring monument of antiquated irrelevant traditionalism. And who needs that?!”

So how will meek, unassuming Taizé fair with young urbanites, let alone Ryersonians?

Quietly. The University of Toronto will be hosting a Taizé weekend at St. Michael’s College from March 3 to 5, in conjunction with Ryerson, York and Newman Centre Chaplaincies. The weekend will include free time for silence, song practice, candlelight service and reflections on Brother Roger’s last, unfinished letter.