Who are we ?
Emmanuel community in a few words
The Emmanuel Community is a Catholic Lay International Community that brings together faithful that share a common call to strive for holiness and commit themselves to actively live their faith in their daily lives through adoration, compassion and evangelization; thus, fulfilling their call as the first believers did who had “only one heart and one soul!” (Acts 4:32).
The Emmanuel Community was born out of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in 1972. It started with a prayer meeting in Paris with Pierre Goursat and Martine Laffitte-Catta and grew quickly in France and around the world.
In 1992, the Holy See recognised that the Emmanuel Community acts for the common good of the whole Catholic Church. As a Public Association of the Faithful, it brings together priests, consecrated men and women, families and single people who testify to the ecclesiology of communion encouraged by the Second Vatican Council. In 2017, this call to live the complementarity of the states of life for the new evangelisation led the Congregation for the Clergy to erect the Clerical Association of the Emmanuel Community (gathering priests and deacons). It is indissolubly linked to the Association of Faithful.
Today, the community is present in 60 countries. It reaches several hundred thousand people each year through its apostolic activities. It has :
> 11,500 members
> 275 priests and about 100 seminarians
> 225 men and women consecrated in celibacy
> 10 bishops are from the Community
A FEW POINTS OF REFERENCE
Shrines and parishes entrusted to priests of the Community:
• Paray-le-Monial (France), city of the Heart of Jesus, known worldwide
• L’Ile-Bouchard (France), Marian shrine.
• La Trinité des Monts (Rome-Italie)
• 70 parishes in the world.
3 international schools of evangelisationwhich train more than 35 young people each year: Rome (Italie), Altötting (Allemagne), Bafoussam (Cameroun).
A FEW MISSIONS INITIATED BY THE COMMUNITY
• Fidesco, cooperation and development work
• Le Rocher, popular education work in the suburbs
• Love and Truth, serving couples, families and children
• Zacheus, promotion of the social doctrine of the Church
• SAJE, evangelisation through Cinema
• L’1visible and Il est Vivant! Evangelical press
• Éditions de l’Emmanuel, publishing 40 books a year
The Church has opened the canonisation process of Pierre Goursat, founder of the Community, and Cyprien et Daphrose Rugamba and their children, martyred family in Rwanda.
See all our missions
Our Call
An experience of the Holy Spirit
Becoming brothers and sisters
Sent to the heart of the world
Worship, compassion and evangelisation
The members of the Emmanuel Community have experienced a personal encounter with Christ which has given rise to a desire to walk with Him towards holiness by allowing themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit. From this encounter, often called the “outpouring of the Holy Spirit” in the charismatic renewal, they have received a call to move forward together, in the communion of states of life, whether they are single, married, priests, or priests consecrated.
The presence of all states of life is constitutive of the call of the Emmanuel Community. It is essential both for evangelization and for sanctification. It is a gift of God to be able to respond together and in the Church to his call, listening to the Holy Spirit, in adoration, brotherly love, and praise.
Following Emmanuel, “God with us,” the community members live where God has placed them, in their family, professional and social environment. They commit themselves fully to society, serving it to the best of their ability. Thus placed at the heart of the world, they desire to live as authentic witnesses of Christ, in the world, without being “of the world” (Jn 17:14).
“The deep grace of the Community comes from the Eucharistic Adoration of the God present in our midst: EMMANUEL. From this Adoration comes compassion for all those who are starving, materially and spiritually. From this compassion is born the thirst to evangelize in the whole world and especially the poorest”. The members of the Community are called to be witnesses of the Mercy which springs from the pierced Heart of Christ, according to the message of Paray le Monial: “Here is this Heart which so loved men”. The preamble to the Statutes of the Community
Our commitments
Life in union with God
Households and community meetings
Mission and service
Companionship
The desire of the members of the Emmanuel Community is to be united with God. They want to turn to Him, to listen to Him, to show Him their love, and to let themselves be loved. Prayer is essential in their spiritual life, it is the meeting of God’s thirst and their own; it is the gateway to union with God. The members of Emmanuel try to live every moment in praise and put the Eucharist at the center of their lives.
Each member of the community participates in a household. A household is a small group that meets regularly, usually every week, to listen to the Holy Spirit through praise, sharing the word of God and intercession. Each month, households from the same geographical area meet for a larger community time.
Each member of Emmanuel also engages in a missionary life by making himself available for services proposed – or confirmed – by the Community. The missions of the Emmanuel Community can take on very different aspects depending on the charisma of the members and the needs of the world and the local Church.
Each member of the Community benefits from regular personal accompaniment by another member of the Community. This fraternal, spiritual, and human compagnonship helps each member live in coherence with their choice of commitment to Emmanuel and their situation in a spirit of simplicity and freedom.
TO KNOW MORE
Video
Pierre et l’Emmanuel (version longue – 53 min)
Books
Pierre Goursat, paroles, de Martine Catta, aux Editions de l’Emmanuel
Prier 15 jours avec Pierre Goursat, du Père Francis Kohn, postulateur (Editions Nouvelle cité)
Pierre Goursat, tout simplement, le mook d’Il est vivant! (2014)
Documents
Statuts de l’Association de fidèles
Statuts de l’Association cléricale
Conseil de l’Association de fidèles
Conseil de l’Association cléricale