emmanuel elders
The Emmanuel Seniors Mission is available to people who are aging and to those who want to serve them.
The mission of Emmanuel Elders
Emmanuel Elders aims to promote and support opportunities to concretely manifest communion between the generations:
“By the love you have for one another, it will be known that you are my disciples,” says Jesus (Jn 13:35). The Church, the Body of Christ, a mystery of communion, is a sign and fruit of the Trinitarian communion of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Fraternal communion is missionary. It is all the more so when it is the expression of friendly encounters lived beyond the differences in states of life, ages, or cultures. It is a grace to be received and a challenge to be taken up because it is not always easy to remain in love, whatever happens. Only God can give us the grace to do so if we ask him.
Emmanuel Elders take to heart to offer the elderly the support and help they need to find a fruitful meaning to their old age, serve the Church and participate in its mission according to the calls of the Holy Spirit and their charisms.
Emmanuel Elders also wishes to be at the service of those who provide material, human, and/ or spiritual support to aging and who feel more vulnerable. Reaching out and accompanying is a learning process. Moreover, caregivers have their vulnerabilities and need help.
The proposals are in Emmanuel Community graces and the joy of witnessing God present among us even in our grey hair. He is all the more present when we pray to him, as the psalmist did…
“My God, you have taught me from my youth,
until now I have proclaimed your wonders.
In the days of old age and gray hair
do not forsake me, O my God;
and I will tell the men of this age of your power,
and to all who come, of thy mighty works.”
Ps 71(70) 17-18
The Vocation of Emmanuel Elders
Old Simeon, moved by the Holy Spirit, recognized in Him the expected Messiah, the Glory of Israel, and the Light of the nations. Also, the prophetess Anna, an 84-year-old widow living in prayer and fasting, “praised God and announced the birth of the child to all those who were waiting for the deliverance of Israel!”
Together, young and old, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are called to welcome Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, praise Him, and witness to his mercy for all people. It is how the treasure of faith has been handed down to us from generation to generation for more than 2000 years.
Young and old will rejoice together !
Fruit of Pentecost, this is what the Emmanuel Community has been given to live, by grace, since its beginnings. Pierre Goursat was 58 years old, and Martine Laffitte Catta was 28 at the beginning. At the call of Pope Francis, this service aims to foster intergenerational communion by offering everyone opportunities to pray, share and serve together in various ways.
a call from pope franCis
During a congress on “the richness of the years” (Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life, January 2020), Pope Francis invited the participants to become aware of the central place of the elderly in the life of the Church and to cultivate inter-generational exchanges:
“Today, I would like to tell you that the elderly are also the present and the future of the Church. Yes, they are also the future of a Church that prophesies and dreams together with the young! That is why it is so important that older people and young people talk to each other.”
Emmanuel Elders works to give everyone a place for support and exchange, to help each other, whatever their age, to remain faithful to Christ, to continue to commit themselves to the service of the Church's mission and to remain to the end of their lives burning witnesses of the Merciful Love for all people.
Prayer to the Virgin Mary to guide us in our mission with the elderly
Virgin Mary,
gather us together with one heart and one soul so that we may live as a new Pentecost, diligent in prayer. May young and old rejoices together! May the Holy Spirit renews us in the missionary fire and give us the ability to bear witness in all circumstances to the infinite mercy of the Lord for every person! Help us contemplate your Son in all the mysteries of his life and act as he asks of us. Teach us to keep our eyes fixed on your beloved Son who died for love of us on a Cross and who is alive at the Right Hand of the Father. May we recognize and care for Jesus mysteriously present in those who suffer, who said, “what you did to the least of these, you did to me.” With your diligence in visiting your cousin Elizabeth, Virgin Mary, may we take the best possible care of our elderly, who remain called, even in the weaknesses of old age, to be actors in the Church of today and tomorrow? And may we sing the Magnificat together! Yes, Virgin Mary, all generations come together to call you blessed! Teach us to pray! Teach us to love! May the fire of the Holy Spirit make our lives fruitful and renew us so that together, young and old; we may bear more fruit for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Amen.
emmanuel
ELDERS
In union with the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, we entrust in prayer this mission, those who will undertake it and all those to whom it is addressed.