When I was 27, the age limit for my military service as a doctor, I providentially met Fidesco. I had no Christian education and lived a spiritual quest that seldom crossed the Church. In other words, I had never thought of becoming a priest and was full of plans for my future. Both surprised and touched by Fidesco’s missionary cooperation goals, I decided to go with them. During the year of preparation, I discovered the Emmanuel Community, Paray-le-Monial and a joyful and authentic Church face that brought down my negative prejudices. In Guinea, I practiced as a dispensary doctor, in very bare living conditions. Every day, with the other cooperants, we went to Mass celebrated in the local language, and had a common prayer. As I went, I reread my life and took more time to pray. One day, before the Blessed Sacrament, looking at the Lord, without thinking of more, I said to him, “I want to put you in the first place.” The idea of ​​the priesthood then crossed my mind, but I rejected it because I was not ready. The meeting with the life of Maximilian Kolbe then pushed me forward. Back in France, I resumed my internship, but the question always tapped me. I decided to dedicate the bridge of August 15 to pray until God answered me! And on the second day, I felt the strength to say yes, to give up medicine and devote my life to the priesthood. It was the 50th anniversary of the death of Father Kolbe. At that moment, I felt a deep joy and a great peace invade me. I have never stopped giving thanks!

The priest of the Emmanuel Community is at the service of the Church and the world. He is a man who has been personally touched by the love of God and has heard the call of Jesus to follow him. In response, he seeks, in his daily life, to love Jesus and to serve him. In the daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, in listening to the Word of God. This love seizes him and pushes him to meet the men and women of this world so that they in turn discover how much they are loved by God. The priest of Emmanuel is therefore in a special way a priest for the mission. But he also realizes that he needs others to keep this zeal for the mission. He is no better than others and he knows that evangelization bears fruit when it is lived together with other lay brothers, sisters and consecrated people. That’s why fraternal life is very important to him! The Emmanuel Community is a family where he knows he can achieve together with his brothers and sisters in the community his call to be holy. In joy, and in a spirit of praise, he seeks to always better serve others and especially the poorest.