Emmanuel Community

We are the Emmanuel Community of the United States.

A Roman Catholic International Public Association of the Faithful of Pontifical Right

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).

Who we are

The Emmanuel community is for men and women of all walks of life: from ordinary, professional and social backgrounds, of different classes, ages, and nationalities. We are a community made up of different vocations: lay people (married couples, single men and women, youth), priests and laymen and women consecrated in celibacy. In sharing this common call of “one heart and soul”, the members, no matter their vocation, form a strong bond and unity that is lived and witnessed to others in the joy and compassion of living a life centered on Jesus Christ in everything they do.

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Sisters consecrated in the Emmanuel Community

This unity is expressed in a particular fraternal life through weekly gatherings known as households as well as monthly meetings and national meetings. These allow brothers and sisters to come together to share how the Lord is working in their lives; how they are striving to evangelize in their every day and bringing their important petitions so that they may carry one another in prayer. It also gives them an opportunity to go deeper in faith formation through different teachings and formation programs. These meetings and the larger gatherings help to reinvigorate their call to serve the Lord, the Church and one another, particularly through evangelization. Unity is also manifested in various other services such as compassion to the poor and sick as well as a variety of apostolic efforts rooted in the mission of the new evangelization.

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Our calling

Encounter with the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit guides members of the Emmanuel Community to personally encounter Christ, which creates in them a desire to walk with Him in holiness. This encounter, known as “the outpouring of the Holy Spirit” in the charismatic renewal movement, calls people of all vocations (single, married, consecrated, and religious) to move forward together in a life of holiness.

Fraternal Communion

The presence of all vocations is a primary component of the Emmanuel Community’s calling. It is essential for both evangelization and sanctification. It is a gift from God to be able to respond together and in the Church to His call, to listen to the Holy Spirit, to adoration, fraternal love and praise. It is through the richness in praying and sharing together the path towards holiness along with priests, consecrated, families, young and old, that we live out the reality of the Church on a more intimate scale.

Sent to the Heart of the World

Following Emmanuel “God with us”, the members of the Community live where God has placed them, in their family, professional and social setting. They engage fully in society, serving it with their talents and abilities. Placed in the heart of the world, they wish to live there as authentic witnesses of Christ. They seek to be in the world, without being “of the world” (Jn 17:14).

Adoration, Compassion, and Evangelization

The three main pillars of the Emmanuel community are Adoration, Compassion and Evangelization. Through the commitment to daily Eucharistic Adoration, community brothers and sisters are able to contemplate and strive to imitate the compassionate heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence the Lord’s compassion naturally leads them to desire to evangelize those around them and all those they meet in their everyday lives: on the street, at work, in school and most of all, at home. Their mission? That all men come to know the person of Jesus Christ!

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Where we are

The Emmanuel Community today has over 11,500 members in 67 countries on 5 continents, including 275 priests and 225 consecrated. Ten bishops are from the priests of the Community.

In North America we are currently present in 17 States reaching from East to West and in 3 Canadian Provinces.

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Our life

Life in Union with God

The first desire for every member of the Emmanuel Community is to be united with God. This desire includes wanting to turn to God, to listen to Him, to love Him and let themselves be loved by Him. Prayer is essential for truly living out this desire. Members for the Emmanuel Community want to live in a state of praise with the Eucharist as the center of their lives.

Households and Community Gatherings

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 through Sacred Scripture, and prayerful intercession. Every month, multiple households in the same region meet for community gathering.

Mission and Service

Each Emmanuel Community member commits to a missionary life by making himself available for the Community’s services. The Emmanuel Community’s missions vary according to the members’ unique gifts given by the Holy Spirit, called a charism, the needs of the World, and those of the local Church.

Companionship

Each member of the Community receives regular personal support from another member of the Community. This fraternal and spiritual companionship helps everyone live in harmony with their commitment to the Emmanuel Community, their vocation, and their personal lives.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION 

On-line

International website of the Emmanuel Community

Video

Pierre and the Emmanuel (long version-53 min) (French- English subtitles)

Books

Words of Pierre Goursat, by Martine Catta (Editions de l’Emmanuel)
Fire and Hope, by Marie Catta and Bernard Peyrous (Editions de l’Emmanuel)

Documents

Statues of the Association of the Faithful and of the Clerical Association 
Statues for the Clerical Association of the Emmanuel Community 
Press Kit for Clerical Association of the Emmanuel Community