A magnificent retreat of the priests of the Emmanuel Community

The second great international retreat of the priests of the Emmanuel Community was held from from the 9th to the 14th of February at the Foyer of Chairty of Chateauneuf-de-Galaure in France.

180 of the 250 priests of the community were present.  Bishops Yves le Saux and Dominique Rey were the preachers of the this retreat.  Beginning with the foundational graces of the Emmanuel Commuity and particularly from the humble figure of Pierre Goursat, they preached this retreat on the theme of pastoral charity and the priest of the Emmanuel Community today.

The week was an opportunity for priests coming from every continent to deepen the meaning of the fatherhood of a priest, and also what it means to be a brother as well as a son.

It was seen that to be a father is to give life in order to give one's life, to be close to others, to be a patient and benevolent witness, and also to have the courage of being faithful to the truth while at the same time giving the mercy of God to humanity.  To be a brother and a son, this is to accept  to depend, in a simple way, on others, whatever their state of life in the Church.

The Moderator of the Community and the Co-ordinator for priests concluded this beautiful retreat by encouraging the priests of Emmanuel to live community life in a free gift of self, in a communion of the states of life, there wherever they are.  They reminded them of the importance of welcoming the human fragilities and poverties of every person in order to exercise a real paternity which strengthens, encourages and raises up.

Some Fioretti:

"What is urgent is not so much to defend Catholic identity but to be missionary."

"The difficulty of fraternal life...is the brother!"

"To make a good decision requires a good night and a good mass."

"That which you want to light in the others must first be burning in you."

"Paternity is to move from giving life to giving one's life" (said by the father of a family)

"When we don't know where we're going we shouldn't be surprised if we arrive somewhere else!"

"Our little decisions work if they become supplications."

"When I hear my parish priest speak of the Gospel, this makes me afraid; when I see him live it, I am reassured."

(Source)

Fr Andrew Brinkman, priest in the Emmanuel Community

Fr. Andrew Brinkman (St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN) was born on the Huron River in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He studied at the University of Saint Thomas in the Saint John Vianney College Seminary in Minnesota. His majors were philosophy and Catholic Studies. He then spent a year with the Emmanuel Community in Namur, Belgium and then four years at the Saint Paul Seminary in Minnesota.

He has two older brothers and two younger sisters. He received his calling at the age of 9 when a friend of his dads came to their new home and said that one of the boys in our family had a vocation to the priesthood. At the moment the seed was planted and although he didn’t always want to be a priest he actually began to desire it after he met Jesus in the Eucharist. During his senior year of high school he began to pray before the Blessed Sacrament also known as Eucharistic adoration. This had a major impact on him.

He met the Emmanuel Community at a youth forum in Altötting, Germany. The forum was held one week prior to the 2005 World Youth Day events in Cologne, Germany. This was his first experience with the Emmanuel Community and he was touched by their joy and the witness of different states of life gathered into one family.

The Emmanuel Community helped him to realize that he could not be a good priest without the help of his brothers and sisters in community.

(Source: http://emmanuelcommunity.com/priests/priests-of-the-emmanuel-community/)

Prayer for particular vocations

Lord Jesus,

You have given rise to the Emmanuel Community to participate, in today’s world, in the Church’s evangelisation work for the salvation of all men.

We renew the gift of ourselves for the mission in the Emmanuel Community and we ask you to awake in our midst, in Australia, numerous vocations for priesthood and consecrated life, so your name can be announced and loved.

We ask this through the intercession of Mary the Virgin and Pierre Goursat, who wished so much to give holy vocations to the Church.

Amen.