To belong entirely to God?

Of course it is possible!

Our joy!

With priests and lay people to give love to the world.

With you…

Within the Emmanuel, some women have chosen to live a life of celibacy for the Kingdom. Over a hundred of them have made their final consecration and many are on the way to this consecration.

Interview with Annemarie Kisselka, person responsible for feminine consecrated life

Why should one be consecrated today in a community of laypeople ?

A. K. : More than ever, people today need witnesses who share their way of life. This is how all the members of the Emmanuel Community live, whatever their vocation may be.

Consecrated life is missionary in its very essence. This is why celibacy for the Kingdom only makes sense if God exists. The simple fact of consecration in celibacy triggers in others the question of the existence of God.

This is why consecrated life has always had an important place in the Church. Through the testimony of the primacy of God, this life encourages all Christians to go further in their gift of self.

This is the meaning of their presence in the Community : to remind others of the fullness of the sense of their life and, at the same time, to receive from each of them, a real human, fraternal and spiritual support.

Our role is to make visible the form of life that Jesus himself took on earth, to make Him visible to the world. Not only did Jesus live in celibacy, but he also lived in total abandonment to his Father in great sobriety. The evangelical counsels are part of each calling to consecrated life, even if the expression of it may be different according to the varied institutes.

How does one live this celibacy concretely ?

The consecrated men and women in the Emmanuel Community live their consecration in a professional or apostolic life, according to the call of each one. They manage their own property but commit to a simplicity of life. The women wear a blue skirt and a white top, which are similar to the type of clothes today, but also a distinctive sign in the service of evangelization. This corresponds to the charism of the Community which is to announce the Gospel in an explicit manner.

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is at the heart of our call. Instead of looking towards ourselves, the consecration opens us to the needs of others, perhaps in prayer and intercession, or in a direct apostolate or in the service of the poorest. Living a consecration in celibacy gives us a “greater personal availability for adoration, compassion and evangelisation, according the charism of the Emmanuel Community.” (Statutes, # 29).

“You have started to be what we will all become one day”, a Father of the Church told consecrated virgins one day. Consecrated life leads one to Heaven --- where God will be all in all. Heaven also implies joy. Joy to see that God can fill a life ! The world needs this testimony !