The Emmanuel
Community, like numerous other movements and communities established around the
same time, is a new community born of the experience of the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit, lived in the light of Vatican II.
The Universal Call to Holiness
The Second
Vatican Council was a new Pentecost for the Church and, 15 years later in the
introductory chapter to his apostolic exhortation to the lay faithful, John
Paul II wrote: 'In our times, the Church after Vatican II
in a renewed outpouring of the Spirit of Pentecost has come to a more lively
awareness of her missionary nature and has listened again to the voice of her
Lord who sends her forth into the world as "the universal sacrament of
salvation"…. The call is a concern not only of Pastors, clergy, and men
and women religious. The call is addressed to everyone: lay people as well are
personally called by the Lord, from whom they receive a mission on behalf of
the Church and the world.” (Christi Fideles Laici, No 2).
A Multifaceted Renewal
During the
20th Century the list of adjectives applied to the word ‘renewal’ has seemed
almost endless: liturgical, biblical, ecumenical, lay, conciliatory,
charismatic etc. These different renewals have become interdependent and
are at work deep inside today's Church, revitalizing her from within in another
renewal which she is just starting to experience, the renewal of her apostolate
and mission in accordance with the concept of the "New
Evangelisation" which was so dear to Pope John Paul II.
The Unity of the Church and the variety
of Charisms
The Church
constantly discovers that she is not simply founded on Christ once and for all
but that she is constantly being born as a single, united body that is given
life by the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II constantly re-emphasised, in
different ways, that the new Charismatic movements are a gift of the Holy
Spirit and a symbol of hope for the Church and for the world.
Pentecost
1998
Talking about Pentecost of 1998, where 300 000
representatives from the new movements and communities were gathered at St.
Peter’s Square, the Pope recalled: “It was an extraordinary epiphany of unity
of the Church, in its richness and in the diversity of its charisms.” Moreover,
“the ecclesial movements and new communities are a providential response of the
Holy Spirit to the current needs of New Evangelisation, which needs mature
Christians and lively Christian communities.”
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