The Emmaus Young Adult Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group
written by Christine
The name is inspired by the journey of the two disciples on the road to
Emmaus where Jesus was present. The disciples, like many of us, were not aware of God's presence in their lives. The word "Emmaus" also reminds us how
the disciples' hearts were burning as they listened to Jesus
explaining the scripture passages about the Christ, and
how they recognized Jesus at the breaking of the bread, and how they
subsequently became very passionate to spread the Good news of their
encounter with Jesus to the eleven apostles and their companions in
Jerusalem.
The young adults of The Emmaus relive this experience
as we pray in our weekly meeting. We also break the
word of God to deepen our experience of the work of the Lord in our
lives. Not only that, we try to live our "eucharist" that we celebrate
every Sunday. We hope to put the Eucharist as the source and summit of
our christian lives. And as our hearts burn with the fire of the Holy
Spirit, we live our daily lives as God's witnesses.
Currently we are having our praying meeting weekly in room 2 at the Church of St. Mary of the Angels, Singapore.
History
written by Christine
The Emmaus first started as a cell group in 2005, founded by some NTU alumni, among them are Michael, Maya, Oka, Vera, and Iwan1. The idea came up after they graduated and saw the challenges in working life. There was a desire to build a community to facilitate people who want to grow in their relationship with the Lord through community life.
As the cell group started, the group felt that there was a need to be under the official body of the church. They felt that the community must be recognized and guided by the hierarchy in the Catholic Church. Moreover, after some prayer, they decided that the community should not be limited to NTU graduates or certain nationalities and it was decided that the vision must be expanded to reach out to more young people in the parish.
During this discernment period, the coordinator of St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group met with one of our members and gave an idea of setting up a young adult prayer group in St. Mary. The group felt it was part of God's plan and so they met and discussed further with St. Mary prayer group.
With this vision in mind, they then approached Fr. Joseph Nathan OFM (Fr. Joe) in December 2005, the appointed spiritual director for all prayer groups in St Mary of The Angels, to request that the group be recognized and guided under Church of St Mary of The Angels. Fr. Joe instructed the group to serve in the adult catholic charismatic prayer group as a start. This is seen as a time to get to know more about the group and discern about the direction of the group. Led by Maya as the first coordinator, the group did their bi-weekly cell group meeting as well as helped out in the adult catholic charismatic prayer group every Friday evenings.
After 1 year of assessment, at the end of 2006, Fr Joe asked the group to have a separate schedule of prayer meeting from the Adult group. This is to reach out to more young people in the parish. A couple of months were spent doing the transition and preparation (including choosing of name and day & time of weekly meeting). On 7 July 2007 The Emmaus had it’s first meeting as a prayer group in St Mary of the Angels. Fr Joe was The Emmaus’ first spiritual director.
Footnote:
1. Iwan was in his final year study in NTU.
Uploading ....