To journey with the young people and to encounter Christ in each other.

We all have our experience of Christ, one way or another. It may be a big experience, or maybe small. In most cases, we have encountered Christ through prayer groups, one of which is the Emmaus Prayer Group.

The Emmaus group provides this environment where we can encounter Christ.

The Emmaus is not just a church ministry, prayer group, organization, but a Christian community.

• It has a form of government, order, regular activities, and formation.
• It is built upon a covenant, a concrete relationship to God and to one another.
• It inspires brotherly commitment to one another. We are not just members of a church group, but brothers and sisters in one family.
• It has a unique personality, which is passionate, youthful and loving.

In Emmaus, we have committed ourselves to God and to one another.

We value love and unity.
And to preserve love and unity, we need order, which makes community life possible.
Order leads to peace, which leads to unity.

Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Matthew 22:39 And the second (commandment) is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'

Why do we need to journey with the young people?

Young people hunger for love.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. - Mother Teresa

You can be in a familiar place and still feel awkward when you cannot see a friendly face anywhere.

When people leave their family to study or work in another country, the need for love becomes intense.

Losing family obliges us to find our family. Not always the family that is our blood but the family that can become our blood. Should we have the wisdom to open our door to this new family we will find that the wishes we had for the father, who once guided us, for the brother, who once inspired us can fall on someone who can also love us back as a father or as a brother, completing what we miss, satisfying what we desire.

On the other end, this new person may also disappoint us. And we are scared to open our hearts again. "Will I get hurt again?" causing us to be worried.

Young people hunger for peace.

Some are emotionally burdened.

Personal hatred. Broken relationships. Super-busy working parents. Or worse, drug addiction, sexual abuse, and juvenile delinquency.

We all may have asked these questions before, dying to get some good answers.

"Do I look attractive?"
"When can I be independent from my parents?"
"Which group should I hang out with?"
"Maybe I should at least try (whatever) once so I know how it feels like?"
"I am old enough to know what is wrong or right, right?"

Childhood is already over. New ideas are introduced now. Sex education, Youth voice, Pop culture, Rites of Passage. Youths who are on their journey to adulthood have their morality stretched to test how they would cope with these new ideas. And most will find themselves defenceless against immorality.    

The disciples experienced these too. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them. They stood still, their faces downcast. They asked Jesus, “do (you) not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

And Jesus began to explain things to them and they were illuminated.

The young people need to understand that:
You can be out of shape, yet still look pretty.
A broken family can still be a place of love and warmth.
If super-busy parents have no time for you, have time for them.

Society can sometimes put pressure in our lives.

Unsettled hearts. Internal peace is disrupted. Maybe because of the challenge to get plenty of A's or do best in experiments. Society has a habit of setting a standard higher than what has been set the previous year.

The Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius, a Latin expression meaning "Faster, Higher, Stronger".

We read the Olympic creed:
The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

Take part, struggle, fight well. These are all good. But what is better is that we do not forget to smell the flowers along the way. The best runner aren't the ones who win the race, they are the ones who don’t miss to encourage other runners to finish.

Young people hunger for guidance.

The world may offer them guidance on which paths they can take to feel loved.

“If you dress this way, people will love you.”
“If you act this way, people will accept you.”
“If you behave this way, you will gain more friends.”

The world may offer them guidance on which paths they can take to experience peace.

“If you join this group, you will have more support of friends.”
“If you drink this, you will forget your worries.”
“If you try this, you will feel relaxed.”

We can take that advice, though we are uncertain of its assurance.

Rather, we can offer them simple truths, which can be done repeatedly.

“Pray regularly”
“Receive sacraments.”
“Read the bible.”
“Serve in a community.”
“Fellowship with others.”

And with 100% assurance, these will guide us to being loved and finding peace. And following these will compel us to love others also.

1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

The Encounter with Christ

Christ journeyed with the disciples. And we are called to imitate Christ. Therefore, we are called to journey with our brothers and sisters, so we may encounter Christ in each other.

Serving our brother or sister pleases Christ. This is His primary instruction, to serve the least of the brothers.

“Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.”
“And we don’t have to serve on a massive scale, start small.”
“If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
- Mother Teresa

And people will notice, and they will begin to ask, "Why do you care for me? Who am I that you should be concerned with me?"

And you will say, "Because Christ cares for you. You are important to Christ, therefore you are important to me."

Conversion Story

Let us help one another respond to Christ, and encourage us to commit our lives to Christ.

Living a Christ-centred life. In everything we do, do it for Christ.

View the complete vision and mission of The Emmaus