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The Community of the Beatitudes was founded in 1973. In the words of its founder Br Ephraim, the birth of the Community was very spontaneous: “Our Community was not planned in a systematic way. It was rather given as a self-evident intuition. When we started the Community we were Protestants; two years later we realised that in all its main directions it matched the teaching of Vatican II and was an attempt to translate that teaching into life.”
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Founding and first steps
The Community of the Beatitudes was instituted in Montpellier, France, under the name of “The Lion of Judah and the Immolated Lamb” by the couple Gerard (Ephraïm) and Josette Croissant and a couple of friends, who felt called to a community life of prayer and sharing.
 The founder, Gerard Croissant (Br. Ephraim), was born on February 17, 1949 into a Protestant family in Eastern France. He belonged to the “1968 generation” in search for new ideas, freedom and community life! He chose to study Theology rather than arts. Several encounters led him to his vocation to found the Community of the Beatitudes. His main influence came from Lanza Del Vasto from the “Communaute de l'Arche”. From him he realized that community life and family life were not only compatible but enriching. In this Community he met his wife, Josette. He also started there his ministry as a Protestant preacher and discovered the Charismatic Renewal, leading him to a radical conversion.
In 1973, with another couple, Jean-Marc and Mireille Hammel, they decided to start to live together. “The Community is not the fruit of a project or a desire; it is and remains evidence coming from somewhere else…”
Community life started in Soyons in 1974, then in Valence where Gerard was in charge of a protestant parish. During this same year Gerard Croissant discovered the Eucharist, the Virgin Mary and the apostolic succession.
In May 1975, the tiny Community moved to Cordes in the Diocese of Albi, in an old ruined convent. The Most Reverend Bishop Coffy adopted this new daughter of the Church, and Gerard becomes Br Ephraim. A few years later he was ordained a permanent deacon.
In 1979, the Community was recognized as a pious union and in 1985 it became an association of the faithful of diocesan right with the approval of its statutes “ad experimentum” by the archbishop of Albi.
In 1991, in order to make more explicit the openness of the community to the poor, the leaders decided to adopt the present name, the Community of the Beatitudes, which was easier to take to the cultures in the various countries in which the association was by then present.
The association is a member of the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowships. On Dec. 8, 2002, the Pontifical Council for the Laity decreed recognition of the Community as an “International Private Association of the Faithful of Pontifical Right with Juridical Personality”.
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Spirituality of the Community
The Rule of Life for the Community, which
remains the base of formation for anyone who enters the Community of the Beatitudes, is articulated around three poles: prayer, poverty and obedience.
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The primitive Christian Community as it appears in the Acts of the Apostles was adopted by the Community as a model: prayer, sharing of the goods, charity, testimony and fervent waiting of the Kingdom to come. However, the purpose wasn’t to copy the past. A Community always appears in the History of the Church to answer to one of the world’s needs. It is a sign of hope for its generation.
“Daughter of Vatican II,” new form of consecrated life, the Community wants to show what Vatican II reminded, that holiness is for all! The Community thus gathers all kinds of persons: families, single people among whom some are consecrated, widows and widowers, divorced, sick and healthy, wise and poor! All have received the same call from God to leave everything to offer Him themselves in prayer and fraternal life. Each chose to commit in the way of poverty and obedience and the respect of the Community’s Rule of life.
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2b.
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Eschatological vocation of the Community:
The first brothers and sisters of the Community were imbued with the spirit of the “urge of the Kingdom to come”.
“Do not weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed…” (Revelation 5:5).
This text refers to the victory of Jesus, who is from the tribe of Judah and the house of David. This text was the inspirational note for the foundation of the Community, which took its first name as “Community of the Lion of Judah and of the Immolated Lamb”.
The vocation of the Community is eminently eschatological. Worldly withdrawal characteristizes the Community in contrast to other new communities. The contemplative style of life motivates this withdrawal. “We want to be watchers and fighters waiting for the coming in Glory of Christ and helping the world to hope”.
The hope in the coming of Jesus, gives new energy to the Church (Jesus’ bride) to continue announcing His death until He comes and to proclaim the Gospel to all nations. At the same time looking forward to Jesus’ coming, the Church sees the “end of the world” as the “new heavens and the new earth” of a new creation.
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The liturgical prayer of the Community and its fraternal life is an anticipation of the Kingdom to come.
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘come! Maranatha!’” (Revelation 22: 17)
If Christ is risen, then He is victorious forever and eternal life has already started on earth. “We want to anticipate Heaven on earth as much as possible. This is why Liturgy is so important to us as well as Sacraments: the simple beauty of our houses, the white liturgical clothing, our taste for festive celebrations… Fraternal life is the place for learning charity, that same charity we’ll share in the Kingdom. In liturgical prayer we have a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy.”
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The Kingdom is in your midst! Console my people: Compassionate works anticipate the Kingdom.
The Church fulfills her mission not only by praying but also by showing God’s people the signs of the Kingdom: healing, forgiveness of sins, preaching of the Good News.
From its early history, the Community of the Beatitudes started compassionate works such as the opening of medical practice, hospitals, Mother of Mercy to help women confronted with abortion, the Cottolengo house to help the dying… “All these works are the overflowing of our contemplative life and a witness that the kingdom is already in our midst.”
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The Beatitudes
They are the Christian teaching par excellence. They show how to put into action the commandment of love Christ left us. They show the way to true happiness…“In 1991, we changed our name into Community of the Beatitudes”. |
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Evangelization, missions
The goal is to tell people of our time the mercy of our God and to introduce them into the knowledge of Christ. As many saints have said: “The only happiness on earth is to love the Lord and to know that He loves us.” This is how conversion starts. St Teresa of the Child Jesus said: “In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love”. The Community wants to be a testimony, all over the world, that “the civilization of love” is possible. The world today needs saints more than words of saints. The Council Vatican II gave back holiness as the duty of all Christians and there is no holiness without prayer, without conversion, without fraternal life, without poverty of heart.
The “saint” is the evangelizer in the midst of the world. He is “love” in the heart of the Church and missionary of the Father’s mercy in the world.
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Organization
The Community of the Beatitudes, headed by an elected general moderator, who is assisted by a council, comprises houses, grouped into provinces.
The members of the community, which has a contemplative vocation based on Carmelite spirituality, are actively engaged in the service of the poor and the proclamation of the Gospel. The Community of the Beatitudes gathers faithful from all states of life. They include married people with their children, single people, consecrated lay people who live in chastity for the sake of the Kingdom, seminarians, priests and permanent deacons, single or married.
Others who form part of the community are the associates who live permanently in the community house sharing in its life and forming an integral part of the “family” without taking on the whole of the community vocation.
All members of the Community wish to conform as closely as possible to the model of the early Christian community through the common life, the sharing of goods, voluntary poverty and an intense sacramental and liturgical life.
Membership: The Community of the Beatitudes has about 1,500 members and is present in six countries in Africa, four in Asia (in 2002 the Community was established in Macao), 11 in Europe, two in the Middle East, three in North America, one in South America, and two in Oceania.
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