Associate Members
Associate members of the Emmaus Community are the lay men and women who carry out the Emmaus mission of prayer, service, and social betterment.

They are the lifeblood of our community, bringing spirit and life to Emmaus and sharing the Emmaus charism in their daily professions.

The Associate Commitment
As full members of the Emmaus Community, associates discern, along with the vowed members, major decisions about the spiritual health and direction of the monastery. Associates have a formation program and make a yearly recommitment to an integrated life as a contemplative-in-action. In that promise, the associate member commits “to contemplative prayer and to ministerial service to the God of the Emmaus journey, the God of the unexpected…”

Contemplatives-In-Action
Associates and vowed members meet quarterly at the monastery to share the ongoing struggle of maintaining the fragile balance between contemplation and action in a world obsessed by “doing.” Our gatherings include a time of silent, contemplative prayer, discussion of an article or issue, a shared meal, communal public prayer – from chanted vespers to a loving kindness meditation – and intercessory prayer.

Individual associates visit the monastery whenever they wish for a day of recollection, a weekend retreat, or for a few hours of weeding the asparagus patch.

A Diverse Community
Emmaus associates are members of several Christian faith traditions, and this diversity – from the Quaker witness to peacemaking to the Reform theology of the Christian Reformed Church – enriches our Pentecost experience of the one Lord.

Associates live and work in communities throughout the U.S. and pursue diverse vocations as contemplatives-in-action: nursing, home construction, psychiatric social work, college teaching, pastoral ministry, and the fine arts among them.