About Teams of Our Lady
Enrich your married spirituality with Jesus Christ & meet others to build friendships
Equipes Notre-Dame (Teams) is an international Christian lay movement that works to enrich marriage spirituality for couples who seek to live their marriages sacramentally. Teams provide new opportunities to increase and improve prayer life, helping couples grow closer to God and to each other. They are part of the Alliance of Catholic Marriage Organizations
Teams began in France in 1938, when 4 Parisian couples asked their parish priest, Fr Henri Caffarel, if he could help them develop their spiritual life as couples. He replied, “Let Us Journey Together’. From these words a great movement has grown touching, shaping and growing the lives of thousands of couples and clergy. The Movement has since spread to over 90 countries worldwide and there are now more than 12,000 teams.
A Team is a group of 4 to 7 couples who meet, together with a spiritual counsellor, on a monthly basis for a shared meal and prayer, discussion and mutual support. Between meetings, couples are encouraged to undertake a number of endeavors:
Daily Prayer
Daily Bible Reading
A Monthly Sit-down together
Rule of Life
An Annual Retreat
Teams are grouped together in Regions, and Super-Regions, who organize Gatherings and Retreats and other events. ‘Teams in Jordan' the Movement begin from 2009. In 2011 begin officially we have 1Sectors. The movement holds an International Gathering every 6 years
Father Caffarel
Father Caffarel (1903-1996) had a deeply held conviction that couples were made for happiness. He had his own personal conversion experience at the age of 20.
After the approach from the newly married d’Heilly’s, Father Caffarel and the four couples held their first “Team” meeting on 25th February 1939. After the end of the war, the Teams began to grow in number. Father Caffarel accompanied and helped to develop the movement and its charism for many years as it grew and spread throughout the world.
On recognition of his work, there has been a move to develop a cause for his canonisation, and this reached a crucial stage on the 18th October 2014, when the first stage of this cause was formally closed and the documentation sent to Rome. This ceremony, which included the sealing of the boxes holding the documentation, and concluding with a Mass celebrating his life, took place in Paris, attended by many couples from Teams.
Father Caffarel constantly wrote his reflections for the Teams bulletin “L’Anneau d’Or” – “The Golden Ring”. This was published from 1945 to 1967. They are written in French. Sr Fernanda Barbiero presented a reflection of the magazine at the Friends Symposium in 2017.
There are many books written by Father Henri Caffarel, but not all are translated from the original French language to English. Some of the English translations are:
Marriage Is Holy, edited by Henri Caffarel, 1957
Being present to God “Letters on Prayer”, 1983
Love and Grace in Marriage, 1960
Conjugal Love by The Friends of Father Caffarel, 2020
Conjugal Love provides the reader with deep insights into the wonder and greatness of Christian marriage; its sacramentality, spirituality and the challenges of the lived experience in an increasingly busy world. The book is a comprehensive study on the vocation of marriage based on the couples call to love. Marriage is: “The only community based on a sacrament!”. Conjugal Love takes you through the journey couples make in Christian marriage, through all its stages, its highs and lows, its joys and crises. The book has been translated by a working group of couples in Teams using the original texts in French.