The author studies a very widespread practice in the Catholic Church today, the collective charismatic prayer that appeared in France in 1972. While the charismatic approach emphasizes the individual relationship with God, the article shows from an ethnographical analysis conducted in 2000 in a Parisian group of the Emmanuel community how the organization of the prayer (collective song, praise, words of exhortation, readings) enables the participants to get together in communion with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.