What is ACTS ?
An ACTS Retreat is a parish-based event that offers parishioners an opportunity to experience the love of Jesus Christ. This in turn fosters a desire for intentional discipleship.
ACTS Retreats are given by parishioners for parishioners, and in this way, serve to build a Christian community at a parish.
The ACTS Retreat begins Thursday evening and ends with Sunday Mass in the parish. While utilizing prayer, service, and teaching, the ACTS Retreat meets people where they are in their spiritual journey and invites them to experience God in a manner that is both personal and communal.
In this way, the ACTS Retreat fulfills the mission of:
"Spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ among Catholic communities through ACTS."
The ACTS Retreat experience is rooted in the Pascal Mystery in that retreatants are invited to reflect on the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Throughout the weekend, they are invited to prayerfully consider how they can respond to His love by spiritually surrendering to Jesus in order to have new life with Him. This invitation is extended through the pillars of the apostolate:
Adoration - A response to God's love through prayer and worship
Community - Participating in the One Body of Christ as Church
Theology - Deepening our relationship with God in order to better fulfill His will
Service - Answering the call to discipleship by following the model He gave us
Those who attend an ACTS retreat share in an experience that has impacted more than one million lives worldwide since the first retreat in 1987. There are numerous testimonies describing retreatants who were evangelized through a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. They witness to becoming better fathers, mothers, husbands, wives and children.
Parishes have been revitalized, diaconate classes have been filled, and all seek to deepen their relationship with Christ through prayer and service.
As a result, ACTS is supported by bishops and priests worldwide as a legitimate participant in the Church's New Evangelization. Through ACTS, the laity respond to their baptismal call, and seek to participate in the apostolic mission of the Church to "go and make disciples of all nations," and this has been found to be good.
As of October 2017, ACTS Missions is represented worldwide.
Make a donation to ACTS Retreats
"As Christians, we all know and can talk about the Father and the Son. For many, including myself, the Holy Spirit is harder to define. The ACTS retreat opened my heart and soul to the power of the Holy Spirit. It was an amazing thing to experience and to see other men experience it as well. We all occasionally stumble, but as ACTS Brothers in Christ, we are all united to keep the power of the Holy Spirit burning bright in our daily lives."
- Randy Costa
"The best way to describe my experience at the ACTS retreat is like going to a reunion, finding a long lost friend and picking up right where we left off. My lost friend was Jesus Christ. At the retreat I felt welcomed and loved. There was no judgement, only support and understanding. I laughed, I cried, I rejoiced, and through this experience, I was able to find my self worth. I can proudly say that I belong to a group of brave and wonderful women I now call my sisters. A sisterhood like nothing I could have ever imagined."
- Susana Knight
We would love to welcome you to our parish ACTS Community!
Please contact Joette Robichau, ACTS CORE Communications Coordinator,
281-793-2689, [email protected]