ACTS is an acronym for Adoration, Community, Theology, and Service …

• Adoration: Responding through prayer and worship to receiving God’s gifts of grace, mercy, and love.
• Community: Living and participating in the One Body of Christ as Church, beginning with the parish.
• Theology: Deepening our relationship with God through prayerful study to better understand and fulfill His will for our lives.
• Service: Answering the call to discipleship by following the model Christ gave to us.

The origin of ACTS can be traced to the Cursillos in Christianity retreats that date back to sometime between WWI and WWII. Cursillo is a Spanish word that is translated as “short course.” During the time, this short course on the Catholic faith gained wide popularity because of its profound impact it had on people’s spirituality.

In the 1980’s, Cursillo was popular in the Archdiocese of San Antonio with many attendees from Our Lady of Perpetual Help (OLPH) located in Selma, Texas. In 1986, Ed Courtney and Joe Hayes of the OLPH Parish and Marty Sablik from the St. Luke’s parish were involved in Cursillo.

Ed and Joe encountered a major obstacle expanding Cursillo because the Secretariat was against allowing non-Catholics to attend the course. Therefore, Joe, who was part of the OLPH Pastoral Council, met with Father Cronin, pastor of OLHP, in hopes of gaining approval to launch a retreat for the parish. Joe also asked the council for permission to meet with Archbishop Flores regarding the progress he was making. Once he was assured Archbishop Flores that non-Catholics could attend these retreats, he was given the blessing to proceed.

The rest is history!

Did you know? ACTS Missions is presented as follows:

• 87 Dioceses Worldwide
• 64 Dioceses in the United States
• 28 U.S. States
• 6 Countries
• More than 500 parishes worldwide.