What is an ACTS retreat?
An ACTS Retreat is a three day and three nights Catholic lay retreat sponsored by fellow parishioners. The retreat begins on Thursday evening and ends the following Sunday at a Mass celebrated with the parish community. Retreats for men and retreats for women are given separately. Talks and activities during the retreat focus on Adoration, Community, Theology and Service, from which the ACTS acronym is derived. Holy Scripture and the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church are the guides for the retreats. The retreat takes on the traditions and atmosphere of the parish community sponsoring it.

Purpose:
An acts retreat is designed to help the retreatants enter into a new or deeper relationship with our Lord and fellow parishioners. This is accomplished through Adoration and daily prayer, the call to Community in one’s parish as a member of the Body of Christ, and Theology in encouraging the study of scripture and our Catholic Faith. All of these emphasize and encourage the virtue of the Service to our Lord, our parish and one another.

Goal of the Acts Retreat:
A parish ACTS retreat strives to achieve the directives of Vatican II and goals of the 1983 Code of Canon Law which emphasize “community and pastoral care” within a parish. The weekend allows the retreatants to experience God’s love and joy. The retreatants return to their parish with a deeper love of each other and a desire to become more involved in their parish faith community.

The retreat emphasizes our call to service, service to the parish community and to our world community. There results a new or renewed dedication to the life of the parish community and recognition of the needs of those around us and of our responsibility, as followers of Christ, to meet those needs.