The Hearts on Fire retreats are presented by teams of young Jesuits to groups of young adults, ages18-39, married or single.

Through talks, discussion, music, silence, prayer and worship, participants encounter the spirituality of the Apostleship of Prayer and “The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola,” the founder of the Jesuits. There also are opportunities for relaxation during meals and a coffeehouse social.

“Our participants are at a crucial point in their lives,” said retreat leader Jesuit Father Phil Hurley. “Decisions they make and act on now will make a great difference to the rest of their lives.”

The retreat presentations introduce St. Ignatius’ spiritual insights on topics such as discerning the will of God in one’s life.

“The retreat seeks to connect faith to everyday life,” Fr. Hurley said. “Participants learn about the Apostleship of Prayer’s practice of making a morning offering, living the Eucharist throughout the day and ending the day with an evening review.”

The 2012 summer retreats are scheduled for the following cities and dates: Dallas, June 22-23; San Antonio, June 29-30; Corpus Christi, Texas, July 6-7; New Orleans, July 13-14; Tampa, Fla., July 20-21; and Atlanta, July 27-28.

Last summer, the Hearts on Fire retreats were held in cities across the east coast. This year, two Canadian Jesuits are joining the team this summer in part to gain experience for beginning similar young adult retreats in Canada. They will begin that program in Fall 2012.

More information, comments from past participants, a video trailer and registration forms can be found at www.apostleshipofprayer.org/heartsonfire.

Magis is a pastoral experience of Ignatian programs and events in the days leading up to World Youth Day for pilgrims from Jesuit institutions from across the globe. The motto for this year’s Magis is “with Christ at the heart of the world”  and will be held in locations across Spain and Portugal .

Young people and their Jesuit chaperones have made their way to northern part of Spain – to the Basque country where the founder of the Jesuits, St. Ignatius of Loyola, was born – in order to participate in the Magis gathering. For them, it sometimes means being out of their comfort zone, traveling in a foreign country and not always bunking down in the most luxurious of accommodations but the reward is being together with others who also have a keen desire to do more in the name of Christ.

You, too, can follow along with the pilgrims and experience Magis with them during these three weeks of Magis and World Youth Day in Spain by visiting www.jesuit.org/WYD.

In this video below, Jesuit Father Will Prospero offers some tips to the Magis pilgrims and provides a grounding in the spirituality of pilgrimage, drawing from the experiences of St. Ignatius. Fr. Prospero’s presentation was given last year during an Apostleship of Prayer‘s “Hearts on Fire” retreat at St. Mary’s University Parish in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.

Called “Hearts on Fire” the retreat program is based on the tenets of Ignatian Spirituality, and hopes to introduce practical ways of connecting faith with daily life, as well as spiritually renew the participants through a series of talks and break-out sessions. From June 17 to July 16, the retreats will be in: Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Charlotte, NC; Baltimore and Richmond, VA.

For more information about attending this retreat, please visit the Apostleship of Prayer.

Fr. Kubicki’s involvement with the Apostleship of Prayer goes back to his high school days when he first encountered the monthly leaflets with the Holy Father’s intentions.

“I entered the Jesuits to be a high school teacher in an urban Jesuit high school, just like the one I went to. And, in those 40 years I’ve been a Jesuit, I’ve never done that…Am I disappointed? Not at all. The Lord’s plan was much better than my own. And now I’m on the radio throughout the country…and I look on that, and say, that’s all God’s grace that came to me through following that initial call, that vocation that was given to me when I was a high school student,” said Kubicki.

In this month’s podcast with National Jesuit News, Kubicki shared the goals of the Apostleship of Prayer, its service to the Church, and its growing outreach to young people.

The goal of the Apostleship of Prayer is to help people pray with for each other and for the needs of the Church through the intentions of the Pope. It also hopes to help people learn to live a Eucharistic life and to return the love God gives us by loving others.

To learn more about the Apostleship of Prayer, please visit their website.

Jesuit Father Claudio Barriga, who oversees the Apostleship of Prayer from the Jesuit headquarters near the Vatican, said he estimates there are about 50 million people fulfilling the membership requirements in the apostleship and its youth wing, the Eucharistic Youth Movement, by offering their lives to God and praying for the needs of the universal church and the intentions of the pope.

The Jesuit said he was in Vietnam in January and discovered that there are Apostleship of Prayer groups in every diocese with an estimated 1 million involved.

A government-approved bishop in mainland China reported that there is a group of people who makes the offering and prays for the pope’s intentions each day in his cathedral, Fr. Barriga said. The Apostleship of Prayer is responsible for the annual distribution of “the pope’s prayer intentions” for each month.

In the United States, he said, “it’s mainly a digital community” thriving through the use of the website, www.apostleshipofprayer.org, which includes links to a daily audiovisual meditation posted on YouTube and through both national and parish-based Facebook pages.

But it’s also big in remote areas of Angola where many people have never even seen a computer and in Madagascar where about 250,000 young people belong to the Eucharistic Youth Movement, he said.

Barriga said one reason the Jesuits are looking to “re-create” the apostleship is to strengthen the Jesuits’ commitment to it — whether to leading groups personally or virtually over the Internet.

Another reform at which the Jesuits are looking is helping to keep members focused on the big, important “permanent needs” of the church and the world as reflected in the monthly prayer intentions, while also being able to count on millions of people’s prayers when special needs or disasters arise, Barriga said.

Read more about Barriga and the Apostleship for Prayer at U.S. Catholic.

The two days include Eucharistic adoration, confessions, talks, discussion groups, contemplation and even musical entertainment.  They have completed two retreats already, in Milwaukee and Iowa City and July 9-10 they  will be in Columbus, Ohio; July 16-17, in Chicago; and July 23-24, in Des Moines.

The six Jesuits leading the retreats are Father Chris Collins,  Boston College;  Father Phil Hurley, Apostleship of Prayer,  Milwaukee; Mister Michael Rossmann, Loyola University, Chicago; Mister  Joe Simmons, Loyola University, Chicago; Mister Michael Magree,  St. Joseph’s Prep., Philadelphia; Mister Michael Wegenka, Fordham University/Oxford University.

For more information or to register for a retreat, visit the Apostleship of Prayer’s website. You can also learn more by watching the video trailer below.