Archbishop Flores and OLPH Pastor Father Cronin provided continued guidance and prayer each step of the way. The overwhelming success of ACTS over the years is due to the ever-working presence of the Holy Spirit within hundreds of people who carried forward the retreats.

An example of the workings of the Holy Spirit was in the decision on what to call the retreat. At each meeting of the council, discussions and suggestions for a name would be discussed but the committee did not spend a lot of time on this knowing that a name would come forth somewhere along the development of the retreat. It didn’t take long. Through the power of the Holy Spirit working through a very devout Catholic florist, Wallace Vaughn from St. John Neumann Parish, a name would be revealed.

Wallace called Joe one morning and told him about a dream he had the previous night. Wallace stated that he had a dream in which the Holy Spirit told him to read Chapter 2, verses 42-47 of the Acts of the Apostles. This verse describes what the committee wanted to achieve on the retreat weekend and Wallace added that the Holy Spirit wanted the retreats to be called “ACTS”. When brought to the attention of the committee Ruth Ann Wortman stated that if the Holy Spirit spoke to Wallace, that is what we should do; we should call the retreat “ACTS.” The committee voted unanimously to name the retreat “ACTS.”

Through the discernment and research of Ed Courtney the terms Adoration, Community, Theology, and Service became the precepts of the ACTS retreat. This was another example of the Holy Spirit truly working through someone in developing what today we call the four pillars of the ACTS retreat. Members of the ACTS council worked on developing retreat schedules, talks, sacramental’s, parish needs, and other aspects of the retreat to formulate a spiritual experience where retreatants would develop a deeper relationship with God.

Marty worked on developing retreat schedules; duties of retreat director and co-director; and worked on retreat talks.

One of the goals of the ACTS retreat was to use prayer life (Adoration) to create a spiritual environment; (Community), through the study of scripture and our Catholic faith (Theology); and encouraging parishioners to join various ministries in the parish to meet Pastoral needs for our Pastor (Service).

The continued success of ACTS is directly a result of the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the discernment of retreatants and team members over the years. One of the main reasons for the development of ACTS was to make the weekend a parish weekend through its sacramental’s, traditions, ministries, and parish needs. OLPH has achieved through the four pillars of ACTS and other ministries its current parish Mission statement: “a caring community where God’s presence can be found; where God’s word can be heard; where God’s love can be seen and felt; and where everyone feels welcome.” You can see how the four pillars of ACTS are evident in OLPH’s mission statement.

ACTS started to spread to other communities and states due to the attendance of many active duty military and civilians in San Antonio attending the ACTS retreats. When they transferred to other locations and jobs, they took ACTS with them to their new parishes.

With the development of the ACTS Missions in San Antonio, the ACTS retreats have also spread throughout Texas Archdioceses, other states, and other countries in Latin America, Europe, and Africa. Historical data from the Archdiocese ACTS Missions office has determined that over a million people have attended ACTS retreats since its inception in July 1987. How did this happen? By the continued intercession of the Holy Spirit through the many people who attend and work ACTS retreats.