About Us

The growing MAGiS-International partnership is happy to present MAGiS'09 Africa. Experiments will take place in several E.African cities and will follow the themes of Pilgrimage, Service & Creativity.

Theme: Dancing With God In An African Pot

Dates: 9th - 20th August 2009 (arrive 8th and Depart 21st)

What is MAGiS?

MAGiS is open to any young adult looking for the more in their lives, from a faith that does justice. It brings young people together to share their ideas, and puts them in touch with others who can accompany them on their journeys.
Gathering as MAGiS, our hearts & minds are in union with friends & companions everywhere.
MAGiS is a long-term project designed to foster Ignatian Spirituality among young adults (20s and 30s). The aim of MAGiS is to develop leaders — people with a sense of God’s place in their lives and a capacity to do something to build a better world.

To all we offer a relationship with Jesus based on the life experiences and therefore the spirituality of St Ignatius Loyola. St. Ignatius used the word magis to talk about a quest for the greater good, always striving for the greater glory of God.

In this context, magis — or "the more" — is used like an adverb: to see more (clearly), to love more (dearly), to follow more (closely), emphasising the quality or intensity of our doing, instead of simply the act of doing.

The MAGiS programme aims to walk with young adults as they discover their identity in their work, at home, and in relationship with others. We are each at a different place in our search for, or walk with, God. MAGiS offers a stepping stone along the way, and companions for the road.

The threefold focus of Magis is:

• To develop personal Spirituality and meaning.
• To build bridges of friendship with people who are different.
• To form habits of reaching out to the needy.

St. Ignatius Loyola

Main Characteristics Of His Spirituality

1. Finding God in all things.

2. Reflection on Experiences as in the Examen.

3. Reaching out.

4. Centered in Christ.

St Ignatius of Loyola
For over 440 years St. Ignatius and his Spiritual Exercises have had a profound impact, not only on individuals, but on the world and the Church.
Inigo of Loyola was a Basque warrior with a fiery temper and a romantic love of chivalry. Badly wounded in the battle of Pamplona, he was taken back to his brother’s castle in Loyola, where he suffered two painful operations to set his broken leg.
During his convalescence, he read all the romantic novels available and dreamt of how he would win great ladies and great battles. The novels ran out, and the only books available to him were lives of Christ and of the Saints. Out of boredom, he began to read these.
Over time he began to notice the difference between the effects they had on him. The romantic novels gave pleasure at the time, but afterwards left him empty. On the other hand, the lives of Christ and the Saints were not so exciting at the time, but had a lasting effect.
He began to dream of following Christ and ‘if St. Francis and Dominic could do great things for Christ, Inigo could do better!’
He was 26 when he left his brother’s castle on a donkey and journeyed to Manresa. Here, at the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat, he spent the whole night in prayer, laid down his armour at the feet of Our Lady and gave away his grand clothes to a beggar. Ignatius never did things by halves. It was either all or nothing. He led a very penitential life, thinking that is what God wanted. Soon he began speaking to others about God, but because he did not have any theological training, he got into trouble with the Inquisition. He decided to get a formal education and eventually went to the University of Paris. Here he met Francis Xavier, Pierre Favre and others with whom he shared his experience of Christ. He directed these in the Spiritual Exercises and they later became the founders of the Society of Jesus.

This Society differed radically from other Religious Congregations of the time. Members went out among the people and preached a spirituality of God present in all things, we meet God in our moods and desires. Followers of Ignatian Spirituality were to be Contemplatives in Action. In the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius noted down how God had worked in his soul, because he felt this would benefit others. These Exercises together with the Examen, a method of reflecting on experience, form the heart of the rich heritage he has handed down to us.