MAGIS is a Latin adverb meaning “more; greater“. It was a term used numerous times by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, to describe the way Christianity provides a deep personal connection with God.
That’s the reason why it has become a key element for the Society of Jesus and for all who live their faith according to Ignatian spirituality, filling with meaning the way of life of those who live and serve in everything for the greater glory of God.
Thus, the “+” visible in the MAGIS 2023 image refers not only to the meaning of the word, but also to the Cross, the greatest symbol of the surrender and love of God for each person.
MAGIS is the gathering organized by the Society of Jesus in which young adults (18-35 years old) from the Ignatian Family come together from all over the world.
This major meeting happens every time a World Youth Day is announced, in the ten days leading up to World Youth Day.
These days are full of experiences that help to celebrate faith and service in a space of sharing and prayer.
MAGIS began in France in 1997. Before World Youth Day 1997, there was a pilgrimage of young people connected to the Society of Jesus. There was no name or structure, just the desire to gather young adults from the Ignatian Family.
In 2000, the event happened again. This event in Italy was called “Horizonte 2000.” These were the first steps in the creation of MAGIS.
In 2002, WYD happened in Canada
but it was in Germany, in 2005, that the gathering acquired the official name “MAGIS”, to be used in the following editions.
MAGIS, now with its official name established, happened again in 2008 in Australia.
However, it was in 2011 when MAGIS earned its final structure and format. In that year, MAGIS happened in Spain and started in Loyola, Saint Ignatius’ hometown. 3.000 young people gathered and were then sent on more than one hundred different experiments in Spain and Portugal.
2013 was also a special year for youth in central Europe. While in Rio de JaneiroSlovakia and Hungary the MAGIS Central Europe was organized. It was an opportunity for youth who were unable to participate in the Brazil experience to join and celebrate this event.
Since then, MAGIS Central Europe has been organized every summer, allowing young people to live a week in MAGIS' own way and rhythm.
After Brazil, in 2016, more than 2000 participants traveled to Poland to celebrate MAGIS under the motto “to give and not count the cost”.
The most recent MAGIS took place in Central America in 2019. The different experiments took place in the six countries that belong to the Central American Jesuit Province: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.
In 2023, the tenth edition of MAGIS will be held in July 22-31 in Portugal. Everything is being prepared for young people to collaborate in creating a hope-filled future. This is the same hope that the 36th General Congregation challenged us to be bearers: a hope born of the consolation that comes from our encounter with the Risen Lord, not a simplistic or superficial hope, but a deep hope (GC 36, dec. 1 §32).
The constitution of the MAGIS 2023 team was inspired by the same General Congregation and by the subsequent appeals of Father General Arturo Sosa, SJ: “Collaboration with others is the only way the Society of Jesus can fulfill the mission entrusted to her.” (GC 36, dec 1, §36). There are Jesuits from different provinces, a layperson and a religious Handmaid of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
We wish, therefore, to respond not only to the appeal of the General Congregation and Father General, but also to Pope Francis, who “called us again to the magis, “that plus” which led “Ignatius to begin processes, to follow them through, and to evaluate their real impact on the lives of persons”.
Know more about each MAGIS program here.
The history of the jesuits began in 1534, with a group of students from the University of Paris. In fact, this group of friends in the Lord were guided by Ignatius of Loyola's life and passion for Jesus.
Inspired by everything that God was moving in him since his convalescence, after being injured in the battle of Pamplona, Ignatius never stopped asking:
What can i do for Christ?
It was this motion that lead him from Loyola to the Holy Land - To know the places where Jesus had been - and from there to the universities of Alcalá, Salamanca and Paris, to base his motions in the theological study.
In Paris, between classes and studies, the first companions found time to assist the poor and sick and every marginalized brother and sister.
Moved by the desire of serving the church of Christ, Ignatius and his companions went to Rome to offer their services to the Holy Father. On the 27th of september, 1540, Pope Paul III, approved this new religious order and allowed the Society of Jesus to receive men who also had the desire to serve the Lord and his Church through missionary work and the education of the youngest, wherever it was most urgent, necessary and universal.
Over the past almost five hundred years, the Jesuits have spread throughout the world and today, the Society of Jesus has more than 16.000 men in formation, priests and brothers, and with communities in 120 countries.
The Congregation of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was born at the end of the 19th century in Pedro Abad, a village near Cordoba (Spain).
The intention of the founders, Saint Raphaela Maria and Mother Pilar, was to create a family with a particular mission in the Church: to repair the Heart of Jesus, with a life centred on the Eucharist, through its celebration and adoration.
Our mission focuses essentially on education in service of the Gospel in colleges, parishes, schools, neighbourhoods, university residences and houses of prayer. Ignatian spirituality gives us our own way of carrying out our charism. From the beginning, our foundresses wanted their fundamental options to mark our being and our action, so that our lives might become, as Saint Ignatius wished, ”docile instruments in the hands of God”.
Saint Raphaela Maria wanted us to be ”universal like the Church”, that is, available to serve wherever there is need. Her desire to ”put Christ to the adoration of the peoples” takes us to any place or situation where His Heart, in the lives of so many people, needs to be repaired.
Today there are about 1000 Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 24 countries. From Saint Raphaela Maria, we have received the ”inheritance” of a way of looking at the world with hope and mercy, discovering where there is an absence of Life, a need for reparation, or any ”wounds” that call for the love of the meek and humble Heart of Jesus.
