The Magis Center for Catholic Spirituality (MCCS) is dedicated to actualizing opportunities to help Catholics deepen their spiritual lives and find inspiration through fellowship and great speakers. MCCS was founded by Fr. Robert J. Spitzer S.J., Ph.D., Fr. William Watson S.J., Mr. Timothy Busch, and several lay colleagues (many of whom are currently on our board of directors).
The first mission of MCCS was to offer Ignatian retreats to groups (e.g., executives, administrators, and college student leaders) who might not have a chance to experience them. This led the founders to conceive of MCCS as a spiritual incubator for activities that could inspire and deepen the lives of people in Southern California and then throughout the United States. And in turn, those activities soon became popular programs.
The Los Angeles Catholic Prayer Breakfast first emerged through the inspiration of two of our board members who attended the Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC and recognized its potential spiritual impact in Southern California. Board members organized the first Los Angeles Catholic Prayer Breakfast in 2005, and it was so successful it inspired annual Catholic prayer breakfasts in Los Angeles and Orange County (which started in 2006). The Board of MCCS intends to continue expanding regional Catholic prayer breakfasts in coming years. Our objective is to share our model of organization and facilitation with regional churches and business leaders who are committed to this effort as a spiritual benefit to their diocese.
The prayer breakfasts spawned a need for ongoing spiritual inspiration for participants. This led the board to propose the Ignatian Daily Reflection series which is now available to all subscribers free of charge.
The authors of these inspirational daily reflections are members of the Jesuit Order—both priests and scholastics—who see this as a part of their Jesuit ministry and offer it to MCCS without charge.