What is life after high school like?

Brian Kissinger had the opportunity to chat with the graduated seniors of the conference. He asked about what they were excited about, as well as some worries they had about this next chapter in their lives.  He reflected on the different types of soils in the parable in Matthew 13. He asked the seniors to reflect on the question, “What is the soil of my heart like?” Is it ready to receive the seeds of the good news of Christ, or is it thorny and not a suitable place for the Word to grow and flourish? In order to prepare their hearts for the good news, so that they are able to defend their faith and be a witness in college, Kissinger offered “Five Ways to Stay Rooted”. They are:

1. Mass and Confession regularly
2. Daily personal prayer, encounter with Christ
3. Faith Community and Accountability
4. Carve out time to serve others
5. Sharing your faith, thrive not just survive, bring others to thriving

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We are blessed to have Archbishop Peter Wells, pictured with his nieces, at the conference this weekend. Originally from the Archdiocese of Tulsa, he serves as the Apostolic Nuncio to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland.

Archbishop Wells explained that an Apostolic Nuncio is a two-fold job. That, since the Vatican is an independent state, he is an ambassador to Pope Francis on a political level. He also represents Pope Francis to the local bishops, and acts as the mouthpiece between Pope Francis and the local bishops, delivering messages and concerns between the two.

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Near the beginning of today’s men’s session, Jason Evert mentioned a rather staggering statistic – as of today, not one man born in the United States of America has been canonized a saint in the Catholic Church – and he speculates that perhaps it’s because we have been listening to the wrong voices.

According to Vatican II, “When God is forgotten, the creature itself becomes unintelligible.” We need to remember that it is God who reveals us to ourselves, especially through our bodies.

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This morning, Rachel Leininger spoke at our women’s session about how our identity as a women is revealed by God.

She began with reminding us that we are tempted to find our identity in other places and things that give us our worth, whether that be our place on a sports team, the role that we play in our family, our spot in a group with friends, or our grades in school. But every time, those things that we let define us are going to fall short of telling the whole story of who we are. The world is really good at reducing our identity.

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Ethan Hunter from Edmond, Oklahoma shared his testimony this morning during the men’s session.

His sophomore year of high school was really rough. The friends he hung around with brought him down, and eventually, pushed him further away from God. He struggled with the thought of taking his life, something sacred that God had given him. But during this moment, he felt God’s presence and it filled him with hope for the future. At the lowest of lows, God did not abandon him.

God changed the way Ethan looked at himself and brought him a true brotherhood to uplift him. He has realized that he is a strong man, and his strength comes from God!