Grace – who is from Chicago – grew up in a normal stable, Catholic family. She always knew that God wanted to be in her life.

One time, while kneeling in Adoration at one of our conferences, she felt nothing. She thought that something was wrong with her, so she decided to just listen to the music. Then, a lyric from one of the songs spoke to her heart:

“If Your grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.”

With those words, she experienced an overwhelming sense of being in a large ocean, and envisioned the people all around her as waves crashing. She knew that God was with her, and with everyone else, even though she didn’t feel it. As Grace said so eloquently:

“The most important thing is that you are here with God, and He is here with you.”

Cooper began his talk by talking about some of his struggles to maintain holiness in a college relationship. He said that in discerning what to do about this relationship he talked with some friends. One of Cooper’s friends told him, “I am going to pray for you to be weak. In praying for you to be weak, I’m inviting Jesus to be your strength.” Cooper said that after this conversation he decided to end the relationship because it ultimately was not bringing him closer to Jesus. In reflecting on this experience he realized that he had been focused on making himself happy.

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Discernment means to cut away from until knowing what is best. Discernment is between two good things, while temptation is between a good thing and a bad thing. God is always speaking to us and we need to make sure we are speaking to Him because authentic discernment comes through Christ.

Father Martin broke down the steps of discernment

• Acknowledging what we are experiencing in our lives.
• Relate it to where we are currently at.
• Receive God’s message and listing to what He has to say.
• Respond to what He tells us.

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During the session on relationships, Sarah outlined the ways that growing in virtue builds Christ-centered relationships.

Before diving into ways to build virtue, Sarah outlined what she calls the “emoticoaster.” It describes the pattern that a lot of people follow when they are getting into a relationship. She explains the journey from mental stalking to social media stalking to texting, flirting, and calling. Most people in the room raised their hands to say that they had seen someone riding the emoticoaster before. Sarah then walked through the many traps associated with the emoticoaster.

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Chris Mueller began his talk with graduated seniors by asking the rhetorical question: “What comes next?”

He then let us know that it’s ok to not know what you are doing with your life. He illustrated this by mentioning an experience from his own life where he, at one point, did not know what he wanted to do. He tried out acting, teaching in a public school, teaching theology in a Catholic school, and then to making shows for Catholic families to watch. Chris then mentioned that we should not wait for the world to give us permission to be classified as an adult. He defined being an adult as: “Adulting is making mistakes and learning from them and then moving on.”

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