Today’s Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Peter Wells who serves as the Apostolic Nuncio to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland. Bishop Kemme from the Diocese of Wichita was also with us. Additionally, dozens of priests from all over the United States concelebrated.

We all have a desire to be chosen. Whether that be for a sports team, a club, a play, getting into college or attaining a job. There is something deep about the human heart that desires to be chosen. In his homily this morning, Fr. Dave Pivonka, TOR, reminded us that we are all chosen to be holy.

Continue reading

Jason began his talk with brutal honestly, describing how in high school he had one foot in the world and one foot in the ‘youth group world’. Two of his reasons for this, which might resonate with some of us, were that:

1. He had met some religious people that were weird, and he didn’t want to be weird.
2. He didn’t want to lose his personality.

He later found out, by the way, that those weird religious folks were probably weird before they became holy. Fair enough. And he has also discovered since that it’s sin that actually dulls our personality, while God helps us to be fully ourselves. Retweet.

Continue reading

We want to introduce you to the 2018 interns of the Office of Youth Ministry for the Archdiocese of St. Louis— Joe, Katie, Sam, and Chris.

These amazing humans work all summer to make sure that both of our conferences go as planned! They have, collectively, been to 18 Steubenville Conferences! They have gone as teens, young adults, youth minister interns, chaperones, ushers, seminarians, and now as interns.

Continue reading

How do you describe what seems indescribable?

This is my sixth experience of Saturday Night Adoration at a Steubenville conference, and every time I try to describe the time, and every time words fail me. After some reflection, I realize that this inability to voice my encounters with Christ are normal. I am human, of course I can’t properly communicate a non-human encounter. I believe that each and every person in this arena tonight will agree.

But this is the beauty of Christ. Where words fail, God speaks. He reveals Himself to us in a way that we can receive and whether or not we can understand the encounter at the time, we know He is there. He understands that we, in our finite human capacity, need to encounter Him on our own level. He comes to each and every one of us in our own unique way, whether He brings us to our knees in tears, or He calms the seemingly unending storms within our hearts. He knows our hearts better than we ever will know them, so he speaks to each one individually because He is all-loving AND all-powerful.

Continue reading

Esther, from Omaha, Nebraska is a recent high school graduate who shared with all of us tonight how God has changed her prayer life.

When she was a freshman in high school she attended this exact same youth conference, but coming into the conference her prayer life was not very strong; she felt like she didn’t know how to pray, and that her prayers just weren’t that important. She was restless, lacked peace, and felt disconnected from the Lord.

Continue reading