As we drew closer to Mass, the speaking team led teens in prayer and worship to call upon the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

They first explored the Spirit’s true purpose and identity by explaining what the Spirit is NOT. It is not an emotion. It is not a feeling. It is a person. It is God’s living water in its simplest, purest, and most powerful form. While our own spirit may be weak, the Holy Spirit is stirring strongly inside each heart. The Holy Spirit is changing us into His instruments of peace and filling us with the power to conquer all fears, heal all hurts, and have victory over all spiritual deaths. Each member of the team took turns asking the Spirit to pour out their favorite life-giving gifts on all of us.

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College can be difficult; that’s not exactly a secret. You’ve got to deal with new spaces, new people, new classes, new teachers, time consuming homework, weird sleeping schedules, and of course, the dreaded freshman roommate who may be you new best friend or worst enemy.

High school has prepared you some, but the next four years are still an unwritten story. When you unload you bags in that dorm parking lot, you will be walking into a world more daunting than it is familiar. So how do you survive? How do you navigate the complex changes while still keeping your personality, your faith life, your soul?

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Katie Prejean started the women’s session with a Hail Mary and a simple prayer to call upon God’s truth, especially when it comes to our roles as His beloved daughters.

Katie shared that the fundamental part of who we are is that we are loved; it’s our greatest identity. We are wanted by the very God who forged us in his sacred image. This means that, even in our mess, when our breath smells and our hair is bedraggled, we are Jesus’ chosen image to represent beautiful, selfless love. We are love incarnate! It’s also our greatest purpose. We were created specifically to love others and to be loved by Him.

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“God is thirsting for YOU. God thirsts for your thirst. He thirsts to quench your thirst.”

These are some of the powerful words Matt Maher spoke to an arena full of teens tonight as he shared his thoughts on this year’s theme, interwoven with moving outbursts of worship music. Matt explained in his talk that our very need for God’s presence is shown through our natural and physical need for water. God designed our bodies to rely on outside nourishment as a way to remind us of a much greater thirst in our lives– a thirst for something so intangible, it is not even from this world. Within that thirst is the reminder from God that he desires to be a part of our most desperate and secret wants.

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Meet Judi Buncher

If you’ve noticed a flurry of bright smiles, blonde hair, and a positive attitude bubbling around Missouri State University, you might have strolled by Judi, everyone’s favorite book store coordinator- for 15 years running!

When she’s not laying out cute Catholic attire, or organizing epic displays of prayer bracelets and ‘I Love Papa Francis’ campaign buttons, you can usually find Judi rushing around the Jesuit mission office of St. Louis University, wrangling in her family for big home cooked meals, or leading a Catholic women’s book club with her equally energetic friends.

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