A sacred tradition here at SteubySTL is the Vocations Call.

It began today with Fr. Martin Chris Martin inviting up all of the religious sisters present this weekend. Fr. Martin reminded us that sisters make us want to love God and be saints. He then invited up any women in the room who might have felt the call to the religious life this weekend. Archbishop Carlson prayed over them and encouraged them to be not afraid. They were encouraged to talk to sisters and go on retreat as they discern this call.

“A priest can undo in minutes what it took the devil the 3 years or 3 decades to do to us.” Fr. Martin thanked all of the priests who heard confessions and were present throughout the weekend. He then invited up any men in the room who may have felt called to the religious life this weekend. Fr. Martin reminded them that, “Before you can become Christ the priest, you must become Christ the man.” They were encouraged to focus on becoming men of virtue as they discern this call.

Please pray for all of the young men and women who courageously responded to the Vocations Call this weekend, as they continue to seek God’s will in their lives.

Father Chris Martin shared, near the end of Mass today, that sometimes we make presumptions. And that’s not good.

Presumptions can be obstacles to evangelization.

Perhaps we presume that everyone who attends one of these conferences has a relationship with the Lord, or perhaps we assume that everyone who came here this weekend is Catholic.

Father Martin called up to the front of the room a young man named Alex, from Topeka. Fr. Martin explained that Alex had attended this conference last year, and at the time he was not Catholic. And now he is, because an invitation to become Catholic was extended to him last year during this conference. Alex was met with a thunderous round of applause.

There’s more.

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Archbishop Robert Carlson started his homily today by referring to today’s Gospel. In the reading, the Lord took his disciples to a deserted place. He related this back the journey our teens have had this weekend.

“I’m sure when you go home you’ll want to share the weekend with them (your family)… When you go home it may seem as if nothing has changed and you’re alone in how you feel. Either you can complain or you can do what we’ve been doing all weekend and spread this message. We take on the responsibility to teach others what Jesus has taught us”

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Cooper began his talk with a cool story about how his five year old had an experience of Jesus at a youth conference, where he even said, “Dad, I think Jesus was inside of me.”

He then broke down the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

Cooper went on to tell us how in a few hours we will be heading home, and some may say that “you guys will be heading back into the real world”, but he exclaimed that he thinks that Steubenville is the real world. After this conference, we need to go back home and share what happened here with those that weren’t able to make it to this conference, because if we don’t share anything that happened here we’ve blown it.

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Mary Kate has been coming to SteubySTL since 2006, and this weekend is her 25th Steubenville conference!

If you were here last weekend – or if you watched the Livestream – you know that she was the female worship leader (and she killed it, by the way). Between conferences this year, she has been volunteering her time as a liaison, helping with LEAD. And if you are here this weekend, be sure to say hello to her in the bookstore (and go back and view the Livestream of worship last weekend; did you hear that she killed it? well, she did.) Besides those roles, she has also been here as a teen participant and as a young adult chaperone.

When she is not here at Steubenville, Mary Kate spends her time working as the Campus Minister at Notre Dame High School, an all girls Catholic high school in St. Louis Missouri. She also leads praise and worship for various ministries, youth groups, retreats, and conferences. She loves to listen to Taylor Swift albums on repeat until she comes out with her next one. “RIP the old Taylor, I miss you”. She loves to get creative by painting, songwriting, sewing, playing guitar, beading, bedazzling (not really, but she wants to bring it back), decorating new spaces, etc…

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