Father Chris Martin started out his homily this morning by mentioning the world didn’t totally stop when Jesus was born. In fact, many people viewed him as “ordinary” and rejected Jesus because he didn’t meet their expectations early in his life.

Father then turned to the story of St. Augustine, who was a Doctor of the church. He went from city to city searching for God in truth and pleasure. For us as Catholics, similar to Augustine, we sometimes think there should be a big sign or angel appearing proving God is with us. The truth is that Jesus comes into our lives with humility and gentleness.

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Ross and Debbie have been married for 23 years, and they are members of Immaculate Conception Parish in Dardenne Prairie, MO (aka ICD). Ross has been volunteering at SteubySTL for 12 years, and Debbie has been for 13 years.

At our conferences, their forte is Speaker Hospitality. They find it fun to get to know the speakers personally and enjoy serving their needs by taking logistical concerns away from them and allowing them to focus on the spiritual emphasis they are so good at providing.

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As she began her talk tonight, Sarah put a picture-perfect image of her family on the big screen for all the teens to see. Her hair was perfect and full, the kids were all dressed adorably and looking at the camera, beaming like perfect angels. She then told us that for this one picture that turned out great, there are about 30 that didn’t. And then she said, “I want to be real with you guys”, and proceeded to show her kids with messy faces, battling in plastic sword fights. She also showed images of her own selfies with double chins and without make-up on.

She then cautioned all of us, “Don’t compare another person’s highlight reel with your behind-the-scenes reel.” Sarah said she went through a difficult time in middle school when she questioned her self-worth, wondering if she was pretty enough, good enough and if she would ever be truly loved. She said she became a chameleon, changing her personality to suit whomever she was with at the moment. She needed the approval of others to feel loved.

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If you stop by the bookstore, you may be lucky enough to encounter Patti Anderson, one of the smiling volunteers helping to sell all of the Pope paraphernalia and Marian merchandise.

When she is not ringing up graphic tees at Steubystl, Patti supports the Daughters of St. Paul as a volunteer at the Pauline Books & Media Bookstore in Crestwood, MO. Apparently, volunteering at bookstores is her thing!

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They say it takes a village to raise a child, and that may be true, but I can tell you for sure that it takes a village to put on a Steubenville youth conference.

Every weekend, 140-ish staff members and volunteers begin their service to God’s kids at SteubySTL by converging on O’Reilly Catholic Student Center at 10 am on Friday morning, as we did this morning. We gather to pray before we get to work.

Our church teaches that the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of our faith, which means that it is the most powerful thing we can experience (because we receive Jesus) and it is also the point from which all of our inspiration and energy flows. So, we began our conference with Mass.

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