3,859 participants.

100 volunteers.

60 priests celebrating Mass and hearing confessions.

2,688 confessions heard.

God has incredible plans for each and every one of us, and it is our job to discern what those plans entail.

Matt Maher says it best, in a song that we sang early this morning:

“This is the first day of the rest of your life. ‘Cause even in the dark you can still see the light, it’s gonna be all right.”

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In the Gospel today, we hear Jesus speak of the wheat and the weeds growing together in the fields (Matthew 13:24-30). Bishop Edward Rice’s homily focused on how this image is very similar to what we are heading into as we prepare to leave the Steubenville Conference to return to our homes, parishes, and schools. Though we live in a culture thick with weeds, we must stand strong and engage the culture, sharing the Gospel message.

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As you scan the arena, there are a number of important looking people sporting red staff shirts and headsets…And then there are those with headsets and no red staff shirts, because their uniform says it all: Don’t stand on your chair, no beach balls during Mass, and pass the baskets at the appropriate times.  Those are the religious sisters from the Carmelites of the Divine Heart of Jesus and the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George.

Some people may know Sr. M. Karolyn, one of the “Martyrs” from her days of teaching high school near Kansas City, others may remember her epic lip sync battle with Fr. Brian Fallon at GenLife2017. She is excited to be at her lucky 13^th Steubenville Youth Conference and this weekend you might see her ushering in section CCC (No, not Catechism of the Catholic Church, although she is a nerd when it comes to the Catechism!).

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Paul began his talk with a story about his first honest prayer to God. It happened at a Steubenville Conference when the host invited the teens to pray. At first he didn’t want to. He was used to being the jokester, not the serious guy. But when he saw his friends around him praying, he eventually offered up his own awkward prayer. He joked about how different girls are from guys when it comes to crying. Like most guys, he did not want to cry. But the tears flowed that day, after saying his first honest prayer to God.

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