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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Echoing throughout Oscar’s talk was the line “we all suffer differently.” He shared first about the suffering of his wife giving birth and his daughter having a headache. Then, Oscar reminded us that we never suffer alone. He described times when he sacrificed for his children and explained that his own sacrifices are nothing compared to the sacrifice that the Father makes for each of us. When God sacrificed His son for His children, He made the ultimate sacrifice. As Oscar says “God revealed Himself through the beauty of that cross.”

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Grace – who is from Chicago – grew up in a normal stable, Catholic family. She always knew that God wanted to be in her life.

One time, while kneeling in Adoration at one of our conferences, she felt nothing. She thought that something was wrong with her, so she decided to just listen to the music. Then, a lyric from one of the songs spoke to her heart:

“If Your grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.”

With those words, she experienced an overwhelming sense of being in a large ocean, and envisioned the people all around her as waves crashing. She knew that God was with her, and with everyone else, even though she didn’t feel it. As Grace said so eloquently:

“The most important thing is that you are here with God, and He is here with you.”