Oscar is a lifelong Catholic who always had a good relationship with God. Everything was going well for him, until one day his sister shared with him that their dad had cancer. While he knew that his dad would fight it, his dad eventually passed away. Then, in his anger and frustration, Oscar turned against God and turned to sin. Eventually, at his mom’s prompting, he went to Confession, shared everything with the priest, and felt a huge weight lifted off of him. Oscar’s advice to all of us is simple:

I challenge you to go to Confession, so that God can open up your heart the way He has opened up mine.

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.

Today’s Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Peter Wells who serves as the Apostolic Nuncio to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland. Bishop Kemme from the Diocese of Wichita was also with us. Additionally, dozens of priests from all over the United States concelebrated.

We all have a desire to be chosen. Whether that be for a sports team, a club, a play, getting into college or attaining a job. There is something deep about the human heart that desires to be chosen. In his homily this morning, Fr. Dave Pivonka, TOR, reminded us that we are all chosen to be holy.

Jason began his talk with brutal honestly, describing how in high school he had one foot in the world and one foot in the ‘youth group world’. Two of his reasons for this, which might resonate with some of us, were that:

1. He had met some religious people that were weird, and he didn’t want to be weird.
2. He didn’t want to lose his personality.

He later found out, by the way, that those weird religious folks were probably weird before they became holy. Fair enough. And he has also discovered since that it’s sin that actually dulls our personality, while God helps us to be fully ourselves. Retweet.

Esther, from Omaha, Nebraska is a recent high school graduate who shared with all of us tonight how God has changed her prayer life.

When she was a freshman in high school she attended this exact same youth conference, but coming into the conference her prayer life was not very strong; she felt like she didn’t know how to pray, and that her prayers just weren’t that important. She was restless, lacked peace, and felt disconnected from the Lord.