When men pray, things change. And, the world needs your voice.

What does masculinity look like? It’s important for us to understand what masculinity is, because God created it for a reason.

When we want to understand what masculinity is, we need to ask God what His intention was in creating man. God created men in His likeness, and a man reveals something unique about God. God gave Adam the important task of protecting and maintaining the world. But Adam didn’t trust God completely. So often we fall into this sin, “I’m my own man; I make my own way; I know what is right. I don’t need to trust You.”

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This summer, Chika Anyanwu is speaking at Steubenville conferences for the first time! Before lunch, she shared some beautiful insights with all the ladies, providing a vision for what authentically restored femininity looks like.

She began by reminding us that we were created good. In the book of Genesis, Adam looked around at all the creatures and named them. He saw that he did not belong with them. That’s when Eve entered the picture. She was good, and Adam saw in her a companion. Eve’s first identity is in being found and being seen as good. As women, we claim that identity, too.

Unfortunately, one little lie about our identities can spread. We start thinking that because we don’t have the same gifts or life as other people, we aren’t good. In the same way that Satan planted seeds of doubt in Eve’s heart about the goodness of God, we doubt our goodness.

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Joel challenged us tonight to recognize that holiness isn’t about being perfect; it’s about saying yes to the invitation for a journey.  When we say yes to the journey, we manage to find God in the unexpected. Think about monumental moments in your life – did you expect those to happen? When did you meet your best friend? Did you know they were going to be your best friend when you met them?

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This morning, we were blessed to have three of our shepherds here to celebrate Mass with us: Archbishop Carlson from the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Bishop Rice from the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, and Bishop Kemme from the Diocese of Wichita.

Archbishop Carlson began his homily by reminding us that the God who has invited us here for the Eucharist is the same God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the saints. That same God most likely touched many of our hearts and souls this weekend. He also placed prayers and goals on our hearts, but we are not able to achieve those goals alone. We need each other. We need to be bold and inspire hope in one another by how we live our lives because none of us need to walk alone.

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Nic woke up the teens this morning with a very interactive reading of 1 Corinthians 12. He had them respond with a specific action for key words in the scripture. They would stand, clap, stomp and yell out as they heard the scripture and responded to their cues. After the lively reading of the scripture, Nic reminded the kids that they all have a part to play as members of the Body of Christ.  And then he asked, “Are you willing to finish what you started this weekend?”

“I know what God started, He is going to finish. But some of us are great starters but we aren’t great finishers,” Nic admitted. We can have a great momentum coming out of a weekend like this, with a lot of good intentions, and then we gradually lose our excitement. When things get rough, we tend to abandon our plan.

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