Steubenville 2025: Consumed

Deuteronomy 4:24 states, “For the Lord, your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” What does it mean to be consumed by God? This weekend, 4,026 teens from all across the region are gaining a deeper understanding of what a consuming relationship with our Lord entails.

Meet the Team

Our team for Week 2 of Steubenville STL Mid-America is packed with incredibly talented people with a sincere love for bringing teens closer to Jesus. Deacon Bob Rice will host the weekend, and Kyle Huelsing will lead worship. Sr. M. Karolyn Nunes, FSGM, Fr. Rufino Corona, TOR, Joel Stepanek, and Tim Jara will all give keynotes on a variety of topics for this year’s conference.

Friday Night Keynote – Consuming the World

“To be consumed by God’s love is freedom.” -Joel Stepanek

Tonight’s keynote set the tone for what promises to be a transformative weekend. Joel Stepanek described a time in his life where he was consuming what the world had to offer. He was focused on relationships, his studies in what promised to be a lucrative career, and other worldly things. “What I was consuming ended up consuming me. Everything felt disordered.” Joel went to prayer, and ended up switching his major from pre-med to ministry. The consuming love of God gave him the freedom he needed, something we all need. God’s love burns away all of the things in our lives that keep us from being free if we invite Him in. He never tires of giving us grace and the opportunity to turn to Him. His love requires us to grow and stretch, but the freedom He has for us is worth it.

Next, Joel then led a reflection on the parable of the sower and the seed. Our hearts can be like the soil. Is your heart like the smooth path: comfortable, living life in the world, mostly on autopilot? Or is it more like rocky soil: busy and filled with some good and some not so good things? Will the message of Gods love stay with you or fade in a few days? Next, is your heart full of thorns? Are there vices in your life that choke out God’s love? Has sin become rooted in your heart? Finally, is your heart a place of good soil? Do you hear God’s Word, let it consume your heart and give you the freedom to live as your truest self? “Lord, make me good soil.”

Conference Theme

Across the country, at nineteen different locations, thousands of teens are gathering at Steubenville Conferences to experience a life-changing encounter with Christ. This year’s theme, Consumed, comes from Deuteronomy 4:24.  In this verse  we hear, “For the Lord, your God, is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” This passage highlights God’s passionate desire for our exclusive devotion.

Ministry Team

• Host: Kris Frank
• Worship Leader: Josh Blakesley
• Team Priest: Fr. Brian Fallon
• Keynote Speaker: Lisa Cotter
• Keynote Speaker: Matt Regitz
• Keynote Speaker: Lauren Wright

Keynote: Consuming the World

The first keynote of the conference was given by Fr. Brian Fallon. He reminded us that we are good. Genesis tell us in Chapter 1, Verse 31, “God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good.” And we are not exempt from this. God looks at us and finds us very good. He cherishes us and holds us close to his heart. As Fr. Fallon said, we can sometimes forget his and then we start to spiral. We go out into the world and all of the things reaching out for our attention draw us in. Instead of seeking our identity in Christ, we seek it from other places. We forget that we are GOOD. Fr. Fallon challenged us to hear Jesus asking us, “Will you receive My love?” and reminded us that the life we’re called to live, the life that will truly bring us happiness, rests in Him. He also reminded us that the Lord speaks to us with conviction and kindness. And when we get discouraged, when we’ve allowed the world to consume us, Fr. Fallon reminded us to turn to the Gospels, the Good News that God gives us through His son. He invites us to put ourselves in the arms of the Father, to allow Him to be proud of us, to be in relationship with God through prayer.

Click here to watch the recorded livestream of this session!

Afternoon Keynote: The Darkness has not Overcome

As we gathered back together following our afternoon break, Fr. Brian Fallon spoke  to us about the places of light and darkness in our lives. He explained that God did not create us to be the light, rather to see and share in the life of Christ who is the  light of the world. We often strive for perfection, grasping at worldly things that we cannot attain, when in reality we should open our arms and be received by our loving Father.  Fr. Fallon reminded  us that, “Jesus loves us too much to keep us in the darkness.” Jesus bore the cross, thinking of us and our struggles, demonstrating that trusting in the Lord allows us to experience more than mere earthly obligations. He urged us to abandon the need to be the light and instead witness and reflect God’s light. As bearers of the light, how are we called to bring the love of Christ to others?

Watch the live stream of the afternoon keynote here.

Keynote: The Road Illuminated 

Tonight, Jackie Francois Angel reminded the conference of the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We receive the Holy Spirit for two reasons: to grow in our own holiness and to build up the body of Christ. Jackie said, “Let’s let our heart be burning with the Holy Spirit,” as we are called to let that fire spread to the world around us. She also spoke of Saint Jose Sanchez Del Rio, a teenager in the early 1900s who was captured during battle and told to deny the faith. With the strength of the Spirit within him, he held true to the Lord, shouting, “Viva Cristo Rey!” without fear. God calls us to be His hands and feet in the world, but we must remember we cannot do it alone. Looking at Luke 24,  we hear of the disciples who were on their way to Emmaus. Jesus met them on their walk, and as they journeyed with Him, they invited Jesus to stay and He broke bread with them. Their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him before He vanished from their sight, illustrating how the Holy Spirit illuminates and opens our hearts to understand and recognize the presence of Christ.  Let us continue to ask the Holy Spirit for the fortitude we need to be courageous witnesses to the Lord in all that we do.

Adoration

Fr. Brian Fallon processed through the crowd with the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance. And just like the disciples stood in Christ’s presence over 2,000 years ago, we were able to be with Jesus in the Eucharist. We had a moment of encounter with the Lord, and something happens when a group of people encounter the Lord and decide they are going to respond. As Fr. Fallon said, “We know for sure, Lord, that You will show us the path to life. The fullness of joy is in Your presence. At Your right hand, happiness forever.”

Watch Saturday night’s live stream here.

Conference Theme

Across our country, eighteen different times this summer, thousands of teens are gathering at Steubenville Conferences to reflect on the theme Illuminate which comes from John 1:5.  In this verse  we hear, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” Jesus Christ came to bring the light of God’s love into a spiritually dark and dying world where we can often get lost. By allowing the Lord to bring light to our lives, we can shine that light to one another through love.

Tonight, Katie Prejean McGrady led us deeper into this  idea of Illuminate. She started by asking for all to trust in what the Lord has in store for us. Katie said, “In this world that has convinced us that we are only as good as what we can give, God is not asking us to do anything but receive what He has to offer.” God didn’t need any of us. He wanted us! God said, let there be light, not because He needed to see anything but because He wanted us to be able to see everything. Let us walk in the light together this weekend!

Ministry Team

• Host: Katie Prejean McGrady
• Worship Leader: Kyle Huelsing
• Team Priest: Fr. Brian Fallon
• Keynote Speaker: Jackie Francois Angel
• Keynote Speaker: Brian Greenfield

Keynote: God Illuminated

Brian Greenfield began our weekend talking about our desire to be free, but our inclination to be guarded out of fear. He challenged us all to take the moment that we have been given right now to come to know God more. He asked us to reflect on three questions:

1. Are you willing to believe that there is a God bigger than your sin?
2. Are you willing to trust in Jesus and his love and call for you personally?
3.  Are you willing to respond to that call?

From this, Brian recounted the story of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar from Jericho. In Mark 10, we meet Bartimaeus as he sits on the side of the road. Bartimaeus called out to Jesus, knowing this was his opportunity to bring his desires to the Lord. Despite people around him telling him to be quiet, Bartimaeus cried out louder saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus calls him closer and we are reminded of the fact that Jesus desires to give us the longing of our hearts. He wants to bring light to the darkness in the same way that he gave sight to Bartimaeus. Fear is the opposition to encounter. Instead of reaching out to Jesus like Bartimaeus, fear makes us fall back. But we must take courage and get up, because Jesus is calling us. Brian closed with a powerful message, “Sometimes we have to let go of the things that we hold onto, to be able to hold the things that we need. Let’s give our all to Jesus, and see what he can do!” This moment is our opportunity to respond to Jesus’ call.

Click here to watch the recorded live stream of this session!