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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Chris Mueller began his talk with graduated seniors by asking the rhetorical question: “What comes next?”

He then let us know that it’s ok to not know what you are doing with your life. He illustrated this by mentioning an experience from his own life where he, at one point, did not know what he wanted to do. He tried out acting, teaching in a public school, teaching theology in a Catholic school, and then to making shows for Catholic families to watch. Chris then mentioned that we should not wait for the world to give us permission to be classified as an adult. He defined being an adult as: “Adulting is making mistakes and learning from them and then moving on.”

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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.

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“If you’ve ever been to a Steubenville conference, you know we are never really finished.”

Father Dave Pivonka said this today at the end of Mass. Father was referring to the opportunity to come forward if any of the teens felt God might be calling them to religious life. However, isn’t this true in a different capacity? We are never really finished. While we may load up on the buses and head back to our assorted homes and parishes, the call to our vocation and to holiness is ever beckoning. No matter what our vocation is, we should all continue everyday to answer that call, whether to married, single, or religious life.

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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.

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