In this afternoon’s breakout session on prayer, Fr. Crisman shared about God’s desire to have a personal relationship with each of us. Many today are paralyzed in prayer. Perhaps it’s our lack of trust that God really wants to – and will – communicate himself personally to us in prayer leads us to fill the time of silence with words or actions. Maybe we’re afraid of failure. Or maybe still, we feel that we have something to earn, or prove to God. All of these impede our ability to pray, but, even worse, they reveal that we really don’t know what prayer is in the first place.

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As technology expands and grows, many of us are almost constantly plugged into at least one form of social media. In one of this afternoon’s workshops, Kyle Heimann encouraged all of us to elevate social media.

While social media can be a tool for great good, Kyle explained early on that it can also be destructive. When social media begins to replace our social interactions and relationships rather than improve them, we need to start examining the amount of time we are investing.

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If there’s one thing many recently graduated seniors are certain about, it’s that there are many uncertainties in their lives. In the workshop for recently graduated seniors, Bob Rice, our host for Week 1, put to rest some of the fears that often accompany uncertainty.

As Catholic Christians, we have the assurance that our existence is not a mistake. We are not a cosmic occurrence, a roll of the dice, happenstance of two chromosomes crossing. As this is true, we can rest assured that God, who planned our existence, did not forget to plan our lives past the age of 18.

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Our men’s session today began with praise & worship, a game of “Nail it or Fail it” (which got everyone involved), and even some beatboxing which was done by volunteers from the crowd.

After these icebreakers, Kyle began his talk by reminding us of the story of David and Goliath. David was skilled at the using a slingshot. He had used the slingshot to ward off the prey who had attempted to kill his sheep. So, he used what he knew to fight the battle against Goliath.

Kyle challenged us all to consider what our personal Goliaths might be, including but, not limited to: low self-esteem, drugs, drinking, sexual sin, pride, selfishness, despair, laziness, and unforgiveness. Kyle didn’t list every struggle that any of us might have, but we all know what are own personal struggles are, right?

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