If Sarah Swafford could leave you with just a few points to remember from Steubenville Week One, it would be these: what happened this weekend was real, and you belong here in the Catholic Church.

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Sr. Josephine Garrett anchored Day 2 as the keynote speaker tonight at Steubenville-Mid America. Her message was a call to resist the culture’s attempt to erase God from our memory. She centered most of her message around the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Blending understanding of scripture with stories and examples of how Jesus’ message still resounds today, Sr. Josephine challenged us to rise up against the, “subtle authoring of [our] lives” that is prevalent in our world. As the culture fights for prominence, Jesus wants to, “lay waste to every false God” in our lives.

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Growing up, Sarah Swafford was great at playing the part. She was the validatorian, involved in all the extra-curriculars, and had the popular boyfriend. Even amidst all of this, Sarah was left with bitterness and emptiness. She was only able to find her true path in life when she turned to the Lord.

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“Is it easy to be a woman?”

No. Women are a tremendous gift to the world, and so often we don’t realize the value and power of our dignity.

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“With courage…there is freedom from a future full of fear.”

Fr. Mike Schmitz opened our weekend with a keynote focused on having the courage to put our trust in Christ. Drawing from the second book of Kings and the Gospel of Mark, Fr. Mike highlighted the stories of those who risked everything on the possibility that the Lord would show up.

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