Oscar is a lifelong Catholic who always had a good relationship with God. Everything was going well for him, until one day his sister shared with him that their dad had cancer. While he knew that his dad would fight it, his dad eventually passed away. Then, in his anger and frustration, Oscar turned against God and turned to sin. Eventually, at his mom’s prompting, he went to Confession, shared everything with the priest, and felt a huge weight lifted off of him. Oscar’s advice to all of us is simple:

I challenge you to go to Confession, so that God can open up your heart the way He has opened up mine.

Esther, from Omaha, Nebraska is a recent high school graduate who shared with all of us tonight how God has changed her prayer life.

When she was a freshman in high school she attended this exact same youth conference, but coming into the conference her prayer life was not very strong; she felt like she didn’t know how to pray, and that her prayers just weren’t that important. She was restless, lacked peace, and felt disconnected from the Lord.

Continue reading

Ethan Hunter from Edmond, Oklahoma shared his testimony this morning during the men’s session.

His sophomore year of high school was really rough. The friends he hung around with brought him down, and eventually, pushed him further away from God. He struggled with the thought of taking his life, something sacred that God had given him. But during this moment, he felt God’s presence and it filled him with hope for the future. At the lowest of lows, God did not abandon him.

God changed the way Ethan looked at himself and brought him a true brotherhood to uplift him. He has realized that he is a strong man, and his strength comes from God!

Jonah is from the Archdiocese of St. Louis, where he attends St. Pius High School in Festus and is a parishioner at Church of Our Lady. This morning he shared with us the moment God taught him to listen to Him in prayer.

Jonah had a tendency to thrust his problems on Our Lord during prayer, expecting Him to solve them without patiently waiting for a response. Essentially, he used to pray in a way where he just wanted God to fix his problems.

Continue reading

Harry, a foreign exchange student from mainland China, student at Quincy Notre Dame High School, and a member of LEAD, shared with us tonight about the love of the Father.

As he began his studies in the United States, he began to struggle with loneliness. He didn’t feel loved by anyone. He missed his dad.

After transferring to Quincy Notre Dame High School, he started to grow in his relationship with Christ.

Eventually, he attended a Steubenville conference and during Adoration he realized that the place his earthly father cannot reach, his Heavenly Father is there.

After the conference, he decided to become Catholic, and he will be baptized at this coming Easter Vigil Mass!

Harry wants us to know that when you feel that you are not being loved, your Heavenly Father is with you!