Bishop Edward Rice of the Diocese of Springfield – Cape Girardeau, during his homily this morning, called to mind the desire we have to belong.  We have been reflecting on this all weekend, and Bishop Rice reminded us that we as humans have this desire to belong to something bigger than ourselves. For us as Catholics, we belong to Christ.

Bishop Rice pointed out that no one likes being an outsider and if we don’t feel like we belong to a group, we can feel unwanted and unloved.  He then reminded us of the sacrament that immediately brings us into Christ and his Church.  At our Baptism, we are immediately incorporated into the life of Christ.  Bishop Rice reminded us that we no longer belong to ourselves, we belong to Christ.

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Fr. Mike Schmitz began his homily with a few jokes, of course. My favorite was that when he was younger, he felt like a man trapped in a woman’s body…and then he was born!

He then shared about a certain line from today’s Gospel that makes him laugh: when Jesus is talking to his disciples and says, “You are worth more than many sparrows.” He shared how this line can be quite comical when taken literally; but that it has a much deeper meaning. Fr. Mike explained that Jesus was simply telling his disciples that they belong. He said, “One of the key things that helps us know who we are is when we know we belong – and if you belong to God, it means you matter, that your life matters.”

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Archbishop Robert Carlson started his homily today by referring to today’s Gospel. In the reading, the Lord took his disciples to a deserted place. He related this back the journey our teens have had this weekend.

“I’m sure when you go home you’ll want to share the weekend with them (your family)… When you go home it may seem as if nothing has changed and you’re alone in how you feel. Either you can complain or you can do what we’ve been doing all weekend and spread this message. We take on the responsibility to teach others what Jesus has taught us”

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Father Chris Martin started out his homily this morning by mentioning the world didn’t totally stop when Jesus was born. In fact, many people viewed him as “ordinary” and rejected Jesus because he didn’t meet their expectations early in his life.

Father then turned to the story of St. Augustine, who was a Doctor of the church. He went from city to city searching for God in truth and pleasure. For us as Catholics, similar to Augustine, we sometimes think there should be a big sign or angel appearing proving God is with us. The truth is that Jesus comes into our lives with humility and gentleness.

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They say it takes a village to raise a child, and that may be true, but I can tell you for sure that it takes a village to put on a Steubenville youth conference.

Every weekend, 140-ish staff members and volunteers begin their service to God’s kids at SteubySTL by converging on O’Reilly Catholic Student Center at 10 am on Friday morning, as we did this morning. We gather to pray before we get to work.

Our church teaches that the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of our faith, which means that it is the most powerful thing we can experience (because we receive Jesus) and it is also the point from which all of our inspiration and energy flows. So, we began our conference with Mass.

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