3,859 participants.
100 volunteers.
60 priests celebrating Mass and hearing confessions.
2,600 confessions heard.
God has incredible plans for each and every one of us, and it is our job to discern what those plans entail.
Matt Maher says it best, in a song that we sang early this morning:
“This is the first day of the rest of your life. ‘Cause even in the dark you can still see the light, it’s gonna be all right.”
Fr. Crisman closed the first week of Steubenville encouraging and challenging the participants to be open to Christ’s call for each of us. He invited participants to literally stand up at Steubenville as a commitment to how they will metaphorically ‘stand up’ for their faith back at home.
“We need men and women who are bold, and willing to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ no matter the costs.”
The altar call is not a verbal contract to enter seminary or the convent, but rather it’s an invitation to be bold, to be generous, and to do the Lord’s will. The action is a commitment to listen, to be open, to be the face of Jesus.
As part of the Steubenville weekend, everyone is encouraged to lay down their life for Christ. Some are hearing a deeper call from Jesus. For some, this means being called to living a full life within the Church by being baptized. For others, they are hearing a deeper call from Jesus to possibly lay it all down by becoming a priest or a consecrated religious.
In high school I really stressed about entering the seminary. I asked this priest, “How do you KNOW if you’re called to be a priest or not?” What I really wanted was some step-by-step Buzzfeed-esque test to figure it all out for me. The priest just looked at me and shrugged. “I dunno. You have to talk to God to see where He’s calling you.”
