Summer is over. School is back in session. Games, practices, and rehearsals are in full swing. Praise God that we have these opportunities before us but all of these changes can mean life is pretty crazy.

Do you feel a little overwhelmed? Wish you could go back to summer? Sleep in and spend countless hours with friends?

While we can’t turn back the clock, we can relive a highlight of the summer! Here are four suggestions to bring back the Steubenville experience and help others to do the same.

3,859 participants.

100 volunteers.

60 priests celebrating Mass and hearing confessions.

2,688 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.”

In the Gospel today, we hear Jesus speak of the wheat and the weeds growing together in the fields (Matthew 13:24-30). Bishop Edward Rice’s homily focused on how this image is very similar to what we are heading into as we prepare to leave the Steubenville Conference to return to our homes, parishes, and schools. Though we live in a culture thick with weeds, we must stand strong and engage the culture, sharing the Gospel message.