IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy FOCUS
By Ana Franco-Guzman
SAN ANTONIO (CNS) — In need of
reigniting the fire for his Catholic faith, Jeremy Martins found the flame he
needed during SEEK 2017.
“SEEK is the log I was waiting
for,” said Martins, a junior at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. “It has been two
years since a real encounter with Christ.”
He told Catholic News Service that
the conference, sponsored Jan. 3-7 by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, known as FOCUS,
generated a new excitement even though he previously had committed two years of
his life to mission work that involved evangelizing young people and help them overcome
“the poverty of spirit” in their lives.
Martins was not alone. About
13,000 people, almost exclusively young adults, attended the biennial SEEK conference
at San Antonio’s Henry B.
Gonzalez Convention Center. The five-day event focused on the theme
“What Moves You.”
“I know that if they are from my
university and attended SEEK, we can now bring this experience that we have had
together back to campus with us. We can talk about it and show what we learned
on our university campus,” Martins told Catholic News Service.
Speakers at SEEK included Father Mike Schmitz, director of youth and young adult ministry for the
Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota; theologian
Edward Sri; Sister Bethany Madonna, a
member of the Sisters of Life; and Sarah Swafford, founder of Emotional Virtue
Ministries.
Father Schmitz reminded his
listeners to “not be conformed by this age. But be transformed by the renewal
of your mind. Our call is to live like Jesus.”
Austin Palen, a junior at Kansas State University, came away
with “pages and pages of notes” from the talk.
Kylee
Mernagh, a freshman at the school, also appreciated how Father Schmitz urged
participants to “strap our boots on” in order to live their faith in the
world. She attended the conference with several of her sorority sisters from Pi
Beta Phi.
“It
was helpful knowing we’d see these people at everyday events,” she said
afterward. “Knowing when it seems that everyone is thinking differently, you’re
not the only person with morality. You know others have similar values.”
Mernagh
said her sorority sister brainstormed about encouraging Catholic members from other
fraternities and sororities to not be afraid of living their faith. “If each
house took one hour of adoration, how cool would it be?” she said.
It’s such reactions that
conference organizers hoped would resonate in the future among the college-age
participants.
Craig Miller, FOCUS president, told
CNS that he hoped that the most important thing participants take from the
conference is “the knowledge that Jesus Christ loves them and that they all
have a father who loves them and will be with them through everything.”
“Knowing what you are made
for gives you purpose and knowing that you are born as son or daughter of God
brings you in relationship with your creator,” he said.
As a team director for FOCUS at
Ave Maria University, Nick Smith described FOCUS as important to university
campuses because the organization “counteracts the things that distract us
in a way that really allows Jesus to enter into this culture of death and
change it.”
Martins said he was struck by
Sri’s comments about the importance of people changing their actions to reflect
their beliefs in an effort to overcome relativism in the world.
“This stuck with me because I
realized that although I was surrounded by Catholics in Benedictine College, I
found myself going to Mass less and less,” he explained. “I now
realize I was changing my actions and justifying them by other Catholic’s
actions. This conference has helped me realize that I really need to act the
faith taking it upon myself to change, so my actions reflect my beliefs.”
In another presentation, John H.
Carmichael, author of “Drunks and Monks,” discussed the freedom of
drunkenness and worldliness. “If you build your house on sand, it will wash
away,” he said. “Young people, you should build it on rock. Go deep
into the heart of the Catholic Church.”
With such encouragement, SEEK
participants could head back to their homes or colleges with what Miller
described as a strong relationship with God so that “this relationship allows
us to live life at its fullest.”
Among those in attendance were more than 200 college students from
the Diocese of Salina, Kansas. Among them was Adam Urban, a senior at Fort Hays State University in Kansas.
He coordinated a bus from the school.
“(Adoration
and reconciliation) were very well done,” he said. “They have great music to draw
you into prayer and incense — they engage all of the senses. For our group and
myself, the adoration experience is really powerful.”
The
lines were long for reconciliation the evening of Jan. 5 as thousands of
students took advantage of the opportunity to grow a bit closer to God. The
experience impressed Tracie Thibault, a junior from Kansas State University.
“I
think the moment I knew it was worth all the planning and fundraising was
seeing more than 12,000 people on their knees at adoration,” said Thibault, who
helped coordinate the school’s three charter buses. “Sitting in the back watching
student after student go to confession, seeing 200-plus priests and knowing
God’s mercy was present, that’s when I knew it was all worth it.”
– – –
Contributing to this story was Karen Bonar, editor of The Register, newspaper of the Diocese
of Salina, Kansas.
– – –
Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.
