I still don’t have an answer to that question but when I called back, I was honored to be asked to be one of his delegates to the SEEK Conference. SEEK is hosted by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) and was held Jan. 1-5 at the same Convention Center where St. Pope John Paul II visited in 1999. 

     I joined 24,000 other college students and adults encountering the Light of Christ through Mass, workshops, keynote talks, and
adoration.

     I gained many helpful insights for me personally and my ministries, here at St. Malachy, in the Making Missionary Disciples track. This was the track that Bishop Lou specifically requested his delegates to attend, and it aligned with our parish’s emphasis this year in our Eucharistic Revival…We Must Make Him Known, by becoming missionary disciples.

     I also enjoyed meeting Jeff Cavins, Jason Evert, and Heather Kym who all gave amazing talks on hearing Christ in the scriptures, and gender through the lens of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.

     Kobe Duda, a member of our parish and a student at the University of Illinois, was also in attendance. Studying electrical
engineering at the U of I, Kobe shared that he gained a “newfound confidence in Jesus’ saving power and the role it plays” in his personal life as well as that in the world around him.

     At the U of I, Kobe leads a bible study and is now beginning a discipleship group. “The missionaries have played a big role in my formation especially in guiding me and encouraging me to live out my own mission as a disciple of Christ,” Kobe said of the FOCUS Missionaries on campus.

     Kobe would like the St. Malachy parishioners to know that “the Church is very alive and well among our youth. I’ve seen it at my Newman Center, and a thousand times more at SEEK, and I’m very confident we have lots of young saints in the making.”

 *** If you are interested in signing up to provide a simple meal for the youth on Thursday nights, please click here. ***