FOCUS Conference

Last week I went to the National FOCUS Conference, and it was amazing!

FOCUS stands for Fellowship of Catholic University Students, and is a program that was started 10 years ago by Curtis Martin. Their goal is ultimately to ignite the faith of the world in the God who loves us and is always fighting for us. They go about this by working with college Catholic centers and setting up Bible studies, organizing community events, and taking on disciples. Discipleship is their main mode of evangelization and consists of taking on two students as their personal 'disciples'. In this way they pass on knowledge of God, teachings of the Church, and ways of living healthy, fulfilling lives. Those two students then take on two disciples of their own, and in this way form chains of teachers and students. The program had a significant impact on my life, and I support it 100%!

They have a national conference every three years, and this year's was in Grapevine, TX. Some highlights include: a concert by Matt Maher, a concert by Third Day, talks by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, Mother Assumpta Long, and Mike Sweeny, captain of the Kansas City Royals. I also got to see a bunch of friends I hadn't seen in a long time. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot.

Another cool thing was wearing a cassock about half the time I was there, mostly for witness. It said pretty loudly to all the students, "Hey look, we are the same age as you and have listened to our call from God." It was interesting for me, because there is something about wearing any uniform that makes you think more about everything you do. You are representing something much greater than yourself, and must take care to represent it well.

The last really cool thing was how much of a big family Catholicism feels like more and more all the time. There I was with about 4000 students my age all learning about the faith and preparing to go be witnesses all across the country. Right now, even though I am not with most of them, I know that those students are out there fighting the good fight every day. We are supporting each other by our prayers, and when that many young adults do something together, things happen! I hope they are all out there growing in faith, hope, and love, and continuing to do their part in bringing souls to Christ!

John Paul the Great, pray for us!