By Reagan Scott
For the Register
FOCUS (the Fellowship of Catholic University Students) hosted its national SEEK conference in St. Louis Jan. 2-6. With 17,000 people in attendance from both the United States and abroad, this was the first time the national event had been held since 2019.
Created to help attendees grow in their relationship with Christ, and in fellowship with one another, SEEK isn’t just for college students. In attendance were lay people and families, priests, seminarians and religious brothers and sisters. There were 381 colleges represented at the five-day event, and 940 parishes.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln took 200 students to the event, and was one of the largest groups there, along with Benedictine College.
SEEK also allows chaperoned groups of high school seniors to attend, and three of the diocese’s high schools were represented. Pius X High School in Lincoln took 15 students, St. Cecilia in Hastings took 10 students, and Lourdes Central Catholic of Nebraska City took four.
Cecilia Minchow, the campus ministry intern for Pius X, had never been to the SEEK national conference before this year, but knew that she wanted to go after attending a UNL-hosted SEEK conference in 2021, and the Iowa SEEK in Des Moines in 2022. She helped advertise the conference to students, and volunteered to be one of the chaperones for the trip.
“It was so beautiful seeing the Lord meet my students, and I absolutely loved walking with them, praying with them and just experiencing the conference with them,” Minchow said. “It was gradual, but stunning as they all became more and more in tune and invested. They opened up to me, to each other, they began planning digestible and tangible ways to continue growing in faith once they returned home.”
Mass was celebrated at the conference each day, and Bishop James Conley served as the main celebrant and homilist Jan. 4. There was time provided for attendees to hear from Catholic speakers on a variety of topics related to the faith, from religious freedom to tips for growing in prayer. Father Sean Kilcawley, pastor for St. Leo Church in Palmyra, gave a talk for men entitled “Healing the Divided Heart.”
JP Mattern, a senior at Pius X, said he had heard a lot about SEEK from people who had attended in the past and decided to sign up. His favorite speaker was Matt Fradd, a Catholic author and host of the “Pints with Aquinas” podcast.
“I’d been hearing about him for a long time, so it was cool to hear him in person,” Mattern said.
Father Luke Fleck, assistant pastor at St. Michael Church in Lincoln and theology teacher at Pius, had never been to SEEK before, but had always heard good things. He requested to be one of the chaperones for the trip, and also found a favorite speaker in Fradd.
“He’s an authentic voice for masculinity for all these young men, and challenges them in an authentic way to live out their masculinity,” Father Fleck said.
He said that over the course of the trip, he saw the group of students display greater levity, more joy, and openness to one another and to invitation to prayer.
“You just get to be a close-knit group as travel companions, kind of like disciples on the way,” Father Fleck said. “We were being sent out, and we’ve come back to share what we’ve received.”
Joseph Steffen, a senior at Pius, was inspired to attend by the thought of thousands of Catholics coming together for their common love for Christ. His favorite part of the conference was the night of adoration and confession, held for the entire conference the evening of Jan. 4.
“The monstrance they had was absolutely beautiful, and inside was something even more beautiful – Jesus. As soon as adoration started, I began to cry and was overwhelmed by Jesus’ love,” Steffen said.
Mattern also enjoyed his experience in adoration, and thought that it was particularly exciting to see Father Robert Matya, the pastor for UNL’s Newman Center, process through the arena with the monstrance.
Sister M. Xavier Schulze, director of campus ministry at St. Cecilia, was one of the chaperones for the school’s students. She said, “It was such a blessing to be able to offer them a chance to encounter Jesus on a deeper level, especially in the Eucharist. Many of them said that the night of adoration and confession was a huge moment of grace.”
Minchow said SEEK was a stepping stone for the students, toward changing the school and city they’ve returned to, and becoming life-long missionary disciples. They got to see college students from around the world all with different interests and backgrounds sharing a common love of the Lord.
“I think the conference also humanized the priests and religious life, as well as many of the speakers that they have grown up listening to,” Minchow said. “They had the chance to interact with them, pray with them, play games with them and they were given an example of what ‘living a daily life in faith’ really looks like.”
Both Mattern and Steffen said they would attend SEEK again in the future, and Father Fleck said he would as well.
“I would definitely love to go again,” he said. “The intentional time for our faith is always well worth it, even if you feel like you’re not getting anything out of it. We always put up excuses and say, ‘I’ll get to it eventually,’ Why not today? If we put him first, everything else will fall into place.”
Next year’s SEEK conference will again be held in St. Louis, Jan. 1 through 5.
