SEEK26 conference was a new kind of fulfilling experience for FOCUS parents
By Claire Collins
Ten years ago, I found myself in the back of a crowded conference room full of thousands of college students. I was a first-year missionary with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students and had just witnessed five days of life-changing talks, Masses, prayers, and encounters with God all around me.
As I stood listening to the final keynote address of the conference, I looked around at the other people who populated the back of the room, a place I had never found myself at a FOCUS conference before.
What I observed were many babies and toddlers being chased and entertained by mom and dad as they tried to squeeze in as much of these final talks as their littles would let them.
I dreamed that maybe one day I could be one of those moms at SEEK with my little people, showing them the great joy and hope of the Church and giving them a small taste of just how big and beautiful it was, as I had so many times had the privilege to see and experience.
Last month, that dream was fulfilled as my husband and I made a pilgrimage to the FOCUS SEEK conference in Columbus, Ohio—the first time with our three children in tow.
Though my conference experience was different than the eight other FOCUS conferences I’ve had the privilege to attend (chasing three kids around while pregnant in the midst of 16,000 people is no easy feat), I left with an abundance of graces received as I saw our Church not just through my own eyes, but also through the eyes of my children.
It might have been the joy at watching the hundreds of priests and multiple bishops, all so different from one another and yet together in their call to serve the Church, enter and leave Mass in a procession that took at least 15 minutes. It might have been the wonder as my children stood in the hall waving to these priests as they exited Mass to their vesting rooms, often taking the priests by pleasant surprise and catching them in cheerful grins and eagerness to return the simple greeting. It might have been the Dominican Sister who played ball with my children in the hallways after they lost interest in the extra-long liturgies. It might have been Archbishop John Hartmayer of Atlanta, who joyfully let my son Frank try on his “pink hat.”
Maybe it was the old friends we encountered and the joy at recounting who they were and how we knew them, the stories we shared as we caught up on lives lived “since our time in FOCUS,” and the showing-off of these new little lives that had entered the world since we last saw one another.
As we watched an old priest friend process out of Mass and our eyes caught one another’s, a joyful smile was exchanged followed by a “these are my kids!” That phrase was uttered many times during those five days.
Maybe it was the time spent walking around Mission Way, the kids getting candy and stickers (and being given gifts of rosaries and miraculous medals) from the different booths. Maybe it was encountering the 75 different religious orders and an even greater number of apostolates represented, all so different from one another, all serving the same Church.
There were orders and ministries that serve the poor, that fight for every human being’s right to life, that educate children and adults, that make beautiful art, that craft beautiful home goods and clothing, that serve families and promote the domestic Church, that run summer camps, that lead mission trips, that support women’s fertility, and so much more.
Maybe it was seeing my kids look at Jesus up close in the monstrance during children’s adoration, singing songs of praise and answering theological questions about Jesus with childlike simplicity that cut to the heart. Maybe it was their wonder as the monstrance was brought close to them, or the freedom one little girl found as she danced before the monstrance, right in front of everyone, unashamed as she basked in her father’s glorious love of her.
I didn’t get to go to as many talks, didn’t have as much quiet reflection in prayer, didn’t spend time in long confession lines or late nights processing graces with my friends.
But I saw the Church anew, through the eyes of little children. I saw a freedom from my self-righteous preferences and judgments, from the latest news headlines about what someone in the Church was or wasn’t saying, from debates about my role in the Church, and I simply got to rest in the childlike wonder of all that God is doing in this beautiful Church of ours and all the ways He might one day call my children to uniquely serve Him.
SEEK is a conference aimed at college students, giving them a life-changing encounter with Christ and His Church in the midst of the community of their college or university. But the SEEK leaders have expanded their conferences to serve not just college students but Catholics of all ages, through their “Making Missionary Disciples” track.
This option within the conferences aims to equip lay people and consecrated alike with the tools to go and set their parishes, and the world, on fire with Christ’s love through small-scale and intentional investment, not with some flashy product or hip new approach. Just the way Jesus did it Himself, using you as you are with your gifts and with whom God has placed in your life.
Even with my unique conference experience, there was still so much to be inspired by and equipped with to bring back home with me.
Another couple from our parish joined us at the conference and we were able to share in the excitement of what it might look like for us to live out this call to discipleship in our specific community. I was connected and reconnected with so many others who are trying to more intentionally serve their communities and parishes as fathers, mothers, and professionals.
I was reminded that this call of discipleship is not just for the evangelist, or just for the missionary, or just for the person employed by the diocese, but for every single baptized Catholic—even little children. And I was reminded that we who take this call seriously are leaven for our communities, families, and parishes, often in a small and unseen way.
To be called out of the world and to go to a sort of mountaintop, transfiguration-type of experience like a conference might seem out of reach for a multitude of reasons. But Jesus multiplies our loaves and our fish. He takes our two pennies and turns them into eternal treasures.
It might not be a SEEK conference or even a big retreat, but a meeting with a priest or spiritual mentor or a small gathering of fellow disciples, that inspires us and keeps us rooted in this project of discipleship.
But in this “Big Tent Church,” where truly all are called and welcomed, where we share in the glory and in the mess together, it is important that we are reminded of the true project, of the real goal, of relishing in heaven’s glory rather than brooding over church disappointments or cultural erosion. And to do that, we must do it together.