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More than 20,000 Catholics of all ages gathered in St. Louis, MO, on 1/1/2024 for the annual SEEK conference, organized by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). SEEK24 featured great speakers, beautiful liturgies, an incredible night of adoration, and the opportunity to meet Catholics from around the country and around the world in an inspiring, joy-filled, and energetic five-day event! Read on for more.

"A radical openness to Jesus," an observation by many among SEEK24 attendees and voiced by one keynote speaker, Emily Wilson, describes the tenor of the five-day SEEK experience that concluded in St. Louis on Friday, January 5, 2024. Everywhere, ebullient young people (some young people more than 50 years in age, and some more than 75 years in age!) - joyous and full of energy - were engaged in the thirst-quenching experience of finding Jesus. 

A goal of the SEEK experience? To encounter Jesus personally. It didn't take long. As we left the Kansas City area for St. Louis, our son, Fr. Timothy Skoch, texted his mother: "Get ready to be zapped by the Holy Spirit!"

The opening Mass on Monday evening, January 1, saw more than 20,000 people from more than 40 states (FOCUS has missionaries on 193 college campuses in 47 states) and from as far away as Austria and Ireland join in a moving Eucharistic celebration in celebration of the Solemnity of Mary. The liturgy took place in the dome at America's Center, the former home of the St. Louis Rams. At left is a photo taken during that liturgy. The procession into the dome hadn't finished when this author experience the first of many "zaps" during the week. Choking back tears, I struggled to sing the final verse of "O Come, All Ye Faithful."

The FOCUS approach to mission is "Win, Build, Send." Winning souls for Christ is wrapped in authentic friendship wherein others may experience a personal encounter with Jesus. Building the Church is steeped in sharing God's greatness through witness to the Gospel message of salvation through Christ's love. The point is made emphatically that "witness" occurs in everyday life. To paraphrase St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, it is about doing the small things with great love. We cannot give away what we have not first received. Sending missionaries, equipped with the Word, happens not unlike Jesus in sending his disciples with His great commission: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15, NAB) More often than not, the proclamation of the good news occurs not in what one says, but in how one lives.

An event where added bonuses are frequent, we were privileged to participate in the daily Family Rosary Across America, with Fr. Rocky Hoffman of Relevant Radio. 

An array of speakers addressed SEEK crowds with daily ordered topics: creation (all things are created out of God's love); man's downfall into sin and the reality of the effects of sin; the great message of reconciliation through Christ's passion, suffering, death, and resurrection; the restoration (re-creation) of man and the opportunity for eternal life; and living the mission of the Church. SEEKers heard from keynote speakers including Fr. Josh Johnson, Fr. Mike Schmitz, Sr. Mary Grace, S.V., Dr. Edward Sri, Msgr. James Shea, Chris Stepanek, and Kelsey Skoch, and others. You can listen to all the SEEK talks here. If you click the link to listen to the SEEK talks, you will be asked to sign up (it's free, and there's no obligation) and I highly encourage you to do so! Pick one talk every day, or one talk every week until you've heard them all. You will be changed, I have zero doubt.

Who would have guessed that SEEK24 would afford an opportunity to meet the parents of a potential future saint of the Catholic Church? In the photo left, FOCUS missionary, North Dakota native, and future son-in-law, Jared Spooner, is with Mary Ann and Ken Duppong, fellow North Dakotans, farmers and parents of Michelle Duppong, a former FOCUS missionary whose cause for canonization was opened in the Diocese of Bismarck, ND, in June 2022. Michelle died of cancer on Christmas Day, 2015. Click the link and read her story.

SEEK24 also afforded us the opportunity to visit a former teacher and principal of St. Michael's Elementary School in Hastings, NE, where the Skoch children were educated. Sr. M. Bernard Simmons, FGSM, now lives in St. Louis, MO, part of the staff at Mother of Good Counsel Home, a long term care facility staffed by the Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr St. George. Sr. Bernard informed us that KCK seminarians rotate through the facility and she graciously agreed to a selfie with us (right.) 

On Wednesday evening, about 4,000 people from the St. Louis area joined the rest of the SEEK crowd in the dome for adoration, swelling attendance that evening to more than 26,000. Always filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, this year's adoration experience was breathtaking. A photo (left) doesn't do justice to the atmosphere, but is the best effort of several photos taken during the event.

The SEEK attendance boasted between 450 and 500 priests, and 150 - 200 religious sisters. Chance encounters with Archbishop Naumann; Bishop James Conley (Diocese of Lincoln,  NE); Father Dan Morris; Deacon Aaron Waldeck; seminarian, Michael Santamarina (Discipleship Stage); former seminarian and current Formation Lead for City on a Hill, Brian Jacobsen; and several other familiar faces from days gone by demonstrated both the connectedness of the greater Catholic Church and the drawing power of an encounter with Jesus Christ. His Eminence, Rainer Cardinal Woelki, of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Germany, and His Eminence, Raymond Cardinal Burke celebrated Mass on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, respectively. Upwards of 20 bishops from around the country attended the SEEK24 conference. We lunched one day with our pastor, Fr. Richard McDonald. I saw seminarian, Zachary McGuinness, in the adoration chapel, but the room was too congested to connect with him. I connected also with seminarian, Bodie Belz (Propadeutic Stage), of the Diocese of Lincoln, NE, whom I delivered during my Family Practice years in Hastings, NE. Bodie, too, took time for a selfie with me (photo right). Pray for his vocation as you pray for the vocations of our seminarians. I couldn't catch up with the Cardinals for a selfie. LOL.

Finally, a panorama (below) taken earlier the same day illustrates the throng of people present for SEEK24. 

Seek25 happens January 1 - January 5, 2025, in Salt Lake City, UT. Put an early note on your calendar for next year. You won't want to miss it!