Midwest Catholic Family Conference

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Midwest Catholic Family Conference in Wichita, KS in order to work an informational booth for the Catholic Household of Chi Rho at Kansas State. The weekend was very successful, but what I want to share is the experience I had on Saturday of the conference.

Being in charge of Recruitment for the Household of Chi Rho, I arrived early in the morning (7 am) to set up the booth. I pretty much spent the majority of the day running the booth, although I did sneak out to a few of the talks as well. I found myself thinking a lot on my vocational discernment with Fr. Simone (director of vocations) and all the seminarians there. Both talks I went to I found myself sitting alone on the far side of the room as I had just had time to sneak in from my booth right before the talk begin. I do not know why, but I was feeling the need to be with some of my friends as the discernment process has been weighing heavy on me throughout this summer. I said a quick prayer to God, asking that he strengthen me through this time, and during both talks I had friends come to the talk late and happen to venture to the far side of the room to sit with me, though when they entered they did not know I was there. Just there presence during the talks seemed to bring me some peace.

When dinner time arrived, I volunteered to stay behind to watch the electronics at our booth while the guys helping me went to find something to eat w/ their families, assuring them that if they got back in time I'd go grab a bite to eat. Truth be told I was starving myself as I had not eaten lunch that day. After a while I began to debate whether I should just go get something to eat...surely the computer and stuff would be alright. But then, all of a sudden, I felt this sudden urge to go to adoration, so I decided i would just offer my hunger as sacrifice. I spent about 30 minutes in adoration, praying a rosary and just having a conversation with God. I returned to my booth to wait for the rest of the guys to return. Less than 5 minutes had passed when a Carmelite nun approached the booth and asked me if I was going to eat. I didn't know who she knew I hadn't eaten since I'd been gone for a good 30 minutes. I told her that I would go grab something to eat if the other guys got back shortly. She looked at her watch, and apparantly deciding that i wasn't going to have time, offered me an extra meal ticket she had.

Those two simple acts that I had received from others that day really bolstered my resolve in totally surrendering to our Lord and his plans for my life. It seemed the perfect cap for a summer I have begun to label as the Summer of Surrender.