2018-01-19-eEdition

JANUARY 19, 2018 THE CATHOLIC WEEK PAGE 15 attend, but also the community as a whole. “FOCUS has a number of Bible studies on campus, and normally SLS helps students agree to do a Bible study - in their dorm, in their fraternity, in their apartment, in the student center. It serves as a big impetus to be better evangelizers. He added: “What happens is the Bible studies are often the way to reach out to people who aren’t really practicing their faith or maybe they’re not think- ing about what that means or entails. If more of those occur, that has an effect and that’s the beginning. When I see students that I don’t recognize at this time of year, often it’s because somebody has invited them or brought them along.This is one of the ways to make people more open and willing to do that.” This year, about 8,000 people attended SLS. FOCUS and SLS continue to grow as two years ago, about 3,400 people attended SLS. The numbers proved to be inspiring. “There were over 8,000 peo- ple praying together and having that many people gather togeth- er gave me such a great hope for our Church,”Chris Jobe, an Au- burn junior from Atlanta said. “We’re so alive for our faith.” But there’s also plenty of work to be done. According to Msgr. Skoneki, about 2,500 Auburn students are Catholic – roughly 10 per- cent of the student population. “And we typically see 500 on a weekend, which is higher than most everybody I talked to at the conference, but still only 20 percent.There’s a lot to reach out to.” For Auburn junior Darby Wilson, a Madison native, she said it’s a matter of life and death. “One line that hit me hard (from the conference) – this is about life and death,” Wilson said. “Literally there’s people sit- ting in class dying because they choose not to have a relationship with Christ.That really hit me. I may be uncomfortable talking to people outside the Catholic community, but it’s something I need to do.” Along with Mass and Ado- ration, the conference included keynote speakers and training sessions. Keynote speakers included Catholic new media standouts Bishop Robert Baron of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Fr. Mike Schmitz of Ascension Presents to former Major League Baseball player Mike Sweeney and Sarah Swafford, founder of Emotional Virtue Ministries and author of the book “Emotional Virtue: A Guide to Drama-Free Relationships.” Actor Jim Caviezel, known for his work in “Passion of the Christ” also spoke. “He said whether we go out or not (determines) life and death of the Church,” Jobe said. “It gave us motivation that we have to do this.…I have friends who have converted to the faith who said he’s absolutely right. If someone didn’t come out and talk to me about the Catholic faith, I probably would never be Catholic. And they love the Church.” For training sessions, those in attendance were broken down into small groups and they were taught a different skill each day. While the skills were as in- volved as leading Bible studies and inviting people to become disciples,Wilson said there were also simpler lessons to learn. “I need to live my faith all the time – there are several times when I’ll wake up late for my class and want to be in a bad mood. … I think Mother Te- resa said something along the lines of ‘you might be the only Christ they interact with.’ I need to make sure that if that’s true, they see how beautiful the love of Christ is. In the end, that’s all it comes down to.” WORK WANTED •Gloria’s Reliable Sitting Service— Assistance with medications, grooming, meal preparation, housekeeping, activities. References. 251-622-2487. SERVICES •All Handyman Repairs— Replace rotten wood, paint house exteriors, repair roof leaks and more. 251-654- 1901. •Carpet Cleaning— 20 years experience. 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BELOW: Some Auburn students meet Fr. Mike Schmitz of Ascension Presents. Photos courtesy of Darby Wilson/For The Catholic Week