Twenty-six students from the Diocese of Allentown — representing Lehigh University, Kutztown University, Lafayette College, and Muhlenberg College — joined more than 26,000 attendees from 649 campuses to kick off the new year with a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students), a nonprofit organization devoted to forming missionary disciples, hosts its annual SEEK conference each January. This year’s five-day event was held in three locations: Columbus, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; and Fort Worth, Texas. While geared especially toward college students, SEEK is open to anyone desiring a deeper relationship with Christ.
Each day includes Mass, keynote speakers, breakout sessions, opportunities for silent Adoration and Confession, and time to visit booths hosted by religious orders, graduate programs, service organizations, and Catholic vendors.
Students from Allentown attended the Columbus conference and said SEEK offered an unparalleled experience of the Church alive and thriving.
“I think a primary message I took away from SEEK was that we are all called to live out our Catholic faith as young adults, even though we live in a world full of noise,” said Madeline Paguia, a sophomore at Lafayette College.
Paguia pointed to the conference motto, taken from St. Pier Giorgio Frassati: “Verso l’alto!” (“To the heights!”).
“The motto served as a challenge to reject the things of this world that don’t give us true joy and contentment and instead strive to go ‘to the heights’ — closer to God,” she said.
For many students, one of the most powerful aspects of the conference was encountering men and women who have dedicated their lives to God through priesthood and religious life.
“My favorite part of SEEK was being around so many consecrated religious from orders across the country,” said Nicholas Manidis, a Ph.D. candidate at Lehigh University and co-chair of graduate students for Lehigh’s Catholic Campus Ministry. “Seeing joyful religious brothers and sisters spending time with college students and just having fun was awesome.”
In addition to the daily opportunities for silent Adoration, SEEK featured a special evening dedicated entirely to praising Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration. All 16,000 attendees at the Columbus site knelt together in the stadium before Jesus present in the Eucharist, singing hymns of praise as priests processed through the crowd with the monstrance.
Nearly every student interviewed described that evening as a powerful and transformative moment.
Shane McKevitt, a junior at Kutztown University and president of the St. Christopher Catholic Newman Club, shared how the experience impacted both him and his Protestant girlfriend.
“One of her biggest hesitations about joining the Catholic Church was the doctrine of the True Presence,” he said. “She could never fully understand it — until that night when we were inside the stadium together.”
After stepping out of the emotionally charged atmosphere to pray quietly together and ask Jesus to reveal Himself to her, “we got lost in the aisles of the stadium,” McKevitt recalled. “The ushers directed us to stand aside — and then the Eucharistic Procession passed directly in front of us.”
“That convinced me totally of his True Presence, because I asked God to come to me in a metaphorical sense, but instead he came to me physically, in a way I could not have planned or fabricated,” McKevitt’s girlfriend said afterward.
McKevitt called the experience “the greatest moment in our relationship so far.”
Students from Muhlenberg College said SEEK offered a profound reminder of God’s personal love.
“It was clear that God loves me so much, and His will for my life is far better than I can imagine,” one senior shared. “I don’t think I fully understood what it meant to feel loved by God until I experienced His love in a new way at this conference.”
Liam Skopal, also a senior at Muhlenberg, echoed that sentiment.
“I was reminded of the love of God, my Father in heaven,” he said. “We all know to some degree that God loves us, but I came away with a deeper understanding: He loves me, and I can’t do anything to earn or lose that love.”
Just weeks later, the impact of SEEK26 is already evident.
Maximillian Luckenbach, FOCUS team director at Lehigh University, reported that while 26 students from the Diocese attended SEEK26, 31 students have already registered for SEEK27. The Diocese of Allentown currently ranks first in the East Area for total registrants and fifth nationwide for percentage growth year-over-year.
With nearly a full year until the next conference, the early registrations are a strong sign that students are eager to invite others to encounter Christ as they did.
For some, that encounter is already shaping life-changing decisions.
Greta Reisinger, a sophomore at Kutztown University, attended SEEK as a catechumen preparing to enter the Catholic Church this Easter. She described the conference as invaluable to her faith journey.
“Being able to meet so many Catholics living out the fullness of their vocations, hear amazing teaching from great speakers, spend time with fellow college students growing in their faith, and encounter the Lord in both Adoration and the Mass have all played a great role in my spiritual formation. There are few opportunities like SEEK26 to have such a transformative experience. I’m so thankful that I made the decision to attend while I prepare to receive the sacramental joy I saw at the conference.”
To learn more about SEEK, visit seek.focus.org. To help sponsor a student’s attendance at SEEK27, contact Maggie Riggins, Executive Director of Evangelization and Formation, at [email protected].
