All Power in Heaven and on Earth

“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” These were Christ’s parting words to his followers before ascending into heaven. Everything Jesus taught and said has infinite value, but one could argue that a command beginning with “All power… has been given to me” and finishing with an ascent into heaven, this may have been the most important thing Jesus ever told us to do. A little over two years ago, after a recent reversion back to the Catholic faith toward the end of college, I began to ponder and ask the Lord how he might be calling me to live out this “Great Commission” to make disciples. I had set before me a great opportunity to attend physical therapy school upon graduating from Murray State University, yet I couldn’t help but feel this tug on my heart that the Holy Spirit may be asking something different of me. That huge conversion experience that brought me more deeply into my faith, that showed me a life not lived for Christ is not worth living, came through an organization on my campus called FOCUS, or the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. These were full-time missionaries who were working on the college campus to bring souls to the loving embrace of Jesus and deep participation in the life of His Church. Through the investment and friendship of these missionaries on my campus, and the students who were involved in their mission, my life is now forever changed, and I came to understand that working to reaching the college campus for Christ was where the Lord was beckoning me after graduation. I applied, interviewed, and gave Jesus my “yes” to making disciples through the Apostolate of FOCUS, and am now about to begin my third year on staff at the University of Toledo. FOCUS was founded in 1998, and is now serving on 164 campuses and 8 parishes across the United States and Europe, all with the support of the local bishop and launching over 730 missionaries into fulltime Catholic mission. There have been tens of thousands of students impacted by the work of FOCUS, who have the opportunity after graduation to be leaders in their parish and community. Of these tens of thousands, 867 have made decisions to pursue Catholic religious vocations. FOCUS understands how vital a time college is in a person’s life. It’s where many students are finally free to make their own decisions, where they are choosing their career, making life-long friends, potentially finding a spouse, and deciding whether their faith will play a role in their life or not. Unfortunately, most people leave the faith in college, so the campus is in many ways the front lines of the battle to begin rebuilding our Church. I served my first two years at Indiana University, and through our method of investing very deeply in a few, and teaching them to go do this for a few others, we’ve seen tremendous growth not only in bible studies being led, bible study participants, daily mass attendance, etc. but also incredible depth of faith by many students. These students are developing intimate relationships with our Lord through daily prayer, frequenting the sacraments, virtuous fellowship, and forming their intellect with the Scriptures and other spiritual reading. These students possess the minds and hearts, transformed by God,  that will carry the good news of Jesus to all nations. There is great hope today for our Church, and I believe FOCUS to be a cause for this hope. If you desire to learn more about FOCUS, or want to get involved in supporting in this mission, feel free to email me at branson.schroeder@focus.org, call me at 812-499-7113, or check out www.focus.org.

A Message from Jesus is Key

Branson is my very best friend Tammy’s middle son.  Tammy and I became very good friends in early grade school.  When I heard the direction Branson was taking with his life, I knew his Momma would be very proud of him, and so was I.  It is so awesome to see young adults who are so sure of where God is leading them, but more importantly not ignoring that tug.  Our prayer to Branson and to the whole FOCUS organization is that they will plant MANY seeds, in the lives of our young adults. More importantly that those seeds will bloom into full-fledged Disciples of Christ.

May God bless each and everyone in the FOCUS family!

Shari Kempf & Jesus is Key