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July 9, 2024By Carissa Krautscheid
More than a thousand Catholic teens will be gathering this week at the Steubenville West Conference, featuring renowned musicians and speakers like Mark Hart, Josh Blakesley, Oscar Rivera Jr, Katie Hartfiel, and Fr. Edwin Leonard.
The annual conference in Tucson is sponsored by Life Teen and will be centered on the theme "Illuminate" from John 1:5, "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."
Earlier this spring, a Life Teen video crew visited Sierra Vista to film a promotional video based on this conference theme. It features local teen, Jon Benton, from St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church.
Filmed around Sierra Vista and St. Andrew parish, the video also includes some of the Seekers, a group of men discerning the priesthood. This initiative, Steubenville West, and the Life Teen Leadership Conference have been influential in Benton's life, discernment, faith formation, and call to leadership.
In the Life Teen video, Benton speaks about light and darkness, "More than ever, it seems people my age have so many doubts and fears, anxieties about who they are. It's just very hard to find peace in all the chaos." However, for Benton, "Life Teen is where I've been given community, direction, clarity, rest, even mission."
Benton said, "The path has been set before me, and it isn't easy, but the Lord continues to show me who I am and who I'm meant to be. I believe the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Because of Life Teen, when I look out at the darkness, I see hope."
Listen to his full message here: