I have many memories from this past weekend – the trip to Washington D.C. with 800 or so teens from St. Louis – Life Really Matters.

Friday Night, Jan 20 6:00 PM: The House Band plays as groups begin to arrive at CBC High School. Mr and Mrs Incredible make an appearance, the L.I.F.T. team does a skit and Mass is led by Fr. O'Toole.

9:00 PM We load up the buses for the lonnnnng bus trip to DC (though not as long as the people who had the flat tire). There almost isn't enough room for sound equipment. Whew! We made it.

Jan 21 2:30 AM (now on EST) The bus stops somewhere in eastern Indiana.

8:00 AM What's round on the sides and high in the middle..? OHIO -- only now we're in West Virginia. I must have gotten SOME sleep...

2:00 PM Arrive at hotel in Arlington VA. A much appreciated meal and a shower.

7:00 PM IN hotel ballroom, band plays, the Incredibles return, Super Crowder makes an appearance, and finally Daniel DiSilva shares his faith and performs music. Reconciliation too.

8:45 PM Matthew Baute and I play our guitars and sing praise and worship songs in the hotel lobby – this is a first.

Midnight: Crash.

Jan 22 8:30 AM Our group from St. Clements and St. Catherine’s meet in the lobby. We have a great time on the metro (the train system that connects DC), the Spy Museum, and then eat some genuine Chinese food in Chinatown. Then, we go to the National Archives where several of our teens plot to pilfer the Declaration of Independence. Not really, but they saw the movie.

5:30 PM Sound check back at the hotel. Mass soon starts with Jonah shouting out a call for everyone to repent. Homily is killer -- more about that later... Incredibles return one last time...

8:00 PM Rockin' fun concert from Janelle, followed by adoration. Sweet.

11:30 PM Papa Johns Pizza with those pepperoncini peppers, yummy.

Jan 23 5:30 AM Awake early, Starbucks, and load the buses.

8:00 AM Arrive at MCI Center -- rally, followed by Mass, love Tony Melendez and the gospel choir.

11:30 AM March to the march. Actual march starts at 1:30 PM or so.

4:00 PM Hanging around Union Station waiting for bus to board. Hanging around Union Station waiting for bus to board. Wait, didn't I just say that..?

7 PM: We board bus, the lonnnng bus ride home begins. Not really awake, not really asleep, but still pretty ok.

11:30 AM Back in STL, need sleep.

Of all that I remember from the weekend, two things stood out and both happened during Mass. The first was Sunday night where Fr. Steve Robeson told us the march “starts on our knees”. It put everything into focus, as we prepared to go forward with God’s grace and power. Even Monday as we began to march down Constitution Avenue with 100,000+ mass of humanity, I imagined all of us on our knees praying and God’s hand over everyone.

The other thing that stood out was Monday at Mass. It was not any one thing, just the 25,000 people at the MCI Center (and 2,000 that were turned away) with cardinals, archbishops, bishops and hundreds of priests, seminarians and religious. In that moment, I felt so proud and blessed to be Catholic, to be Christian, to be in that place and time.

I don’t know how soon it will be until Roe v Wade gets overturned and laws are allowed to limit or ban the killing of innocent life. Nor can we be sure if and how the lives of the teens and other marchers were transformed by this pilgrimmage to DC. But I do know this: if we remember the march for life starts from our knees, God’s love will lead us home.