FOCUS hosted the “Awaken,” an exclusive poetry, art and music competition at SEEK2019 through “A beauty initiative within FOCUS.” The event is sponsored by Our Sunday Visitor and Papercastle Records. The purpose of Awaken is to give participants at SEEK the chance to see beauty as a bridge to the Divine, a window to encounter the person of Christ.

These artists got a prompt from to guide them in their creation.

“What are you looking for?” John 1:29-42

https://focusoncampus.org/beauty
Can Beauty Save the World?

Beauty is for everyone. Beauty causes us to awaken to the deepest desires of our hearts. Beauty stirs in us a sense that we were made for more, that we were made for the infinite God.

Authentic beauty is a place of encounter with Jesus Christ, who is Beauty Himself. By having a relationship with Christ and His Church, we can find fullness of life — now and in eternity.

https://seek2019.com/awaken/
Conversion is a powerful moment. Often we remember certain people, smells and details that we savor surrounding moments of conversion. For the apostle John, he remembered the time of day he met Jesus (John 1:39). Take a moment to reflect on John 1:29 –42 and create in artform something that evokes a conversion story. Maybe it’s your conversion? Maybe it’s your friend’s conversion. Maybe it’s a saint’s conversion? Conversion inspires us, challenges us and consoles us to see God at work in our life. We are excited to see what the Holy Spirit inspires you to create!

May St. John Paul II inspire us with his words:

“..it is up to you, men and women who have given your lives to art, to declare with all the wealth of your ingenuity that in Christ the world is redeemed: the human person is redeemed, the human body is redeemed, and the whole creation which, according to Saint Paul, “awaits impatiently the revelation of the children of God” (Rom 8:19), is redeemed. The creation awaits the revelation of the children of God also through art and in art. This is your task. Humanity in every age, and even today, looks to works of art to shed light upon its path and its destiny.”

Zachary Landress

Melanie Mitchell
Melanie Mitchell is a 20 year old singer-songwriter and college student from Anaheim Hills, CA. Music has been a passion of hers since she was 5 years old, and in recent years, she has been blessed with opportunities to share her gifts with others, including singing at multiple Major League Baseball games, serving as a worship leader, and working for Steve Beyer Productions as an artist for different public and private events throughout Southern California. Her dream is to sign with a record label, release and perform original music, and use the gift of her voice to shine Christ’s light to other.
https://www.instagram.com/melaniemitchell_/?hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTkUTopWpPHifa9QeyaYkXA/feed

Andrew Messer
I am a student at the University of Toledo graduating this year with a degree in Physics/Astrophysics. The great thing about life is that it is in the hands of God, and totally unexpected things can happen that way! Next year I will be going to seminary as a result of discerning the priesthood--and also discerning the fact that I will not be putting my major into practice in the way that I had once thought. My faith journey was ignited by my time in Toledo, and I owe a great deal of it to my late Grandma, the Catholic Student Association and my FOCUS missionaries. I think the one thing that propelled my life of faith was when it was tested and refined by trials in my own family, but seeing how much good God is bringing out of it and how He is converting my family as well--this has been the greatest miracle and inspiration for my faith.

Travis Dantzer - https://soundcloud.com/travis-dantzer / http://travisdantzer.blogspot.com/

• University of Michigan Environmental Engineering
• I’d like to be a professor at an R1 university.
• Music ministry kept me in the church throughout high school.
• Twitter @TravisDantzer
• Instagram ratsivtanderz