BRAINTREE -- Endicott College junior Cade Bernardo's Catholic faith is his "number-one priority," both on and off the baseball diamond.

Bernardo is a first baseman for Endicott's team. He and 24 of his teammates participate in Bible study, which he said helps make them better players and better people.

"My identity lies as a child of God and not in my performance or statistics," he said.

His faith journey, he said, was an easy one. He grew up attending Mass with his family.

"My parents did an awesome job raising us in the faith and I have four older siblings who I've always looked up to and seen as major role models and influences in my life," he said.

When he entered Endicott, the FOCUS missionaries on campus strengthened his faith. He began attending FOCUS's annual SEEK conference, a gathering of prayer, adoration, and witness talks geared toward young Catholics. His siblings attended SEEK when they were in college, and hearing about their experiences excited him.

"The opportunity to get to go to a conference to deepen your faith and get to be surrounded by so many other Catholic college students is pretty special for me," he said.

Bernardo and five other Endicott students, two of them his baseball teammates, attended the 2026 SEEK conference in Columbus, Ohio, from Jan. 1 to 5. Over 16,000 people attended the Columbus conference. Ten thousand others attended additional conferences in Fort Worth and Denver, shattering previous SEEK attendance records. Fifty-eight bishops, including Archbishop Richard G. Henning, also attended.

"It's super inspiring to start the year with so many like-minded people," Bernardo said.

One hundred sixty Boston-area students representing Endicott, Harvard, Boston University, MIT, Bridgewater State University, Northeastern, Umass Boston, Gordon College, and Boston College attended this year's SEEK. The Catholic parishes of Hingham and St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Millis also sent groups. The students were joined by 10 Boston seminarians.

"To see our students join with nearly 20,000 other college students is consoling and inspiring," said Father Eric Cadin, director of the Archdiocese of Boston Office of Vocations and Office of University Ministries. "These men and women are built up in their faith through sacramental encounters with Jesus, by inspiring and challenging talks, and with so many of their peers. It is amazing to see their enthusiasm to be part of a Church alive with joy and faith."

Bernardo enjoyed hearing witness talks by Father Chase Hilgenbrinck, who retired from the New England Revolution, Boston's Major League Soccer team, to become a priest; and Trevor Williams, the pitcher for the Washington Nationals and an outspoken Catholic.

"He's an athlete playing at the highest level, living out his Catholic faith," Bernardo said.

He wants to play baseball for as long as he can and hopes to use the sport as a platform to share his faith like Williams has.

"I trust God and his plan in my life," he said.

Jamie Chen was one of 40 Boston University students who attended the SEEK conference. A senior studying mechanical engineering, he was raised Catholic, but his relationship with the faith didn't extend past Sunday Mass. He first encountered the Lord during a confirmation retreat. This is his second SEEK conference.

"It's very inspiring to see a Universal Church at work, seeing community all together, all seeking and striving for Christ in the secular world we live in," he said.

His favorite part of SEEK was Saturday night adoration on Jan. 3. Thousands of people knelt and adored the Blessed Sacrament simultaneously, as bishops and priests walked through the Greater Columbus Convention Center to bless attendees with the monstrance.

"People were getting very emotional just looking at the monstrance and just looking at Jesus," he said.

Adoration was Harvard junior Elizabeth Choi's favorite part, too.

"It was beautiful to see everyone kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament," she said. "It was very powerful and touching to be part of a group of believers so moved by what Christ did for us."

Choi was born and raised in Boston. Despite the city's Catholic heritage, none of her friends in school were serious about the faith.

"What I found myself longing for were good faithful Catholics my age," she said.

The Harvard Catholic Center, where she met many of her best friends, changed that. This year marked her first SEEK conference. She wanted to start the new year with Jesus.

"I was so impressed," she said. "I had such an amazing time. It was so awesome to see so many young people spending time out of their winter break, making time to get to know God better at this conference."

Macy Brennan, a junior studying aerospace engineering and planetary sciences at MIT, said that SEEK is proof the Church is still alive.

"There's so many people who've dedicated their whole life to this, and it's a beautiful life to live and I'm not alone," she said.

Adoration was her favorite aspect of the conference.

"Worshiping our Lord in the Holy Sacrament and hearing everyone sing to him is a taste of Heaven," she said. "It makes me realize that I want to do this for literally all eternity. It brought me so much joy and I felt so much love at that time."

Her studies also bring her closer to God. When she observes the universe, she sees God's creation and "the mysteries that he hid for us." She is often thinking about her future -- whether she will go into the workforce, further her studies, or become a missionary after graduating. Attending SEEK made her want to love and trust God in the moment.

"Life doesn't begin in the future when I reach the next stage," she said, adding: "I need to be living my faith out right now because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand right now."

Choi said that SEEK "emphasized our call to make disciples of other people."

She attended a witness talk by Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor and author who studies happiness and believes that God is the only path to it. Brooks said that when Choi and her fellow students leave SEEK, they enter "mission territory."

"I think a lot of Catholics can become timid when faced with evangelization, so it was a good reminder to try to bring Christ to everyone you meet," she said.

Bernardo said that SEEK inspired him to "make more disciples" on his campus. He often sees the people around him "falling into the temptations of the world," so spending the first days of 2026 with people wanting to grow in faith made him more determined. He heard FOCUS Founder Curtis Martin tell him and his 16,000 fellow attendees to "go set the world on fire," and that's what he plans to do.

"It's important to be bold and spread God's love," he said.