Last year, when we began discerning the theme for DBYC 2026 with our spirit movers and adult team, I couldn’t help but think ahead, as I naturally do. When someone said the word “REVIVAL,” the Holy Spirit stopped me in my tracks. That was it! But not for 2026. Try as I might to keep my focus on the present, I could not help thinking about 2027 and how big of a year it would be. “Revival” was exactly where I felt the Holy Spirit leading us for this monumental year. 50 years of youth ministry in the Diocese of Biloxi is something to celebrate, and it needs to be more than a weekend – it needs to be a tapestry in which we move. It needs to be a Revival.

To have revival we must first take time to look at the past. To look at who and what has formed youth ministry in the Diocese of Biloxi. Fr. Michael Tracey was instrumental in making sure youth ministry was a part of our newly formed diocese from the beginning. Bragg Moore, the first lay youth director, established and cultivated many of the programs and events we still have today. Ray Lacy helped move youth ministry into the twenty-first century with the Life Teen program. And now, I am humbled to continue to build upon what has been set before me and continue to bring revival in youth ministry.

Our scripture for this year is Jeremiah 24:7. It says: “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.” If we look in the verses before we see the story of the basket of figs: the good and the bad. God offers hope and praise. He offers not judgement but restoration. Revival can be uncomfortable, but it is not ours to do alone. When we have a moment of revival – that inner conversion – God gives us a heart to know Him and to return to Him.

For us, revival isn’t just a campaign, its covenant renewal in the heart. Revival is whole-hearted, and it is in everything. It is entering into the sacraments. It is truth telling. It is obedience. It is a rediscovery of prayer. It is community.

St. John Paul II once said that faith reckons with time. Revival has happened and continues to happen, and we invite you to join us in revival this year as we celebrate the past and press on into the future of youth ministry in the Diocese of Biloxi.