Founder Of The Nation’s Largest Parish-Based Youth Conference To Be Featured on "This Is The Day"

Mike Zak, the founder of the HERE I AM LORD vocation conferences, will appear on the CatholicTV talk show “This Is The Day”. The show “This Is The Day” will stream live at www. CatholicTV.com as well as on CatholicTV (where available) on Friday, June 5th at 10:30AM Eastern.

Also on the show, will be Steve Jubin, Regional Director of Ignatian Volunteer Corps.

Mike Zak is founder and Executive Director of the HERE I AM LORD vocation conferences. The annual conference was started in 2002 on an inspiration that resulted from a teenage girl’s cynical statement that her milestones in life would include college, a job, marriage, and then divorce.

“Her comment struck a chord with me because it spoke of the realities that so many of our young people face: The reality of divorce,” Zak said.

The youth director talked over his concern with another youth minister, who said that the answer lay in teaching others about the idea of vocations – finding one’s God-given calling in life. Zak found himself saying, “Somebody should be doing something about that! Somebody, but not me.”

Despite his reluctance, Zak found himself organizing what would become the nation’s largest parish-based youth conference. The conference features lay persons as well as priests and religious. Held in the Rockford Diocese, the program works with parishes in the nearby Joliet Diocese as well. Attendance for the conferences has been as high as 3,000 plus.

Also on “This is the Day” will be Steve Jubin, Regional Director of Ignatian Volunteer Corps (IVC). IVC is a program for retired women and men, age 50 and over who minister to the poor while spending formal time reflecting on their ministry. IVC has almost 300 volunteers working in 15 regions across the country. Although IVC was started by 2 Catholic priests, IVC accepts and encourages Ignatian volunteers of all Christian faiths. The program itself is rooted in the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus.

These guests can be seen on Friday, June 5th live at 10:30AM (EST)