Love Begins Here

In her 1979 Nobel Prize Laureate speech, St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) said,

And so here I am talking with you -- I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Be the good news to your own people. And find out about your next-door neighbor -- do you know who they are?

Love Begins Here focuses on the needs right here in the Diocese of Madison. While it is great to travel across the country and world to serve those in need, God has willed for us to be in this time and this place for a reason - to be His hands and feet to those directly around us. Love Begins Here seeks to facilitate an encounter between the youth of our diocese and those in need in our homes, parishes, and neighborhoods. 

Love Begins Here Missionaries are joyful, servant hearted and desire to bring the love of Jesus Christ to their neighbors in need!

High School Missionaries are 9th - 12th grade students in the current 2025-26 school year. Their mission trips begin on Sunday evening and run through Friday at noon.

Middle School Missionaries are 6th - 8th grade students in the current 2025-26 school year. Their mission trips begin on Monday evening and run through Thursday at noon.

Adult Lead Missionaries help teens make the most of their experience on the mission field. Love Begins Here welcomes adults 25 and older to serve as Adult Lead Missionaries. We are especially interested in partnering with adults who are passionate about the Catholic faith, working with teens, and serving their neighbors in need. Adult Lead Missionaries must be compliant with the Diocese of Madison Safe Environment policies and complete Love Begins Here Adult Lead Missionary online training. This training talks place in the late spring just before the summer. 

High School Mission Trips - $220

Middle School Mission Trips - $160

Adult Lead Missionaries are free to attend LBH. They should be ready to use a tank of gas or so, as well as treat their car group to ice cream once during the week. Many parishes choose to reimburse their Lead Missionaries for these expenses. 

High School mission trips span 6 days, while Middle School trips span 4 days. The first and last days look a little different. Parish groups arrive around 5pm on the first day and leave around noon on the last day. The full days in between typically follow this schedule (times are approximate and fluctuate based on many factors).

7:00am - Teens wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and pack their lunch for the day
8:15am - Daily Mass
9:00am - Head out to worksites with your car group (lunch on site)
3:30pm - Wrap up at worksite, grab ice cream, swim and shower time at the local pool
5:30pm - Rosary
6:00pm - Dinner
7:15pm - Evening FUN and community time
8:30pm - Collatio (Daily Examen, large group sharing, testimony from the Core Team summer staff, and prayer)
9:30pm - Parish Time (time to debrief the day with your parish group)
10:00pm - Bedtime

Registration for Love Begins Here 2026 opens on Friday January 16th, 2026 at noon! New and returning family registration instructions are linked on the website.

The vast majority of teens register to attend a week with their pastorate. Please check with your parish leader (youth minister, DRE, or priest) to see which week of LBH your pastorate is attending. If your pastorate is not bringing a group to Love Begins Here, we have a limited number of "Lost Sheep" spots. 

Lost Sheep are individuals whose pastorate is not attending Love Begins Here or who cannot attend with their pastorate group due to schedule conflicts. Lost Sheep are chaperoned by the Love Begins Here Core Team summer staff.

Lost Sheep spots are limited and capacity varies between weeks due to the size of the host parish and number of Adult Lead Missionaries attending. We encourage families who are sending their teens as Lost Sheep to register early! 

Missionaries stay at a host parish throughout the week, where we eat, sleep, and pray in community. Typically, we sleep in school classrooms (separated by gender), and eat in the parish hall or school cafeteria. Missionaries are encouraged to bring an air mattress, sleeping pad, or cot to sleep on. 

Love Begins Here emphasizes doing small things with great love. Missionaries serve at different service sites throughout the week including individuals homes and community organizations. Our work can include weeding, yard work, landscaping, painting, visiting with elderly, washing windows, sorting food/clothes for local shelters, and other simple acts with great love for those in the community. 

Missionaries are organized into "car groups," which are led by an Adult Lead Missionary for the week. Adult Lead Missionaries drive their car group to work sites, the pool, etc. each day. Typically car groups consist of about 3-5 teens (depending on vehicle size) from different pastorates. 

We work hard to provide an opportunity to shower every day on the mission field (expect the first and last day of each trip, when you can shower at home). Often, this opportunity to shower is paired with an hour of swimming at the local community pool facility. These facilities typically do not have individual showers, so teens should pack a modest swimsuit to shower in.  

Love Begins Here is a mission experience. Just like we wouldn't be able to return home if we went on an out of state mission, Love Begins Here wants to emphasize how important it is to detach from our normal daily activities. We ask that all teen and adult missionaries sleep on site and stay for the entire experience. 

Prayer - Missionaries attend daily Mass, pray the Rosary daily, have time for daily personal prayer, and weekly Adoration and Confession

Service - We serve those in need: the local parish, individuals, and community organizations

Community - Each day has time for fun and sharing with the LBH community and individual parish groups

The Love Begins Here Mission Manifesto outlines how we strive to make God's infinite love and mercy known to our neighbors. Every day before starting their service, missionaries read the manifesto with their car groups to center their thoughts, goals, and intentions around how the Lord is calling them to serve Him that day.

Neighbors First
We boldly take initiative to bring love to our neighbors, evangelizing with patience and joy. We are aware that when we close our eyes to our neighbor, it also blinds us to God. We encounter Him in those we serve. By putting God first in all we do, we live to serve others. Things of the world come last. We will find ourselves and come alive when we make a sincere gift of ourselves to our neighbors.

Small Things, Great Love
We work on a small scale with a larger perspective. No task is too small in the eyes of the Lord when filled with great love. We will aim for perfection in our work because our work belongs to the Lord.

Missionary Disciples
We are missionaries who work with passion, knowing we can bring God's love to our brothers and sisters who hunger. Love, in order to survive, must be nourished by sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of self. We refuse to settle for comfort or complacency, because we know each person is infinitely loved. We are the ones who enjoy life most, leaving security in the shore, on a mission to spread the joy of the Gospel. 

The Core Team is Love Begins Here's summer staff that lead teen and adult Lead Missionaries in service, prayer, and reflection! They travel across the Diocese of Madison attending all weeks of Love Begins Here Mission Trips. Core Team missionaries are joyful, practicing Catholics, that have a heart for service and are 21+ years of age. 

Love Begins Here is hiring for Core Team 2026! For more information click the link below or reach out to Caroline Schnoebelen at [email protected]. 

https://forms.gle/6kUStGRKsAgUZems9