Joey and I attended the first day of the conference today.
Boy, were we glad we went! It was just the first day but what an opening! First of all, it's being held at the Hawaii Convention Center in the Waikiki area. Lucky for us, it's within walking distance and walk we did.
We had never been to the convention center before. My dh has often referred to it as the Big White Elephant but it is a beautiful building inside.
We took a very long escalator to the top and we had the feeling of going up to Heaven. This was probably because we knew that Jesus was up there!
We had lots of time to kill so we started exploring the bookstore. I saw some friends and spend time with them while doing a little shopping. All of a sudden I see a familiar face, a young priest. I pulled Joey to the other side of the room and I introduced ourselves to Fr. Donald Calloway. For those of you not familiar with him. He is a priest with quite a story to tell of his youth filled with sex, drugs and rock and roll before Divine Mercy intervened. He is now a priest with the Marians of the Immaculate Conception. We chatted a few minutes and I took a picture of Joey and Father Calloway. We are really looking forward to his talk tomorrow.
So the conference began with the Angelus, the recitation of the Holy Rosary in honor of our Blessed Mother's birthday, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet. A local recording artist sang On this Day O Beautiful Mother and Ave Maria while the Knights of Columbus led the procession of the banners of the different Catholic groups and pilgrims.
Then we had the privilege of hearing Dr. Bryan Thatcher, the head of EADM give a very moving speech on God's Divine Mercy.
I will try to post more tomorrow, and maybe some pictures, after the conference
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