The Catholic Defender At St. Mary's Catholic Church in Joplin Missouri

This past Friday and Saturday I was able to join Deepertruth Members Dr. Greg Thompson, John Carpenter, Tim Francis and Fr. Tom Sullivan to participate in the Marian Association Conference held at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Joplin Missouri.

What a blessing it was to be a part of the program. It was well organized and well attended as people arrived from the local area to experience the powerful impact of Mass, Confession, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy, relics, and great speakers from across the Country.

I was graced to go to Confession earlier on Friday before everything began as I am making the First Friday Devotion in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Dr. Gregory Thompson and John Carpenter both have played a tremendous roll establishing these Conferences going back to 2011-2012 not long after I had returned from Iraq and retired out of the Army. I was part of the first Conference that was held in Springfield Missouri..

I love hearing about the good fruit that people's faith is reinforced with solid Catholic teaching. Many return to the faith after being away for some time, some never had faith but came to faith as a result of these events.

St. Mary's Church is a relatively new building and it is just beautiful, Mass is very reverent and the people's faith is strong.

My talk was about the Virgin Mary's Fiat and Mercy and what a grace it was to proclaim God's word and share the truths of our Catholic Faith. I connected the dotes explaining several of the typologies in the Old Testament that are fulfilled in the New Testament.

I like what Catholic Convert, Apologist Steve Ray told me on Deepertruth Radio concerning these typologies and prophecies related to the Old and New Testaments. He explained that a rug when you look at the back of it, there is very little definition, hard to make out until you turn it over and see how beautiful the image is on the front side.

The Old Testament is really the New Testament concealed while the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.

One thing that I have learned from these events is that people are hungry for good Catholic teaching. Many of them may have been raised Catholic but have never been to a Marian Association Conference and for many these are important revelations. We have several books, pamphlets, Rosaries, religious medals, pictures in frames and much more that people can take with them to keep. We want everyone to take something home from these events.

Fr. Tom Sullivan is a member of the Fathers of Mercy whose primary mission are speaking at Conferences such as the Marian Association, they do retreats and parish missions promoting the Sacraments especially Confession and the Eucharist.

From the Fathers of Mercy webpage:

The Congregation of the Fathers of Mercy was founded in 1808, originally under the title of the “Missionaries of France.” The community was founded for the purpose of re-evangelizing the French people after the Catholic Faith had been subjected to years of attacks and persecution during the French Revolution. It is now an exclusively American community. The Generalate of the community is located a few miles outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky. The primary apostolate of the Fathers of Mercy is to conduct parish missions and retreats, which are now given throughout the United States, Canada and Australia.

I want to thank all the members of the Marian Association for the work they did to put together this Conference, special thanks to Father Joe and the people of St. Mary's Parish. Thanks to all the Deepertruth family for their prayers, support, and participation in these events. We have upcoming events coming to Kansas City, Jefferson City, and Ozark Missouri very soon.