Friday Night: Opening Session

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Once the doors opened and Adam Bitter and the band led us in a couple songs, our host for the weekend, Chris Padgett, got us started with a story about the perfect first date. He wooed the woman that one day became his wife, and now they’ve been married 23 years and have nine children. “I’m crazy about my wife,” he said, “but it blows my mind how crazy God is about me.”

And that’s what this weekend is all about – how crazy God Is (Isaiah 12:2) about each one of us.

Chris introduced the rest of the weekend’s team – Sean Forrest, Megan Mastroianni, Brian Greenfield, and Fr. Chris Martin. Then Bishop Rice asked every priest in the arena to stand. The bishop led us in a prayer and then he, and every priest present this weekend, gave us a blessing.

And then we started talking about this weekend’s theme: God Is. After a few slides of some pretty bad religious art (because, let’s be honest, we all know it’s out there – Google ‘Jesus and a baby raptor’ if you’d like an example), Chris spoke about the importance of portraying Jesus well – not only in art, but also in the way we live our lives.

Jesus is not a cartoon or a caricature. It matters that we know who He really is. He knows us, and all this conference is really about is His desire to have a relationship with us.

Tonight, we pray: Lord, what do you want from us? How can we best learn from You this weekend?