Divine Mercy 2020
Photo: Shawn Blackwell The RDS was packed with people of all ages at the weekend for the Divine Mercy Conference.
The three-day event is in its 29th year and ran under the theme ‘Deliver us from evil’.
This was spoken about extensively by guest speakers which included Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin, Fr Peter Glas, Fr Pat Collins, Maria Steen from the Iona Institute and Fr Brendan Walsh SCA.
Around 3,500 people attended on the Saturday. There were stalls at the event from religious orders, pro-life groups, Catholic publications, pilgrimage groups and many more.
Don Devaney, Chairperson of the conference told The Irish Catholic the conference aimed at “creating an awareness of how evil can insidiously seep into our lives and take away our peace”.
He said he felt that the coincidence of all the speakers putting special emphasis on the Rosary showed how important prayer is in keeping evil at bay.
On Saturday, Archbishop Eamon Martin told a personal story about his parents who pledged to pray the Rosary every day they were married.
Maria Steen used the theme to discuss the issue of abortion and the campaign of emotivism that she said was used by the pro-choice campaign. She encouraged people to engage their intellect when it came to the debate.
Struggle
Fr Peter Glas, who was an exorcist in England for 10 years, spoke of his own personal struggle when in Medjugorje and an Irish priest said to him: “Once in your lifetime you need to leave your comfort zone, you need to leave your bones and start walking into the depth, into the water without fear.”
He said he had heard the Gospel many of times but this time it struck him. He heard God tell him to climb up the Cross Mountain that night and stay there.
He found a new motivation to spread the word of Divine Mercy after this experience and encouraged everyone at the conference to do the same.