The Pearl of Great Price: Presenting the First Catholic Mothers Conference

As I was praying before the Blessed Sacrament one afternoon, the words of John Paul II 'Do not be afraid, open wide the doors to Christ' resounded within me.

As I left the little Chapel, in haste I phoned Pierpaolo to tell him how much I felt we had to respond to the wonderful love and firm teaching that we had received under our beloved John Paul II.

We had the grace to grow up with him by our side. His love for humanity was immense, the dignity we received as young people tangible, his devotion for Our Lady was great and his total submission to God was an inspiration.

With his encouragement to follow Christ we discovered the beauty and strength of femininity, the value and greatness of masculinity, we entered marriage understanding its importance and looked forward to become co creators with God to build His Church.

As I was on the phone I told Pierpaolo we could not stay still, we had to do something to pass on what we had received and not just to our children. What we had was not just ours but we needed to reach people in our little world and tell them that our life, our marriage, our fatherhood, motherhood with Christ was the way to happiness.

Walking towards the school as the clock was ticking and my lunch break almost finished, I bombarded my poor husband with a list of talks and events we HAD to organise for us and for the community of faithful who thirst for the truth and are hungry for the Word of God.

The phone call ended as most of our phone calls do... 'Ok, ok we will talk about it later... you CRAZY woman'.

That conversation happened about a year ago today...

In that year my prayer was always... "God I think this is what you want from me (us)... and if it is, please you lead the way!"

The conference was the first of the many projects I felt inspired to put together...

I started with some crowdfunding for the event with the help and support of some wonderful women, and started contacting some speakers I dreamed of hosting in England, I sent a letter to Gianna Emanuela Molla, the daughter of St Gianna Molla (not exactly a letter... but that's a story for another time), got in contact with Costanza Miriano and started enquiring about possible venues.

The crowdfunding didn't really go as expected though I witnessed the generosity of many incredible people... and none of the people I was trying to reach was really answering.

Perhaps I had misunderstood what God wanted and yes I was this CRAZY woman trying to do something way bigger than her abilities. I didn't really think about it too much and again said to God, "I am not going to stress about this... if this is what you want make it happen, I am here waiting".

Around the time of Pentecost I received Gianna Emanuela Molla's phone call expressing the desire to come to England and to speak about her mother. This and many other events confirmed God wanted me to go ahead.

Aylesford wrote back to us and was available to book for the Divine Mercy Weekend...

Costanza Miriano agreed to meet me for coffee and Pierpaolo to drive me to Rome to meet her, while on holiday. (One can never stop working for the Kingdom not even on holiday ;-) ).