This year’s Eucharistic Congress will once again feature a healing Mass and service on Friday evening, June 16, opening this dynamic annual event in the archdiocese with a special focus on the power of Christ and the Blessed Sacrament in healing those who are in need.

All are invited to attend the service, which will begin with praise and worship at 7 p.m. The Mass is at 7:30 p.m. and will be celebrated by Father Luke Ballman, pastor of St. Augustine Church, Covington, and concelebrated by priests of the archdiocese. Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory will be on hand to welcome those in attendance to the Congress.

After Mass, speaker Alan Ames will give a talk on healing and spirituality, followed by personal prayers over people who come to the event with special intentions.

A well-known speaker in the area of healing and spirituality, Ames is a visionary, an evangelist, a healer and a stigmatist from Australia. Born in London in 1953, he was in his youth a member of a motorcycle gang and went along a path full of violence and alcohol. The turning point of his life happened in 1993 when Ames saw his past life displayed before him and experienced how his sins and wrong ways had hurt God. With the Lord’s help, Ames came back to the sacraments and to the church and changed his hatred and pain into love. He has been speaking and praying for healing around the world since 1994. With church approval, he gave three talks at World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto and in 2004 spoke at two of the world’s holiest sites: the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth and St Catherine’s, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. He has permission to speak from his bishop in western Australia, Archbishop Barry Hickey of Perth, and is strictly obedient to his spiritual director, a priest selected by the archbishop.

Adoration will be available throughout the evening in the chapel.

The Mass and service will be held at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.