A reader just returned from the first night of the Atlanta Archdiocese Eucharistic Congress and reports:

I just got back from the first night of the Archdiocese of Atlanta Eucharistic Congress. I went to the Healing Mass, which was surprisingly efficient. The priest gave a good homily about uniting our sufferings to Christ’s and what the saints – especially St. Therese – teach us about suffering.

I also went to part of the young adult track. Mary Beth Bonnaci spoke earlier (while I was at the Mass), so I missed her. Fr. Ricardo Bailey, a young black priest, also gave a talk, which was very Spirit-filled.

The most interesting part of the night, to me, was when Fr. Bailey announced that a young Atlanta woman (she looked about her early 30s, didn’t catch her name) has been working with Archbishop Gregory to start a new religious order of women in the archdiocese, to be called the Handmaids of the Holy Spirit. It sounded like they would be involved with education.

"They’re going to be orthodox, and they’re going to wear a habit," Fr. Bailey said. "Tonight you saw all the seminarians here in their cassocks and surplices and all blinged out. Please God in a few years we’ll see a lot of nuns. We need this, church."

Please God, indeed!

(And, in a confluence of events…A NYTimes article on Fr. Bailey and his radio show)