Wednesday, December 7, 2016

WHEN I WAS IN PRISON DID YOU VISIT ME?

Since my last update I have given six parish missions
and a number of talks in schools, conferences and
prisons in Ireland, England, Scotland and the USA.

When I speak in a prison it is a harsh reminder of
how my freedom was taken away from me in my 
younger days during my three prison sentences.
However, on my travels I meet quite a few people
who are just as imprisoned in a spiritual way. 
These can be through fear, worry, anxiety, addiction,
being judgemental, being controlling and unforgiveness 
to mention just a few.

In my case I had a release date knowing that my 
freedom would be reestablished when I walked out,
but some of the people that I come across do not 
have any release date and have battled with these
prisons for years. I am always reminded of the 
story where fear, anxiety, hopelessness and misery
knocked at the door, but faith answered, and there was
no one there. We should always remember that 
God’s plan for us is freedom from all these shackles.
The more we know the goodness of God’s mercy,
providence and love we see that the prisons are
just illusions that we are free to walk away from
any time we choose. Sometimes we can be 
powerless to do this, but we never feel there 
is no hope. In the famous poem footprints Jesus
carried the man in the greatest trials of his life.

I remember when I was addicted to gambling and
I brought this up in confession and the priest said
you are not culpable for your addiction but you are
responsible to get help for your addiction. In my 
own case by allowing God’s love into the part my
heart where the addiction manifested itself I was 
healed of that addiction. This was not overnight
but a constant desire in prayer to be set free. 
The twelve step program AA, GA and NA is a
wonderful way to allow God’s light to penetrate 
these areas. These same twelve steps can be a
blessing in many aspects of our lives.

One of the books that spoke to me deeply about
trusting God’s goodness was “The Shack”. There
is a fictitious encounter where Jesus tries to teach
a man how to walk on water. The man does not 
believe that he can do this, but Jesus reassures 
him that by trusting the past to his mercy, the future
to his providence and living the now immersed in
his love we can be free!

On my visit to a prison in England I had only one
book with me to show the fifty prisoners. I felt
inspired by the Holy Spirit after my talk to give 
the book to one prisoner. It turned out he had
spent fifteen years in prison with no release date
coming up any time soon. That night he read my
book “From Gangland to Promised Land”. The 
next morning he asked to become a Catholic and 
has started his instruction. I feel sometimes even if 
we are physically in prison we can be spiritually set 
free. As we journey through these days of advent 
we should open our hearts in real honesty and 
sincerity to our humble God who comes to us as a 
vulnerable helpless baby, saying to us, Do not be 
afraid, Emmanuel, God is with you in every struggle 
and the victory is His.

May you have a blessed and wonderful Christmas
and an abundance of God’s grace in the new year.

This coming January I will be speaking to several 
thousand young people in schools so please keep 
this in your prayers.

God bless you in his deep love 

John Pridmore

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

WOUNDS FROM OUR PAST


After coming back from Australia I returned
to Ireland and had the joy of my mum
staying with me for a week. For the last 3
years my mum has been completely free
from any depression and it is a blessing to 
see her so happy and full of life. I thank God 
for my mum as it was her prayers that 
really changed me and brought me to 
my conversion.

My mum struggled with depression since
I was ten (for over forty years) Three years
ago she went on a retreat which was about
healing memories and wounds of the past.
Through one of these memories being 
healed the result was that she hasn’t been
depressed since, which is a complete
miracle.

After some time of rest I ran a healing retreat
in Ards friary, Donegal for past wounds. It was
an amazing blessed weekend with many people
saying it changed their lives, and in some 
peoples cases you could see the physical 
change in them because of the spiritual 
healings they received.

I often feel that God wants us to be healed and
free to enjoy all the blessings he wants to give 
us, but as the famous phrase says “grace works
on nature” and sometimes we have to invite God
into the areas of our past where we have been
wounded and hurt, I remember in my own 
life after some time of being with God I realised I
was still addicted to gambling and even though
I had made a promise to God that with his grace
I wouldn’t gamble. I still struggled every day to 
keep this promise. I was in Arizona giving some talks 
when I got a whisper in my head to go to Las
Vegas. Because I thought I had been healed
from my addiction I went to Las Vegas and 
ended up gambling again and losing a couple
of hundred dollars. There is a big difference
between surpressing our compulsions and darkness
than to allowing Gods light and love to heal us.
On this same trip to Las Vegas I went into a
Church feeling sorrowful and ashamed and
allowed God’s love to touch my heart in that
area where the addiction was manifest. Maybe
this wound was created by low self esteem or
low self worth as I feel it was God telling me 
in prayer that he loved every part of me that 
transformed and healed my heart. From that
day to this, I have never had the desire to
gamble.

Probably most of us have parts of our lives which
we’d like to change but cannot seem to.
Firstly we need to ask God where the root of
these problems are and this may take some
time in prayer to get the answers. Then we 
need to invite God into that memory and to
heal it and not be ashamed of it. St Teresa of
Avila speaks in her book “The Interior Castle”
about allowing God’s love to transform all the 
rooms of our heart. I believe the freedom that
God wants us to enjoy in our everyday lives
depends on the effort we put into this process.
It is not enough to ask God to heal us, we have
to be willing to work with him to pinpoint the
wounds and with his help transforms those
wounds into scars (The Sacrament of confession 
can be a great grace in this) The thing that stops 
us from allowing God’s light and love into those 
rooms are fear and shame. But as God is all seeing 
and all knowing what are we ashamed of or
afraid of. Often when I’m praying with people 
I get a picture of them looking at a reflection
of themselves and throwing stones at the relection.
And Jesus takes the stones from their hands and
say “Behold my beautiful daughter, behold my 
beautiful son”

Since the healing weekend I have given parish
missions in Limerick and Bandon. Also I travelled
to Phoenix USA, where I spoke at a parish, a university
and a conference. I thank God every day for the
privilege it is to try and serve him and I pray that 
each one of us might begin to see ourselves and
accept ourselves and love ourselves as Jesus
does.

Please keep my work in your prayers as I will be
giving parish missions in Ireland, England and
Scotland and travelling to France and Florida to
give talks and conferences.

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore

Thursday, August 11, 2016

EVERLASTING FRUITS



I hope you are well and at peace. Since last I
spoke to you I have been in Australia for two
and a half months speaking to about 17,000
teenagers, giving 5 parish missions and a
number of talks in prisons, churches, hotels
and even banquet halls. My tour of Australia
took me to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane,
Wagga, Albury and Griffin.

It was a very blessed time with lots of Miracles,
I had a number of people who came up to me
saying how they had heard me speak at World
Youth Day in Sydney in 2008. One lady who is
now a Nun said she heard me when she was
twelve and knew she was to become a Nun
and had been one for 2 years now. Another
man said he was not going to Mass when he
heard me and now goes every day, many people
said my talks at world youth day changed their
lives. This helped me to understand how Gods
Fruits are everlasting.

I think it is incredible how when God wants
something to happen he opens all the doors.
When Michael (a young man from Australia
Who spent 15 months with me in community)
approached me about running parish missions
in Australia I told him I would only come if he
could arrange 5 missions as it is a very long
way to travel for anything less. I was doubtful that
would happen as it is very difficult to organize
that many missions. But sure enough he got
the missions and countless other talks
snowballed from there. It is a very beautiful
thing to see the hand of God at work!

To speak to so many Teenage school children
was wonderful, many times speaking to 1200
young people at a time, with lots of Grace and
hearts being changed. I met some great
teachers who were only there for God and to
bring the young people closer to Jesus.

In this year of Mercy it was inspiring to see so
many people return to confession with lots of
priests saying how they heard  confessions
over 30,40,50 years in the parish missions.
The world needs Mercy and we have this
powerful grace in the Sacrament of
reconciliation where lives are truly healed and
transformed. One man emailed to tell how
after going to confession for the first time in
years, he went home and just began to weep
at the love and mercy he was experiencing.
He told how a great weight was lifted from
him and a massive healing took place in his
heart.

I had a lot of people praying for this tour
and thank you for all your prayers, You did not
see the Miracles I saw and the tears running
down peoples faces as their hearts were being
touched by the love of Jesus. But hopefully one
day you will see in Heaven as Gods everlasting
fruits are revealed.

Some years ago after Cardinal Cook had given
a talk to 5000 people and was receiving a standing
ovation. He said “Who is the real instrument of God?
Me, or the man praying the Rosary for this talk”

Thank you for all your prayers, and please pray I do
not get in Gods way.
You are very much in my heart and prayers.

John Pridmore