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