GOD DOESN'T CALL US TO BE SUCCESSFUL, HE CALLS US TO TO BE FAITHFUL!

Hello everyone

I hope you are well and at peace.

I have just returned from the Cayman Islands where
I was invited to speak to many of the young people
and share my story with them. The person who invited
me was Diana who a few years previously had been a
chaplain for a school in Leeds where I visited to
speak to the students.

Diana told me that my visit to Leeds had made a deep
impression on the kids many of whom had started to become
involved in crime, breaking into cars and were
beginning to lose their way. She told me that some
of the ones who had started to get into trouble had
completely changed after the talk and one of the
lads is now in seminary. It is such a blessing to
hear, sometimes years later how God has been working.
At the time we can't see the fruit of what
we're doing but we can trust that God is always working
whether we see it or not.

Another example of this is that recently I received an email
from one young man in his twenties who told me that I came
into his school when he was a teenager and gave my testimony.
He said at the time it hadn't meant much to him but he had
come to a time of great difficulty in his life and all the
words I spoke came back to him and now he has a deep faith in
God.

Also I spoke to a man in Scotland who I'd met for a brief time
when I'd been staying at Craig Lodge house of prayer. He told
me the conversation I had with him changed his life and led him
to a deep encounter with God's love for him. I am very grateful
to God for letting me see these fruits and it just gives me the
encouragement I need to continue doing what I'm doing.

The actual trip to the Cayman Islands was very blessed and I met
some fantastic people.I got to speak to a great number of young
people in the schools. One of the highlights for me was speaking
in the prison and when I finished my talk one of the prisoners
approached me and told me that whist I was speaking he had felt
the love of Christ for the first time in his life and he felt
he now had the strength to change his life.

When I arrived back in the UK I travelled up by train to Glasgow
to join the rest of the community for a Parish mission. On my
journey up to Glasgow my train suddenly ground to a halt and
tragically a young girl had killed herself by throwing herself
in front of the train. I prayed for her soul and also for her
family. It just reminded me how important it is for young people
to know the message of God's love for them. I am just about to
leave for a speaking tour of Hong Kong, Australia and Thailand
where I will be sharing my story in many schools and I would
ask you to keep this in your prayers, because it is these prayers
which are the most important thing for all those I speak to.

The mission in Port Glasgow was a joy to be part of and numerous
people experienced the mercy and forgiveness of God in confession.
It was great to see the joy in the Parish and to know the God is
working powerfully among them and has great plans for them.

Mother Teresa said "God doesn't call us to be successful, he calls
us to be faithful" but if we try (even in our weakness) to be faithful
to what he has called us to do, it will always bear fruit eventually.

You are in my heart and in my prayers.

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore

THE START OF A NEW ADVENTURE!

Hello everyone

I hope you are well and have had a blessed summer.

I have been preparing over the last couple of weeks
for my upcoming trips. I will be doing a lot of
traveling. I have started in Scotland where I am
currently doing a parish mission in Newarthill, near
Glasgow. The Church has been absolutely full each
night and there have been some beautiful stories of
how God has been touching peoples lives. Two girls
who are sisters went to confession for the first
time in years, both of them had experienced incredible
difficulties but after going to confession they
attended a healing service where Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament comes to each person. Both of them said that
they felt a powerful presence of God's love and that
they were going to start going to Mass every Sunday.

I received an email from a man I met whilst on holiday
who read my book and he said that not only he but also
his wife and children had stared going to Mass again.
It is amazing how the Holy Spirit works in peoples
lives. I try to pray about everything I do and beg
God to show me where to stay and even the smallest details
of my trips. Time and again God has shown me that he
hears these prayers and little miracles are always
happening that only he could bring about.

I also had a personal retreat for myself and the
community given by my Spiritual director Fr Jim Finn.
The theme was scripture and it reignited the passion
in my heart to read God's word. It is incredible how
God can speak to us through the scriptures and sometimes
a couple of sentences can feed us for weeks at a time.

I ask for your prayers because over the next few weeks
I will be visiting Florida, The Cayman Islands, Hong Kong,
Australia and Thailand to do talks. What a blessing it is
to be able to do this work for the Lord and the adventures
he leads us on when we try to follow him.

You and all those you love are in my heart and prayers.

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL FROM THE ROOFTOPS!

Hello everyone

I hope you are well and at peace.

Since the last blog I went to Spain to visit the shrine
of the Apostle St James (the brother of John) at Santiago
de Compostela. St James was the first of the twelve
Apostles to be martyred for his faith and as I knelt
before his tomb I really felt the power of his intercession.

It was here in August 1989 that Pope John Paul II gave a
famous speech where he told the young people of the world
not to be afraid to "proclaim the Gospel from the rooftops"
A young man called Ernest Williams listened to the speech
and was inspired to start a group called Youth 2000 which
is young people evangelizing other young people. This
is the group God used to bring me to a deep knowledge of
his love and mercy. So while I was there I felt a renewed
desire to do all I can to proclaim his love in my life.

After Spain I went to Switzerland to speak at a retreat for
youth. I was leading a small group and I asked them if they
knew they were loved by God. They all said yes. Then I said
is it a knowledge in their head or do they know it deep in
their heart? All of them said that they weren't really
convinced that God accepted them warts and all. I shared
with them the freedom I had received in understanding that
God loves me totally, especially in my weakness, and that
because of that I don't feel ruled by what others might
think of me. One teenage lad called Samuel suddenly said
"Can I have that?" I replied "I'd love to give it to you but
I can't, but you can give it to yourself!" One of the greatest
lessons I have learned in my life is that we shouldn't live
for others opinions of us, but for God.

After this I returned to Ireland where my community and I
were filmed by RTE for a programme called nationwide which
will be screened on September 11th at 7pm. I was also on
another RTE show called Spirit Level with Joe Duffy.
It can be viewed at the following link.

http://www.rte.ie/tv/spiritlevel/av_20090726.html?2586051,null,228


It was a real blessing to have my old friend and spiritual
director Fr Denis Herlihy with us to lead a retreat on
healing the child within. All the members of the community
were deeply touched by the grace of God and they were
shown the roots of the fears that can sometimes control
their lives. There were many tears and I know it was a life
changing experience for them as it had been for me when
I first did this about 9 years ago, it is only looking
back to see how many things God has changed in me since
then that I just thank him and praise him for all he given
to me.

I'm going to be spending a few weeks at the house now and
preparing for all the missions and talks which lie ahead
in the coming months. Please pray for me especially that
I might have good health and know that I am praying for
you.

God bless you in his deep love

John Pridmore.

LIVING THE NOW!

Hello everyone

I hope you are well and at peace.

After returning from my trip to Liberia I spoke at
the Northern Catholic Conference at Liverpool hope
university. I did three talks, one to the youth and
two to the adults. About 500 people attended the
weekend and it was a very blessed and special
occasion. Quite a few of those I spoke to came up
to me and told me how much God had touched them
through what I'd said, so I knew I was in the right
place. It was nice to have my mum there with me,
she had travelled up from London to spend the
weekend with me and enjoy the retreat.

Next I travelled to Medugorje in Bosnia to take
part in the Mary's meals conference. There were
speakers, both Priests and lay people, from all
over the world including India, Malawi, Liberia
Romania and the Phillipines explaining the work
they do in their countries to feed hungry children.
It was a truly inspirational experience.
I spoke about how we have raised money for this
beautiful charity in Ireland. One of the things
I shared was that after I had decided to offer my
support to Mary's Meals, Magnus McFarlane Barrow
the founder, asked me to visit their headquarters
at Craig Lodge. As we left to return to Ireland
one of my community members picked a saints name
from a box and said this saint will help us
establish the charity in Ireland. The saint he
picked was St Andrew the Patron of Scotland.

I must admit, I didn't really have a clue how to
go about raising money or awareness in Ireland.
One day an idea came to me to have a collection
for Mary's meals on the last day of our Parish
missions. When I went to Mass I discovered it
was the feast day of St Andrew and I knew the
idea was of God. We started to do just that and
to date we have raised over 450,000 Euro's in
Ireland alone and when you consider that you can
feed a child for a whole year for 7 euro's, that
makes a lot of children who are being fed.

The highpoint of the week for me was doing a talk
along with the visionary Jacov to hundreds of
people in the main hall. Many different people
contacted me by email to tell how much they had
received from hearing my story, including the
parents of a young lad from Cork called Joseph
who had been deeply moved by what he heard.

I had the chance to spend a couple of days on
the coast of Croatia. It was breathtakingly
beautiful and I felt a deep peace in my heart.
Once again God was showing me that we don't
have to go chasing him everywhere. He is right
there with us wherever we go as long as we seek
to do his will. If we live the present moment
with God (and not get caught up in future worries)
that is when miracles start to happen. If we
truly live the now we could even walk on water,
but as St Peter found as soon as we start to
doubt and worry we will sink.

Next I'm off to Spain for a Holiday/pilgrimage
to Santiago de Compostella, Avila and Valladolid
for couple of weeks. Following this I'll be
speaking at a retreat for young people at
Saint Maurice in Switzerland. Then I'll be
returning to Ireland for a weeks retreat
with my old friend and spiritual director Father
Denis Herlihy who brought me to deep inner
healing by facing the fears and wounds from
my childhood.

you are all in my heart and in my prayers.

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore

THE LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS!

Hello Everyone

I hope you are well and at peace.

I have just returned from Liberia where I spoke to ex children soldiers
who were forced to take part and witness horrendous acts of violence
during the war which took place there starting in 1996 and continued in
various forms until 2002.

I went at the invitation of Magnus McFarlane Barrow the founder of Mary's
meals, which is an international movement to set up school feeding
projects in communities where poverty and hunger prevent children from
gaining an education.

I became involved in Mary's meals when on pilgrimage to Medugorje in
2005 I really felt that God wanted myself and my community to do
something, just a sense that the work we were doing of evangelisation
wasn't quite complete,something was missing and I didn't know what it
was. So I went to the Grave of a priest called Fr Slavko Barberic (the
first priest I ever went to confession to) whom many people think is
a Saint, and I prayed the rosary with the specific intention that Our
Lady would show me what this missing piece of the jigsaw was. Later
that day I bumped into Magnus (who was an old friend of mine) and he
told me about the work of Mary's meals and showed me a power point
presentation he had put together. As I watched I was deeply moved and
I knew Our Lady was saying to me "do whatever he asks you for this
charity, because it is mine."

Not long after this I set up Mary's meals in Ireland and over the last
4 years we have raised over 400,000 Euro's which goes directly towards
feeding hungry children.

It was a truly humbling experience to visit the school feeding shelters
in Liberia and to see the dedication and love of the volunteers who
prepare the meals, and to witness the massive effect it has on the
children. I could really sense the grace of God at work. Starting with
the generosity of those who make donation’s in Ireland and England,
without whom none of this would be possible.It has been amazing to
watch this small acorn grow into an oak tree with God's help and
blessing. Now Mary's meals feeds 350,000 of the world’s poorest
children daily and 15,000 in Liberia alone.

The experience of speaking to the children soldiers is one I'll never
forget, I shared my story with them and I could see that it was
something they could deeply identify with. One of the young men described
how when he was eight years old, his cousin and he were forced into
working as part of a group providing security for General Taylor.
His cousin fell ill through malaria, and was unable to complete
his duties for the general which included acquiring hot water
for Taylor’s bath. For failure to comply with orders when he was
sick, the cousin was placed against a tree and shot with the intention
of the murder being witnessed by the other children so they would
learn not to go against orders placed on them. Another young man
still has 20 bullets in him, and was forced to carry out orders
of murder of men, women and children, throughout the war.

Despite everything these young men have been through they have
an incredible resilience I felt a deep sense of love for them that
they had seen such evil in their lives, something which they could
do nothing about because they were so young, I actually wept because
it reminded me of the crucifixion of Jesus, total innocence meeting
such darkness. But the light shines in the darkness and I could see
such hope in these lads and I thank God for the chance to meet and
speak with them.

I met with a SMA priest, Fr. Garry, who is looking after over 100
children soldiers, providing them with food, shelter, and an
opportunity to have their lost childhoods restored. He has been
helping the Gola people recover from the civil war, and has worked
with them for over 30 years. During the war he refused to leave
the village where he ministers to them because he knew without
him the people would almost certainly perish. He himself was
kidnapped and that was where he first befriended the children
soldiers who were his kidnappers. He stated to me how ‘without
justice there can be no lasting peace’ alluding to how quickly
another war can begin when the deeper issues are left unresolved.

One man I met gave me immense hope for the future, that was the
monsignor who is effectively the acting Bishop at this time, he
is a real man of God and a great witness of love. Also mother
Teresa's Missionaries of Charity are there bringing God's
tenderness and compassion to the poorest of the poor.

After returning home I feel a profound sense of love in my heart
and a faith that God never abandons any of his children
especially those who have suffered.

If you would like any information on the work of Mary's Meals
you can find it on www.marysmeals.org

You and all those you love are in my prayers

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore

WHEN I AM WEAK THEN I AM STRONG!

Hello Everyone

I hope you are well and at peace.

For the first time in quite a few years I had the joy to do some talks in Wales, and I spent a bit of time with my old friend Fr Gareth Leyshon, I had known him long before he entered seminary and we had worked together often in the past. It was a powerful time talking to many young people in schools and I received lots of emails telling how God had really touched the life of these students.

I also took part in a weekend youth retreat and I ended up running a reconciliation service where up to 60 people went to confession and some of them told me how this had transformed their lives. The great thing about our faith is that even if we mess things up, (which we all do), the moment that we return to our God with sorrow and a desire to change we can start again.

One of the priests at the retreat said to me that the thing that had deeply struck him during my talk was that God works so powerfully in us in our brokenness. He wants to use us to bring his light to others just as we are! We can't come any other way. We don't have to pretend to ourselves or others that we are perfect, just simply be ourselves and be free to tell of God's patience and goodness. Let us not be afraid of our weakness because as we know Jesus used a donkey more than once!

I have spent the last week with my Godson Stuart doing talks in schools in England, some of you may know I met him over 10 years ago when he was 12 years old and living in foster care, he had been rejected by all the people who were supposed to love him and was already in trouble with the police and taking drugs. I spoke in his school and we had to get special permission from social services for him to come on a retreat. During that weekend he went to confession and said sorry to God (even though at that stage he wasn't even baptised) After the confession he knelt beside me at a healing service and as the Priest brought Jesus in the blessed Sacrament to him he threw himself into my arms with tears running down his face saying "For the first time in my life I know that I'm loved, I know that Jesus loves me". Six months after this Stuart was baptised a Catholic and he is an incredible witness of how the love of God can transform someone’s life.

While Stuart was talking in the schools of what God had done in his life, he was crying because the love of God was moving him so much, and I noticed that many of the students were wiping away the tears also because I'm sure they could relate to the things he has been through in his life.

In one school that I visited was a teacher who is a very good friend of mine and he had just received the news that his sister has breast cancer (please keep her in your prayers) and of course it was very difficult for him. But he said that after our talk and just spending a bit of time together, he felt the grace to be able to trust God and had a deep peace in his heart, which he deserves because he is someone who really tries to serve God and place him in the centre of his life.

One of the days Stuart and myself went to visit Sr Maria Nutella a Dominican nun who is based in the New Forest in Hampshire. It was a real blessing to see her again and we ended up praying over one another. As she prayed over me she received a picture of lots of little boats with people in them and these boats were tied up with heavy ropes. This represented the fact the souls of these people were not free to follow God fully. But
as she watched she saw that I began to cut the ropes so that these people could respond to God's love for them. It was a confirmation to me that my mission is to speak to whoever God sends me to and hopefully that they may have the grace to respond to whatever he is calling them to in their lives.

She also saw clearly that wherever I went the devil was waiting to attack the work that God wanted to do. There is nothing to fear in this because God is infinitely more powerful than him, but we must have our eyes open to the reality of spiritual warfare and be ready to combat him with the weapons that God gives us. Every day I and my community would pray protection prayers such as the Holy Michael the Arc angel prayer and others like it, with the express purpose to repulse his attacks on us and on the people we minister to, it really works! and I would recommend it to everyone.

Finally It has been amazing to see God working in the ordinary everyday circumstances, I have given books and miraculous medals to countless people I have met on my travels and the thing that blows me away is that every one of them is so important to God that he would arrange the whole trip just for them if it were necessary.

Just to assure you that you and all your loved ones are in my prayers.
God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore.

FACING OUR FEARS

Hello everyone

I hope you are well and at peace.

After arriving back from the amazing few weeks I was ministering in New York I spent two weeks at the community house (pictured above) in Carrick on Shannon, County Leitrim. The name of our group is The St Patricks Community and we run Parish missions across Ireland and the UK.

It started about 8 years ago when I arrived in Ireland with nothing but a bag full of clothes and a car but the conviction that God was calling me to Ireland to Evangelise. I went on the road speaking in schools and parishes with a friend of mine called Padraig and it was incredible the miracles God worked in that time. Even though we didn’t have a penny to our names, we never had to spend a night without a roof over our heads and it was an exiting adventure travelling from place to place never quite knowing what the Lord had in store for us next.

Gradually as time went by more people came to join me and at the moment there are five of us, 3 guys and 2 girls, who make up the team. God has really taught me that if I want to be truly intimate with him the only way that can happen is if I am vulnerable. That means really sharing with him what is going on in my heart and not trying to hide or disguise my deepest fears but exposing them to him.

Each of the team members are at different stages on that journey to the freedom that God wants for them and one thing we have found is that if we are not prepared to be vulnerable with one another and share our fears and brokenness it is very unlikely we will share it with God. Community life has a habit of very quickly exposing all the masks we wear to make people love and accept us. When all of this stuff comes to the surface and you realise that the people you are living with are just the same as you, then that is the beginning of the healing process. God will never withhold his love and tenderness from us when we come to him in our weakness.

After Easter I went to speak at a Parish mission at Glasnevin in Dublin. On the Tuesday night we had 14 priests hearing confessions and many people ended up going for the first time in years, it was great to see the joy on their faces afterwards. I also spoke in a school in Dublin and the young people were so open while listening to what God had done in my life. Many of them emailed me and told of how God had touched them through my talk and they wanted to read my book to find out more.

I am the so thankful to God for the privilege of doing what I do, the greatest joy I have in my life is to see someone realise that they are precious to God and he loves them.

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore