GOD'S TENDER LOVE AND MERCY!

I hope you are well and at peace.

Since coming back from my travels it has been
nice to spend a couple of weeks in Ireland.
I had been looking forward to going to Malta to
do some talks but unfortunately I got a serious
dose of the flu and that wiped me out for about
10 days and I wasn’t able to travel.

Last week I spoke at a parish mission in Charlestown
Co. Mayo, the Church was packed and it was very
heartening to see many young people coming to the
mission and this week I have been running a mission
in Oldcastle Co. Meath. At both of these missions
we had reconciliation services where everyone had a
chance to go to confession, we had about 12 priests
available both nights. It was amazing to see hundreds
of people going to say sorry to God and receive his
healing and peace in that beautiful sacrament.

One girl told me how she had been no longer going to
Mass, but she came to the mission and went to
confession for the first time in over 15 years and she
said she felt so happy and had a great warmth in her
heart which she knew was Gods love. Another man told
me how when he was a young boy he had been sexually
abused and also badly beaten and as he had got older
he turned to drink to try to mask the terrible pain
he was in. He had gone to confession for the first
time in many years and he said that God had done
something special in his heart because the hardness
and coldness he had felt for so long was starting
to melt away, he also said he felt Our Lady very
close to him and she was going to teach him how to
love again.

The greatest joy in my life is to be able to speak
to the young people in schools and to tell them
truth about Gods love for them. I think God wants
to work through everyone and all it takes is for
someone to be open for a miracle to happen. A few
months ago I did a interview for an Irish Television
show called Nationwide with a woman called Mary Fanning.
Mary went away and arranged for me to speak to the
young men at Clongowes College in Co. Kildare. It was a
really blessed talk and the boys responded so well,
many of them purchased my book with their own money
and told me how God had inspired them through my story,
one of the boys was Mary’s son. Because of her openness
many lives were touched. That was a great witness to me
of following the promptings of the Holy Spirit and if
only good can come of it just go ahead and do it!

I also spoke at another school in Maynooth and the
students were equally touched. I have often heard it
said that religion isn’t cool these days, but I have
found that if you really give young people the truth
they are hungry for it. I receive hundreds of emails
after giving talks in schools and when I hear some of
the situations the young people are dealing with it
would break your heart.

I thank God for his heart of compassion which is always
seeking out those who feel lost and abandoned and
showing us his tender love and Mercy.

You are in my heart and in my prayers, please keep me in yours!

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore

IN GIVING WE RECEIVE!

Hello Everyone

I hope you are well and at peace.

The last few weeks have been amazing, first of all I
travelled to Hong kong where I spoke in a school to
300 young people but also another couple of talks came
about that hadn't been arranged in advance one in a
prayer group the other at a healing Mass in Macau. The
whole stay was a great blessing and the people were so
friendly and open.

Next stop was Australia where there seemed to be a lot
of people coming to my talks probably because I had spoken
at the World Youth Day in Sydney the year previously.I spoke
at a theology on tap event and it was a grace filled evening
with many confessions taking place.

One young man of about 17 years of age asked me to pray over
him because he had a tremendous amount of anger in his heart,
I prayed asking Jesus to come into the situation and whatever
was causing the anger, he said he felt a tingling all over him
and a deep peace. I saw him again a few days later and he told
me he was doing the same thing I had done and asking Jesus into
every situation that troubled him. When he done this he said he
felt the tingling and the peace once again and he knew that Jesus
was showing him that he was with him in all his struggles.

I stayed with a beautiful family Paul, Annette and the children
who were an incredible witness to me of love and generousity
It was a real joy and an honour for me to spend time with them
and get to know them.

I did a lot of talks and prayed over many people whilst I was
in Australia, but as always with God he gives us far more than
we give him. A couple of times members of the Servants of Jesus
Community (a fantastic community based in Australia from whom I
learned loads during my stay) prayed over me and it was a
tremendous blessing for me. One of them told me that as he prayed
he saw me as a little child in God the Fathers arms. Afterwards
I felt a real closeness to our Heavenly Father. It is in giving
that we receive!

I also met up with my old friend Fr Richard Aladics and as always
that was a joyful time. He is now ministering at Campion College
in Sydney where I spoke to the students.

I love the way that God organises these trips and all the pieces
of the jigsaw seem to fall into place. I met someone who has invited
me to come to Malta next year and speak to the young people. I'm
looking forward to that already and everything else that God has
in store.

I'm heading back to Ireland now where I'll be speaking at a Parish
mission in Celbridge on monday 26th october.

Be assured that you are in my prayers, please pray for me and those
I will be meeting in the coming weeks

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore

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