THE GIFT OF GIVING

Wishing you a very Blessed Christmas

 and

 a wonderful New Year.
Since my last update I have given 5 parish

 missions and a number of talks,
in Ashford and Athlone in Ireland,

 in Petersbough, Hoddington, Brentwood 

and St Helens England,
as well as speaking to over 6000 young 

people in schools, 

and running  a school retreat.

Sometimes I am too lazy or selfish,

 to really put myself out for 

Christ and his will.
I often think of the words of 

Saint Mother Teresa, 

"Give until it hurts” 

and we will receive great joy when

 we do this.
The greatest healing, 

freedom, Peace and Happiness

 I have received,

 has all come though giving.
I meet lots of people who want to be

 happy in life, or feel they need healing, 

and when they start to give and help others,
they are happy, at peace and healed.

 Jesus tells us it is though giving

 that we receive and the more we give, 

the more he can bless our lives.
 
At this time of Christmas Jesus shows

 us the gift of giving. As he gives 

himself as a helpless baby, 

he holds nothing back, it is just total 
self giving for the salvation of the world. 

As we know, our world at 

this moment needs so much saving.

 In Ireland where 

I live they want to change the constitution

 so that they can kill unborn children,

 Mother Teresa always fought for life.

And St John Paul 2nd said 

a country that kills

 its children, lose God.
The pain and darkness I see in 
the different parts of the world as 

I travel is overwhelming at times, 

but Gods love and light are always more.
Where there is sin, 

Grace abounds a 1000 times more.
I feel that this is the time for us to say

 “Enough!". 

We are people of light and people of Christ. 

As I walked out of the Holocaust 

museum in
Jerusalem, I read , The only thing evil 

needs to succeed is a few good

 people to stay silent.
The silence in our world today is 

deafening. 

We need to say “Enough!" 

and start working for 

Christ and his Holy church, 

not just by giving, but by giving till it hurts.
Each one of us is born for 

heroic virtue, and so as we

 wait to receive Jesus this Christmas, 

the one who gives us everything, all he has,

 his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity,

 Let us in return say, I give you my life,

 I give you everything, 

USE ME AS YOU WILL, for your Glory.
I will not remain silent,

 I will speak up for you my God.


May each of us open our Hearts

 to all the Graces and Blessings our 

wonderful God wants to give us at 

Christmas time.
We should never be afraid,

 as we are assured that 

God's Mercy is always bigger than

 our weakness.
Know you are in my heart and prayers.
Please pray for me over the 

next months, as I will be

 giving talks and missions

 in New York, Phoenix, 

Tampa, Austin, Houston, 

L.os Angeles., Baltimore, 

Alabama, Glasgow and Belfast.
Merry Christmas and may 

God bless you in his deepest love.
John Pridmore

WHO IS YOUR BOSS

I hope you are well and at peace, since my last update I have been to Germany twice, Malta ,England,Scotland and Donegal. Many years ago I was asked to give some talks in Holland, at a youth retreat,The person in charge was very touched by my story and said he had contacts all over Holland and was going to fill my dairy up with bookings,I thought this is great. But with regards the youth retreat, I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to challenge him as there was not much real soiled teaching on Christ. So I was in a dilemma,I prayed to Jesus and felt him say who is your boss, him or me.After telling him that I thought the retreat needed, more Sacrements and solid teaching for the young people, there was no more talk of my dairy being filled up. When I got back to Ireland I was asked to speak at The World youth Day in Sydney, to half a million young people, and again I heard the words, who is your boss him or me. Many times in my life I have had the choice to serve people, or to serve God, I feel this is a massive problem in our spiritual walk. When we do stand up for Jesus he is then able to stand up for us, and the more I have practiced putting God first ,the more my life has been  blessed. Durring the summer I went to 3 shines of our blessed Mother Mary,in west and East Germany to speak at Gig Fest, these were like pop concerts which ended in prayer and I had the grace to share my story, a lot of the young people who attended would not have been church goers, so it was a great way of trying to reach young people where they were at. I also went to the youth 2000 festival in Munich where I gave 4 talks to over 1500 young people. In Donegal I had the blessing of running a healing retreat with my old friend Fr Adrian Crowley for some 30 people. After this I took my mum to Malta for what I thought would be a holiday, but my boss had different ideas and I ended up giving talks and being on  TV, I enclose a link to a short film they made on me, with the main film to follow.  In the months I will be in Ireland, Chicago, England and Scotland, so please keep me in your prayers. Lastly in regards of pleasing God before people, let us ask our loving God to send his Holy Spirit, that we might always know, only one person in this universe can say the words, COME IN GOOD AND FATEFUL SERVANT, Our true boss Jesus Christ. You are in my heart and prayers. God bless you in his deep love. John Pridmore   MY WEBSITE

SHORT FILM OF ME FOR MALTA TV

"GOD'S WILL BE DONE"

I hope you are well and at peace.

Since my last update I have run 4 missions in England and South Wales and also been to Croatia and Bosnia. While I was in Bosnia I visited a shrine to Our Lady and spent seven days there for a personal retreat. On the day I arrived I went to confession and then prayed in the main church. While I was praying I asked Our Lady if she wanted me to give talks and minister or to spend a quiet week just in prayer. The thought that came to my mind was from some twenty years earlier when I was in a community and feeling very broken and sinful at the way I was behaving towards those around me and before I went to sleep I said to Our Blessed Mother “You ain’t half got your work cut out to get me to heaven as I am so prideful, selfish and weak” and I felt Our Lady say “If you continue to glorify my son I will make you a saint” These words re echoed in my heart and I realized that Our Lady was saying the same thing to me again.

The reason I had ended up in this shrine was because I was renewing my St Louis de Montfort consecration a few months earlier and I felt Our Lady ask me to spend a week with her. As the priest got up to start the Mass he said “Today is the feast of St Louis de Montfort” 

and I realized Our God is so wonderfully perfect in every detail of our lives.During my time at this shrine I spoke to many hundreds of people sharing my story and insights with the different groups who had come on Pilgrimage.

After this I was giving missions and talks in the UK which included several schools and prison visits. From one of these talks I received the following email

“My name is …….. and I would like to personally thank you for the talk you did at my sons school yesterday. He suffers with anxiety disorders and has been bullied for many years and it is ongoing. Yesterday he text me to tell me he had something to share with me when he came home. I was concerned as I thought it may have been more bullying. When he walked through our living room door I saw a different boy walk in, he seemed to be "SAILING", light, chilled for the want of a better word. It was all down to you. He told me when he was sat in the hall he was cold, it was chilly as they were waiting for you to come to talk to them all. When you entered the room he immediately felt warmth, he wasn't chilly or cold. Thank you, my son was an altar boy at one time but when he was bullied he stopped because they all made fun of him. Today I took him to church and he had confession and the Sacraments. His guardian Angel he tells me is George. Thank you so much for putting strength in his heart, he has a long way to go but this is the start. I haven't seen him so positive like this in over 6 years. I have just downloaded your first book for him to read on amazon kindle.”

At another mission a man came up to me and said that he had killed people but through hearing my story felt that God could even forgive him and he went to confession. Afterwards he was like a new man. Not only does our wonderful God in his mercy forgive us in confession but also gives us the grace to help us to forgive ourselves.

Naturally after four weeks of giving I was beginning to feel quite tired and looking forward to a nice break, when an invite came in for me to speak to about 150 young adults in Birmingham. As I had already booked my ferry back to Ireland it would mean changing the ferry and staying an extra night. However in prayer I felt God  wanted me to give this talk. The moment I walked into the hall where the retreat was taking place I was completely enwrapped in God’s love and his Holy Spirit, with tears flowing down my face. It is sometimes when we give until it hurts that God is able to bless our lives the most.

 When we put God’s plans in front of ours and fully surrender to his will I believe the greatest miracles take place. May we always be obedient to God’s will.

Over the next few weeks I will be getting a good rest and then travelling to Germany on a few mission trips and have many missions retreats and talks coming up.

Please keep me in your prayers and know that each one of you is very much in my heart and prayers.

God bless you in his deep love

John Pridmore

I AM NOT FIT TO UNDO THE STRAP OF HIS SANDALS

I hope you are well. I am writing to thank you for your continued support and prayers for my work of evangelisation and to keep you informed of all the graces which area fruit of those prayers. Since last March I have run 25 parish missions in Scotland, England, Ireland, the United States and Australia and I have been able to travel to several other countries including Spain and Germany to speak at various conferences, retreats, schools and prisons.

After one of these missions in Peterborough the Parish priest told me that 8 new people joined the RCIA program and wanted to become Catholic. Here follows what he thought of the mission

“A month has passed since the mission here at All Souls. I would like to express my wholehearted gratitude for all the hard work during those days of grace. For five nights parishioners were pouring into the Church to listen to talks on the mystery of God’s love, God’s Mercy, God’s healing, God’s gift of Mary and the Holy Spirit. During those evenings they have found the closeness of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, listening to talks on the theme, with adoration, music and scripture readings. The students of our Catholic schools were visited and were so happy to listen to the uplifting and inspirational testimonies on God’s love and came to the church to listen to even more talks. Peterborough prison was also visited with more than 50 inmates inspired by John’s words of humility and sincerity. The people of my parish still talk about the mission and I can see some faces of those who have not been at Mass for a long time. I would recommend John Pridmore to any parish thinking of a mission”

Fr Adam Sowa, Parish Priest St Peter and All Souls Catholic Church, Peterborough

During the visit to Peterborough prison that Fr Adam mentioned, after I had finished speaking I felt inspired to give a copy of my life story to one particular prisoner (it was the only copy I had with me) A couple of days afterwards I was contacted by the Sister who works in the prison and she told me that the man who I had given the book to was in prison for life, he had already served 15 years and had no prospect of release. She visited his cell the day after my talk and she said he fell to his knees in front of her and told her he had read the book in one night and wanted to become a Catholic. This shows you the power of your prayers for our ministry that God can reach into the heart of even the most forgotten of his children and draw them back to him.

I think one of the most important aspects of our work is visiting schools and witnessing to the young people that God is very real and he loves them and can transform their lives. The following are some typical emails I have received recently from Irish schools

 “Hi John, I'm 16 years old and I attend a school you recently spoke at. I really wanted to thank you for the speech you gave, it was truly amazing and inspiring! Sorry if this sounds silly but it really did bring a tear to my eye! Your story made me rethink every wrong I've ever done and think about something positive I could've done instead in each situation. Being honest I've never really thought much about my religion, I don't attend church regularly and sometimes I take most of my privileges for granted... I can relate to how you felt as a child/teenager as I had a difficult time as a young child. Not for the exact same reasons as you but something similar and listening to your story made me realize I'm not alone and I'm not the only one going through a rough time and there is in fact someone at this very second going through something much worse than me and so I should be grateful for all I have! I've never usually turned to God or prayed much and I know I was baptized and confirmed a catholic but I would really like to get in touch with my religious side from now on so I've decided I'm going to attend at least one mass every weekend! I really would like to thank you for this, you never really know how much someone's background story could change a person so quickly!”

 “Hey John, I just wanted to send an email to say thank you. I'm a Catholic myself but I was never brought up to go to mass or pray to God, I was baptized and made my communion but I never had any faith or belief. For years now I've been trying to decide whether I want to continue being Catholic or become atheist and I decided I would become atheist in my own mind. I had never felt or seen any presence of God and Jesus, I never felt special or particularly wanted so I never had faith. When you arrived in our school and we were told what you were here for I instantly turned to my friend and said "Oh here we go, listen to this nonsense for a whole class now". I was soon to find out how that all changed, I realized how powerful and motivating your speech was. This made me think that maybe I didn't give God a chance to show me that he is there with me, maybe he mightn't show me but I know now that he is always there watching and loving whether he shows you or not, and just because you don't feel loved and not special, that doesn't mean you aren't loved less by God and that he will always accept you for who you are whether you made good or bad decisions in life. You've made me notice that God is always there to listen, he will never judge you, laugh at you or tell you that you're useless or too emotional, he will simply listen to you and show you the way to a better life as he did so to you. My grandfather is very religious, He attends mass every Saturday and Sunday, I have asked to join him every Sunday to attend Mass. I'm inspired by you to build a better relationship with God, let him know that I am willing to allow him into my life as I shut him out before. I want to ask him for forgiveness as I didn't give him the chance to help me in my life. I refused to say prayers and I didn't even participate in the prayer you said but the second you were finished speaking, I promised myself that I would go home and make a bigger effort, go to Mass and pray, to go and make up for my mistakes through prayer. Although God doesn't mind, I feel like I owe him an apology” 

I have always believed that the more we give the more we receive. It is a complete privilege and honour that I do not deserve to speak on behalf of Jesus, but it is all Jesus, as he is the source, the beginning and end, the alpha and the omega. I meet many people who become social workers rather than ministers of God’s grace because they forget that it is Jesus who they serve and care more about what people think than what God wants. The way we never forget is through daily prayer, regular confession, receiving the Eucharist as often as possible and never letting go of Our Lady’s hand which is the rosary that keeps us connected to Christ. As St John the Baptist said “I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals” I thank God every day for bringing me to his world of light and giving me the grace to try and serve him each day.

Please pray that I do not get in the way of what Jesus wants me to do.

God bless you in his deep love

John Pridmore      Parish Mission | Catholic Speaker

THOSE WHO ARE FORGIVEN MUCH WILL LOVE MUCH

Hello everyone

As we journey towards Easter during this time
of Lent, having given missions and talks in
Manchester, Greenock, Glasgow, Spain,
Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Ashbourne. I have
been reflecting on how much God gives us
through his friendship, forgiveness and
personal understanding of us. When I was
in Spain during a close examination of
my conscience I understood that Jesus
knows every part of me, my desires, my
aspirations, fears, longings, brokeness and
he had a total acceptance and deep, deep love
which was overwhelming (like the joy a
father has at their new born baby) This
helped me to understand how close God
was to me.

In the second world war, there was a
poster which said "Ask not what your
country can do for you, but ask what
you can do for your country" When we
see what God has done for us, What is
our response? As Jesus said of St Mary
Magdalene "Those who are forgiven
much will love much" and is our
response bringing a joy to God's heart.
Sometimes we think that what matters
to God is loving others but what I feel
God also wants, is for us to love and accept
ourselves. Many people seem to feel
that they fail in loving their neighbour
as they should, but they do not seem
to notice that they fail to love
themselves. I believe this all starts with
ourselves.

Some years ago I met a girl who had
terrible scars on her neck and lower
face from being burnt. She used to
cover half her face with a scarf. After
going to Lourdes she never covered
her face again. She was able to accept
herself. She felt that by letting people
see her face it would remind them of
how beautiful we are to God and how
he sees us completely, inside and out.

When I was at Mass the Gospel spoke
to me very powerfully when Jesus
said "I am the resurrection and the life"
I think that each day and each moment
of the day is Jesus bringing us life
through that same resurrection and this
is our joy, our fulfilment, our hope and
our reality, moment by moment. A
little glimpse of heaven on earth. When
we give a free response to his love and
a total abandonment to his will for us
we will receive more happiness and
joy that we deserve or could ever
understand.

As we prepare ourselves for Holy Week
and the passion which brings us to that
resurrection, maybe we need to take
some quiet time out of our busy lives
and honestly look at our response to
God's all giving, all consuming
unconditional love for us.

Please pray for my up and coming talks
and missions in London, Ireland, Croatia,
Wales and Germany. May each and every
one of you have a blessed Easter.

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore

SET MY CAPTIVES FREE

Hello Everyone

When we look at our world today there seems
many people both young and old who are
completely taken over by the culture of
death, the lies and deceits of the world and
what it offers. Over the last few weeks I
have spoken in many schools in England,
Wales and Scotland, hopefully giving the
young people the truth of Christ.

One priest said to me after one of my talks
in a school "The devil is outragous with
his lies and you destroy his lies with God's
truth" I am always amazed at some of the
incredible teachers who I meet in these
schools that are constantly battling against
the wave of unbelief and bringing many
wonderful seeds to these young people,
with sometimes very little support or
help.

I always feel it is an immense privilege
to be able to share the incredible goodness
and mercy of God through my own story
and to let each young person know of
how important they are to God and this
world, the gifts and talents they can bring
and the miracles they can work when they
open their hearts to what Jesus is calling
them to be. In response to the thousands
of young people I have spoken to over
the last few weeks I received hundreds
of emails which show not only an
openness but a hunger for Christ's truth.

We should never belittle our belief and
hope in the miracles that God can work
through us, but we must have the courage
to say Enough! of this tidal wave of
darkness and know where this tidal wave
comes from. It is not individuals or
organisations but a diabolical plan to take
away peoples innocence and leave them
bereft of the spirit of joy, happiness and
peace which God wants everyone of us
to have as our right in being his children,
loved and begotten by him.

I feel the key to us combatting the
culture of death is to have humility to
say sorry to God when we fall down in
confession and to speak him in honesty
from our heart every moment of every
day, to allow him to run our lives fully
and completely, not holding anything
back. We should not withold anything from
God because he witholds nothing from us,
even laying down his life.

In my own journey the greatest freedom and
peace I have come across is knowing that
there is no part of me that I have to keep
secret from God. The good, the bad and
the indifferent is already known to my
friend Jesus who knows and accepts every
part of me. When Jesus is for us who can
be against us. I pray that each one of us
has the courage to proclaim Enough!
and destroy all the strongholds of a
world consumed by hopelessness.

At one of the schools I went in, there was
a young man of 15 being told off by two
teachers. After my talk I felt inspired by
the Holy Spirit to give him a copy of my
life story and I said to him "Never give
up on yourself as Jesus will never give up
on you" and he burst into tears. Part of
the devils lie is that we have to be good
to know God, but the truth says the exact
opposite, it's in our weakness that his
power is made perfect. I thank God every
day for being so weak.

At the moment I am giving parish missions
in Manchester, Greenock and Glasgow
before giving talks in Spain and Ireland so
your prayers are as always very appreciated.

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore

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