OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
Hello everyone
I hope you are well and at peace and have
had a blessed Easter.
The first two Parish missions back after
Easter were in Abbeylara in County Longford
and in Clones Town Co Monaghan. It was amazing
to see the faith of the people turning out in
great numbers for both of these weeks, during
one of the reconciliation services a woman came
up and said that she had been very hurt by
something that happened to her, she and her
husband had split up and she had lost custody
of her children. She realised that evening that
she had a lot of unforgiveness about this and
she brought this to the Priest in confession,
afterward she said she had a great joy in her
heart and felt as if a weight had been lifted
from her.
I travelled over to England to help with a
retreat for about 200 teenagers in preparation
for their confirmation, this took place in Ealing.
Before the retreat began I knelt down before a
statue of Our Lady and I felt she was saying she
wanted to touch the young peoples hearts with the
love of Jesus. It was very moving to see this
happening as the day unfolded, the kids were queuing
up in droves to go to confession and also despite
the peer pressure which is always difficult for
teenagers they came forward to be Blessed by Jesus
in the Eucharistic healing service without anyone
even having to ask them. I felt privileged to have
been able to be part of the day.
As each day begins I consecrate everything I do to
Our Lady and invite God into all that I do, even the
smallest things and I find that he always takes up
the invitation, sometimes in very funny ways.I was
due to meet someone for lunch in a Hotel restaurant
and when I arrived I was informed that you had to
be wearing a tie to eat there. So I went back outside
and I noticed there was a Tie Rack shop across the
street, so I went across to buy myself a tie and got
speaking to the shop assistant who was from Mexico,
I told her I had always wanted to visit the Shrine
of Our Lady of Guadalupe and she asked me about myself
and I told her a bit of my story, I felt God wanted me to
give her one of my books which I had with me and she
was delighted when I gave it to her. It is only God with
his sense of humour who could have arranged such a meeting.
When I eventually got into the restaurant I got chatting
to one of the waiters who was from Poland and he asked
me my story and when I told him about what God had done
in my life he was very emotional and he said he was
going to get a copy of my life story. I love these sort of
meetings and am always reminded how infinitely important
each soul is to God.
On the Sunday I spent the day with my brother in London,
for the first time he came to a talk I was giving and
he really enjoyed it and for the rest of the day with
all the people we came across little incidents happened
which he noticed, where I would try to reach out to
the people I met in some way to bring a bit of joy
to their lives. Now of course my brother knew me when
I was a gangster and he was very struck by how much I had
changed because I used to do the opposite. God does
change us and I think the thing which brings joy to my
life is that he wants to be with us in everything and
the times when I get it wrong and don’t love the people I
meet in the way God would wish, I simply say sorry and
start again because Our weakness is not an obstacle for God.
You are very much in my heart and prayers please keep me
in yours.
God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore
Posts
