LISTEN TO THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Hello Everyone

I hope you are well and at peace,

I recently travelled to Verona in Italy to do talks arranged

by the Sisters of St Paul who have published my first book

From Gangland to Promised Land in Italian. I spoke in

 several schools and a parish. After that I shared my story 

in Amsterdam where a talk was set up by the Diocese.

It is an interesting experience to have a talk translated into

another language. It gives you time while the translator is

speaking to really listen to the Holy Spirit, and I would

often end up saying things very differently to usual.

It made me think about the importance of listening to the

promptings of the Holy Spirit in my daily life and not just

rushing around doing things without reference to God. For

many years now myself and the Community I am part of,

do a Holy hour each day, in front of the Blessed Sacrament

whenever possible. I think that the busier we are, the more

important it becomes to stop and spend quality time with

God, not just praying on the move. I am not someone who

finds prayer easy, so I always need to remind myself of this.

A friend of mine, who is a barrister, once said to me that

it is always a temptation for him to dive straight into his

work, because it seems like there is so much to do and so

little time. But he noticed that the days where he put God

first and spent time in prayer in the mornings he received a

clarity about what was important and things just seemed

to fall into place.

It is certainly easy to miss the promptings of the Holy Spirit

because he is usually very gentle, and he gives us free will.

But as Mother Teresa used to say her favourite prayer to

God was "I give you permission". Permission to take me

in a different direction than perhaps I was planning for the

day and to be open to the people he puts in my path.

About a year ago I was speaking to a girl from Slovakia in

a shop, and as we were chatting I felt inspired to give her a

copy of  my first book (which really tells of how God changed

my life). Just a couple of weeks ago I met her again, and to

my amazement she told me how God had deeply touched her

life through the book and she had got Baptised, made her

confession, first Holy Communion and Confirmation.

The book is now translated into seven languages, the latest

of which is Spanish, and it is a constant source of wonder to

me what the Lord can do when we give him permission. That

is the beautiful thing about our faith, he actually chooses the

weak and uses our very weakness to reach out to others.

I had the joy of returning to the parish of Carigaline in County

Cork, to do a second mission there. Just behind the altar there

is a beautiful statue of St Therese of Lisieux (The patron Saint

of Missions) and it reminded me that the first time I came to

that Church. I had just returned from New Zealand, where I

met a Carmelite nun called Sister Dorothea. She told me that

25 years ago, while on a silent retreat, God had revealed to her

that she was to pray for a certain evangelist, and through the

intercession of St Therese, God would bring the fire of his Holy

Spirit to many lives. She never forgot this calling and had

faithfully interceded all those years. When we met at her convent

in New Zealand she knew that the person she was praying for was

myself, and she told me her story.

When I think that 25 years ago I was in the darkest lifestyle

imaginable, caught up in violence and organised crime and all

the things that entails, but God had inspired someone (who

was open enough to listen to him) to pray for me and I will

be forever grateful to him for that. The very next talk I gave

after this meeting with Sr Dorothea was in the Church at

Carigaline, with the statue of St Therese right behind me!

I had the privilege to speak at the miracle rally in London

which was arranged by Damian Staine and the Cor Lumen

Christi Community. They did a fantastic job and are people

of great faith and I know from emails that many people

received immense healing at the weekend.

Whilst I was in England I did talks in a school and confirmation

group in Bury St Edmunds, and the young people were so

open to God and hungry to know him in a more personal way

in their lives.

Just last week I met up with my good friends Emmet and Padraig

and we spent a few days together on a boat on Loch Erne, which

we like to do once a year. As always I felt uplifted and

encouraged by their friendship and faith. On the Sunday morning

we went to Mass in Enniskillen and at the end of the Mass a

man came up to me and said he had stopped going to Church

years ago, but one day his mum gave him a copy of my book.

This had lit the flame of faith in his heart once more and he has

been back at Mass for the last six months.

This showed me once again what can happen when a person is

open to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. I'm sure that mother had

prayed for her son for many years, but God knew exactly when he

would be open to that message.

You are very much in my heart and prayers, please keep me in yours.

God bless you in his deep love

John Pridmore