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

WOUNDS FROM OUR PAST

After coming back from Australia I returned

to Ireland and had the joy of my mum

staying with me for a week. For the last 3

years my mum has been completely free

from any depression and it is a blessing to 

see her so happy and full of life. I thank God 

for my mum as it was her prayers that 

really changed me and brought me to 

my conversion.

My mum struggled with depression since

I was ten (for over forty years) Three years

ago she went on a retreat which was about

healing memories and wounds of the past.

Through one of these memories being 

healed the result was that she hasn’t been

depressed since, which is a complete

miracle.

After some time of rest I ran a healing retreat

in Ards friary, Donegal for past wounds. It was

an amazing blessed weekend with many people

saying it changed their lives, and in some 

peoples cases you could see the physical 

change in them because of the spiritual 

healings they received.

I often feel that God wants us to be healed and

free to enjoy all the blessings he wants to give 

us, but as the famous phrase says “grace works

on nature” and sometimes we have to invite God

into the areas of our past where we have been

wounded and hurt, I remember in my own 

life after some time of being with God I realised I

was still addicted to gambling and even though

I had made a promise to God that with his grace

I wouldn’t gamble. I still struggled every day to 

keep this promise. I was in Arizona giving some talks 

when I got a whisper in my head to go to Las

Vegas. Because I thought I had been healed

from my addiction I went to Las Vegas and 

ended up gambling again and losing a couple

of hundred dollars. There is a big difference

between surpressing our compulsions and darkness

than to allowing Gods light and love to heal us.

On this same trip to Las Vegas I went into a

Church feeling sorrowful and ashamed and

allowed God’s love to touch my heart in that

area where the addiction was manifest. Maybe

this wound was created by low self esteem or

low self worth as I feel it was God telling me 

in prayer that he loved every part of me that 

transformed and healed my heart. From that

day to this, I have never had the desire to

gamble.

Probably most of us have parts of our lives which

we’d like to change but cannot seem to.

Firstly we need to ask God where the root of

these problems are and this may take some

time in prayer to get the answers. Then we 

need to invite God into that memory and to

heal it and not be ashamed of it. St Teresa of

Avila speaks in her book “The Interior Castle”

about allowing God’s love to transform all the 

rooms of our heart. I believe the freedom that

God wants us to enjoy in our everyday lives

depends on the effort we put into this process.

It is not enough to ask God to heal us, we have

to be willing to work with him to pinpoint the

wounds and with his help transforms those

wounds into scars (The Sacrament of confession 

can be a great grace in this) The thing that stops 

us from allowing God’s light and love into those 

rooms are fear and shame. But as God is all seeing 

and all knowing what are we ashamed of or

afraid of. Often when I’m praying with people 

I get a picture of them looking at a reflection

of themselves and throwing stones at the relection.

And Jesus takes the stones from their hands and

say “Behold my beautiful daughter, behold my 

beautiful son”

Since the healing weekend I have given parish

missions in Limerick and Bandon. Also I travelled

to Phoenix USA, where I spoke at a parish, a university

and a conference. I thank God every day for the

privilege it is to try and serve him and I pray that 

each one of us might begin to see ourselves and

accept ourselves and love ourselves as Jesus

does.

Please keep my work in your prayers as I will be

giving parish missions in Ireland, England and

Scotland and travelling to France and Florida to

give talks and conferences.

God bless you in his deep love

John Pridmore

EVERLASTING FRUITS

I hope you are well and at peace. Since last I

spoke to you I have been in Australia for two

and a half months speaking to about 17,000

teenagers, giving 5 parish missions and a

number of talks in prisons, churches, hotels

and even banquet halls. My tour of Australia

took me to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane,

Wagga, Albury and Griffin.

It was a very blessed time with lots of Miracles,

I had a number of people who came up to me

saying how they had heard me speak at World

Youth Day in Sydney in 2008. One lady who is

now a Nun said she heard me when she was

twelve and knew she was to become a Nun

and had been one for 2 years now. Another

man said he was not going to Mass when he

heard me and now goes every day, many people

said my talks at world youth day changed their

lives. This helped me to understand how Gods

Fruits are everlasting.

I think it is incredible how when God wants

something to happen he opens all the doors.

When Michael (a young man from Australia

Who spent 15 months with me in community)

approached me about running parish missions

in Australia I told him I would only come if he

could arrange 5 missions as it is a very long

way to travel for anything less. I was doubtful that

would happen as it is very difficult to organize

that many missions. But sure enough he got

the missions and countless other talks

snowballed from there. It is a very beautiful

thing to see the hand of God at work!

To speak to so many Teenage school children

was wonderful, many times speaking to 1200

young people at a time, with lots of Grace and

hearts being changed. I met some great

teachers who were only there for God and to

bring the young people closer to Jesus.

In this year of Mercy it was inspiring to see so

many people return to confession with lots of

priests saying how they heard  confessions

over 30,40,50 years in the parish missions.

The world needs Mercy and we have this

powerful grace in the Sacrament of

reconciliation where lives are truly healed and

transformed. One man emailed to tell how

after going to confession for the first time in

years, he went home and just began to weep

at the love and mercy he was experiencing.

He told how a great weight was lifted from

him and a massive healing took place in his

heart.

I had a lot of people praying for this tour

and thank you for all your prayers, You did not

see the Miracles I saw and the tears running

down peoples faces as their hearts were being

touched by the love of Jesus. But hopefully one

day you will see in Heaven as Gods everlasting

fruits are revealed.

Some years ago after Cardinal Cook had given

a talk to 5000 people and was receiving a standing

ovation. He said “Who is the real instrument of God?

Me, or the man praying the Rosary for this talk”

Thank you for all your prayers, and please pray I do

not get in Gods way.

You are very much in my heart and prayers.

John Pridmore