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
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