Monthly Archives: Dec 2015

A week of encounters

25 Fri Dec 2015

Posted by in Mini testimonies

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This last week has been very special, primarily as it has been jam packed with the most unusual of encounters. So I left my parents house permanently about a week ago and hit the road trusting in God for the rest…

Last weekend I slept in a hostel in Ireland’s Galway while attending a retreat. What would be the odds of sharing a dorm with an american dude big into the Holy Spirit and his female friend who had a large book called ‘Spiritual Warfare’. Needless to say we got talking…..and praying. I met a group of super nice folk in Galway before being prompted to leave.

I then meandered to my local town Ennus where once again I stayed in a hostel. Arriving at midnight there was only one other person in my dorm. He had a book on his bag all about the fine line between spiritual experiences such as astral projection, shamanism and psychiatric terns….coincidence no, god incidence yes!!

Next morning we got talking and I had a great opportunity to pray with him but also educate him on some things that he was dabbling in. But half way through our chat we were interupted by a little french lady….she needed a lift to Limerick, I was going to Limerick…and of course she too was a spiritual seeker with a background in esoteric buddidm and catholicism. She offered to buy me lunch and pay for the trip, we went to Church and prayed together and she then invited me to France….

Leaving her I visited my gay friends and had a great night out with them (who also offered to help me with accomodation) before leaving yday to drive to Cork where I’m spending Christmas with a prayer friend and her family.

This week has been fun. Exhausting but fun. I think the biggest lesson is to being open to God reaching out and helping me through very unlikely sources. I saw Jesus in and through all these people and I hope they caught a glimpse of him in me. I don’t hide my faith se but when I do share, I share on God’s love and God’s mercy and how he chooses poor innocent fools and sinners such as myself to work through!

Perhaps an odd way to spend Christmas and yet no odder than God becoming man in a stable with a donkey!

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Pray for me….it isnt always plain sailing!

Sexuality…can it be changed?!

22 Tue Dec 2015

Posted by in All Posts, Sexuality

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Recently I casually shared a post on sexuality. As far as I was concerned I wrote nothing special so you can imagine my surprise when I got over 20 times the average number of hits than other post!!

So here I’m asking the question about change in sexuality. I think it could be split into 2 questions

– Can a person change how they live their sexuality….going from say very promiscuous to celibate

-Can someone with gay desires ‘change’

My thoughts…..

Without a miracle then No! This sounds ridiculous to even suggest and an insult to modern minds.

But with a miracle….anything is possible! So in a way it all boils down to miracles….does the spiritual exist or not. If it does surely it’d be fair to say that the God who made us can also transform us. If not then game over I guess!

Of course I have and am blessed to experience thousands of miracles in my own life and so believe without a shadow of a doubt in God’s power to transform us but am I some rare exception from another planet or is what I experience open to everybody?!

The reality is that the spiritual is indeed open to everybody but sadly and very sadly the vast majority of us are not taught how to access it, primarily due to vast levels of corruption in the Church itself.

In my own life God intervened directly before I commit suicide. He then brought me on a remarkable journey of spiritual transformation which has utterly transformed all aspects of my life, sexuality included.

However what confused me more than any other thing on my journey is why the Church wasnt screaming from the rooftops about God’s power to heal and how it works. We all know that Jesus died to save and heal us….so where are the healings?!!  They exist alright but they are well swept under the carpet and hidden away just like I have been!!

So if you are puzzled today about sexuality, know that God loves you, He is aware of the lack of belief in the supernatural in the Church. He knows too that without the supernatural you can’t change…..but the good news is that you can invite God into your life without anybody else’s help. Simply say a simple prayer like ‘God come and help’.

But do be aware that often God works slowly. Spiritual transformation is a process (read lives of the saints). The important.thing is to be on the journey and to believe in Jesus!

Bless
Michael

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Can you hear God?

19 Sat Dec 2015

Posted by in Holy Spirit & Prayer

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Some people wish they could hear God’s voice, the good news is that they can!

Consider all the ways that you communicate with your friends..phone, Skype, email, talking, hug, Facebook, hand gestures….the list is endless….God is our friend and he communicates with us in many different ways. Here are just some, the important thing isn’t having magic charisms to hear God. The important thing is to obey him

-The ten commandments. God wants us all to obey these guys and they are written down in plain English for us!!

-Friends, often God will speak through your friends. You mightn’t even know it’s God!!

– Bible, as you meditate on scripture and ponder what it means or how it applies to you. The Holy Spirit is sure to be in there inspiring at least some of your thoughts

– Your conscience, that little internal GPS that God programmed to get you to heaven!

-Nature, often God speaks to us through nature.

– Charisms, some people have dreams and visions and prophetic words where God speaks to them directly, others see or hear angels or the saints or Jesus himself…….but these people also read the Bible, God doesnt communicate with them like this 24/7!

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The list could go on and on. Some people may have all of these and other ones, others may have just one or two but remember that it really all goes back to loving God and neighbour and doing our very best with the 10 commandments.

And just adding a little note, often as we concentrate on what God wants us to do then other life decisions just fall into place automatically and things sort of just work out by default!!

In summary. Keep it simple, love God and he’ll take care of the rest!

Healing the family tree

16 Wed Dec 2015

Posted by in All Posts, Healing

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Consider an old house where your grandparents used to live. Imagine that there was an old open fire. Now 100 years later after they have passed away you can still smell the smoke, like it is in the walls.

Such is also the case when it comes to our family tree!

Unhealed sins are like the smoke that penetrates into the walls. Often bad spirits are attached. If the sins of our ancestors have never been brought to God, then the effect of the sin and the attached spirits linger in the family tree. We see this when the same bad fortune seems to pass from one generation to the next. Cancers, depression, anxiety, alcohism, addictions, suicide are just some of the inherited spirits…..and often the person who is victim to them will not respond to any medication or self help programs as the root has not been eliminated!

So what do we do? Going back to the old Smokey house, we need to clean out the smoke on behalf of our ancestors. We do this by repenting on behalf of our ancestors for sins that we feel may never have been repented of. Often the Holy Spirit will help us with this as will older family members who know all the juicy family gossip!!

Bringing all these sins to Jesus, preferably in the presence of a knowledgeable priest or gifted lay minister we ‘clean up our family tree’ and the priest or gifted lay person will command all evil spirits to leave and curses to be broken.

The Holy Spirit and God’s angels should then be invited to fill this spiritual place.

You may not notice a difference immediately just as weeds don’t disappear immediately when you put down weedkiller but you will certainly notice a difference over time as the power of evil goes and God’s blessing comes. People who have struggled with addictions suddenly make massive breakthroughs, at times illnesses miraculously disappear..

Now if the house is very Smokey then you may need to wash it out more than once and so similarly if your ancestors had colourful pasts then you may need to continue doing this regularly, each time progress will be made.

The good news is that if one person does this, it will benefit the entire family…

Jesus came to heal us but he needs us to cooperate with the spiritual laws so we can enjoy his blessings!

Maybe you can clean up your family tree and bring invisible blessings to all your loved ones this Christmas by healing your family tree. Similarly if you are a parent and are worried about your kids and what they may inherit from the ancestors, find out more about how to cut off the spiritual junk and pour blessings all over your family!

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God Father

14 Mon Dec 2015

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In Catholic circles children are given 2 God Parents. Their role is to help the parents in the spiritual development of their child.

Today I wish to thank God for the wonderful God Father he gave me, my uncle Thomas.

When I met the Lord Thomas jumped into my life. He bought me my first rosary beads, he taught me how to pray, he explained to me how the Holy Spirit works and especially the different gifts. He taught me about Jesus, mass, prayer and spiritual warfare, he defended me against other family members who did not understand. He spent hours on the phone to me as I travelled alone around the globe. He was my rock!

In today’s society many do not take their responsibility as God parent seriously and so this makes me all the more grateful to God for giving me a God Father, friend and uncle all in one!!

Thank you Thomas. You saved my life by believing in me when nobody else did. You have been an amazing father figure to me where my own Dad fell short. You are an amazing person and testimony to what being a god parent really means.

Anybody who reads this, pray a blessing on Thomas!

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Fear of gays!!

14 Mon Dec 2015

Posted by in All Posts, Sexuality

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Fear is a funny monster, it holds us back from doing what we should!

Why isn’t there more help in the Church for people with homosexual tendencies……fear!!

Fear works on lies, lies that all gays are child abusers or perverts, lies that homosexuality is above God’s forgiveness or that God hates gays or that they have no place in the Church unless they be fully healed and converted!

Fear has a first cousin, shame. Shame says that people with a homosexual orientation are less than others, that they are not proper men or women. Shame causes parents to be embarassed, shame invites its friends, depression, isolation, anxiety, silence…….suicide.

Fear and shame immobilise people, they silence people, they condemns people in the jail cell of their own thoughts.

But Jesus says that the truth will set you free, he says to come as you are, he says that he loves us all, that nothing is beyond him, that we are all important to him and that we all have a place in the Church, broken as we may be.

Jesus was a great example of somebody without fear. He had no problem in not only forgiving Mary Magdelaine but in also becoming her friend. Can you imagine the rumours that may have spread with this single man hanging around with a prostitute…..did he care?

If you know somebody struggling with their sexuality. Tell them God loves them, be prepared to listen, they will need a lot of support and they will need to talk. Release them from the prison of silence and fear..you might just save their life.

Sexuality

14 Mon Dec 2015

Posted by in All Posts, Sexuality

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When I came back to Ireland there was a gay marriage referendum which was subsequently accepted.

Similarily all over the world it’s all about gay rights…

As somebody who knows only too well from my own journey the struggles with dealing with homosexuality and being a christian here are some of my thoughts…..

-God is a god of mercy, he loves everybody, gay, hetero…

-The Church offers very little pastoral support and practical help to people in the sexual areas…God will surely take this into account.

-While I agree with Church teachings on homosexuality, let’s not forget that heterosexual people are also challenged….

Whatever your sexual orientation adultary, pornography, masturbation, pre marital sex are all sinful according to the Church.

I think that it is very unfair to single out gay people. To offer them no help, no support and then to condemn them.

I speak out of personal experience. I was kicked out of many church places and utterly silenced in many more because of my testimony. If Church people cant love and welcome somebody like me who actually agrees and does his best to live their teaching…what chance do they have of loving others? The answer is none, they will be like the blind hypocretes that Jesus spoke of in the Bible putting heavy loads on people and not lifting a finger to help them!

On the day of judgement all of us will have to stand before God, not just the gays!

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Mary miracle

13 Sun Dec 2015

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This is to give honour to the intercession of Our Lady!

5 years ago in France I developed a medical problem that required a number of operations. Hospital is never fun and even less so abroad.

I felt very lonely but prayer comforted me. After the 2nd operation I asked the surgeon if she was done…

No she said, there will be a third operation and most likely a fourth. I could take no more, it was too hard…i cried out to Our Lady for help..

Some 6 weeks later I came back and was once again wheeled into the theatre and put to sleep.

On awakening I heard some nurses pointing at me and laughing

”c’est toi la personne qui s’est fait endormi pour rien”

You are the person that was sent to sleep for nothing!!

I drifted back to sleep and woke later not knowig if it was a dream or reality but sure enough the surgeon came over later to confirm that it was true. Our Lady took over and praise God I never had to go back to hospital for that!

Of course the surgeon never admitted there was a miracle. For some reason most of the french people I met were quite hostile to miracles and to the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit which is strange when we consider Lourdes….but human pride never likes the supernatural!! Maybe God stuck me in their midst to open their minds. Who knows!

Anyway, all to say that Our Lady is still in the miracle business (even in France!!), she is very good and she doesn’t charge! Sometimes she heals us, other times she gives us the grace and strength to continue and sometimes, like in my case, it is a bit of both!

One thing is sure, she is real and she loves us!

Pray to Our Lady…she is beautiful.

Contradictions of Church Life

12 Sat Dec 2015

Posted by in All Posts, Evangelisation

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When I first encountered God I thought it was fantastic, the Spirit sent me off to France and I couldn’t wait to meet other like minded people!!

Arriving in the town of Toulon and finding all hotels booked out, I drove to the next little town where I found a place to stay!!

I attended the local church a few times and after a few weeks met the priests. Excitedly I told them of my conversion story….but something was wrong! Soon I was to learn that they didnt believe me! They thought that I was mad!!

Now I’d have expected medical doctors to consider me mad but priests… Was it so silly to expect them to understand the spiritual? Fortunately God gave me a very spiritually mature uncle and every time things got too hard Our Lady intervened with miracles but to this day I find it sad!

Our priests are especially loved and chosen by God to become spiritual doctors but helas many know next to nothing about the spiritual world and doubt its very existence. Others have let psychology blind them. Think of a dentist who doesn’t know how to fill a tooth….such is a priest who doesn’t know how to pray with people….useless and good for nothing!!

But later I was to learn that they were and are not responsible for their ignorance. A short year in the seminary (which I subsequently dubbed the ‘cemetery’) taught me that future priests receive next to no training on such topics as spiritual healing and the various spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. In fact very often they receive false training and scientific and worldly explanations which actually contradict Church teaching on the spiritual.

Now this is not to run down our priests but rather to highlight the desperate need for Holy and Spiritual priests, some of whom I’ve met and have nothing but the greatest respect for.

It is important however to be aware that if you are suffering from a spirirual affliction or have recently encountered the Holy Spirit in a tangible way then unfortunately in today’s world it is highly unlikely that your local parish priest will understand you. Instead may I suggest you seek out a charismatic priest or reputable lay person with the approptiate gifts of the Holy Spirit. This will save you much pain and hardship of being misunderstood and ridiculed!

Please pray also that we may have priests like the Cure of Ars (the patron of priests who certainly had no doubts or inhibitions in healing the thousands and thousands that went to him!)

India

12 Sat Dec 2015

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Towards the end of my 3rd year in France I went to speak to a priest near the Paris area! I spoke to him of my interest in the Holy Spirit and spiritual healing and of the various difficulties i had in finding a spiritual home in France! Humbly and rather quickly he told me that I should leave France, that the frenchies were far too rational!! In a way I was sad, but after 3 years I knew he was right.

‘Pourqoui pas aller a un pays en developpement comme l’Inde ou l’Afrique’  (Why not go to a developping country such as India or Africa) he said.

 

india

I looked at him, ready to explode on the inside and said to him..

In our irish language we have a phrase…

‘is fearr beagan cabhair no moran trua’ (a bit of help is better than a lot of pity)

And looking straight into his eyes I said that I have no money, a family who doesn’t understand me, how on earth am i going to get to India or Africa?!!

Now a door was going to open or slam shut in my face…it opened!! He organised to ring his religious brother in India and it was arranged that I would arrive over 2 weeks later!!! I had no real time for vaccinations so the Holy Spirit just told me he’d look after me… which by the way he did as I wrecklessly ate everything I got over there, drank water bla bla bla…..God is above all that when he wants to be!!

 

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I cried as I left France, I hadn’t seen any family for 3 years despite constantlly praying that one day they’d come to accept me…and now what was God doing? Sending me to India of all places where I knew absolutley nobody!! Trust, trust, trust….God was asking me to trust!

Arriving in Chennai some half a day later after a sleepless flight with Euro 30 in my pocket I got my bag and exited the airport! A swarm of taxi men surrounded me dressed in a sort of yellow colour, bumble bees! They would bring me to my destination some 3 hours away for 2500 rupee (about 25 euro). However I knew that there was a bus for just under 60 rupee and I was rather annoyed that they wouldn’t tell me where to get it!!!

Eventually I got angry and walked off to find the bus which ironically was only 20 metres away! At this stage I had changed my money and had 3000 rupee in 3 notes of 1000 each. When the busdriver asked my for the fare and I handed him a 1000 rupee bill he shouted at me ‘get off’!!! Welcome to India i thought!! Anway, I’m used to my faith being tested so I wasn’t going to let this bother me and saying a quick prayer another man jumped up and offered to pay for me!! Thank you God!!

There was now only one problem, because there were no seats I was invited to sit beside the busdriver on the gearbox looking straight out the window. Now for anybody that doubts the existance of God, may I suggest that you visit India and take a bus there! The rule is that there are no rules! Buses overtake buses when there are buses coming, people, cars, motorbikes, cows on the road….for the european chaos….especially after a really long flight with no sleep when you are the only white person sitting on the gearbox of the bus thinking ‘you guys probably think i’m rich and I bet you’ve got more money than me’

 

road

3 hours later and after the best rosary of my life I reached my stop. It was now after 9.30 pm and I still needed to find the monastery where I would be staying outside the town of Pondicherry. I asked somebody if they knew where it was…nope….another guy…bingo, he offered to drive me there on one of those bikes that look half like a motorbike and half like a pushbike! I was so thankful for his kind heart until he stretched out his hand for a tip!!! Emmm, the world is the same all over!! It was now 10 pm and all the lights were off and the gates closed….dear Jesus I thought, I can take no more…I knocked on the door of an adjacent house and they let me in!!

 

I was warmly welcomed by a french priest who showed me my room, there were lizard running along the wall but they were harmless so I was to take no notice!! I asked for the chapel where I was to spend the  next 3 hours….

 

chapel

 

The next day I was still a Zombie. I was shown around the monastery and orphanage where I would be teaching english and making myself useful in any other way possible!  All the orphan kids were HIV+ and yet radiated such peace and joy, it really made me think of life and the deeper meaning and how empty life in the west can be.

 

mike

 

But the greatest challenge was yet to come…teaching english to Indian brothers! Now little did I know how hard that would be. Despite english being my native language, I hadn’t used it for 3 years and so had become accustumed to thinking and speaking in french. I found it quite a challenge switching back (something that i did not expect) and it took me 5 months to begin to think in english once again. Furthermore, I liked maths in school, not english so I did not have a clue of english grammer and thank God for spellcheck when it comes to spelling……..So when I had all these indians asking me about past participles and future perfects and infinitives and conjugasing verbs I felt that I’d have a better chance teaching them chinese! But years of experience have taught me how to handle such situations in a way that I came away looking no less stupid and they came away no wiser!!

After a few weeks I was into the swing of things, up at 6 each morning for morning prayer, adoration and mass with the monks, teaching english mid moring and then working 3 afternoons per week in one of mother Theresa’s orpahanages.

 

sisters

 

It was here where I saw the miracle of Sophia who miraculously walked as I prayed for her.

 

Four months in and 2 to go I began to get itchy feet….what was i going to do when I came back to Europe?! I hadn’t exactly found what i was looking for in France and I had no real contact with Ireland and certainly no spiritual support! Anyway, faith wouldn’t be faith if we had all the answers to it was yet another call to trusing in Jesus Christ!

One Sunday after mass the Lord came through dramatically! A profound supernatural experience came over me in which Jesus told me to pack my bags, to leave the monastery, to travel about 12 hours accross India to a catholic retreat centre and that he’d send me somewhere else in the world from there! It is hard to describe such experiences, even now as I write about it, it seems surreal but yet I know that it is true!

 

I said my goodbyes and the monks (worried) thanked me for all my help and said their farewells. Our Lady gave me a profound peace on that bus journey, I felt her presence together with my guardian angel who comforted me! Despite the utter uncertaintly all i could feel was peace, joy and that childlike sense of adventure! Later I arrived at the largest Catholic Retreat Centre in the World………The Divine Retreat Centre! They welcomed thousand of retreatants each week and were very very gifted in the whole area of inner healing and the workings of the Holy Spirit! Finally I was with fellow crazy people!! “If the frenchies and my family could see this i thought, they may see that there is method to my madness”!!

 

me

A few days later I was introduced to the superiour of the retreat centre who welcomed me to stay for the remaining 2 months and who organised for me to get to Australia.

 

During this period I was shown around the entire retreat centre by brother Anthony who was later to come to Australia. The hospitality, warmth and generosity of the Indian people utterly amazed me as did their faith and spirituality. Us westerns may have more money but money isn’t everything!

 

ja

 

I do hope to visit India again! I also hope that more of the Indian missionaries will visit our countries and help us renew our faith and bring the healing power of Jesus to our shores!

 

Anyway, thank you India for everying! I had fun! Pray for me! Biggest lesson that this taught me…trust…trust in God for absolutely everything and never ever give up!