Hello friends!

Another week begins and how exciting!

I have been so blessed over these last few weeks to meet so many exceptional people with such love for Jesus and understanding of prayer and healing. It really is remarkable how over a short time an utter stranger can become such a good friend!

Yet in God’s eyes it is common sense! We are all brothers and sisters following the same Jesus and Mary and so it makes sense that when we meet we should immediately bond!

It really is a beautiful gift and it allows us to travel around the whole world and to be ‘at home’ everywhere with our extended family of God!

And while today a good friend is leaving another one is coming and this one is not only a part of God’s family, he is also part of my own family and he’s my uncle and Godfather!!

It is an extra special gift when our human families also share our faith and love prayer and it is true that many people do not have this!

So today I am very grateful to God for my uncle Thomas who introduced me to Medjugorje 20 years ago and who hasn’t’t been here since then!

In God’s irony it will now be me introducing him to many things and wonderful people here and praying that Our Lady pours enormous graces over him!

It has been over 2 years since I’ve seen anyone from my family in person so I’m quite excited and it makes me even more grateful to God for all the friends and people who have helped and supported me over these last 2 years!

You know who you are! Thank you for every cup of coffee, for every word of encouragement, for every prayer, for every euro, for every smile, for every tear!

And so today my message is simple! No matter who you are, you all have a family, it may not be family in the conventional since but it is the family of God!

So let us make an extra special effort today to love everyone we meet seeing them all as part of our big family and give God thanks for them and their lives and presence in our lives!

And if we see anyone lonely and excluded, may we be instruments of healing, reconciliation and mercy and open our hearts and lives to them who are even more in need of love, respect and forgiveness.

Bless you all and your ‘families’!

Hello from Medjugorje on this divine mercy Sunday!

Today is a special feast of mercy! Just like before going to any feast, you should come with an empty stomach and a big appetite!

Our empty stomach in spiritual terms is our simple humble hearts empty of pride!

Pride blocks mercy as pride’s motto is ‘Jesus, I trust in myself’ rather than ‘Jesus I trust in you’!!

We all have it as it’s a part of our broken nature so we just must be aware of it and empty our spiritual stomachs of it through a good confession!

Here is where an examination of conscience is vital and where we must ask ourselves questions such as

-Have I judged others and deformed their characters?

-Have I seen myself better than others who seem like far bigger sinners than me?

-Have I surrendered all of my life to Jesus or just the bits that I don’t like?

-Do I pray and spend enough time with Jesus?

-Do I help and defend the poor and the marginalised?

-Do I put my life and reputation on the line for Jesus?

Inevitably we all fall a bit short but the important thing is to be trying!

Jesus needs apostles of mercy. He needs people to give their lives full time to healing and helping others. He is desperate, He is looking….

So what about it? How about you?

Ask Him today for the great grace of His mercy to fall on you so that you may be an instrument of His mercy to the whole world and bring the healing power of His love and friendship to the broken of the broken, to the desperate of the desperate, to the sinners of sinners!

Jesus, I trust in you. Do not let me become comfortable while others are suffering. Mould me, make me, break me, use me!

“We have to have more faith” a girl said to me yesterday!

Yes and no I thought!

You see faith is a supernatural gift and not something we can have more of just like that!

Money I can make more of if I work harder, muscles I can have more of if I go to the gym more often (ironically I have neither of these 2 things!).

But faith?

What can I do to have more faith!

The answer is very simple! You can do absolutely nothing because faith is a gift we receive from God!

However, you can put yourself in a disposition to receive this gift!

Just like a flower will wake up if it is placed in the sun, so too will your heart and faith wake up if you put it in front of the light of God!

As you place yourself before Jesus by going on a spiritual retreat or going to adoration or simply by praying at home, Jesus will begin to act in your heart.

As you slowly read the bible and let it touch you, you will find your faith increasing and what once was information will transform into life and action!

And this is why Jesus asks us to pray and to pray with the heart because without prayer we are like flowers sleeping in a dark room with no light!

And so Jesus asks us to make time for prayer and to make it a priority in our lives!

There will be lots of obstacles and many will tell you that you are a fanatic! Take this as a very good sign that it is working so wonderfully that Satan is getting upset!

And so today, don’t put pressure on yourself to have more faith, it doesn’t work like that. Instead ask Jesus to help you to pray more and to pray with your heart and as you do that He will give you freely and effortlessly the gift of more faith!

Have a prayerful and faithful day!!

Do you believe that Jesus can help you?

Yes, but!!

How often I hear this as I pray with people and especially mothers for their children!

‘I know Jesus can help…but…my little Mary did this and my little Johnny did that and it’s just so awful’.

When Jesus hears this He smiles! With a loving heart He desires to reply back

‘I know little Mary and Johnny too, I know all their lives, their favourite foods, their worries and problems, I can help them, trust me’!

And you see the more you trust the more you are giving Jesus access to them! Remember that trust is the key to grace!

“I am offering people a vessel with which they are to keep coming for graces to the fountain of mercy. That vessel is this image with the signature: “Jesus, I trust in You”…. The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is — trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.” (Diary entry 327)

And so dear friends today I suggest a little spiritual exercise to grow your trust!

1.When you are talking about your problems, listen to yourself and to what you are saying and listen very closely for that little word called ‘but’!

2. And when you hear yourself saying it, smile and add on another ‘but’ by saying ‘but nothing is impossible to God and so I’ll trust in Jesus with it all’.

3. And then change the conversation or your thought process into something positive and remind yourself of all the things God has done either in your own life or for others and ask Him to increase your trust even more!

If you do this every day and make it a way of living you will see miracles and if you wish to advance even more then offer these areas of distrust to Jesus at mass and when you go to confession mention them as sins against belief!

By doing this your problems will turn into the best food for growing your faith and healing your soul and you will be a beaming light of trust and hope even in the darkest holes of life!

So friends, no ‘buts’, just trust, trust and more trust in Jesus who is God and before whom every knee shall bow!

Jesus, I trust in you

Jesus, I trust in you

Jesus, I trust in you

Once I was having a row with my dad about God and life after death! “How do we know what happens, nobody ever came back to tell us” he said with a beaming smile of victory!

“Jesus came back” I replied and the room went silent!

Sometimes we can go to mass and recite the prayers and not even think of what we are saying. Personally I find the apostles creed a very powerful prayer and especially the end part

8.I believe in the Holy Ghost:

9. I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints:

10. The forgiveness of sins:

1l. The resurrection of the body:

12. And the life everlasting. Amen.

We say this at every mass but do we really let it into our hearts. Everlasting life is the most daunting reality it you think about it and makes the bit of time we spend down here seem like a joke!

And yet the quality of our everlasting life after death depends on how we spend this short life here.

When we think of things like this we can’t but put our lives into perspective and ask ourselves a few basic questions such as:

What am I doing with my life?

If I died today where would I go?

How do I get on the right track?

The good news is that God is on our side! He wants us to have a good eternity with him and this is why He has provided us with a spiritual hospital on earth to help us in the form of the Church!

In the Church and through prayer we learn who God is and how He sees each one of us.

We learn that He is a loving merciful God who desires to bring our lives into order and to heal our wounds.

We learn that He has given us spiritual remedies to our wayward hearts in the form of the sacraments and that He is always willing to forgive us and to help us change our lives!

We learn that He wants our good, that His plans for our lives will truly fulfill us and will bring us to heaven with him.

We also learn that we are weak and that it is hard. We learn that there is an enemy to our souls called Satan who does not wish us to reflect on such things as death or eternity!

We learn that Satan desires us to focus exclusively on the pleasures and successes of this life and not give the next life a passing thought!

We learn that ‘everybody will go to heaven’ without any great effort from the father of lies!

But going back to my poor old dad’s comment that “nobody ever came back to tell us”. Well they did and this is what Jesus said

Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’” Luke 9:23.

And 2000 years of saints have shown us that the road to heaven is one of prayer, purpose and sacrifice as we cooperate with God in the purification process for our spiritual souls!

And so today let’s reflect on “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting”.

Are we taking it seriously?

Are we a good example to those around us to take it seriously?

And if not, God is mercy, it’s never too late to start a new chapter of your life and put Jesus at the centre!

Have a holy day!

Mike

When I was a young boy I used to play a bit of sport. In the irish countryside we had mainly hurling and football! Now while I wasn’t bad, I wasn’t what you’d call good either! I was in the middle and when it came to football I was at the bottom! I really hated football!

Ireland is divided into 32 counties and there are national football and hurling competitions between them all! I grew up in county Clare. It wasn’t either the best or the worst, in the middle just like me!

Sometimes on a Sunday Clare would be playing and off we’d go. My dad and brother were really into it while I was more thinking of the chips I might get afterwards! My mum would get pretty into it as well!

I was shy so I could never understand how some people could get so excited about a silly game!!

You see I had never found the deeper meaning to life that I was looking for even then and so I lived a sort of depression or dullness.

And then I met Jesus and I found out about the real football game; light v darkness, Jesus v Satan!

Growing up of course I’d heard of this but not in a way that I really believed or got excited. Jesus rising was a bit like winning the football, nice to hear but what was it to me?!

It was through the Holy Spirit that this story of the resurrection was made a living reality to me and just like some people are sports fanatics, I happily became a Jesus fanatic.

Jesus’ resurrection on easter Sunday is the victory of victories! Even death couldn’t stop Him and then He made that victory available to you and me!

Perhaps as you read this you are thinking that you are like I was before; Jesus is risen, great, no big deal!

And if that’s the case it’s ok! It’s a gift from the Holy Spirit to take it more seriously, you can’t fake it!

And so today, regardless of where you are in your faith why not ask the Holy Spirit to resurrect our hearts and open us to the true spiritual joy of Easter!

So friends, I might not be a sports enthusiast but I certainly am a Jesus enthusiast and following Him and celebrating His victory is the greatest thing in heaven and on earth!

Thank you Jesus for your life, death and resurrection. Open our hearts wide today so that not one bit of your victory be in vain!

Go Jesus!!! HE IS RISEN!!

Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven!

Happy Easter all and wishing you 1000 blessings of the love and peace of Jesus!

Last night I was having a pizza when a man from Austria asked if he could sit at my table as the restaurant was full. As he was already seated when he asked it was more of a fact than a question!

In any case I didn’t mind, until all his friends came and all I could hear was german all around me!

In these circumstances I have learnt to seek God’s will and look for the blessing rather than focus on the inconvenience!

Out of courtesy the lady opposite me asked me who I was and how long I was here etc. I explained to her that I have been on the road since 2008 witnessing and talking about Jesus to whoever will listen to me!

Surprisingly she asked for my testimony and then she introduced me to a larger table of people to share again!

One of them asked if I would pray with her and of course I said yes! And that was the beginning of 3 hours of praying with people, as usual totally unplanned and unexpected!

What hit me is the number of parents worried about their children who have left the church and time after time as I prayed my hand got hot and I heard Jesus say

‘do not worry, allow me to touch your heart instead’.

And then many opened up that they too were feeling that God didn’t love them or that perhaps God was blaming them for the lack of faith of their kids!

Tears rolled down many cheeks as the Holy Spirit touched them and simply said ‘let me heal you first and then I can use you to help them’!

And so it showed me once again that Jesus is so merciful, so gentle, so kind and that He wants to keep healing YOU first and then he’ll use you to heal your family with the overflowing love that he will put in your heart for them!

And so today you may be bogged down by all your worries and a family who don’t believe and you may be begging Jesus to change them!

Yet, Jesus is smiling and He says

“Please, let me heal you even more instead”!

So today, whether you know Jesus for 6 months or 60 years join me in this simple prayer:

“Jesus, it’s me again, poor old me, I need more healing so today Lord I put my worries and family aside and I say HEAL ME”

Have a wonderful day of being loved and healed by Jesus!

Michael

One of the terms that has been used to describe Medjugorje is the ‘confessional of the world’.

One of the main gifts of Medjugorje is the gift of peace and peace comes from being in right relationship with oneself, with God and with neighbour!

And so Our Lady sends her children to the sacrament of healing, confession!

Queen of heaven though she may be, she does not herself have the power to forgive sins and heal souls in this way!

Like a good mother her job is to teach us and guide us and then bring us to the priest in confession who she is helping too!

She is like a super skilled nurse in an operating theatre helping the patient and guiding the surgeon during the operation!

She might inspire you to confess or talk about certain issues that you had forgotten or she may inspire the priest to ask you certain questions to help free you!

Either way, she knows what she is doing!

Born free of sin Our Lady never knew the disconnect we feel. She was in union with God and at peace with herself and she desires us to experience the same thing!

Confession of course isn’t a one stop wonder. Our Lady encourages everyone to go once per month because she knows that our souls need ongoing healing because we are not perfect!

Holiness is a way of life rather than a one day or one week trip!

Our Lady needs us to decide to become Holy, to follow the way of God, to seek healing for our souls, to take responsibility for our pasts, to give Jesus our futures!

It is not easy, it takes time, soul searching, a lot of pain and honesty with oneself and others.

Yet, it is the only way and when you see thousands of people of all ages lining up for confession here in Medjugorje you realise that you are not alone!

So today, why not turn over a new page in life! Decide to become a saint and put the care of your soul at the centre of your life!

And where does it all begin?!

Yep! The confessional!

Our Lady, guide us and guide our priests to make humble and healing confessions that allow the grace of God into our deepest wounds and cravings for love!

Bless you all and pray for our priests!

Michael

Hi all,

Today I was reading a few pages of a book about Medjugorje.

I stumbled on one of the first messages or Our Lady:

“I am here to tell you that God exists and that God loves you”.

It is a shockingly simple message and yet if we think about it very powerful.

There are 2 parts:

1. God exists

How many people today deny this with every sort of explanation from genius to plain insanity and as a result live their lives with no prayer and no bigger picture of why God made them and how he may like them to live their lives.

Here in Medjugorje one meets many converts and many are still healing from the mistakes of their pasts.

2. God loves you

At one level it sounds obvious but a priest once said to us

“God loves you, how do you respond to him”

and that was the start of his own journey to the priesthood!

You see it’s easy get caught up in the ‘God loves me and so I do as I please’ mentality but we must pass from that to the ‘why and what can I do for God’ mentality!

God is a person, 3 if we get technical and if He loves us then He’d like to spend time with us, to guide us, to heal us, to show us the road to true happiness!

Just like a loving Dad He has our best interests at heart and knows us inside out!

At times we have our own ideas about what’s good for us and we can be afraid that this ‘loving God’ will trick us into a life of misery!

However this isn’t true, God is calling us all to a personal relationship with Him and an encounter of His love and presence.

Many people come to Medjugorje and they experience God for themselves!

For some it’s as they wander on the mountains and a supernatural peace hits them and at times they cry spontaneously!

For others they go to confession after 30 years and are blown away by the freedom in their souls and the love and kindness of the priest!

Others are deeply moved at Eucharistic adoration where thousands kneel and sing in a climate of prayer and peace.

For others it is the people they meet as they come. God puts the right people on our paths and at times these encounters can leave us utterly amazed!

And so on and so on!

So you see, Medjugorje is a place where God is revealing in a personal and experiential way that

1. He exists and

2. He loves you

and He is using His humble servant, Our Blessed mother, to assist Him!

So come to Medjugorje if you haven’t been and if you have well then come back!!

And remember! God exists and God loves you.

May your day be filled with little signs of His love for you today as you wander about!

Michael

Yesterday I had a funny experience. I had a bit of a stomach bug so needed to use the toilet!

It was a public toilet and I had to pay which is not unusual!

The unusual bit came afterwards when I came out of the toilet and I was asked to pay again!

Now I’ve heard theories that people who are overweight should have to pay for more space on an aircraft but I’ve never come across this in a toilet before!!

Now I will admit that I did get value for money but still!!

The issue was that I flushed twice (rather than a weigh system!!)

While it is sort of funny, it is also sad that the world can be so ‘aggressively secular’ as the preacher said this morning!

However, it does also make me think and appreciate more the church.

We can go to church for free, we can receive Holy Communion for free, we can go to confession for free!

We can go to prayer meetings for free, we can talk to a priest for free, we can visit Jesus at the Blessed sacrament for free. We can go for healing prayer for free!

Just like the toilet example, at times we can take so much for granted!

So today let’s take a moment to thank God for the gift of the church and our priests and all those in ministry! Sure there are problems like everywhere but when we think of all that is made freely available to us we can’t but say thank you!

Bless

Michael