Good morning from London!

How exciting to be here after 13 years and how much life has changed!

23 year old Michael came here for an important job interview 13 years ago. He was young, he was smart and the world was his oyster!

He did that interview and it went so well that he cried in the toilet afterwards as he changed out of his suit and into his jeans. He knew he’d get the job as he told them what they wanted to hear and his technical expertise could not be faulted!

So why did he cry?

Because even then he was lost, he had no idea that nervous breakdown after nervous breakdown after nervous breakdown was to follow or that God had any plan for his life…..but what he did know is that he wasn’t happy!

And so today at 36 as I sit in this coffee shop I have some tears. The last 13 years of my life are still integrating into the past and it’s mindblowing how much life has changed!

As I see Toni here this morning I smile. The little guy I met 7 months ago in the coffee shop has made it to London! Nearly everybody went against us including his own people and yet here he is!

Was it the Holy Spirit that organised that when we got off the train we immediately bumped into one of our Croatian friends who was actually going to come to London with us before fear and people-pleasing got the better of her!

Sadly we clashed with the charismatic community over there who were not open to LGBT issues. Darka, their leader was a closed door and looking back perhaps her name was prophetic as this sort of attitude does indeed come from the “dark” side!

And so here is little Toni, 22, without a penny, no family and he has given up all to follow Jesus.

How much Jesus must smile on him this morning as he looks at London and feels scared and overwhelmed and yet full of courage to continue!

And as I write this I too am overwhelmed with gratitude to be the instrument of Jesus used to help Toni!

I’ve been beaten down at every twist and turn and yet here I am 13 years later back in London to be a witness of God’s love and hope to the world!

London is very expensive so please double your prayers for us, pass on this blog to anybody who may be interested in helping us financially and if you have any fund-raising ideas for us please share!!

In the meantime, may God bless you all, never give up on your dreams or lose hope in God for God has a plan for us all!

Special prayers for little Toni who starts his new life today! What a brave little soldier!

Bless all

Mike

http://www.gofundme.com/bridge-of-love

Hello from England!

We arrived in Liverpool this morning and are on a train to London as I write!

So far so good and already a little smile from heaven!

I was on the train from the ferry port when I noticed the lady beside me reading some sort of a prayer book. To be honest I wasn’t sure at the start if it was a prayer or a horoscope but then I saw “pray more from the heart”!

So we got talking and she too had been converted by a vision of Jesus. Showing her my rosary beads she smiled and said that she prays for Catholics!

“We are the one true Church”

she said is what her catholic friends say to her but

“they don’t know Jesus” she gasped with sadness!

As she said it I couldn’t but smile thinking of my Medjugorje Rosary beads and of course Our Lady’s message to “pray wity the heart”!

How wonderful to see that our protestant brothers and sisters are receiving the same message and are praying for us too!

Now obviously many Catholics do know Jesus and not all protestants are born again and yet how wonderful that through this personal relationship with Jesus I could immediately connect with a stranger in a foreign land!

And that reminds me of what I read on the wall of the hostel yesterday

“there is no such thing as strangers, just friends we haven’t met yet”!

Let us pray for Christian unity and spare a thought for us too as we arrive in the city of London at 12.15 pm to begin a new adventure with Jesus!

Bless you all!

Hello from England!

We arrived in Liverpool this morning and are on a train to London as I write!

So far so good and already a little smile from heaven!

I was on the train from the ferry port when I noticed the lady beside me reading some sort of a prayer book. To be honest I wasn’t sure at the start if it was a prayer or a horoscope but then I saw “pray more from the heart”!

So we got talking and she too had been converted by a vision of Jesus. Showing her my rosary beads she smiled and said that she prays for Catholics!

“We are the one true Church”

she said is what her catholic friends say to her but

“they don’t know Jesus” she gasped with sadness!

As she said it I couldn’t but smile thinking of my Medjugorje Rosary beads and of course Our Lady’s message to “pray wity the heart”!

How wonderful to see that our protestant brothers and sisters are receiving the same message and are praying for us too!

Now obviously many Catholics do know Jesus and not all protestants are born again and yet how wonderful that through this personal relationship with Jesus I could immediately connect with a stranger in a foreign land!

And that reminds me of what I read on the wall of the hostel yesterday

“there is no such thing as strangers, just friends we haven’t met yet”!

Let us pray for Christian unity and spare a thought for us too as we arrive in the city of London at 12.15 pm to begin a new adventure with Jesus!

Bless you all!

Hello folks!

At last it’s time to go to London where we will be living for the foreseeable future!

How do we decide? Simple, Jesus tells us in prayer!

For me it’s very exciting as I love big cities! Split I found small, Medjugorje is like a village but London should be just right!

We take the ferry tonight from Belfast to Liverpool from where we’ll take a bus to London!

Providence continues to provide for us with a very kind sponsor who is paying for our travel and lots of little blessings along the way!

I must admit that I really enjoyed the last week or so in Belfast and am very grateful to everyone I met!

Your welcome and kindness has been amazing and it makes me proud to be irish!

And so England here I come. It must be 13 or 14 years since I’ve visited England so I’m looking forward to tea with the Queen and to being spoilt rotton by my older brother who has a flashy job and a house “with a swimming pool and room for a pony”!

Often these important people don’t of course have time for people like me which is why I’m more looking forward to meeting the broken of the broken and having a good laugh along the way as my ministry is on the streets!

So keep us in your thoughts and prayers and if you are in London look us up!

Gotta go, London is calling!!

http://www.gofundme.com/bridge-of-love

‘Pray hard and play hard’ said one priest to a friend of mine and so out I went last night!

No sooner was I in the bar did a guy I’d prayed with earlier come in. He was showing me his hands!

“Look at that” he said proudly!

“They are not shaking, I can’t believe it”

For the last 20 years his hands were shaking and just like that it had totally stopped…thank you Jesus!

The wine flowed and our host for the evening was “Titty Von Tramp”, a very friendly drag queen.

Creativity in the gay scene is amazing and the freedom to talk about and express sexuality is a refreshing break from church circles where the body often seems forgotten and sexuality taboo!

So anyway I said a prayer and the evening flowed! I shared about the love of Jesus and my life story to Titty and I was introduced to some more people!

I started to get words of knowledge for them and tears were flowing around the table!

My glass kept topping up, something I’m regretting right now as I’m having a coffee and I was overwhelmed by the love of these people who had suffered so much in life!

It is a real privilege to meet these people, to be an ‘apostle of love’ as Our Lady of Medjugorje put it and once again a very valuable lesson on not judging people!

So thank you to everyone I met last night, for listening to me, accepting me, allowing me to pray with you and having the craic (irish for fun and not drugs!!) together!

God is good!

Only a short time left here as London is calling. Keep praying for us and if you have any connections in London let us know!

God bless you all!

Mike

Anyone want to be our first sponsor?!! Help us continue our mission by donating on http://www.gofundme.com/bridge-of-love

Hello friends!

What a wonderful day and what amazing blessings we had yesterday with yet another priest supporting us and not only that but desiring to reach out more to the LGBT in his area! We are meeting him later!

Another man from the gay community brought us to the homeless shelter and we had the most delicious home cooked dinner with those others in need!!

Is providence good or what?!!

Yesterday I also went to a Baptist church and what did the pastor speak about?!! He spoke on the topics of identity, gay, trans etc.

I had no idea he would talk about that but just shows when one follows the spirit, one doesn’t need to know so much but just be led like a little child trusting in his mum!

I congratulated the pastor for his talk that was excellent and brave! In summary he said that we are all more than our sexual or gender identity, that we are children of God called into personal relationship and friendship with God.

And so with so much positivity we firstly wish to thank all of you for your prayers and support which are working and which we feel!

Today’s blog title comes from the catholic catechism regarding homosexuality!

As I mingle more with church people these “buzz words” come up and I thank God for giving me a good brain and analytical mind to work through these topics!

In summary the church teaches that we are all sinners and that all of us (gay or straight) can experience disordered sexual thoughts. For example a married man may well struggle to keep his eyes off his sexy secretary as she flashes her booty etc!

However homosexual acts are said not only to be disordered but INTRINSICALLY DISORDERED or in other words ” very, very, very, very x 100000 disordered”!!!

So you see the poor gay guy reading this will probably feel like an intrinsically disordered hopeless cause destined to a lifetime of sexual promiscuity before toasting in the burning flames of hell for all eternity!!

And many do think that and how can you blame them, nobody has really taught them otherwise!

Only a short time ago I met a young gat catholic in Medjugorje. His parents seemed to have brought him for conversion!

However from meeting him it was obvious that it was his parents who needed the conversion!

So let’s go back to the “intrinsically disordered” comment!

Firstly let’s separate ‘same sex attraction’ from ‘homosexual acts’. We are all called to love and the church or bible speaks of no objection to a man loving another man! On the contrary it encourages it!

So we could say then that same sex attraction is ok and that the church has just got a problem with the sexual side!

Now moving over to the straight world the same could be said. The church encourages love and respect. A priest in Medjugorje spoke to me once of the issues straight people were facing. One woman asked him for advice for how to deal with her husband who was going to leave her unless she agreed to trying anal sex!

So you see the whole area of sexuality is tricky and whether gay or straight the church is asking people not to become sex maniacs and in the process lose respect for themselves and others.

This call is not just for gays, but for all but sadly the gay community are sometimes more targeted!

Now the gay community is indeed a very sexual community but if one sits down and talks to a gay person one will soon see that they are just normal people looking for love and respect.

The lack of alternative love and acceptance fuels the sex scene but any gay will tell you that sex isn’t everything and many if you listen will cry in your arms as they release and express some of the terrible pain and hurt of their lives!

Very few know of a Jesus or a Holy Spirit who loves them without trying to make them straight!

Jesus has no interest in making them straight! If He did He could have made them straight to start with and saved Himself the hassle!

No, Jesus desires to love and accept them as they are, He desires to fill them with His love and Holy Spirit and to set them on fire with spirituality!

He desires to show them that their root identity as the Baptist pastor put it yesterday is not as ‘gay’ but as ‘child of God’.

He wants to show them and indeed all of us that His love surpasses the fleeting excitement of sexual pleasure and that they have a very important place in His heart and in His church!

So to my LGBT brothers and sisters! We are not ‘intrinsically disordered’ lepers with the runner-up prize in life! No, we are full accepted, fully loved children of God and so let’s rise up and claim our place in the church, in the world and in the heart of Jesus who loves us!

Have a blessed day everybody full of supernatural love, joy and friendships!

Mike!

Hello!

Well after writing yesterday about a nice priest I met, I met another one!

With money running low and tired from hearing of so many lives hit by suicide I went to church in the afternoon yesterday.

The confession box was open and in I went to vent my frustrations, admit my faults and top up on grace!!

Again this priest was very cool and understood immediately the challenge of living on providence!

He was pastoral and practical, listened with his heart, gave very sound spiritual direction and gave me some practical tips by inviting me to the soup kitchen for dinner that evening and putting me in contact with a local politician!

So we had a nice meal with the marginalised, were given 3 bags of food and toiletries and offered a tour around the city hall next week!

Perhaps Jesus was showing me how church and politics can work together and indeed must if our spirituality is to bear fruit!

So anyway, I am very thankful to this priest for all his help and his simplicity to listen, accept and help on the spot!

Thank you Jesus!

Please continue to pray for us and remember, Jesus has no hands but ours so let’s all let Him use us today!

A few days ago I got speaking to a certain priest regarding the lack of understanding and love for gay people in church circles!

Now some priests cannot tolerate such a conversation and defend everything about the church as if their salvation depended on it!

But this one was not like that and I think his response is worth sharing.

He mentioned that up to now the church has almost entirely focused on heterosexuality and family and who could say this is bad.

The Church promotes loyalty, love, fidelity etc with the aim to build happy families, balanced secure kids and a healthy society.

However he went onto say that the church has never really explored what to do with people who do not fall into this mould.

Many LGBT people tried to fit in and many very broken marriages resulted.

Others rejected God altogether and yet deep down were still looking for Him. Not the God that was trying to change them but the God who loved them.

Many are still looking.

Some Christians get threatened by the idea of accepting gays as if it was somehow a threat to the survival of the planet!

There will always be gay people but statistics show that they are the minority and so survival of the human race is not at stake by accepting them in the church!

Next objection will be the gay lifestyle which is heavily sexualised!

Does accepting gays somehow sanctify everything gay?

Obviously not! Just as straight people are called to Christian values such as love and charity, so too are gays!

Life might be easier if God made us all the same and yet we know that God is a creative God. We need only look at the animal and plant kingdoms to see this!

And so what is the answer?

Well just as the priest said, for the church to explore other paths to heaven and to accept and integrate LGBT people into the Christian family of love, prayer and diversity!

Have a great day and thank you Jesus for this priest and indeed all the other ones too open to the spirit in relation to these issues!

Mike

Good morning from Belfast where we have just arrived.

Despite growing up in Ireland I never really visited Belfast. I guess all the violence at the time in the North made it a destination to be avoided!

So what a pleasant surprise to see that it’s a nice little city, full of charm and the people seem friendly too.

Providence is helping us too as we found a cheap hostel and financial contributions continue to trickle in!

So here we are. We have no idea how long we’ll stay, we know nobody here and we don’t really know the city!

Does one ever get used to this type of life 100% ?

I don’t know! I can see very clearly this morning how some people could think we were totally crazy! Mornings like this morning I even ask myself too!!

Is God really calling us to this? Is it our imaginations? Did I get a sudden blow to the head that sent me round the deep end?!!

And then I call my mum. Our Lady’s presence comes into the room. She soothes my spirit and tells me not to think ahead, a martyrdom for a 21st century mind trained to plan!

I check the time, it’s 9am. Mass is at 10 and there my soul will find new strength to continue as Jesus’ own being will re-energise my soul!

And so folks, I’m sharing to give you an insight into this type of life, the ups, the downs, the worry, the fears, the picking up the cross daily!

Nobody that follows Jesus gets it easy and my struggles this morning are no different to other people’s worries.

However what we can do is to pray and encourage eachother at those moments when the cross feels that bit heavier!

So this morning wherever you are in life, no matter what your struggle, be encouraged, it might not be easy, your trial may now be years and years old, you may be tired and worn and sick of it all….

And yet, like me this morning, call on God, trust in Him even if it feels pointless, unite your life and suffering to His and ask Him to use it to help some poor soul who may be on the verge!

Jesus, help us all to take it one day at a time.

Prayers and encouragement appreciated!!

Mike

About a year ago I met a young girl in Medjugorje with Seamus. We told her our stories and the general lack of help, love and support from the church.

Her response was sort of shocking and yet excludung her bad language, she had a point’

“F##k the Church, I have lots of gay friends and I know Our Lady loves them”

And yet her response was also sad. Sad that the Church and Our Lady were mentioned like opposing sides of a football match!

Yesterday’s readings at mass mentioned that nothing can separate us from the love of God! No suffering or not even death itself!

And yet when it comes to the gay community and many other communities it would seem that the Church has done just that!

False teachings put an unhealthy fear of God into people, many priests sadly abused their positions of authority and crippled people with fear and guilt. Others abused children and worse still the cover-ups which added pain on pain.

Many women who got pregnant before getting married were shamed and sent away and people experiencing same sex attraction were shamed, rejected and many killed themselves.

In light of these facts one could see how the young girl could say “f##k the Church” because these actions do not represent what and who the Church really is!

When we meet good priests and loving members of the Church we see that the Church is not so much the institution but rather the people!

We see that the Church is called to be a light of love, healing, hope and mercy and that she has been betrayed from the inside by many who have abused their positions and put human interpretations on the teachings of Jesus for their own gain!

And so I finish by saying to that young girl

“don’t say ‘f##k the Church” but rather rise up and let’s all say

“Heal the Church”

May the humble be exalted and the exalted humbled and may the impostors be cleared out of Our Church and she be restored to the light of mercy, healing and hope to the poor and the broken of this world.

May all those who have been wounded by members of the Church receive healing and experience the love of Jesus which goes beyond all human beings.

Bless you all

Mike