Hello friends and thank you for all of your prayers yesterday! It went really well!

As today is Ash Wednesday and we talk of fasting it’s good to consult the bible and remind ourselves of the real fasting pleasing to God and its promises!

So many people are caught still in the snare of addictions and depression and do not know Jesus!

They feel condemned and judged and have no idea how much He loves them and of the potential healing available to them in the church and through prayer and the sacraments!

Sadly often the reason why is partly due to us!!

As church goers and those of us who receive the sacraments regularly we must ask the question:

Are we good examples of love, mercy and justice or are we self-righteous hypocrites?

In reality we all fall a bit into the hypocrite box as we fall short of perfection but what are we doing to get out of it?!

Yesterday I had a wonderful opportunity to share about the transforming power of Jesus on pinknews. It’ll be later sent on Instagram, Snapchat and other media outlets!

I spoke of my spiritual experience of Jesus, I spoke of the wonderful initiative here in London for gay catholics called LGBT Westminster and other ministries such as courage and quest and the wonderful support we have received since coming to London from a few special priests (you know who you are!!).

I mentioned about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, miracles and the dangers of pushing it too far with conversion therapy!

But the most significant thing I mentioned was my parents!

Just before the interview I spoke to both my mum and dad and asked them to pray for me. Only last week did they send me €50 each to help me.

I spoke of how they are now 100% supportive and behind me and how the power of prayer does indeed heal families!

As I reflect on the prophet Isaiah words about undoing the heavy burdens and letting the oppressed go free my prayer is that those burdened, shamed and estranged from God and the church in the LGBT community will find hope and inspiration in my story and will find their way back to the loving hands of God our father!

Of course some people were horrified that I was sharing my story and I was accused of all sorts!

For them they’d like me to give the “convert now from your filthy lifestyle or burn in hell” message under the banner of charity!

But what would mother Teresa do? Lecture people or love people?!

She cared for and looked after devil worshippers and all sorts and she let her actions do the preaching!

And so fittingly I visited the sisters of charity here in London yesterday whom I visit regularly and asked them all to pray for me at 4pm, the time of the interview!

I was particularly inspired by their ‘litany of humilty’:

A wonderful prayer to be delivered from both unhealthy desires and unhealthy fears and to grow in humility and purity of intention!

And so as lent has arrived maybe our real fast needs to be this interior one so that the Lord can use us more effectively to give hope to others even if that means an interview with the pink news!!

So once again, thank you all for your prayers and yes, very soon you’ll be wondering like Father Jack!

“What is that #*#*###* doing on the television?”

Abundant blessings of love, mercy, justice, peace, prayer and forgiveness on you and your families this lent.

St. Mother Teresa, pray for us!

Michael