It’s a beautiful morning here in London where I’m having my coffee!

Speaking of coffee, one needs a grinder to make a coffee but today’s blog is about a different type of grindr!


Grindr for anyone who doesn’t know I’d one of the most popular meeting apps for gay men. On grindr you can meet anything from the potential love of your love to a quick bit of fun.

Some people can not understand why someone like me would be on grindr where sex is made so available and would see it as a way of claiming that I’m a fake missionary. Some even went so far as to complain to the bishop and I think cardinal here in London about it some time ago!

Besides the fact that many a bishop may be having a bit of grindr himself, there is a more serious side. People jump to all sorts of conclusions to satisfy their desire to destroy a person’s character.


So you see in my ministry Jesus has sent me out to find what you might call lost sheep. Lost sheep aren’t going to be found at the back of the church or at a retreat but they will be found on the streets, in the clubs and yes, on Grindr!


Grindr is where I met Toni, Grindr is where I met Rayne and Grindr is where I have met so many other gay guys over the last few years and shared, prayed and yes at times I too have had a little fun that I’ve had to bring to confession afterwards!

However the good has always far outweighed the bad and any little falls only better helped me to understand the love, mercy and compassion of Jesus for the beautiful and often lonely hearts in the gay community.

For some this type of ministry is far too ugly and messy and controversial and some people can’t handle it which is when they turn on me.

“It’s not of God” or “they are following demons” has quite often been said about me but if demons make someone love Jesus that much, it makes me wonder what “angels” they are following.



And so today I ask of people not to judge because the Holy Spirit is a creative spirit that works in weird and wonderful ways and gets into all the nitty gritty details and messes of life and society.

Jesus thirsts to meet people where they are at and to bring them forward. Hookup sites such as grindr are just one of these realities and there is no reason to be afraid if we are secure and confident in ourselves.

So please continue to pray for me and my ministry and don’t listen to the gossips because at the end of the day, the lies and accusations will be ground to shreds just like the grinding of coffee beans and the Lord will them to make a new and wonderful ministry of love and healing for the LGBTQ community!



Bless,

Michael

Good afternoon from a cloudy London!

Yesterday Rayne and I were in good form, we enjoyed a nice lunch together and spending some time together in the midst of his busy schedule of night shifts.


On the way to work I accompanied Rayne to mass at the Carmelites, a bit of a routine for us now and for added grace we both went to confession!

Feeling happy we held hands discretely during the mass so as not to attract unwanted attention or purposefully make anyone feel uncomfortable.


All was well and the mass was lovely and there was even a good homily.

On the way out I noticed a man looking at me. The look became a stare as he twisted his head to follow my movement.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable I asked Rayne if he noticed. Indeed he did.

And so there we were outside and holding hands when the man suddenly seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and now he seemed even more disturbed.

Perhaps during the mass he wasn’t sure if we were filthy gays but now he was certain and he was rattled.

Next thing I know he’s walking towards us and inside I say “here goes” as I felt the anxiety in my chest.

Staring at me in an eastern European accent he asks me with a stern voice “have you got a second?”, which although in question form seemed more like a command.


In that split second that it takes to reply I asked Jesus what should I say! Rayne was on his way to work and it just wasn’t the time for more confrontation.

In Jesus’ simple style I heard an inner voice just whisper ‘say No,!’.

Genius I thought, it’ll look as bold as brass but genius.

“No, sorry ” I replied and baffled by our response he walked off quite confused at what had just happened.

You see for years I would have automatically said “yes” and stood there listening to a torrent of abuse and probably cried afterwards but God has changed me.

I don’t have to apologise to other people for being in the church nor do I owe them any explanation. I’m entitled to be treated as any other human being and while I understand why that man might have been disturbed, that did not give him some sort of divine authority to interrogate me!!


In Irish we say “póg mo thóin” which translated into english reads “kiss my ass”


But on a more serious note this type of behaviour is unfair, draining and wearing. The church is the place where Rayne and I feel the least comfortable and safe to be ourselves and express our love for one another.

At times I feel very sad being a catholic and at how slow things are to change. How injustice is left unchecked, how suffering is ignored, how the system comes before the people.

We really need to get back to a place of love of Jesus and love of neighbour and move out of the politics and into the person of Jesus.

So anyway thank you today if you have had ‘a second ‘ or even a few minutes to read this blog.

Please pray for Rayne and I as this ministry is very important to the suffering heart of Jesus and to the church.

God bless and thanks again for reading!

Michael

Good afternoon to you from Kensington where I’m enjoying my first McDonald’s in ages …mmm.

Thankfully after a good moan and cry yesterday I’m feeling much better today and for anyone who prayed for me, thanks!



In a few days both Rayne and I will have been together for a year and this got me reflecting on love and change!

When you love a person should you try to change them?

The answer seems obvious, no, but should you both try to improve yourselves….yes!!

And this is where we sail into muddy waters so let’s take a step back and look at God.

God loves us unconditionally and is constantly trying to change us? Wrong.

God isn’t trying to change us from who we are but He’s trying to transform us from who we are not!!

Suppose there was a cat who thought that it was a dog. Would you be trying to change it by helping it to come to the truth?

Obviously not because if it’s a cat then it’s a cat but if the same cat is convinced that he’s a dog then he won’t see it that way!!

“Stop trying to change me” he’ll shout and “just love me the way I am”.


This is God’s dilemma with many of us. We can be living pretty average lives filled with every sort of dysfunctionality and not realise that we are beloved children of God who have the potential to break free of all our fears and inhibitions and become who we really are!!

‘I’m ok the way I am sir” would be many a reply when God sees that you are anything but ok!

And so you see the root problem of change when it comes to people is identity!!


If my identity is as a child of God who needs freeing from sin then I won’t resist God’s grace transforming me because I won’t see it as changing me. It’ll certainly change my behaviours but it won’t change who I am. In fact it’ll make me who I am.

But if I see myself as average Joe and accept my faults and sins as just being a part of me then I’ll be like that cat! Any attempt God will make to transform me I will resist because I’ll see it as change!

And so then when it comes to relationships I think it’s the same. Rayne hasn’t changed me but meeting Rayne has transformed my life in many ways and allowed me to become more me!!

Similarly I haven’t changed him and yet through meeting me a lot of things about his life have changed!


And of course at times this transformation and growth process causes tensions both in our relationship with God and others because at times we hold onto things that actually hold us back!!

This is where the magic key of patience is needed and for anyone who knows me they’ll know that I’ve never had much of it!!!

Rayne will be a saint in heaven for merely putting up with me!!

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that each one of us is called by God to transformation and to changing from who we are not (filthy sinners) to who we are (redeemed children of God) and this is where we all need to pray time and time again that wonderful prayer of serenity while asking God for wisdom, patience and love for both ourselves and those we love.

On a final note, when we do come across individuals who refuse all transformation no matter how hard we try, we can only pray for them and hope that they don’t end up in hell for their stubbornness and unwillingness to accept the ways and plans of God for life!!🤣🤣🤣

Have a wonderful day and thank you to Rayne for all the ways that you have made be a freer and truer version of myself!!

Michael

Good evening from London!

Today was one of those days that it seemed life placed a gigantic mirror in front of me and what seemed to be staring back at me was a spiritual weirdo, an utter misfit, a freak….yes…me.


Everywhere I turned people seemed to be talking about the future and planning ahead. From things like settling down and buying a house to going on holidays, plans were all around me and my life didn’t seem to fit any of them.

The even more ironic if not painful side that this weirdo is no stranger to planning. Future planning used to be my profession and I was good at it. It’s what actuaries do.

And so when people talk to me about their plans for the future I feel profoundly uncomfortable for one main reason…for almost 15 years Jesus has asked me not to plan ahead and to live in the day.

To ‘normal people’ this is utter insanity and I guess to many I am insane and yet here I am.


Yet I’m perfectly sane and to me these planners are the crazy ones!

‘Man proposes, God disposes’ my Irish friend Paul used to say. Six months later he developed cancer in his eye which then had to be removed.

“So be the will of God” he says.

Every single plan that I ever had in my life came crashing down. Every time I planned it went wrong. From my career to family to finances…everything!

And yet there was a reason. My plans and my ideas were not God’s plans and God’s ideas.

God you see isn’t some stupid old fool with a beard that smiles and blesses our good ideas. Full of love and Mercy He helps us to understand that His plans for us are both different and better.

And sadly at times we learn this the hard way through very painful experiences like emotional breakdowns, financial failure, failed marriages and lives.


Where did it all go wrong we might ask God and God would simply reply: at the very start!

Of course at times we don’t know and we do what we think is best but this is why we must be very detached from our ideas because if they are outside His plan, they won’t work.

A priest recently said that Einstein reportedly stated that if he was given a problem to solve that he’d spend 90% of the time asking critical questions about it and then only 10% on the solution.

Do we do the same when we are planning?

Do we spend 90% of the time praying and discerning with the help of others and then just 10% of the time actually planning or do we launch in and start planning immediately with minimum discernment?


The bible says that a house built on the sand will collapse while the one built on the rock will stand.

What does this mean?

It means that plans built on the rock of God’s will and purposes will stand while plans outside of His will, however good and nice will fail.

At times this can seem very unfair. Trust me I have the emotional scars  of multiple breakdowns to prove it and yet it’s a spiritual reality.

And so when I hear people around me planning and when I feel like a total failure without money or plans I cast my mind back to the lessons that life has taught me!

• Planning is useless, prayer is essential.
• Money will come for God’s plans at the appointed time.
• God is in no need of hiring an actuary to help Him run things

And so as I go to bed today after crying many tears as I face this daily ridicule I once again look to Jesus and blindly I say “I trust in you”.

I also pray for the people who hurt me and exclude me or treat me like a freak because I’m no better than them and 15 years ago I would have taught the same .

And so there you have it. Pray and bring all your plans to Jesus, seek spiritual direction and discernment from others trusted in this area and build your house on the Rock of God’s Holy will.


Goodnight and god bless.

Michael

Hello again from my Notting Hill!

With another week over as I was reflecting this morning on the inner healing ministry what came to me is the relationship between healing, the sacraments and psychology! A broad topic to say the least which is why I’ve asked Pio to help me out.



Drawing from my own experience I grew up in a regular catholic family and went to mass every Sunday. At the time it didn’t mean very much to me as there was nobody really that explained it in a way that I could relate.

Anyway some years later at I think 24 I had my first breakdown with awful panic attacks. That led me to visiting a psychologist for the first time in my life and officially put myself on the ‘mad list’ as it would have been seen by many.

Over the next few years I would visit many more therapists and even my worst fear came true, having to go to the psychiatrist. There was no coming back from that, nobody would ever take me seriously again and I’d live a life as a sub person I thought.


And yet while I learnt many useful things from these therapies such as CBT, how the inner child heals etc. There seemed to be one thing missing….POWER!

The theory was there but the fire was missing. Some time later I’d experience Jesus and I began to go to mass and BOOM…Like a wild horse breaking out of containment, an unexplainable force erupted in me and I began life again from zero.


But how come other people were not experiencing the same power from the sacraments? How come other people seemed to experience no change at all after years of going to mass.

The answer was obvious. They were how I was as a child. Going to mass and trying to be good but with no real knowledge of psychology and the mind.

You see the sacraments are like electricity but all the electricity in the world won’t make your T.V work if you don’t turn it on!

Our minds are like the T.V. and in order to get the real power out of the sacraments we need to learn how to turn our minds on and how to discern Godly thoughts from ungodly ones.


We need to learn things about how to determine the source of our thoughts, which thoughts are not from God that must be ignored, which thoughts show inner unforgiveness and hatred that need to be brought to confession and which thoughts are coming from God.

As we learn how to do this then we truly enter into the greatest battle in the world, the battle in our minds!

Insights then into childhood memories and healing of the inner child can be used. Root thoughts, belief systems and pain from the past can be rooted out in prayer and brought to God for healing.


The sacraments and indeed the word of God then become a powerhouse of force. We are literally being filled every time with more love, more strength and more power and as this happens everything that has been blocking us gets rooted up.

This is where we need insight and understanding to let the pain out. At times after receiving communion people can feel worse because Jesus is actually causing their pain to come up. If people don’t know how to work through it and let it out then they are unwittingly blocking Jesus and the fuller power of the sacrament.

Sadly in the mental health world you’ll never hear someone telling you to combine psychology with the sacraments and also equally sadly is that most priests will not be a able to help you do it either.


So we can be left in a limbo of either knowledge without power or else power without knowledge…..and neither will get us very far…


Which is why Jesus desires us to have both. To know how our minds and spirits work, to know how the sacraments work and to combine the two in a wonderful and powerful healing process.

And so today  I pray for our church and especially for our priests and ministers of healing, that they will have a greater understanding of how psychology and spirituality are intertwined and so be able to bring people to the fullness of healing and love!

Certainly at times it feels that nobody takes me seriously on these subjects. Perhaps it’s because I’m neither a priest nor a therapist and have absolutely no qualifications in either field. And yet, maybe some are listening and so in the hope that they are, I’ll continue writing!

Have a great day

Michael

Good afternoon!

Yesterday I saw am imagine on Facebook of a French community who organise evangelisation weeks for young people in the south of France.

They go out on the beaches and approach people to talk about faith matters.


My first thought which was definitely not inspired by God was “why bother?” which is sort of funny since I do so much evangelisation myself and even more funny because I spent almost 2 years with that French community and participated in beach evangelisation more than once!

So why the negativity I pondered? Well obviously it’s because one doesn’t always see massive results for evangelisation and at times one wonders what on earth they are doing!

But then it hit me! Evangelisation might not have grown their faith but it grew mine!


Evangelisation helped me to grow in confidence in the face of critical questions, it helped me ask questions that I’d never have asked before, it helped me to see the world from different perspectives and most of all it sent me to prayer time after time when I was disheartened!

And so today it was timely that in the middle of the exercise hall in the gym an older gay man dressed all in yellow began to chat me up. He was doing a different type of evangelisation!!

Anyway we got talking about Jesus and being gay and the church in the middle of the hall with God only knows who listening! I thought that it was so funny because I’d have sooner died than done that before!!


To make it even more funny it turns out that he lives on my road and he knew one of the priests from years back, Michael Hollings.

What did he remember? He remembered that Michael allowed a gay Caribbean man to stay there who subsequently died of aids.

And so that brings me onto my next point in evangelisation. You never know what the other will actually remember and what impact it may have in their lives!

And so today I remind myself and I remind you to evangelise and to speak about your faith and about Jesus. You might get some people who don’t like it but don’t worry, these hard nuts will survive. Focus instead on the people who will listen and who you will help and who knows, maybe one day you’ll find yourself in the middle of the gym talking about Jesus to a man dressed in yellow!!!

Have a great day and keep on going?

Michael

Good afternoon from a sunny Soho where I’m having my lunch after a lovely mass at Warwick street.

I went to confession and the priest was lovely. As a former Anglican he told me that he too wrestles at times with some of the attitudes in the catholic church around homosexuality and same sex relationships. Our church is learning.

And speaking of learning, we are all learning and if we are not then we are doing something wrong.

One of the best ways Jesus uses to help us is others and because we live in society of critics, if we are humble we are in privileged soil to grow.

As you all know I’m no stranger to being criticized and here is what Jesus has taught me over the years!

Firstly though an opportunity to say thanks to Jesus and my readers as I was notified of 50,000 all time views the other day.

Of course if I was famous I might have 50k viewers per day but helas, I’m not!!

So ok, enough of that and back to the subject at hand.

Jesus taught me to ask myself one question regardless of whether I’m being corrected with love or criticized with hatred.

Is there some truth in it?

You see your worst enemy can actually be your best friend in a way because if they don’t like you then they’ll probably tell you and this might provide the ideal food for growth.

Think of X-factor’s Simon Cowell who although very harsh and critical has actually got good advice! If you could swallow your pride and put aside his attitude you could actually grow a lot!

Next step is not to talk too much and if you are angry not to talk at all until you have calmed down. Replying too quickly can be a sign of pride and that you haven’t prayed about the situation and for the person involved.

After this comes humility where you can say “yes, it’s true that I’m not perfect and I have to grow in that area….”

And now if appropriate while keeping your peace you can hold your ground and defend yourself as necessary.

By acting accordingly, what was perhaps meant for bad can be turned around….

And old ‘666’ gets a taste of His own medicine.

Never forget that God uses Satan like a dog on a leash and when we’re smart we’ll see that Satan is actually like a stupid dog chasing the Lord’s sheep to heaven.

Ok so I mentioned criticism, now it’s time that I mentioned correction which is similar and yet very different because it’s done with a different Spirit and a different attitude.

First word of caution is prudence. If you speak correction to a soul with wounds then they are likely to take it as criticism no matter how much you sugar coat it. At times you must do it anyway and be prepared for the backlash!

But generally speaking this isn’t the case because someone who corrects you is someone who probably respects you and is correcting you so that you can improve. Correction is not condemnation and “God corrects those He loves”

And so there you have it and to quote Henry Newman…again….

So let’s be open to correction, let’s be open to change and if someone does correct you a bit for heaven’s sake don’t bite their head off!!

Have a wonderful day and a final thought that has come to me, let’s be just as willing to speak up and to encourage and build up what is good as we are to criticize or correct what we deem to be bad.

Michael

Good morning!

I’m an early bird this morning as I didn’t sleep too well but hey!

This morning I want to write about an experience that I had yesterday and the love of God the father.

After mass I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to walk up towards Hyde Park via Queesway, a pretty lively vibrant area and not really the sort of place you’d want to be at night.

After a £3 Tesco meal deal I felt Jesus tell me to sit for a coffee. You might think that I do nothing except drink coffees but trust me, nothing could be further from the truth. It’s often during these coffee stops that God inspires me and guides me in what to do next.


As I sat there I felt somewhat disheartened. Evangelisation can be very difficult at times as you don’t really know what impact you are making and if you’re making any at all.

At times you feel the spiritual state of the area that your in and at times it can seep in and leave you really doubting yourself. Questions like ‘if God is so important, how come these people look fine without any sign of him?” And “is this just one big waste of time and effort? nobody cares’.

And so as I sat there I had the above storm in my head and then God began to speak to me through an inner experience.

Firstly He showed me His immense joy to see all these people about. Queensway is full of life and I could feel God’s joy to see people buzzing about.

And then suddenly I felt a sadness as He showed me how little He was known in that area and how He felt sadness to see so many of His children like lost sheep.


You see although there was a lot of life in this area, one didn’t feel a lot of joy and worry and burdens were written all over people’s faces.

One must be careful not to judge while at the same time discerning the spirit of the place and being real.

What really hit me though was God’s love for this area and people. I felt no judgement. God knows that some people don’t grow up with much love and life sends them down the wrong path before they know it. It’s so easy to get caught up in worlds of hatred, addiction and all sorts if disfuncionality.

Yet in His justice God sees the hearts of these people and so He looks past the bad language, the tattoos and earrings, the dirty looks, the aggressive body language and He sees something deeper…..His children.


At times as Catholics we have been terribly conditioned by the church to keep away from these kinds of people and form certain a type of ‘holy huddle’ in our churches with people just like us.

We were taught to put rules before relationship and church teachings before individual consciences.

We were taught to write books about Jesus and love and mercy and yet to avoid the very groups of people who need it the most. No amount of seminars will bring love to these people only getting out there among them like Jesus Himself did!


And so today as I reflect on the Father’s love, it strikes me how we must be a humble people and we must reach out in love to people who have never experienced it. We must not be afraid to talk to strangers and to listen to their stories and even to pray with them if possible. We don’t need to bible bash them or put them down. Usually they are very aware that they haven’t lived up to the demands of the bible…..but what they might not be aware of is the love of the Father for them regardless!

So yes, come Holy Spirit, use us to bring people back to the heart of the father and in doing so help us get to know Him better too so that from the heart we can just cry ‘dad’!!



Have a great day and please pray for me….as I mentioned earlier, I get discouraged at times too!

Michael

Good morning from London where the weather is absolutely beautiful. Clouds are expected later so the phrase “make hay while the sun shines comes to mind”…..or in my case coffee!


Anyway I’m just back from the gym where God is stretching me. You see the gym would have been the last place on earth that I’d have gone to years ago for heaps of reasons.

For starters I was always small and thin for my age and looking at guys years younger than me who were far fitter and stronger did nothing for my self esteem.

Secondly I got bored very easily, had no clue how to use any of the machines and would have been too awkward to ask.

And finally, being in the gym surrounded by hot guys confirmed something that I didn’t know how to deal with…..”You’re gay”!


And so the world of study became the perfect cover for this area of my life that needed healing and after my conversion to some extent so did prayer.

At times we can pray too much and use prayer to hide from areas of our lives that God wishes to heal. Many shelter behind Our Lady’s mantle as we should in times of trial but sadly many never come out from behind it and stay cooped up in fear.


I don’t know why but I’ve always been very open to God and both His ways and challenges. It’s always been quite logical to me that to let God heal me then it’s up to me to let Him lead me and that will obviously mean facing my demons and doing things with His grace that I wouldn’t ordinarily do!

Some might say that I’ve taken it to the extreme. I would argue that it’s Jesus who took my “I surrender” to an extreme that I wasn’t expecting but obeyed.

Anyway all of this to say that God is thirsty to give us more healing, more freedom and more happiness and He absolutely loves it when we are open to it because that’s what Jesus died for and the freer we are the more others can see the power of Jesus through us

More healing though will mean more challenges and it will mean moving out of your comfort zone. God may challenge you in very ordinary things from the clothes you wear to the way you do your hair to the prayers you say and the friends you keep!!


God is constantly renewing things and changing us and this requires being very attentive and learning when to let go of one thing and start another.

This is also true for ministry. Someone might have an amazing healing gift and yet God might ask them to put it aside for a season while He asks them to concentrate on something else.

Obedience to the Holy Spirit is everything which is why we cannot pray enough to the ‘mother of docility’, Our Lady.


Like everything else, every time we start something new some of our insecurities and wounds come up and inner wounds are the devil’s toys. He likes to play with them and make as much noise as possible in order to discourage us.

Yet this same disturbance is exactly what will being us more healing if and when we learn to bring the blockages and wounds to Jesus for healing with both prayer and the sacraments.

There is nothing that Satan hates more than when God uses him and his tricks to bring us to more healing and freedom.

The “Unbound” deliverance ministry is a very good example of this as they discuss healing and deliverance prayer for inner wounds.

I once was at a conference in Medjugorje where the founder was speaking and while he successfully has an internationally recognized healing ministry in the catholic church, he said something very humble.

You were expecting me to tell you? Yea right, I’m keeping the secret for me!!


Just kidding and no it’s not burgers and chips! He said that even after all these years of ministry around the world that he’s still getting more healing and more freedom bit by bit.

This might sound a bit depressing to some. Does it ever end you might be asking?

Well that’s the wrong attitude. God loves us each day as we are, He changes us to allow us to be even more happy and while it is a long process, it’s also exciting, exhilarating and in the eyes of eternity….very short!!


So my message to you all today is to keep on pursuing your own personal healing regardless of your ministry or function.

The more you get personal healing the more that it will in turn enhance your ministry and work and bear fruit.

See it as an investment rather than a burden and remind yourself that the most precious gift that you can give Jesus is not your work, is not your ministry, is not your ideas but is your heart and your obedience to His ways.

So today I pray that whoever you are, whether you know Jesus for 5 minutes or for 50 years, that He places in your heart an insatiable thirst for more healing, more freedom, more happiness and more of Him!

Have a day of …MORE!!

Michael

Good afternoon from quite a sunny London.

This morning I went to the gym with Rayne who showed me how to use some machines that I’d never tried before.


It was fun and it got me thinking of how we grow spiritually by discovering new things about our faith and overcoming some obstacles.

Some people seem to have a very strong faith but yet when challenged by   certain things they don’t know how to reply. While they will never lose their genuine love for Jesus, their lack of learning will hinder them from toning up some other spiritual muscles and developing a deeper understanding of what they believe.

Others on the other hand have understanding and explanations coming out their ears and yet at times seem to have no faith at all! Somehow their intellect blocks their hearts and the Holy Spirit has little room to act.

This was certainly the case at a mass I was at last night. The priest began by casting doubt on the credibility of the gospels, deleting some bits that ‘obviously didn’t happen’ before reassuring us at the end that Jesus probably did rise again on account of St. Paul’s testimony!!


Honestly it was one of the most confusing and heretical homilies that I ever heard and as I sat in the pew I felt ashamed to be a catholic.

If I brought someone that was new to the faith to that or indeed some of the people that I meet during my ministry of evangelisation….what could or would I say to them?

It was perhaps the most dry uninspiring and spiritually dangerous homily that I ever heard and it seemed to kill the faith rather than bring it to life.

At times I’m not sure that priests realise the enormous responsibility that they have in God’s eyes to grow souls in faith through solid teaching and prayer.


Padre Pio certainly realised as did the countless other saints who faithfully served Jesus and the people.

To be a priest is to Shepard a flock and to love and direct them spiritually and yet sadly many priests are very lacking in their understanding of spiritual guidance.

The priests job is to discern the action of the Holy Spirit in each soul and in His parish and then to grow it! His job isn’t to come in with his own ideas and agendas but rather to humbly pray and follow God’s ideas.

God often works in funny ways and through funny people and this may challenge the priest. I’ve heard of many priests that hated the charismatic healing and deliverance ministry when the first encountered it but because they prayed the Lord opened their eyes and they grew to love it.

However I’ve met those too who obstinately refused to change or accept the charismatic workings of the Spirit and they became bitter little men who caused much suffering and grievance to good and holy people.


Fortunately this afternoon I was at mass at the Carmelites and I heard a great homily which was filled with love and faith for the living Jesus and for the mission of evangelisation.

The difference was startling to be honest.

And so today my prayer is for priests. I pray especially that they love Jesus and that they be open to the different ways that Jesus works in His church.

I pray also for priests who have become prideful and bitter and have lost the spark of love and learning of the Holy Spirit. May they be given the grace for both their own sakes and for the sake of those around them to repent of their ways and to become humble disciples of Jesus and Mary.


I also pray for the countless souls who’s spiritual lives have been severely damaged by bad priests. May they find healing and forgiveness and may Jesus guide them to the right priests and people able to understand and guide them.

Thanks for reading and let us console Jesus and Mary as much as possible for the terrible suffering they endure on account of some priests

Michael