About a week ago I shared a blog where Our Lady spoke to me about the priesthood:

https://michael4jesus.wordpress.com/2021/07/17/prayer-for-priests/

A few days later I shared a similar blog about her compassion for priests:

https://michael4jesus.wordpress.com/2021/07/24/compassion-for-priests/

And today being Saturday and a day we often pray to Mary I will share the next one which is what Our Lady said to me back in 2018 while I was in Medjugorje.

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Before sharing I will however say that it’s ironic that while Our Lady had me praying and interceding for months on end for priests in Medjugorje and spoke to me almost every day about them that later I would be attacked and accused of following demons by a priest in Medjugorje!!

This however was allowed by God for me to grow and to pray even more for that same priest and also a simple sign that priests are simple human beings too who have wounds that need healing and who can make mistakes as well.

So without further ado, here is what Our Lady said about the healing of our priests:

“Our Lady

Write my child. I am holding your hand. 

Consider a doctor. He will treat the patient and illness the same regardless of whether the patient be a priest or a teacher or a fireman! 

My child, my priests are men too. They have childhoods, troubled pasts, sinful tendencies just like anybody else. God does not choose the perfect. 

Many of my priests, my beloved sons are in desperate need of inner healing and of spiritual renewal. Their inner wounds combined with pressures from ministry mean that many of my most loved sons are burnt out and exhausted. Some have grown disorientated with the priesthood, with the Church, with life. Some have left while many although they remain have left in heart. 

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The core of the priesthood is the love of Jesus. But how can one be passionate about a love that that they have not experienced. Nothing saddens Jesus more than lonely priests because Jesus does not desire them to be lonely. Jesus desires to fill their hearts with His love, a real love that can be felt in the heart. A love that moves the priest to smiling, laughing and praying with joy. 

My child, so many of my beautiful sons have blocked hearts from inner wounds. The heart of God does not desire to punish them but to heal them. 

There is a lot of pressure on priests. Often lay people expect them to be perfect and your current media is harsh, very harsh on priests. Often even seminary training is lacking. 

Pray for my priests, continue to offer your sufferings especially for my priests. When you meet my priests, speak of my love, mercy and compassion for them. Encourage them, thank them, be patient with them. Over time doors will open for you to minister to them. They are your brothers. 

Walk and pray much today for priests today. 

I bless you with my love and protection 

Advocate of priests “

This message highlights two things for me. The first is God’s overwhelming love and understanding of His priests, the second is His desire to heal them.

In order for priests like anyone else to heal they too must be vulnerable and must be open. They must approach the Lord and those in the healing ministry with humility and open up about their struggles and weaknesses too.

It is clear from this message that Our Lady does not expect her priests to be perfect and desires them to be vulnerable and humble and to reach out for healing.

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An example of this was when I was in Sydney and an almost 80 year old priest travelled down to Sydney for a week for an inner healing retreat that we were running.

The retreat wasn’t even for priests, it was for everyone and Father X participated in the retreat 100% sharing like everyone else about His childhood and struggles etc.

It was both healing for him and for us to be so open and so human and it filled us all with love and understanding for eachother.

And so today Our Lady is inviting us to pray for our priests and to also invite them too to get inner healing and deliverance where necessary from inner wounds that may be holding them back because at the end of the day they are just ordinary human beings too!

Blessings,

Michael

Hello all!

The first time that I heard the term “holy huddle” was in Australia. The name says it all really! It’s a group of prayerful and often pious people who like to hang out together and have as little as possible to do with anyone else.

And like everything there are some reasons that seem to justify this approach and even call it holiness!

By keeping away from filthy sinners you are of course less likely to sin yourself and because people who like Holy huddles don’t count sins of omission as sins, they are all but self declared saints!

Yet Jesus warns very sternly about only loving those people who are like ourselves and the Lord Jesus and his little huddle spent their lives on the road reaching out to others of every kind!

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Now of course Jesus and his disciples spent quality time together too which was needed but this is not all that they did.

A few days ago I spoke with a Holy huddler about my ministry.

He was most impressed by Jesus talking to me, my descriptions of purgatory etc. At one point it felt that we were on the same wavelength…

Until that is that we began speaking of evangelisation and his disapproval and fears were almost contagious!

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Phrases like “I’m not sure about that ” which translated from native huddler to english mean “that’s totally wrong” and “what image does that give” which translates into “you’re a fake catholic letting us all down promoting sin with those gay animals”!!

Then “the devil is everywhere” which means “the devil is as powerful as God” and “evil spirits might attack you” which translates into “you’re following the devil!!”

Maybe now you are beginning to understand huddler too! Everything is spoken with extreme niceness but they never quite tell you what they really feel….yet what they fail to say in words comes out in body language and facial expressions!!

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These huddlers are not bad people but somewhere on their journeys they have failed to really understand the mercy and power of Jesus and the call to evangelisation.

Being over afraid of the devil gives them sort of evangelisation-phobia and so they play the safe game by spending endless hours in the church. A bit of religious or spiritual pride usually sets in and so rather than being able to see their fear of evangelisation, they justify their position of keeping the Lord company and judge those of us who are out gallavantting in the name of the gospel!

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One could easily ask the question if they really are keeping Jesus Jesus company or if by their fear and stubbornness they aren’t driving more thorns into His head!

The Jesus I know doesn’t allow me to live like that and sends me to meet people and go places that I’d never go in a million years of my own accord.

He brings me back then to the church and to the sacraments to fill up before sending me out again much to the dismay and disapproval of the huddler club!!

Yet all joking aside, this is serious. These huddlers are not following Jesus nor the Holy Spirit in these areas of their lives and they are an obstacle to evangelisation just like a slow moving donkey on the road!

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They need to humbly go before Jesus and confess their fear and their lack of love for others and ask Him to remove their pride and turn them into confident and bold disciples of Jesus.

They must repent of judging others and of somehow seeing themselves as the Lord’s chosen elite and open wide their hearts and minds to the various and wonderful ways that the Holy Spirit works!

And so finally I’ll finish by saying to you all not be a holy huddler but be brave and be strong and bring Jesus to the corners of society that so desperately need His compassion and love.

“Dear Lord, transform the Holy huddlers into Jesus peddlers. Turn these slow old donkeys into champion horses for the kingdom and bring our church back to life”!!

Michael

Good morning!

This morning as I was praying Jesus spoke to me very clearly about His justice. He asked me to share the message without explanation so here goes…

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Justice and Mercy

My dear children,

I hear your cries for mercy and for more mercy but how can there be mercy without my justice?

How can your God be brutally killed on a cross, shed His blood for each of you and now be almost completely ignored?

How can humanity implore my mercy and yet ignore my sacrifice and my call to conversion?

To implore my mercy is to have a heart and a desire to change. It is to recognize one’s sins and have the desire to change. It is to humble oneself before your God.

How can you implore my mercy and not recognise me as God?

How in the name of mercy can you justify sin and expect me to turn a blind eye?

How can you have mercy without justice?

My dear children, it is impossible. I call you all to holiness and to conversion. I do not judge you harshly but pour out my love on you to lift you up but now you tell me that you don’t desire to be lifted up and that you desire to stay in your sinful ways and for me turn a blind eye….

You even say that I am a harsh and cruel God who expects and who asks too much and who is lacking in mercy!

My mercy is not the same as your mercy. Mercy is not to be confused with compromise and tolerance of evil.

Satan deceives you and once again presents you with His lies and deception as he did with your first parents.

I am calling you my children to serious and firm conversion, to tirelessly rooting out sin from your lives and to putting prayer and works of charity at the centre of your lives.

I am calling you to witness and to evangelise and to teach others my ways with faith and with conviction.

I have left you the lives and examples of countless saints and my mother is ever at your sides helping and guiding you in every way.

This life is short while the next is eternal. Do not waste it nor teach others to waste it by your bad example.

I want every human being to know of my love and my mercy for them. I desire for every heart to be given the truth and the opportunity to follow me.

How can this happen if you do not help me and who will be held responsible on judgement day?

My children. The justice of God is a terrifying thing. Woe to those who abuse my mercy and teach others to do the same. It would be better for them on judgement day had they never met me!

Have a great day everyone and may we all rise to the challenge of the Lord’s mercy and make Him and His ways known to the world no matter the cost.

Michael

Good afternoon from McDonald’s!!

This morning my French friend Marie-André told me about yet another scandal to hit the church. This time a top cardinal removed by the pope and on trial for the corruption to the tune of hundreds of millions.

My mind flashes back to my childhood and the envelopes for the priests collection that despite having six children and not a flashy job my dad and I’m sure lots of other dads never missed.

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Even my grandfather who was over 90 never missed the collection and in an ideal and Holy church this would be a good thing.

But where really was their money going?

In previous generations blind trust meant that people never asked the question but sadly scandal after scandal across the world has shown us that in a lot of cases this money was not used for the spread of the gospel.

How some church leaders can take money from the poor while they live in luxury themselves really is beyond me and what they will say to God on judgement day terrifies me.

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Of course all of this hits me even harder because I was trained in finance myself and I now live on providence and often struggle financially.

The ironic thing is that people might be distrustful helping me financially while they give wholeheartedly to the church thinking that it’ll be used wisely!

From what I’ve seen over the years more money is spent on maintaining over decorated and now empty buildings than actually helping the poor and spreading the gospel.

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I’ve never received a penny in 15 years from the church for my evangelisation ministry nor have others while at the same time millions is spent on buildings etc.

When prestige and buildings become more important than the gospel then we are no better the the people of Israel who were worshipping the golden calf.

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Maybe today we have the ‘golden church’ where the buildings and the art and the architecture have become all but idols as we proudly flaunt our religion before others.

Yet we should remember with fear and with trembling that Jesus was born in a stable and died 33 years later on a cross with nothing and all our big buildings will only draw on us the wrath of God if within them there is no love for God and for the poor.

And so as I finish my McDonald’s I encourage everyone to be good stewards with your money and think carefully when you are giving about where it is going and what it is being used for.

And on that note a humble thanks to my Mum and dad who out of their old age pensions sent me €50 each to help me continue my own ministry.

May these cardinals be brought to justice and the money given to the church be distributed justly and fairly for the spread of the gospel.

Thanks for reading,

Michael

Good morning all from what’s predicted to be a rainy London…..

Over the last few days I have been sharing some writings that Jesus has given me, I’ve had a few interesting conversations with different people and I’ve quoted the writings of Vassula a few times…

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Some of the feedback has been very interesting! Mostly no feedback at all, some very positive feedback and some fear and confusion. To be fair I’ve got no negative feedback at all!!

Today I want to look at the fear and confusion because a life like mine is one that has been full of both!!

People hear a testimony like mine or Vassula’s. We were ordinary people and then we began having extraordinary experiences. Jesus apparently began to talk to us and give us messages. After much angst and fear ourselves we eventually write the messages and share them and then our worst fear comes true…

“That’s not from God ..he/ she is being led by the devil….”

And there is absolutely nothing that we can do to prove them wrong!

If it was something else like a car we could pull out the owner’s certificate and say “see, it is my car” or of it was a legal matter we could show others the relevant documents…..but in this realm there is no concrete proof!!

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Personally I feel compassion for people because there are many times Jesus has spoken to me and told me stuff that has made me feel really uncomfortable and while He would always reassure me not to be afraid, He’d firmly remind me that my job was to write the messages and not to invent them!!

Some things like the current state of the church and the sufferings in purgatory etc. are not easy to write about while other aspects like the joy of heaven and the beauty of the angels are very easy to write about. We all like hearing about good things and good news.

But then the messages go out and some think they are from God and others are afraid of being deceived. This is totally normal, for years I was terrified of bring deceived myself so I can hardly expect people who barely know me to immediately believe that I am from God!

Then there is the half way house so to speak in that some of the messages are from God and some are not. Of course this too breeds great confusion trying to decide which ones….

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Then there are things like the credibility of the character. In my case some people find it very difficult that I an not heterosexual and do a lot of evangelisation in the gay community ….surely a prophet of God wouldn’t do that …would he?!!

And then of course the pressure to be perfect!! Can Jesus really speak perfectly clearly to such an imperfect soul and if Jesus really is speaking to that person, why do they still struggle with this and with that?!!

And so you see all these factors can lead to fear and confusion and so lead people to avoid people like me…I’d probably do the same!!

People are very afraid nowadays of being tricked because there are so many different things out there and in this realm of divine messages there are many people who receive messages and not all are true.

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For me it’s very funny that Jesus would choose me for such a mission because as a mathematician it’s everything that I dislike!! Maths is brilliant because you can get an answer, show your methodology and nobody can dispute it. This world of spirituality and mysticism is the utter opposite and nobody will ever fully appreciate what a terrible martyrdom that it has been for someone like me to be thrown into this arena of religious crackpots and now to be one of the biggest crackpots of them all!!!

Jesus certainly knew how to humble me…that’s for sure!

But anyway, all that aside what do I say to people in the midst of this understandable fear and confusion?!

The first thing I’d say is not to be afraid. It’s ok to have fears and doubts and to be confused but don’t let that become a focus.

Secondly I’d say to stick to the sacraments. Any authentic messages from a catholic will highlight the love of Jesus and the power of the sacraments. Keep on going!

Thirdly, ask questions! Don’t gossip but ask questions and give voice to your concerns. Even St. Joseph needed direction from heaven when he saw that Mary was pregnant….ask God for help discerning.

Next I’d recommend you to pray for the person. If they are genuinely from God then they’ll get very attacked and will need your prayers for protection and if they are being deceived by the devil they’ll need prayers to wake up!! So either way…pray!!

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And last of all don’t let it disturb your peace!! It might be from God, it might not be but life goes on and only time will tell! Don’t get obsessed about trying to figure it all out but rather surrender it all to God and in the meantime rest in His abiding love trusting that when the time is right He’ll make things clear!

And so there you go! Be not afraid, be not confused because regardless of what any visionary or seer saw or didn’t see, our God is a God of love, patience, mercy and understanding and so keep on talking to Him, keep on praying and all will be right.

Have a peaceful day free of fear and confusion!

Michael

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Good morning world!

A few days ago I mentioned that we were expecting a thunderstorm and to be honest it never really came so I was left feeling a bit disappointed. Seems like the weather forecast is still miles behind despite all the modern advances.

Another thing besides the weather that is utterly messed up today us our church. Yesterday I read a little from Vassula’s messages “True life in God” and Jesus described the terrible state of the church today to her.

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Jesus showed her his crucified body and told her that the Church today has been crucified in the same way

To be honest some of the messages made me quite uneasy because for years now Jesus has been telling me the same and I’ve often been so afraid to share these messages because people could quite easily think that I was accusing them or being prideful or judging etc.

I think that Jesus is using Vassula’s writings to encourage me and to give me the courage to share some of these messages and so here goes!!

This is the first one I got back in 2016:

 Jesus

My child, imagine a house burning in flames, imagine the chaos as all is being destroyed, people trying to escape, others trying to salvage some materials, other screaming and fighting to get out, while others risking their lives to extinguish the flames.

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Such is the Catholic Church today. Bishop fights against bishop, cardinal against cardinal, there is no respect for the Holy Father. Humanism and rationalism have replaced Church dogma. Bishops teach what they like, they arrogantly pick and choose what to teach and reinterpret according to their own tastes. They all but ignore the Holy Father. They resent his authority, they have become God’s unto themselves! O my child, how awful the punishment they amass unto themselves. They will be held accountable not only for their own sins, but also for the sins of omission that cause untold damage and suffering to the flock.

They no longer believe that hell exists, ‘God’s love is infinite” they say! “His mercy would never allow such a thing”.

They make up their own rules. Why did I die on the cross? Why have I appeared to countless souls over the years with the same message – reparation for sin saves souls from hell!

They have ignored my messages to St Faustina, picking and choosing the acceptable bits. I not only spoke of mercy to Sr Faustina, I spoke also of judgement, of heaven, of hell and more importantly of the great chastisement. Without truth there is no mercy. They arrogantly let the flock given to them perish, there is no excuse my child, no excuse.

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The message I think speaks for itself! No major commentary or interpretation is needed and one thing is sure; change is on the horizon.

Jesus is going to purify and restore the church to what it should be by exterminating the corruption and all the agents of corruption from the top down.

How and when exactly this is going to happen nobody really knows but it’s quite obvious that the wheels of justice are already in motion and just as the weather here went from sunny to rainy overnight, so too will the Lord’s justice rain down on the world and church and bring about more dramatic changes that anyone could imagine!

Anyway in the meantime all we can do is love Jesus, pray for the church and for the world and trust that with Our Lady, God has a wonderful plan to restore holiness and harmony to the whole world.

Have a wonderful day!

Michael

Good morning all!!

Last night Rayne and I visited Fr. Paul who is recovering nicely after a hip operation. It gave us such joy to see him so happy and beaming with joy and contentment after his surgery. We celebrated a lovely mass together and had some fish ‘n chips afterwards to fill our stomachs!!

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Anyway I went out for a coffee this morning and noticed on Facebook that today is a special day that dedicated to praying for the elderly.

Suddenly I felt the presence of Jesus around me and He asked me to write. For anyone that’s curious, yes He talks to me in all sorts of places from the church to the gym to the coffee shop and I write the messages on my phone! If we can receive phone calls everywhere then can’t God in His power communicate with us everywhere?!

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Anyway here is what Jesus said to me and it was as usual filled with both love, truth and pain….

Jesus 

Write my child and do not be afraid to share!

When I look at a soul I do not look as you look in the world. I do not look at age or at external beauty but rather I look at the intensity of love.

Today you celebrate the elderly and yet how it pains me bitterly than many elderly people in your world do not know me and have no supernatural love in their souls. Rich in experiences of life and yet empty of the most important thing, supernatural grace in the soul.

How sad that while some older people unite their struggles with me and grow brighter and more intense in love, others refuse me and even want to choose their own death.

If these souls knew the suffering that awaits they would choose to live another 100 years on earth offering me their pain in reparation for the sins of their lives and for the world.

Today as you pray for the elderly, I implore you to pray for the conversion of these souls and of your world that sees no value in suffering or prayer. I desire not to lose a single soul but I need your help.

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What more needs to be said?

Jesus our good shepards desperately desires to be made known and for the value of prayer and suffering to be made known. Things like euthanasia are profoundly evil and anyone promoting such in the name of love is very deceived.

Let us offer prayers today for these people and most of all let us through our own lives be witnesses of Jesus and use every opportunity to show others through both our words and example that the afterlife is very real and that one can’t presumptuously assume that one can live and die as they want and then just stroll into heaven!

Jesus have mercy.

Thanks for reading and again if you would like to help my ministry and help me spread these messages, please reach out. I need all the help that I can get!

Michael

Good afternoon!

The sunny weather has gone and we are now waiting on a thunderstorm here in London.

As I was praying today I saw myself surrounded by the guardian angels of many priests and was compelled to pray for them.

As I prayed I once again became very conscious of God’s overwhelming love for priests and the need to pray for them.

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Afterwards I felt to share something that Our Lady shared with me in Medjugorje about how much she both loves and understanding her priests and all of their struggles from ministry to personal matters.

Our Lady 

My priests are my children, they are my sons whom the heavenly father has chosen to bear a special likeness to Jesus. The more a soul resembles Jesus the more I am drawn to love that soul, for Jesus is God and also my son! 

This is why I have an extra special love for my priests. When I look at them, I do not look at their human faults but rather I see Jesus in them and I love Jesus in them. 

Many of my poor priests are very lonely. Many have never experienced my maternal love for them and they are tired and exhausted from pressures of modern life. 

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Many, rich in learning feel empty, sad and depressed. Many of my poor sons turn to worldly consolations for comfort. Alcohol, pornography, sexual relationships….. 

My child, do not judge. Though they are priests, they too are men with hearts, with feelings. How many of them are crying to me for help, begging me to help them to be good priests, to deliver them from the snares that they have fallen into. 

How my heart bleeds with love and desire to restore them, to heal their hearts and to transform their ministries. 

No priest, no matter what sins He has committed is beyond my desire to restore. I repeat ‘no matter what sins’. 

As I reflect on all this I’m once again hit by the humanity of Our Lady’s love. She’s not calling us or priests to be Holy without understanding our hearts and struggles and needs nor does she show any judgement on priests that may be struggling. Her heart is pure and she simply wants to love each priest and make each Holy with a fruitful ministry.

I have many more messages along the same lines but this one will do for today.

Let our prayer today be for priests and also for ourselves that we may love them with the loving, compassionate and understanding heart of Our Lady.

Have a wonderful day and will let you know how the thunderstorm goes!

Michael

P.s. A big thanks to the person who is donating me a pair of new runners!

Hello everyone!

It’s so sunny here in London and the sun seems to bring out people’s energy and desire to go out and party. From what I hear the clubs have been packed but so far I’ve avoided them completely as I only go when I’m in evangelisation mode!

The gym on the other hand is another story. I seem to have fallen in love with sport as the holes in my runners testify.

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Anyway today’s blog is not about me but about Toni’s cat who had a fall from the upstairs window a few days ago. Don’t worry, it wasn’t a suicide attempt! We’re not that bad to live with!!!

The poor pussy lost its balance and the rest is history but in case you are wondering if we had cat for dinner or if she survived I will tell you guys tomorrow..

Couldn’t wait! She survived and actually there seems to be very little wrong with her. Of course Toni was worried as he loves animals far more than me who mainly just enjoys eating them but still, I wouldn’t like to see her dying like that.

Afterwards it got me thinking of how much Jesus loves each and every one of us far more than a cat and how concerned that He must be when we fall from grace!

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Jesus knows that like the cat we live in an environment where there are dangers and that at times we venture off and get into trouble.

Mia the cat for example is always trying to go outside and yet outside is where she may well get run over by a car or lost as she’s always been inside.

It was actually in trying to get out that she fell off the window!! How many times do we get into trouble when we too venture off a bit from what is safe and push things too far?

In the case of today’s society it’s sneaking off and getting involved with all sorts of things like drugs, affairs and god only only knows what as people look for excitement and adventure to spice up their lives!

And how does God react when it goes wrong and people need help?

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He reacts like Toni! Full of love and compassion and a desire to make things better!!

Perhaps the cat was sneaking off because she was bored and perhaps a lot of good people do bad things because they are bored too and God’s reply to this is:

“I understand! Tell me, ask me for what you need! Tell me about the areas of your life where you are unfilled and bored and we will find a healthy solution together”.

Too many people are afraid be honest with God but there is a difference between a holy grumbling and an unholy grumbling!

A holy grumbling is actually inspired by the Holy Spirit. He’s grumbling within you shouting “I’m bored, come on, there is so much more to God and to life than this, I am with you, come on…we can do far more together!!”

A holy grumbling stirs us to having more faith and to appreciating the gift of life even more just like my friend Brenda on the right does!

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An unholy grumbling on the other hand is laced with self pity, hopelessness and constant complaining and is not inspired by the Holy Spirit. People like that live to moan and need a hugh injection of God’s love and mercy to change!

And so today as the cat recovers from her first flight let us too be more honest and vulnerable before Jesus with what it is that we really want and about where we feel unfulfilled or blocked and let us entrust these things afterwards to the wisdom of the divinity who will surely find ways to fulfil our needs without anyone jumping out of a window!!

Have a great day and if anyone out there can help me to buy a new pair of runners, don’t be shy in getting in touch!

Michael

Good morning from Notting Hill’s Café Nero. I’ve just been to mass at the Carmelites and have entrusted my day to Jesus.

Last week Toni let me know that it was ‘non binary awareness week’. He drew this special drawing for it. Did you know? Perhaps not and so here goes my attempt at raising awareness.

The more I write about delicate topics for which my own knowledge is limited the more I pray and feel a great mercy for bishops who must find themselves constantly writing and dealing with situations where there own experience or knowledge is limited. That said I hope people will have more mercy on me than they do for bishops even if experience has proved the contrary!

Ok so here goes:

A non binary person doesn’t identify as either a man or a woman. To you or me we might physical see a what we identify as a man or a woman but the non binary person doesn’t see themselves this way.

Now this is very different to transgender because the transgender person does identify as a man or a as woman just that their body is the opposite.

And then most of us are called ‘cisgender’ meaning that our bodies correspond with the gender with which we identify. So one could be a cisgender heterosexual or a cisgender homosexual…

Confused? Don’t be, these are all just big words with quite simple meanings.

So moving on, here is the non binary flag:

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If you are not familiar with all this then at this stage you might be annoyed in the same way as people who don’t understand transgender people get annoyed.

I can imagine my grandad from my mum’s side of the family who wasn’t known for writing poetry shouting ‘f..k that sh*t, it’s a man”. Probably just as well he died before I came out as gay as he had certain terms to describe gays that were not flattering!!

But you see to the non binary person it is not clear what they are and they must suffer incredibly to find themselves in this no mans land. It’s certainly not something that someone would choose which is why we need to do our best to understand so we can be as sensitive and loving as possible.

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Now the most tricky thing which I find in these situations is what to call people and there is always the risk of making a mistake.

I’ve met a number of transgender people who are in the process of changing and at times in my head I forget if they are changing from man to a woman or a woman to a man and so whether I call them ‘he’ or ‘she’.

It can be very confusing, especially after a glass of wine because at times we have natural reflexes that associate a deep voice to men and before we know it we say the wrong thing.

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However our discomfort must be considered as nothing in comparison to the discomfort of these people who must feel like objects being examined at times.

Has he/she got an adam’s apple? Has he/ she got boobs? And what about downstairs?….not to mention all the sneaky peeks at the chest and crotch when people think that nobody is looking!

Now the trickier issue for the non binary person is that because they neither identify as a man or a woman you can’t call them either ‘he’ or ‘she’.

Instead they ask us to be sensitive and to use gender neutral terms such as ‘they’ and ‘them’.

Confused? Let’s take an example!

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This is John and he is non binary. WRONG!!

Try again!!

This is John and John is non binary! Bravo!!

Or (and this is the part that confuses me).

This is John and they are non binary!

The pronoun ‘they’ in english is gender neutral in the sense that it could be referring to either men or women or to a mixture of both but that said, usually ‘they’ is plural rather than singular and so refers to a group of people rather than just one!

Again I hear my grandad shout ‘f .k that sh*t’ and not because he was a bad man but because he liked things to be clear and hated confusion.

Yet we must put ourselves in the place of the non binary person and somehow try to adapt. Our english language and indeed most if not all other languages only have the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’ when it comes to the third person singular and so it’s neither our fault that our language isn’t really equipped for non binary people nor is it non binary people’s fault for being non binary!!

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All that said, to date I have only met one person who identified as non binary and THEY were very kind and understanding and didn’t make a big deal out of it if I accidentally said ‘he’ or ‘him’.

And ideally that is what’s needed: a lot of patience, understanding, mercy and room for error on both sides and yet a sincere effort to do one’s best and to learn what to say and what not to say in order to avoid hurting people unnecessarily.

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And so that’s it from me for today! I hope I haven’t put my foot in it too much (Toni will tell me!!).

Let’s keep all these people in our prayers and be open to learning and adapting too so that they can find a place of love and acceptance in our church and in our community!

Blessings to all!

Michael