Last week I was in Ireland and while I had a great time, it was not all perfect and one of the difficult things was meeting my dad.

My dad and I have never been friends and since Jesus came into my life even less so!

How after him working so hard that I could just give it all up is beyond his ability to understand or accept and when he looks at me it’s like he’s looking at an extraterrestrial.

Such are the mysteries of God and in the Bible Jesus makes it clear that we must follow God and love God more than our mothers and fathers and yet at the same time we must honour our parents.

So I suppose you could sum it up by saying “I love you guys and thanks for everything but I must live my own life and follow God’s plans for me and not yours!”.

Some parents can understand and accept this better than others and to be fair even though it took her some time, my mum eventually got it and accepted the calling of God for my life.

She’s a mean cook too!

But understanding and accepting takes efforts and to understand a life like mine one must learn about the Holy Spirit and his ways and also be willing to learn about things like homosexuality etc.

Sadly my dad hasn’t been able to make this effort and so besides very trivial conversation about the cows we had nothing else to say to eachother.

Often in my life I’ve found this hard, like an empty hole where the love, encouragement and affirmation of the father was missing and where I had to paddle my own canoe as they say!

This of course isn’t just for me, this is the story of an awful lot of people both gay and straight and is quite typical of many Irish fathers.

Which is why it’s even more sad that outside the church last night there were a few people protesting and it all being led by an Irish man!

Just in case we haven’t been wounded and hurt enough by our fathers, we have this little man dressed up like a leprauchan on Saint Patrick’s day accusing us and pointing the finger and if that wasn’t enough, with him was an Irish lady from the travelling community who mentioned something about keeping paedophiles away as I was taking this photo.

It is very sad that instead of being able to come into the church and pray the rosary with us and love and encourage us in our ministry that these people do the exact opposite.

Between John who has a gay background, the traveller lady and the black woman, how terriby sad that these people who are no strangers to discrimination should now discriminate against us!

If any group of people should know the effects of bullying and the pain and injustice of the world it would be a gay, a traveller and a black and yet helas, here they are to rub salt in our wounds.

Now don’t get me wrong, our prayer evening went really well last night and I may write about it tomorrow but one thing is for sure and that is that it would go even better if these people changed their hearts and helped us in bringing hurting members of the gay community (including black and traveller gays) to merciful Jesus and helped heal the wounds of rejection and pain from the lack of love from family and church.

‘Father forgive them, they know not what they do”.

The other day Toni and I were praying for life in Ealing and we were surprised that on two occasions people were disturbed by the divine mercy image beside us.

First up was a groups of guys who walked by and gave us a funny look and when Toni said “they are coming back” I braced myself for war!

“What’s that?!” Asked one of them as he pointed to the divine mercy image with disgust.

“Jesus’ of course I exclaimed with more enthusiasm than his lack of it and then he poured out on me all the reasons why he disagreed with this image and the catholic church.

He was a protesant and was being true to his denomination by protesting!!

Yet once he realised that I was familiar with protestants the conversation quickly turned to Jesus and we spent the next half an hour talking about the love of God.

The four guys are part of a fellowship group and meet up once per month to pray and support eachother and were really full on for Jesus even if they didn’t quite understand why as catholics we have images and why we pray to Mary and the saints.

The second person to be disturbed by the image was the guy that was replacing Toni and I. Upon arriving he immediately turned the image around and said “I’m a trad, can’t be having that!”.

Honestly I thought that he was joking as I’ve known many traditional Catholics over the years and I’ve never heard of any objecting to the divine mercy. I learnt later that some of them do not accept Pope John Paul 2 and so reject the divine mercy…..

We got to give it to Jesus! He knows how to make a stir and yet how sad is all this division between Christians when really we should all be united on love and praying for life.

And yet it’s also a sign that Satan is very deeply disturbed by the divine mercy and that he’d like to stop it at all costs just as he was disturbed by merciful Jesus when he walked the earth over 2000 years ago.

Anyway, regardless of all that, at our Medjugorje prayer evening this evening I will have a big poster of merciful Jesus who saved my life and my prayer is for more and more people to get to know him and the message of mercy for the whole world!

Jesus, we trust in you!!

Michael

Yesterday Toni and I prayed with the ’40 days for life’ group and as we did a girl stopped and took a photo and scorned “a group of guys discussing women’s issues”.

She was very hostile and we could feel the feminist attitude of ‘my body my choice”.

And in a way they are right! God does give us the choice and we can choose between good and bad and heaven and hell.

One thing that God just does not give us is choice without consequences and this is what the voices of the world fail to tell us.

Our Lady spoke to me on this issue this morning:

“My children, the world shouts ‘freedom’ to you and yet you are enslaved by sin because without God there is no freedom.

Just as you cannot eat what you want and when you want without consequences, you cannot do what you want when you want without consequences.

Some foods for example can make you sick and there are some things that you cannot eat at all because your human digestive systems cannot digest.

Many other foods are good but if you eat too much you may be sick or have health problems!

On the other hand if you don’t eat enough you may also get sick.

So you see my children that true freedom is linked to responsibility and understanding of who you are and how you are created.

Sin is like a poisonous food and it damages your souls which is why your souls need a spiritual medicine through the sacraments of the church and through prayer.

The true food for the soul is love through living a life of prayer, charity and morality.

You must be humble to accept Christian morals and to understand that not everything is good for you even when it feels nice.

One such example is sex! You simply cannot have sexual relations when you want and with who you want.

Sexual intimacy is made for marriage and is a sacred and intimate act with the potential to give life.

Sexual relations outside of marriage may feel good but are not good for your souls and can lead to all sorts of problems such as unwanted pregnancies, breakdown of marriages, sexual diseases, sexual addiction.

God in no way desires to deprive you of intimacy and of pleasure but just like eating healthily, he desires you to be free so that you can appreciate these things without damaging your souls by using them inappropriately.

Pray my children and educate yourselves about your faith as many of you do with food and nutrition and you will be able to freely choose the good and become true children of your heavenly father.“

And so we see that Our Lady is calling us to prayer and to educating ourselves about our faith so that we can then truly be free and freely choose right over wrong and holiness over sin and just like the fitness and food experts say “today is the first day of the rest of your life” so let’s choose holiness and true freedom!

Have a holy day!

Michael

Yes it’s that time again and this Wednesday we will have our next LGBT evening!

As usual it starts at 5.30 with the rosary followed by praise and worship and the mass.

At about 7 we will have adoration, testimonies and prayer so if you can’t make all of the evening, consider coming along fr half!!

Our desire is to bring the love of Jesus to the LGBT community by sharing the love that e have received and as I’ve just come back from an amazing trip in Ireland, I pray that more and more LGBT people can find the healing, love and happiness that I have.

We will of course be live streaming it also on Facebook so if you can’t make it in person you can always join us virtually!

This week the theme will be ‘a personal relationship with Jesus’ and I will be sharing my testimony of how Jesus has transformed my life and brought me to where I am today.

Please spread the word and invite anyone who may be interested and of course come yourselves too. You don’t have to be LGBT to come, the only requirement really is to be interested in getting to know Jesus better and who doesn’t like hearing a good testimony and praising his Holy name?!

Please keep us all in our prayers too as we endeavour to reach out and to touch hearts that may not yet have experienced the love of God.

Blessings from Our Lady of Medjugorje, Queen of peace to all!

Michael

Yesterday I went to visit Paul.

I met Paul at the cathedral in Ennis about 5 years ago. He was carrying a wooden cross and I made a joke that it was too light!

We became good friends and I even stayed at Paul’s place a few times when I was feeling low.

Paul was about 70 and was the caretaker of the cathedral, he was a remarkably positive cheerful man and lived out in the countryside in a simple cottage that brought me back to my childhood.

We’d talk and listen to Irish music together and Paul was a good cook and I was a good eater so it was perfect!!

Shortly after leaving Ireland I heard that Paul got cancer in his eye and had to have it removed and so I when I met him the last time he had only one eye and a nasty enough scar.

Yet he was full of love and said:

Now I’ve never liked blood or medical stuff so his positive attitude was a real blessing.

He was the same when I told him that I was gay and when I was struggling a few years back. He may not have had the answers but he had love and faith and we’d pray the rosary together at night.

So I haven’t seen Paul for a few years and having the use of my parent’s car I was able to visit him but I wasn’t ready for what was about to happen.

Paul opened the door without any bandage and there was a hole in his head the size of a hand. I could literally see his brain.

I didn’t know where to look as one side of me was overcome with shock and horror while the other side was filled with compassion and curiosity as to what was in there!

As a child I found looking at the inside of a television interesting but I’ve never looked into a person’s head and especially not when they are talking to me at the same time.

However there was a more pressing question, did he even know who I was or remember me at all?!

Yes he did and he invited me in for tea as I endeavoured not to look at the blood on the floor and on the green bits in Paul’s head while marvelling at God that I hadn’t already fainted.

Rayne, a nurse, seemed totally unphased by it and so we sat down and Paul made the tea!

I asked Paul how he was really and he said “we must accept the cards we get, there is always someone worse off’ and yet I could feel his suffering and pain.

At this stage I’d notices things like tonsils inside Paul’s head behind his nose and also something that reminded me of the driving shaft of a car or tractor!

As we drank the tea I thanked God for Paul and his witness of faith and trust in God in extreme circumstances and just like Our Lady, his main concern wasn’t himself but was if we had enough tea and biscuits.

I told Paul about Rayne’s folding bike and he cane outside to see it. I’m glad that there were no kids outside playing because if they saw Paul there might have needed therapy!

Yet Paul wasn’t bothered and I learnt later in the day that he even goes shopping like that at times.

As we drove off I prayed for Paul and it took me a while to get over it and yet I smiled and marveled at his positivity and know that he has a very special place in Jesus’ heart.

Afterwards I popped in on Della, another remarkable woman of faith driving around the place at 87 years of age and laughing and joking despite numerous health issues!

What gives these people such love and joy in the middle of such suffering when others who have far smaller problems are grumbling and complaining and sulking in their boots?!

The answer is obvious, faith and absolute trust in the promise of Jesus and the eternal joy of the resurrection.

Everything in this life is passing; our succeses and failures, our careers and cars, our houses and clothes, our sufferings and problems….except one thing that is, love!

What gives Paul and this lady this overwhelming joy is the gift of love from their faith which they have nurtured all their lives through daily prayer and a love of the mass and Our Lady

My prayer is that my life and your life can also be beakens of light and hope for others and that through our hope that they too may turn to the arms of the merciful Jesus who can turn our misery into joy and our tears into laughter!

Jesus, thanks you for Paul and for his life, help us all to be as hopeful and positive and trusting in our trials and for goodness sake tell him to cover his head when he answers the door!!

Michael

Yesterday Rayne and I went to Knock and arrived just before 3pm for mass in the basilica.

The priest gave a wonderful sermon around the dumb man that was healed.

How many people are spiritually deaf and dumb? He asked.

How many do not hear God in their hearts because they have blocked him out and how many are afraid to talk about God in public because of fear of what others think?

And of course all this leads into the lack of prayer and response to the pleas of Jesus and Mary for our current world.

In the afternoon as I sat in the apparition chapel Our Lady spoke to me:

“Our Lady 

My children, how my motherly heart cries for prayer like medical doctors desperate for blood donations to help their patients.

If you understood the need for prayer my children you would die of shock. You live in times of famine, not famine from food but from prayer.

The spiritual poverty of your world is catastrophic and the only solution my children is prayer and conversion.

Look at my son, the lamb of God that can feed the spiritual hunger of the world and who is ignored, rejected and mocked by so many.

My little ones who listen to me and pray, be not discouraged for in heaven every prayer and sacrifice will be infinitely rewarded.

Continue my children to be witnesses to the gospel and to the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and let not anything disturb you.

I am ever with you helping you and encouraging you.

Your heavenly mother and Queen of apostles“

One feels Our Lady’s pain and anguish as her ability to help us is limited by our response to her and when so many people simply do not want to cooperate, we become authors of our own destruction.

And yet Our Lady knows that some people do listen to her and do respond and she understands how difficult and counter cultural the is which is why she asks us to take her hand and to stay encouraged no matter how criticised and rejected we get.

And so Our Lady of Knock points us to Jesus, the lamb of love and she pleas with tears for prayers for the famine of true peace in the world.

Our Lady, help us to love Jesus and to make Jesus known and loved as much as possible wherever we may be.

Back to London tonight!

Michael

Good morning from Ennis in Ireland’s County Clare which is a county well known for tourism for obvious reasons.

Yesterday was a day filled with blessings, not least of which was visiting my parents and having a good old Irish breakfast before speeding off with their car to the cliffs of Moher!

I haven’t driven a car for years so it was fun getting behind the wheel again and after 30 seconds it was like I’d never stopped.

Of course none of these blessings would have happened without Our Lady and the saints and every time I come back I kiss the head of that ‘miracle statue’, visit my grandparents grave and say hello to Padres Pio in the friary in Ennis!

(For that testimony https://michael4jesus.com/2016/05/22/mary-miracle-2/)

Jesus and Mary really have turned my tears to smiles and it warms my heart to know that they want to do the same for all LGBT people out there by bringing healing, joy, acceptance and reconciliation with God and family, the church and the world.

Providence has been looking after me too with free accommodation in Ennis, free meals thanks to friends & family and a few €€ for expenses too and of course the use of my parent’s car! Thank you St. Francis and to everyone.

And so today to give thanks we are going to drive to knock in County Mayo where Our Lady appeared in 1879 with her usual plea to prayer and directing us to Jesus, the lamb of God in the Eucharist.

In a world where there is so much suffering and unhappiness, there is really only one solution which actually works….God!

Unfortunately for my dad’s calves that future is perhaps my dinner or yours but that’s a whole other story!!

And so there you have it, so far our little trip is going super well and our only hope is that more and more people will come to know the love and plan of Jesus for their lives and turn to his most beautiful mother for prayer, help and guidance when they are feeling lost.

Our Lady, Queen of Ireland, Queen of peace, bless all your children today and especially the LGBT ones so that they mind experience the love of Jesus and the wonderful and creative plans that he has for their lives!

Thanks to everyone in London for your prayers and support too, you’ll all be in our prayers today at Knock

Love and Blessings,

Michael & Rayne

Here we are at the airport about to board our flight! I’ve forgotten how stressful travelling can be especially at big airports like Gatwick where getting to the plane feels like navigating through a man made obstacle course of trains, shuttle buses, machines, queues and questions.

I do envy my guardian angel who can travel along with me and doesn’t have to pay for his baggage!!

Anyway before all that Our Lady reminded me this morning of the importance of our priests and also the difficulties that they face, more obstacle courses!!

“My children,

So many people today deny that my Son Jesus is God and that he is really and truly present in the Eucharist.

No group of people feel this attack more than my priests who’s entire lives are centred around the Eucharist.

Just like Satan cast doubt in the mind of Eve, so does he cast doubt in the minds of many priests about Jesus and the importance of their ministries.

Doubt is the opposite of trust and a soul that doubts cannot preach and teach with conviction and clarity.

Priests must not be afraid to talk relentlessly about the eucharistic presence of Jesus, about the reality of sin and the desperate need of prayer and conversion.

It is not to frighten people but to educate and inform them. It would only be frightening if God was not a merciful God and if he didn’t offer a means to salvation.

You must pray for your priests to be very strong and not to give into the pressures of the world and of compromise.

Once again I say to you all, pray and meditate the rosary and read the lives of the saints and allow their example of faith and love to extinguish in you all doubts and compromise.“

Strong words from Our Lady and a calling to us all and especially to our priests to be very strong and confident in our faith and our belief in Jesus regardless of how counter cultural that it may be or how crazy others may think we are!

May all the Holy angels and saints and especially the Irish ones intercede for us all today and give us all a certain belief and love for the eucharist, the priesthood and of course Jesus.

Blessings to all and if anyone would like to help me with a few quid towards travel expenses don’t be shy, I’m sure Jesus will pay you back 100 fold!

Michael

Saturday was St. Joseph’s feast day and as usual I asked Jesus what he wanted me to pray for at mass.

“LGBT families” he replied and by that I knew that he meant all the LGBT people with adapted children or with children through surrogacy etc.

The love and mercy of God is without borders and while these ‘new families’ are one million miles away from the Holy family and are both morally and ethically questionable, these people are children of God too and Jesus loves them.

And so it was no coincidence that a few hours later I found myself in Soho talking to a man who was struggling with the death of is father and 2 young kids.

He explained how the kids were biologically his with an American woman donating her eggs and a surrogate mother who carried the babies.

Meeting him reminded me of a Brazilian guy that I met a while ago who had adapted a child with his partner 5 years ago and they had since broken up.

Anyway as the first guy was really stressed I had the opportunity to pray for him. They always associate prayer with Reiki so I made it perfectly clear that it wasn’t that.

Last night I was discussing this with a friend and we discussed the lesbian couples that have kids through donor sperm, the transgender people that stop their hormone treatment for long enough to have kids (female to male) etc.

What was perfectly clear is that the whole area is so messy from an ethical and pastoral point of view and yet that Jesus loved every single one of these people and isn’t afraid to get right into the heart of it all to bring his love and mercy and freedom.

Yet these areas of ministry present enormous pastoral challenges for the church and especially for priests because part of being Catholic is having Catholic ethics and morals and boundaries and just where do you draw the line and is it fair to reject people in their adulthood that you abandoned in their childhood?

How can we talk to people about the love and mercy of God and yet not reach out to them in love and mercy and understanding and how do we minister to these people without making them feel judged and rejected?

If mother Theresa was alive I think that she might offer this answer:

At times what people don’t realise is that guys like the two that I mentioned are often really nice, kind and gentle and just so desperately want to be fathers and don’t know what else to do.

Often they haven’t grown up in Catholic families or got estranged from the church and as years went by the world offered different ways of resolving their desire to be fathers etc.

As catholics we must be very careful not to judge just as we must be very careful not to judge those who do not want their babies and have abortions.

One thing is for sure and that is that we love on the most difficult and challenging of times where science offers us all sorts of solutions and basically tells us that if it’s possible then it must be good and where the notion of sun, sacrifice and seeking God’s will for our lives and problems is all but gone.

So what can we do? All we can do is our best to pray and to love and to trust in the abundant mercy of Jesus that loves everyone and can offer absolutely everybody a road to holiness regardless of their circumstances, families or life situation.

Jesus, help us to be the bridge of love and mercy and bless all LGBT families, kids and priests who minister to them with your love and mercy and friendship.

Michael

P.S. Pray for me as I travel to Ireland tomorrow with Rayne and face the usual challenges of being a gay Catholic missionary who lives on providence!

Good morning!

Surrounded and bombarded by so much drama and suffering in the world we can sometimes wonder how we can have any joy and yet this is exactly what Jesus calls us to…joy!

Here’s what Our Lady told me as I sat in Tyburn convent before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament yesterday:

“Our Lady 

My children, you can only share the love and joy of life to the degree that you know it and live it and you can only know and live it through knowing my son.

My children, I desire you to be children of hope and of joy despite all the suffering and sin around you because you are loved and your hope and joy can bring hope and joy to others.

This type of joy comes from the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is a spirit of profound joy and utter peace.

Although you are in times of great trials and suffering, God who is out of time already sees the ending and has already accomplished the victory which in your human time is still being worked out.

This is why you can be joyful in the trials because your salvation and Jesus’ victory has already been accomplished.

Allow your joy to shine and if anyone asks you how or why you can be joyful while others are suffering, explain to them that it is the joy of expectant faith in the certainly of Jesus’ victory and encourage them to be joyful too!

Do not evangelise with a frown but evangelize with a smile, the smile that lights up the faces of those who love Jesus and through this others will come to know the joy and hope that comes from truly knowing Jesus.“

At times in church circles it can appear that holiness is all about being stern and serious like a diligent student in class and of course there is a very serious side which we must not overlook.

Yet, more than anything Jesus is our friend and when we receive Him in communion, we receive His love and His joy and His friendship and if that isn’t a reason to be joyful then I don’t know what is!

However it’s also true that if you look at the average crowd after mass they are not noted for their remarkable joy or happiness and the only explanation for this can be that they are praying the mass with their heads and not with their hearts.

Jesus is not boring and serious and stern! He’s gentle and loving and fun! Sure he is stern when he needs to be and especially with those who disrespect him but with his friends he’s beautiful and fun!

And so today Jesus and Mary are calling us to be people of joy and not to allow ourselves to get swamped by all the problems and worries of the world which of course we must pray for but not allow ourselves fall into the pit of doom and gloom and seriousness .

May we be born again in the joy of the Holy and be witnesses of joy to the world with the help of Our Lady our mother and all the angels and saints around us praying for us!

Michael