Yesterday Rayne and I went to visit Richmond park here in London for a bit of break before he goes back to work tomorrow.

It really is quite impressive to find a park like this in the middle of London and just goes to show that big cities like London can be full of so many surprises even after a few years of living here.

When I came back last night I spent some time in the church with Our Lady who once again spoke to me very clearly and lovingly, this time on the subject of judging others and discerning.

‘Our Lady 

My children, I call you to be my special apostles of love.

The more you love Jesus, the more it will become obvious to you those that do not love him just as the more you sing or play music,the more easily you will hear and spot the mistakes of others.

Yet my children you must not judge. You must be very aware of the difference between discerning and judging.

Discerning is when you correctly see the sins and lack of holiness in others while judging is when you accuse and blame others for their mistakes as if you knew what was happening in their lives and minds.

Only God can judge because only God knows all.

That said you can correct the mistakes of others without judging why they made the mistake.

Remind yourselves of your own spiritual journeys and lives and how long it has taken you to learn some things and overcome certain vices before you point the finger at others.

Finally and most importantly, pray for others who are unaware of their sin with a heart of love and mercy and not with a heart of judgement.“

It’s true that in church circles that we often come across two extremes; the first being those that don’t care about what anybody else does and proudly say ‘it’s none of my business’ while the other group take far too much interest in the affairs of others and it becomes all of their business!

The truth is that what others do is ‘some of our business ‘ because we are all brothers and sisters and we all care about the church and the image our behaviour and the behaviour of others gives to the world.

And this is where it’s tricky because Our Lady isn’t asking us to be blind to other people’s mistakes or what we perceive as mistakes but rather she’s asking us to pray, to love and if we do feel that we have to correct someone, not to judge them.

It helps when we consider that Jesus picked 12 very average and mediocre men as his first disciples who made lots of mistakes and yet the Holy Spirit used them powerfully.

Similarly we don’t need to be perfect nor do others for the Holy Spirit to work in and through us so let’s do our best to take the focus off what others might be doing wrong and refocus our eyes on what they are doing right while we pray that over time they (and we) will improve!