Too much of the time in christian circles we put too much pressure on ourselves and on others to be perfect and we feel like we are bad christians when we are imperfect!
We feel that God could not use us or give us any gifts until we are healed. We feel like hypocretes to talk about holiness when we are so obviously unholy!
Satan, the accuser, will never tire of reminding you of all your faults and telling you how disappointed and unhappy God is with you. He will laugh at you and mock you. Somebody like you could never have a ministry!
Too many people listen to these crippling lies and the result is that they never grow into the plan that Jesus has for them.
Jesus does not call perfect people, He calls willing people! We need only read the Gospel to see this. The 12 apostles never seemed to stop arguing and fighting and saying stupid things, yet Jesus gave them healing gifts and they ran around the countryside performing miracles!
Over the years I’ve met hundreds of people with spirirual gifts and yet each have their faults! Some smoke too much, others use bad language and others struggle with sexual sins.
Yet, Jesus uses them!
I think at times we spend too much time trying to look holy when we are not, trying to hide our weaknesses in shame rather than boast of them as saint Paul suggests.
Saint Paul had a thorn in the flesh, something he struggled with that he didn’t seem able to overcome. He begged Jesus to take it and yet Jesus refused, Jesus let him have it to humble him !
And so today you may feel paralysed by your faults and weaknesses. You may feel utterly discouraged and feel like giving up, you may feel like a total hypocrete unworthy to call yourself a christian, a shame to the christian community!
If you do then this is a great sign that you love Jesus and that you are alive and real rather than a plastic doll in a shop window!
Being christian isn’t about having it all together. It is about being aware of your need for God and of His love and understanding and patience with you.
So as I heard once, when Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future!
Let’s not waste our time striving to be perfect but rather let’s do our best and trust in God’s mercy for the rest and let’s not take to heart the lie that we are hypocretes.
Jesus, help us accept ourselves and that you choose us and love us with our weaknesses and faults and that you do not expect us to be perfect overnight!
Good morning from Croatia! It’s a sunny morning but a cloudy day has been promised!
This morning I sense to write about one of the most important virtue of all, and one I may add that I have been rarely accused of having, humility!
In today’s world and church humility seems to be interpreted as shyness, the little shy woman who makes the tea is said to be humble, the priest who preaches a good sermon, he is often said to be arrogant!
If Jesus were alive today, would we call Him humble? Boldly turning water into wine while parading around the countryside performing miracle after miracle somehow does not fit into our modern interpretation of humility, not to mention taking on the pharisees of the time!
No, make no mistake about it, Jesus’ behaviour did not come accross as humble!
Now had He moved about and knocked on doors and offered to cut the grass, He might just have got away with it!
And yet we know that Jesus was humble! So how can we understand His behaviour?!
Jesus was humble because of who He was. He was God and as God had authority and annointing to perform miracles. He was humble because He followed and obeyed the Holy Spirit even if that meant being terribly misunderstood. He was humble because He put doing God’s will ahead of doing man’s will, because He put pleasing God ahead of pleasing people!
If today you went into a hospital and you saw the chief heart surgeon at the reception desk doing the secretarial work, what would you say?
Surely you’d tell him to get back upstairs to the surgery and to save the lives that he has been trained and equipped to save!
If he told you he was being humble bu doing the secretarial work, you might well tell him that he was not being humble but being stupid! He has been trained for something else and by not doing his job, not only is he putting lives at risk, he is putting the poor secretary with a husband and 3 kids out of a job!
Unfortunately such is the case with many of today’s priests!
“O isn’t he a lovely man”
“Isn’t he a beautiful priest”
Well sorry, but if prayer and the sacraments are not at the centre of his life, he’s a blind idiot!
When I lived in France I had the opportunity to go to Rome and not only that but to get into the vatican offices (my life is comedy). What I saw baffled me!
I was shocked to see hundreds and hundreds of immacutely dressed priests with shining shoes and the latest fragrence from Ralph Lauren all working in a massive office!
My mind flashed back to the horror of working in finance where the office was my prison and the coffee machine and the toilet my only source of temporary escape!!
But what on earth were these beautiful priests doing in an office? How on earth could they be wasting their time fighting over commas and fullstops when there was a world out there of souls needing prayer and healing and love and hope!
Clearly this is not what a priest is about and I’m sure Satan is having a great laugh as He sees these men with consecrared hands and annointed lips pushing pens like trained monkeys!
Last night I had the beautiful experiece of going to confession to a nice priest. As he spoke to me about Jesus there was such power in his voice that I cried and after mass he welcomed me to the parish. Now this guy knows who he is, not a secretary, a priest!
And so today you may be wondering why so few young men want to be priests! Young men want adventure and danger, they will become policemen and maybe join the army, few will be interested in becoming a people-pleasing, boot-licking secretary!
And so today, maybe we need to take a step back and look at the life of Jesus and the great saints like Padre Pio, saint Anthony etc.
They did not spend their time eating cakes and drinking wine, they did not waste their days having meetings about meetings nor did they spend their time doing administration work. No, if they felt called to that, a career in hotel management would have been more appropriate!
Humbly they all knew that their calling was to save souls and humbly they believed in the power of their priesthood and allowed through their humble obedience to the Holy Spirit, the power of God to act through them!
They healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons just as is written in the bible. They were heavily criticised and mocked and ridiculed, they were considered crazy but they did it anyway!
And so today’s message is not just to priests! It is to all christians!
Do we know who we are? Do we know the power that is in us through our baptism? Are we aware of our authority and respobsibiliy to stand up and be counted?
Make no mistake about it, if we were, the Church and world would be in a very different state!
So today, let’s rise up and be counted, let’s allow the Holy Spirit to live and work through us, let’s shake off shyness and people pleasing and be who God made us to be!
Yes friends, let’s be wise, humble and powerful instruments of Jesus rather than being foolishly deceived by Satan!
Our Lady, Queen of heaven who has more spiritual authority than any other created being and who is also the queen of humility, pray for us, transform us into soldiers for heaven and raise up new vocations to the priesthood for the glory of God and the salvation of souls!
Hello again from Split. I’m here in the centre just after morning mass. We are in the process of moving again so please pray for us and for adequate provisions…
So this morning I felt Jesus asking me to write about being a man! What is it really!
There are many images out there for what a ‘real man’ is. They vary from big strong guys that don’t cry to the more modern “metrosexual man”.
Perhaps the best role model to look at is Jesus. After all He was God and being a full whole sin-free man we can learn a few things from Him!
Jesus worked as a carpenter with Joseph for many many years. This physical and masculin work would definitely have made Him blend in with the lads if He were alive today.
On the other hand Jesus lived at home with His mammy. Today’s lads may well have mocked Him for that! Being called a “mammy’s boy” is not a compliment.
Jesus was quite tall from what we gather, masculin beard, I’m sure He looked very masculin and blended in just fine.
On the other hand He never got married or had sexual relationships. What would today’s lads say about that?
Jesus was prayerful. We can imagine Him praying at the Synagogue with all His heart. I wonder how this was viewed!
And yet Jesus goes on to His public ministry. He was well able to lead the 12 fishermen who let’s face it did not grow up in the royal family!
Jesus had the authority and boldness to exorcise demons, touch lepors, scream at the hypocrete pharisees and yet He had the gentleness and meakness to speak about love, to cry at the death of Lazurus, to gentle raise a little girl from the dead.
And so you see, Jesus was a man. He was able to be strong and authoritive when needed and was able to be gentle and loving and kind too!
And so we should look at how we view what it is to be a man because maybe, like me, you didn’t grow up with Jesus as your role model.
Life for little boys can be hard. Little girls are allowed to be sensitive, little boys are often not. ” Boys don’t cry” you often heard and so very often men don’t either.
But crying is a natural release of emotional tension put in place by God. It is the spiritual and emotional version of going to the toilet. After a good cry, you are sure to feel much better.
But if as a little boy you were shamed and teased and taught that only girls cry, you may not have cried for 30 years. Is it any wonder so many men are so unhappy and spend so much time at the pub?
Jesus spoke easily and openly about His feelings. Again, in a lot of cultures a man is considered weak to speak of feelings. Feelings are ofen considered for women. “Real” men are hard and tough and have no feelings?
And so is it any wonder they turn to sex, alcohol and drugs to somehow numb the pain and fill the emotional holes.
Personally I never cried until age 23 nor did I share emotions with anyone. I was a product of the irish culture I grew up in, no different from anyone else really!
Only sissy boys and suspected gays cried or showed any sensitivity. A boy who liked music or danse, poetry or colours quite simply was not a proper boy! The bullying these kids got was horrendous!
And so came the pressure to be ” normal”! How many lads drink more than they want to, go off with girls they don’t even like all to look “normal” in front of their mates?
At 23 I had enough of the rubbish of Ireland. I made the bold decision to emmigrate to France!
Now France was a different story. At the start I was very confused! Were all the guys gay? It was so different from Ireland. The guys were sensitive, carried little bags, talked about cooking and colours and clothes.. they wouldn’t last 5 minutes in Ireland I thought!
Somehow the french culture seemed more refined and I adapted to it like a fish to the sea.
France was a safe place to have feelings and to be a man. After 3 months I spoke french fluently and was finding a new me!
It is well known that Jesus has a particular love from France. We need only look at all the apparitions there to see that it is true, despite her faults, France is priviliged from above.
And so the more I prayed the more I saw Jesus compassion on men who have been pressured by society to be strong when they are weak and to be cold when they are warm!
It took me 2 major nervous breakdowns to break the wall of fear that stopped me crying. I somehow got through the first one without crying, but the second one wiped me out.
Once the wall of fear broke, damns of tears flowed and for the first time in my life I actually felt God’s love and it made me cry and open my heart to the world of feelings and emotions!
The maths kid who hated english and poetry began to transform into a creative guy who has taken up writing! The guy that couldn’t cry became a cry baby!
But my point is that had I grown up in a different culture, would this have happened? Are nervous breakdowns not often a build up of inner tension that has never been released?
Do many men drink themselves silly and even commit suicide simply because nobody has taught them to love, to be vulberable.
And so today, you may wonder where you can go or who you can talk to about your feelings that won’t laugh at you or mock you or tell you to “be a man”. Well I know one man, Jesus, and He is waiting in every church all over the world to heal your heart and wipe your tears!
So today, let’s be men like Jesus, strong when necessary and vulnerable and sensitive when necessary too!
Jesus, help us to love and to be full whole human beings. Remove from us all fear of what others think, of being mocked and rejected and make our only concern what you think!
Teach us to pray, teach us to love, teach us to be like you!
The first commandment states to “love your neighbour as yourself”. So I guess it’s pretty important to love yourself!
Growing up in Ireland I often heard the expression “he loves himself” and it wasn’t a good thing. It was what was said about the show off kid with gel in his hair and all the girls around him!
Similarily for the girls that were very good-looking and knew it. They too “loved themselves”!
So what then does the first commandment mean and how indeed do you love yourself and still be humble?!
The answer is simple because love is simple. First you must look in the mirror and just like you are aware of grey hairs and wrinkles that nobody else sees, so too are you aware of all your faults and failings.
You are aware of the things you’ve done, the lies you told, the abortion you had, the time you cheated on your wife. You are aware of your anger problem, your struggle with porn and the drink. You know the men and womem you used for sex, the bitter jealousy in your heart….
How can you look in the mirror and love that?
And so the only answer is that you must put on a pair of glasses. You must put on God’s glasses of mercy!
God knows the childhood you had, he knows the bullying, the insecurities, he knows the beatings, the problems at home, he knows the culture you grew up in…
God knows your weaknesses, the mess of the Church. He knows that if you could live life over again that you’d do it differently.
God knows the nights you cried yourself to sleep, the times you tried so hard to change only to fall down again!
God knows all those who judged and condemned you, who kicked you while you were down…
And so God looks on you, His little child with compassion, love and mercy and He asks you to do the same.
You are not perfect, God loves you anyway. You will not become perfect overnight, God loves you anyway.
And so today, put on the glasses of mercy, allow yourself to love yourself with your weaknesses with compassion and patience and then you will begin to love your neighbour who is equally full of faults!
So let’s love eachother back to life by focusing on His mercy rather than our faults!
One of my favourite saints is Theresa of the child Jesus. I have received so many extraordinary interventions from her.
Like myself she was weakness with a body and threw herself at God’s grace to do even the smallest of tasks.
But like many of the saints, she was greatly disliked by the other religious sisters and they used to even leave the trolly used for carrying corpses outside her bedroom for her to see when she was sick.
Theresa was very sensitive and honest. When her suffering was at its peak she asked that the medication be taken out of harms reach less she gave into suicide.
She even said that it shocked her that more atheists didn’t commit suicide!
Theresa seemed to be taught directly by God. She called Jesus her friend and in the french language used “tu” when speaking to him.
To some this familiarity was too much. Up to this point God was always addressed in the polite “vous” form and so it looked like Theresa was being disrespectful!
But Jesus seemed tired of people addressing Him like a king and wanted Theresa to talk to Him as a friend.
And so little Theresa revolutionised prayer and became a doctor of the church despite having no education! The Holy Spirit educated her!
And it should come as no surprise that in Medjugorje Our Lady calls us all to praying with the heart. In other words, talking to Jesus about all our problems like we would to an intimate friend!
In a funny irony, Theresa who loved Our Lady had no love for the rosary and so her life is a further lesson to us that the ways of God are indeed mysterious!
So I think if Theresa could give us one piece of advice, it would to be as simple as a child and to talk to Jesus about every little thing like a little child might with their mum or dad.
Theresa, help us to open our hearts more to Jesus and hold nothing back!
My last few blogs were on homosexuality and so today to change things I sense to write about something equally misunderstood and controversial…contacting the dead!
A few days ago I went to the cinema. As providence would have it the only english speaking movie was a new horror film called “Hereditary”.
After years of being attacked by demons and experiencing extraordinary stuff I was actually quite surprised at how accurately the movie depicted the paranornal world.
Distraught after the death of her daughter, the mother goes to a medium and from there all hell breaks loose.
She begins to see her dead daughter and experience all sorts of weird stuff.
Unfortunately when it comes to demonology there is very little training out there, even for priests. Even recently I was surprised to discover that a priest with a very signicant ministry to thousands of people knew next to nothing about demons and through no fault of his own. No training and no place to go for it.
The problem is that demons are angels and so they have been around since the beginning of creation and being super intelligent they know you better than you know yourself! When it comes to contacting your dead relatives, they know what they looked like, what they liked and it’s as easy for them to appear as your granny as it is for me or you to change our clothes.
People being naive don’t see past the obvious and so thousands and thousands of people spend thousands and thousands of dollars and without knowing it let demons guide their lives!
When I meet people with demons they can’t look at me. I see the entities hovering over their heads or following them and as soon as I look at them they look away.
Many people suffer terribly from their effects. Like in the film, fear, anxiety, nightmares, paranormal activity in the house like moving objects, weird noises and chilling cold.
But perhaps the greatest suffering which the film portrayed so well is the pain of not being believed and being treated as a psychiatric patient.
Psychiatrists receive little formation either in this area and if they are arrogant can do an awful lot of damage.
I personally suffered the consequences of this when a psychiatrist who had never met me suggested to my mum I may be psychotic!
The result was that I suffered horrendously for years and wasn’t taken seriously while my poor mum and dad were worried sick.
Seven years later I met the man who later confirmed I was fine, that it was spirituality and yet I still have to deal with those 7 years and the unnecessary damage that was done that came close to costing me my life.
And so we live in a very strange society. On one hand very rational and closed to God and on the other hand very irrational and open to new age spiritualities and anything that isn’t God!
So how do you spot the difference between someone following the Holy Spirit and someone following demons?!
It’s actually quite easy! Jesus came to do the father’s will, Our Lady said yes to the angel gabriel and did God’s will. All the saints did the same, they surrendered their wills to God’s.
People who follow demons seek demonic powers and wisdom to do their own wills. Often they want power and influence and wealth and they make pacts with demons to help!
Satanic masses and cursing follow. Sadly even some priests are high up in satanism while butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths if you met them on the street. Politicians, business people, the same. Maybe the devil does in fact wear prada!!!
Spirit guides are big business in the financial world and mediums get highly paid to do their jobs!
Yet ultimately people who get involved in this are only fooling themselves and for some glory in this life risk hell in the next.
And for those that turn around and want to leave. The nice friendly demons show their true colours and all hell breaks loose. It can take 20 years and more to be fully freed when one got in deep!
So to anyone out there interested in spirituality. His name is Jesus, He is as spiritual as you will get and if you give Him your life and let Him guide it He will give you eternal life!
Last year I was invited to Spain to get to know the “Chemin Neuf” community. They have a large base in Saragossa.
“Chemin Neuf” in french means “New Way”. They are a relatively new catholic charismatic community with a charism in evangelisation!
I had got to know them in Lyon (France) and was looking forward to the few weeks in Spain.
Arriving in Spain I was introduced to the community and the leaders. I was warmly welcomed by Fr Vincent.
Over the next few weeks I got to know many of the 100 or so people there. I shared with them what God was doing and had done in my life and especially in relation to homosexuality, holy spirit and demonology (my life seems to be controversy with a face).
One day I went for a drive with Robert. Robert was one of the elders or leaders of the community and we got talking. I shared about my homosexuality. He said he already knew, I didn’t think it was that obvious! Years in the closet has taught me how to hide it and I wasn’t aware of any visible “window dressing” so to speak!
Somebody told him. I didn’t care. My testimony is public knowledge and not an international secret held by NASA!
He asked me if I thought it was wise sharing my story. I thought it was very wise indeed but by the tone of his voice I didn’t need to a degree in psychology to tell that he didn’t. I got the same old catholic lecture that I got one thousand times before.
He began to explain to me that he thought that it wasn’t wise and that I should have asked permission before I shared! Permission! I went to a catholic community of love, not a prison camp or a sect! What permission do I need to talk about my life!
Then he eloborated that some of the people with families may be afraid that I was a paedophile.
After this conversation I could see that “Chemin Neuf” , the new way, was in fact “Vieux Chemin”, the old way.
As the weeks continued Fr Vincent gave many moving talks on the new evangelisation and reaching out to the youth! Needless to say there were no youth coming to this old prison camp of theology and prejudice and the prayers and lectures sounded like hypocricy incarned!
And so I left “Chemin Neuf” after 3 weeks working. They gave me a feel good €100 and wished me well in life. I shook the dust off my feet and continued my journey!
And so dear friends, this is to highlight once again the terrible prejudices that people with homosexuality face within Church circles.
From a psychological point of view it is sad as it breeds shame and secrecy which are the ideal breeding ground for more serious problems.
Personally I’d be far more concerned by somebody who pretends to have it all together than somebody who dares to be vulnerable.
My prayer once again today is for tbe gay community, that the Church may open her heart to them, that the myths and prejudices may disappear and that many men may come out of the “catholic closet” and be a light to the world of the love of God to the gay community.
Yesterday after quite an extraordinary day of “coincidences” (thanks to all your prayers) I went to evening mass in quite a traditional church (St Philip Neri for anybody familiar with split).
I was a good 30 minutes early for mass and so I asked Jesus to teach me something new (I get bored easily).
So then He began to tell me about the angels and that in front of every tabernacle all over the world that therr are angels there to pray and adore Jesus.
As He told me this my eyes wandered to all the little angel figures sculpted around the tabernacle and I felt Jesus smiling saying that these little figures are symbolic of a spiritual reality!
Like a child I said to Him “don’t they get bored”. The church was empty and maybe I was a bit bored myself.
I felt Jesus laugh at me and saying “No”. These angels are so in love with Jesus and His real presence that they are expery adorers of the eucharist.
In inner visions I saw some kneeling in front of Jesus while others dancing extatically quite like the apparition at Knock in Ireland.
I felt like dancing myself but I’m not sure how the parish priest may react if he saw a young lad dancing like a loonatic while claiming to see angels…so I danced in my spirit instead.
Then Jesus told me that we can call on these angels to help us adore Jesus in eucharistic adoration which is so powerful.
So next time you go to adoration, think of the angels, ask them to help you, even if you only go for 5 minutes at a time, you will be blessed.
Jesus, send your angels today to help us to love you more and to help us live and experience the joy that they experience as they spend the day with you.
For anyone more interested in angels, here is a little more of what I’ve picked up over the years in prayer
This morning I woke up with a flashback from the past and the horrofic confusion of dealing with homosexuality while being christian.
As I prayed I was reminded of another miraculous healing I received about 10 years ago.
Up to now shame has prevented me from sharing this one but today I walk into another step of freedom! So here goes….
At the time I was living in Paris and it was 6 months after my conversion. I used to experience horrific attacks from evil spirits and besides my uncle in ireland, nobody else really seemed to believe me or knew how to help me.
The isolation, the fear, the confusion and the lonliness coupled with my own weaknesses led me to falling back occasionally into sexual activity in the gay world. A battle that only those that are familiar with this scene can really understand.
A few months later I had run out of money in Paris and to make matters worse I was facing the dreaded test and results for HIV. I have always hated needles and let me tell you that sitting alone in a hospital waiting room in a foreign country was no fun. I clutched my rosary beeds and said to Our Lady that I’d accept the result either way.
The results came back, it was negative but unfortunately I had picked up another less serious sexually trasmitted disease which was going to require surgery.
In the meantime I left Paris and went to Paray le Monial to volunteer (apparition site of sacred heart of Jesus).
The nearest hospital was in Lyon and so I had to go there for a consultation.
Fearing I was HIV + and because I shared my testimony too openly for some to handle I was asked to leave Paray Le Monial. There was no space in the sacred heart of Jesus for a confused young man facing surgery while battling with demons and with homosexuality.
They purchased me a train ticket for Lyon and I was left to survive.
Yet I felt Jesus with me reassuring me that I had done nothing wrong and that He had a place in His heart for me even if the Emmanuel Community looking after the apparation site could only see me as a troublemaker.
Someone once said that I am like a cat with 9 lives and so after a week in Lyon I had managed to find a place to stay and a job in “subway” , the sandwich shop!
My uncle Thomas came to visit me from Ireland. He is the only family member I saw in those first 5 years and he placed his life and heart on the line defending me and helping me when I had nobody.
He brought me to the hospital in Lyon to try sort out the necessary paperwork. France is tricky when it comes to paperwork and even if he didn’t speak french, just to have someone I knew to sit with me in that waiting room meant a lot.
The papers got sorted and Thomas went home. The surgeon told me that I’d need 2-3 operations. I shrilled at the thought.
The first operation arrived. I came to ‘Lyon Part Dieu’ hospital on Sunday night and was due for an operation on Monday morning.
I had a statue of Our Lady that I placed beside my bed as I battled with a cutting lonliness that seemed to pierce my soul.
The man beside me was a snorer. I don’t think I slept a wink.
Early Monday morning they brought me down to the theatre and despite everybody telling me that they would never let me down with my brown scapular on, they did!
Monday afternoon I woke up groggy. They would let me go home on Tuesday.
Tuesday morning while still wearing the needle for the drip I sneaked out of the hospital with a scarf around my hand to hide it and went to mass. Later I discovered that the priest was a little scared to see someone with a scarf around his hand going to communion. Maybe he thought that I had a knife!
Anyway, on Tuesday I went to a friend’s house (another testimony)
to recover and rest and a few weeks later I had to go back for a checkup.
The good news was that I didn’t have cancer. The bad news was that there would be a second and a third operation.
I was quite scared to tell people why I was in hospital. The majority of even the best church people didn’t seem to be able to handle issues such as homosexuality not to mention talk of STD’s and so I lived in a permanent fear and state of anxiety.
And so I went for the second operation only to be told that there would be a third one and now a fourth one. O man, I could take no more if it and begged Our Lady to help as it all seemed too much.
And so I went for the third operation. A nice young nurse asked me if I was taking any medication for my HIV! She nearly gave me a heart attack. She got my file mixed up!
And so I was put to sleep and shortly after woke up to french nurses laughing at me.
‘C’est toi le jeune homme qui on s’est fait endormi pour rien’ they chuckled.
In english ” you are the young man that was put to sleep for nothing”.
Groggy after the anesthetic I woke up wondering if it was a dream or not. A few hours later the surgeon arrived to my bedside to explain that the growths had disappeared and that I could go home.
Our Lady had intervened and once again showm me that the mercy of Jesus is for everybody and all illnesses, even those of a sexual origin.
As I look back on this all I give thanks to God and yet my heart is still healing from the paralysing silence and rejection I faced from so many in the church at the time.
Jesus has immemse love and mercy on broken people like me with homosexual tendencies that we did not ask for. He helps us, he wipes our tears, he heals our wounds without judging.
If you know people living with homosexuality, love them, treat them to a coffee, listen to their hearts, offer them hope, reassure them…. be Jesus.
So thank you to Jesus and Mary and also to the little handful of people around the world that loved me and helped me over the years.
Please pray for those who may be in a similar position today and indeed for my own ongoing healing and support.
It could be your son or your brother or your nephew….
Yesterday was one of the most exciting feast days in the Catholic Church. It was the feast of the sacred heart of Jesus.
A little history for those that may not know!
In 1674 Jesus appeared to a little french nun in a little town called Paray le Monial in the middle of France (another place I lived for a little while).
Jesus’ words and not mine (as some people think Jesus only says nice things!!) “Behold the Heart that has so loved men. …Instead of gratitude I receive from the greater part (of humankind) only ingratitude,”
And so Jesus asked for prayer and reparation. Reparation is basically Jesus asking good souls to pray more to make up for those that don’t pray.
Out of this devotation came eucharistic adoration as we know it today and today if you visit Paray le Monial you will find a 24 hour adoration chapel although I was a little disappointed the last time I was there as I had to leave Jesus all alone at about 1.30 in the morning….something from a liturgical point of view is not supposed to happen.
But the more important question is why did Jesus appear asking to be loved?! Is He so insecure that He needs our attention like a needy child?
And similarily in Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje. Why is the message nearly always the same, more prayer and reparation for the world!
Well the answer is quite simple. Saint Augustin hit the nail on the head when he said that god made us without our help but that He can only save us with our help!
Jesus is such a gentleman and respects our free wills so much that He can only intervene to help us when we ask!
When nations do not ask Him for help, by default Satan takes over and chaos follows.
In Medjugorje Our Lady spoke to the visionaries about the terrible chaatisements that hunanity is drawing upon itself by ignoring God.
It is not that God is a maniac waiting to punish us but it’s more like watching a fat man eating McDonald’s every day and waiting for his heart to explode…
There are consequences of eating badly….there are consequences of ignoring God.
The recent ‘yes’ to abortion in ireland is a good example of this. Despite enormous amount of prayer the vote was still yes.
Why? Isn’t prayer supposed to be powerful?
Well yes it is but it would be a mistake to exaggerate its power!
Our Lady asks in Medjugorje for prayer in quantity and quality. She asks for masses, rosaries, fasting and she asks it from all.
If this wasn’t necessary she wouldn’t ask. If a simple 3 minute prayer in the morning was sufficient she would tell us!
But when there isn’t enough prayer, like in Ireland, Satan gets his way and humanity falls another step closer to a hell on earth.
And so going back to the sacred heart. The same Jesus is waiting today for our prayers to save souls, for our sacrifices to bring this world back to God.
Are we prepared to help Jesus, to pray on behalf of the lost and to be His soldiers of love and prayer in today’s Church and world?
This involves sacrifices. Sacrifice of time, of reputation, of money,of friends.
Jesus, help us to say yes and to accept these sacrifices out of love for others as you accepted your death out of love for us. Help us to be generous, help us to pray and to suffer joyfully out of love for you who is the way, the truth and the life.