Here you are able to find Paddy's (John Paul Mary) speech from Medjugorje '08, and some other pieces of interviews, he made after.






Brother John Paul Mary (Paddy Kelly) member of the famous Irish group of music Kelly Family was on Monday in Medjugorje for the first time with Jugendfestival since its entering the monastery of the community of the Hl. Johannes. He was standing there before a large crowd telling about his life with God.
Before ten thousands youth participants John Paul Mary called at the beginning of the lecture: " Do not be afraid you, holy ones of the new millenium to being."

Then he begun its certification with the words " I came to around you to tell you a true story about a boy, who was allowed to enjoy large for many years, being a celebrity by the music. But this has made him finally not happy at all. It was so bad that, when he noticed that it made him so unhappy, he would not live further anymore, he wanted to rather die then living further like this.

But in the face of death at one time change happened. The young man left the window and cried much. " There was God and gave him the hope, which he used. He began to read the Bible. Each day He was reading a few pages of the bible.

At one day the boy met a priest. The discussion with the dedicated man aroused in him the desire for the holy Beichte (confession). In the past he had done things, which he wanted to repent. That was the first time, where he thought about the fact that he also become perhaps a priest. Some time on it he discovered by accident the place of pilgrimage Lourdes. " While he was zapping by different television channels, it is pushed over documentary film over Lourdes. He was first sceptical and thought that the place was only for poor, small grannies they all believing but however nothing for a Pop skirt star.

Brother John Paul Mary tells of the discovery:
" this simple deeply Peace" in its heart. He felt a discrete presence of someone else. " Maria is not an illusion. The young man was baptized, but he did not know the fact that humans can be in contact with God and personally can meets him."

In the same evening he decided to live his live a new chance, no more after its own ideas but to look for the will of God in everything. He bought a Rosary and began to pray. First has this young man begun with three pearls a day but years later it where three rosary's each day. " As a Pope Johannes Paul II. the light-rich rosary's introduced he began four Rosary's each day to pray." The participants of the Jugendfestivals gave Paddy here a spontaneously applause.

In the summer 2000 then the whole " Kelly Family" came for the first time to Medjugorje. They looked for assistance for ill member of the family. There they became acquainted with P. Jozo Zovko and could by its assistance a deep experience conversion to god. After it the young man went with the vapours of the community of the Hl Johannes to Rome. There he went kneeling through the Basilika of the Hl. Petrus. " He did not know, where him would lead that." He visited ever more frequently the brothers of the Hl. Johannes and learned then what a Christian is, with which holy ones to regard had. Ever more placed itself with the question about the appointment to the Priesthood. " After he experienced this unconditional love, the person, the answer to all its questions is, felt themselves he infinitely attraction, ever more united with him too loving."

He visited also again and again Medjugorje and one day it passed:
" Here in the church after hl. Fair he has felt this internal conviction, the fact that he must give his life to God in a more radical way."

His girlfriend at that time said to him: " If you are happier with Jesus, then go". There the young man saw that his love was pure, because he was more worried more over Jesus then about his own luck.
"This victim was not any more his own victim. They have their love up-sacrificed for a larger Love." , Brother John Paul Mary tells: �At the end, shortly before the entering of the monastery life, this cruel moment came to tell it the family, to say goodbye to the music in order to have Jesus. He did not know, what he did, but he knew that it was correct;




Dear Paddy Kelly, the whole world knows you with this name. How did you come to become a monk?

Since I was a child, I had thought that I would marry, just like my father and have a family. And at first, music was the centre of my life, but as I already said yesterday, there was a moment of my life, when I was approximately 20 years old when we were on the top of our success, so to speak, when I felt a deep emptiness inside. I had everything, the most people dream of � a huge amount of money, we were living in a big castle, we had so much success. So I could have anything, I wanted. But all this didn�t make me happy. Quite the reverse: it caused a big emptiness which no one was able to fill. Additionally, I had broken up with my girlfriend and I noticed that all my ideals of love were destroyed. Then there was something like a depression, an identity crisis. I didn�t really know who I actually was. �Who am I? Am I a star? Am I an artist? Am I really the one, whom I think I am or of whom others think, I am ?"(oh, Lord, was that understandable???) And so I began to search for the truth. During this time of suffering and darkness I found myself asking really deep questions for the first time: �What is the sense of life if this all does not satisfy me?� I didn�t even enjoy the music anymore. �What is the sense of all that, why are we existing? Where do I come from, and where do I go? Do I have a soul? Do I have something which will continue to live after one�s death? And if so, where does it go to?� In my family, everyone was baptized and we were all educated as Catholics. But because of the success and the travelling we didn�t practice our faith anymore. And God was always there with us but we were not always with him.

You didn�t notice him, you didn�t hear him�

That�s right. We considered other things more important than Him when we should have seen him as the most important thing. And this search for truth turned into a life of prayer after I was in Lourdes. And I started to read the Bible every day and I also genned up on other religions but Jesus as a person appealed me. It was as if he hadn�t been someone from the past, he was someone who was talking to me that very moment. And the things he did and said, according to those texts, somehow echoed in my heart. So step by step I began to pray, after I had returned from Lourdes in 1999. And then I made my first confession for many years and this really relieved me. I thought, well this is the beginning of a new life.

And this new life lead you to give up everything you had and now you are sitting here in your grey dress. And now I wonder, why you chose particularly this order? There are so many orders, why this one?

Well, I took a look at many orders, for example in India at the one of Mother Theresa. I also knew some Benedictines and Franciscans from the USA , from the Bronx. But joining the order of St. John was really God�s sake. I hadn�t understood it until I had joined them. I didn�t really know, why but I noticed their joy. They had answers to my questions and there� a �fire� burning. It�s not only some kind of �life-style�. I knew friars who were millionaires and they left everything behind in order to follow Jesus. And they just had this youth, joy and fire which attracted me and I felt together with them at home. And later I discovered the spirit of St. John.

Yes, it�s very interesting that especially these new order attract so many young people although they are much more strict than older orders. And it�s funny, and I like it very much that following God, it is always an adventure. You don�t always know where it will lead you. But now I�ll ask a question which many people are interested in: What about your music, now that you�re a monk?

I�ve written many songs during the past four years, since I joint the monastery and music is still my hobby. But now my songs have turned into prayers. I already started writing religious songs at the time of my conversion. But now, music has become a way of addressing to God. I don�t appear in public. This was the first time, I did that. But God willing, I don�t rule out that this may play a role in my calling in the future.

I can imagine that quite well. If God leads someone to be such a famous person in music I don�t believe that He suddenly wants something completely different. I think that it was a kind of preparation. And I can imagine that the charisma of music can be a missionary charisma.

Well, I think, if you take a look at the young people these days, you can see that they all walk around with iPods on them. And if you want to spread His word, then you�ll have to get onto the iPods. And if music is something to tell them the word of God in a way which they are used to and which they like, why not?