Aegina retreat 2022
It is an honour and a blessing to be here
I bring thanks to our Lord and our Holy Mother for this retreat, a divine grace given to all of us to live in love and unity on earth as it is in heaven. I thank Vassula for inviting me. It is an honour and a blessing to be here. I thank Theodora, Georgia, and Irene for making my travel a lot easier. I thank my brother priests and all of you present here for your sisterly and brotherly love in Christ.
“Father, I have glorified You on the earth”
In the Gospel of John – Chapter 17 the Lord said: “Father … 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 6 I have manifested Your Name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. 8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me. 10 … all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are One.”
The entire Creation must be grateful to the Creator who, out of love and justice created everything that exists.
Planets, stars, plants, animals give glory to God by obeying His laws, but we humans, created in God’s image and likeness – the masterpiece of God’s creation, intelligent beings endowed with an immortal spirit and free will – often forget to give God glory, offend Him with our sins, and even negate His fatherhood.
Out of His infinite love for humanity the Father sent his Word, God like Himself, the Second Person of the Divine Trinity, to save us from the captivity of sin and eternal damnation. The Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, glorified the Father through everything He has done on Earth, teaching us to do the same.
How to glorify God
There are many ways to glorify God, and the time allotted to this talk is barely enough to scratch the surface. The following ten guidelines, supported by many Holy Scripture and TLIG messages, should help us focus on what matters most in our efforts to bring glory to God:
- Faith
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16)
All starts with faith in God and His only begotten Son. We need to ask for this gift of faith, to continually nourish it and help it grow by opening our hearts, as little children do, and allowing the Holy Spirit to enter, enlighten and guide us. Let’s realize that we are dust and ashes and without Him we can do nothing.
“My signs are limited this time for this revelation; I get more glorified giving it in this way. I want that Faith comes first, without having too many extraordinary signs within this revelation” (Nov. 16, 1988)
- Love
As God’s children, we must bring glory to God by putting more in practice His law of love, the Decalogue. His interests come before ours, and the more time we dedicate to Him, the more we glorify Him.
We all know the right answer to the Lord’s question: “whose house is more important, your house or My House?”, right?
Also, let’s not forget that love for God cannot be detached from the love for neighbour: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
“to this day I call out to all of you: live My messages! renew yourselves in God, in His Love and learn to love one another; be good and holy!” (December 6, 1993)
“come to Me, imperfect as you are and share My Great Love; your love should not be just words or mere talk, but something real and active; repay evil with good … repay injustice with righteousness … repay hatred with love … forgive, forgive … let love be always present in all your acts” (November 29, 1989)
- Humility
“the least you are, the more I Am” (April 2, 1990).
“call out to Me: ‚Kyrié eleisson! Christé eleisson! forgive me, the sinner!‘ humble yourselves and I shall raise you … efface yourselves, and I shall lift you to Me and hide you in My Sacred Heart” (November 29, 1989)
Humility and love are the keys to unity. Let’s recall the TLIG vision of the three iron bars representing the Roman Catholics, the Orthodox and the Protestants, and where lack of humility and love between us leads.
“I shall have to come to them with My Fire and with the power of My Flame upon them they shall turn soft to bend and mould into one solid iron bar, and My Glory will fill the whole earth” (October 26, 1989)
- Obedience
In His prayer to the Father, the Son of God described His mission as an act of obedience to the Father’s will: “I have finished the work which You have given Me to do”. (John 17:4)
Our Holy Mother, perfect in obedience, second only to the Son, teaches us in Cana of Galilee: “Whatever He says to you, do it.” (John 2:5). She repeats the same teaching in the TLIG message of January 29, 1988:
“… please Him furthermore in obeying His demands; remember Jesus will never ever ask from you something that could harm you; Jesus is for your salvation, Jesus means Saviour” (January 29, 1988)
Let’s obey the Lord without fear.
“obedience to Me your God comes before obedience to men; meditate on these words” (December 4, 1989).
- Total abandonment to God’s will
The Lord teaches us this abandonment in His sublime prayer to the Father – “Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”, and during the passion hours in the Gethsemane garden – “… not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).
The Holy Mother echoes the same teaching. Her entire life was a complete and perfect abandonment to God’s will.
“I came to remind you all that a true apostle of God is the one who does the Will of God: to love is to do the Will of God” (Dec. 6, 1993)
- Prayer and Contemplative Adoration
“God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth” (Philippians 2:9-10)
We bring glory to God through our prayers unceasingly, but they must be prayers from the heart. We must seek intimacy with Him who is everything for us – God, Father, Spouse of the soul, Saviour, Consoler, Protector, Best Friend – but never forgetting that He is holy. As often as possible we should pray in silence, with our whole being adoring God, in the highest form of prayer, the contemplative adoration prayer.
“ah, let Me hear this often, let your heart speak to Me; come and meditate on Me, meditate on He who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, come to contemplative adoration, for this is what pleases Me; I and you, you and I, face to face in total silence; I, revealing My Beauty to you, and you, praising Me” (October 12, 1989)
- Evangelization
On June 30, 1990 the Lord said: “bring My people to the obedience of faith … broadcast My Message”
The divine “living bread” (TLIG messages) was given to revive us for God’s glory… but it must reach other souls in need of this rich nourishing food. We have the duty to spread it as apostles of the End Times, similarly to the first apostles who spread the Good News (the Gospel).
In doing that let’s remember that we are like the postman delivering a letter (God’s letter), that only He can change a soul, and that our deeds speak much louder than our words.
- Unity
“… the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are One.” (John 17:22).
Uniting in prayer, in love, humility and obedience to God’s call of unity, without making distinctions among ourselves, as God does not make distinctions between His children, brings glory to God. “orthodox! catholics! protestants! you all belong to Me! you are all One in My Eyes!”; “division is a sin“ “which massacres daily My Body” said the Lord on Oct 27 1987, Nov. 13 2001 and March 27 1992, respectively.
We must live in Christian unity and promote it… bring down the barriers that we put between us out of pride, lack of love, and excessive prudence and focus on uniting the Body of Christ, the Church, whose Head is our Lord Jesus. Let’s focus on our similarities, not on our differences, and remember that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness.
- Veneration to our Holy Mother, heavenly powers, and the saints
Honouring the Holy Mother, the angels and the saints is pleasing to God. Let’s ask them to teach us how to bring glory to God, console us in sorrow, and intercede for us in our little missions.
“Honour My Mother
as I, who am The Word and above all,
honour her;
would I then not desire you
who are dust and ashes
recognise Her as Queen of Heaven,
honouring Her?
My grief of today
is to see how little My creation knows of Her importance.”
(Dec. 22, 1987)
I will console all those who love Me, in those days of sorrow; I will be ever so near your hearts, I will make you feel Me, I will send you a legion of angels and saints to console you all, so courage, beloved ones, courage! (November 8, 1988)
- Patience, Perseverance and Hope
In a godless world is our mission going to be easy? When the Head of the Church is suffering, will the Body of the Church be exempt from suffering? No, but lets put our hope in the Lord, do our best fir the glory of God, and He will do the rest.
“…your sufferings will teach you to be patient; have you not heard that patience brings perseverance and perseverance brings hope? and this hope, upon this hope will raise My Kingdom; let every part of yourself now glorify Me” (December 21, 1992)
Conclusion
I would like to conclude this talk with the prayer called “Revive us all for Your Glory”given to Vassula for all of us on November 15, 1991.
The Lord wrote:
I am; come to Me at all times; pray with Me, say:
You are my only God
my only Hope
my only Love,
You are my God unrivalled,
ever so Tender and Delicate
with the weak and the wretched.
Let not the Chalice of Your Justice
brim over us;
allow the captives to be set free
before Your Day my Lord.
Our faults in Your Eyes have been many
and our rebellion and apathy even greater
in number,
but Your Heart is throbbing
with Love and Compassion.
Give us O Father, most Gracious
a powerful Breath of Your Spirit
to revive us all
for Your Glory. Amen.
