Exploring Rome – October
For the first time since our Pilgrimages began, Jesus Christ gave Vassula a Message to be read out by her while we would all be gathered in Rome for our 12th ecumenical pilgrimage. In that Message our Lord is pouring out the fullness of His Mercy on us in these last days, asking His shepherds once again to reconcile and come to a complete Unity, removing divisions among themselves by the power of His Holy Spirit. Jesus was not mincing His words, but was, as always, direct and clear. The Message was breath-taking and uplifting at the same time. Christ is reminding his shepherds that we are joined in one baptism and asks them to share the mystery of the Eucharist. There is one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, one Faith, one God the Father of all and through all, and He lives in all of us…
This Message could do nothing but bring the hearts of all the pilgrims together, in praise and worship, to feel in their spirit that they are one family; all children of God are truly one in Christ, belonging together to eternal life in God’s Kingdom.
Some who attended this pilgrimage came from afar, altogether from 65 different countries. This multi-national gathering alone shows how True Life in God has spread around the world. It can only be God who could extend His Works in such a magnified way. The clergy, along with the lay people were from 15 different Christian denominations. From the 700 people gathered, the clergy alone were 104. There were Anglicans, Armenian Orthodox, Copts, Ethiopian Catholics and Ethiopian Orthodox, one Evangelical, Greek Orthodox, Lutherans, Maronites, Melkite Catholics, Roman Catholics, Romanian Orthodox, Syrian Malankaras, and members from the Delhi Orthodox Church; praise be the Lord!
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It is so clear that the Lord guides these pilgrimages with power, for Vassula, his instrument of Unity, on her own, without the Hand of God, would in no way have been able to have gathered all these pilgrims from different Churches and bring them to join in Rome to form one Church in its diversity. It is as though we hear Jesus saying, ‘I shall increase them, and the nations will learn that I am the Lord, the sanctifier of contrite hearts.’
For 12 years now, there has been an interfaith presence from Bangladesh at our pilgrimages. Faithfully and unfailingly, the presence of the Venerable Mahathero Suddhananda was escorted by two of his loyal Buddhists. Their speeches express peace and harmony for the whole world and the Buddist monks are grateful that our Churches are as well seeking harmony between us and peace in the world. The Venerable, upon seeing Vassula’s efforts of so many years for promoting peace, reconciliation and Unity around the world, had shown his appreciation by inviting her over to their Monastery in Bangladesh, Dhaka, three times on three different occasions to offer her the gold medal award. One of these times they honoured her to receive the gold medal award by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who was invited in their function.
In spite of so many endless and frenetic persecutions of certain people that True Life in God inevitably has been experiencing for 29 years, the Voice of Christ cannot be hushed down and will never be buried. The tide of truth continues to gather momentum, as the battle for souls rages ever fiercer and ever more tenacious, and this net which Christ casts in our times must haul in its catch. We must not forget what Jesus was asking Vassula in His Messages; significant: ‘be My net…’ He said to her. This Message does not exclude the rest of us; Jesus is calling each one of us to be His net. Yes, a net we should be, to catch indifferent souls, lost souls, desperate souls and bring them to Christ’s Mercy and Love so that they too may be healed, consoled and discover in their life the meaning of: the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Not only do the pilgrims each time grow in numbers, they also always take a step forward towards Unity and a clearer understanding of what sort of Unity is asked from us by Jesus. This is the purpose of our pilgrimages. Every time we meet, we could hear a louder, more persistent and more urgent call for Unity from Christ. After all, one can ask, what is the reason, and what is the purpose that Christ is so decisively gathering so many of his shepherds and us as lay from among so many nations to our pilgrimages? Why is He gathering us together from all sorts of backgrounds and traditions and from all the foreign countries, if it is not His intention, His plan, to put in us a renewed spirit and a renewed heart: to become the visible example, the visible sign of the ‘Unity in diversity,’ the way He wants it? Are we perhaps, without realizing it, the first Apostles, the Apostles of the End of Times, to have had a foretaste of the real and completed Unity?
Christ never ceases to keep renewing the hearts of stone, changing them into hearts of flesh. Christ, in our times, is renewing the rigid hearts that were filled with prejudices that were stiff like the three unbending iron rods, the hearts that brought the division in the Church and who keep it… Oh yes! God can mold these hearts… After all, is God not known to be a God of Mercy and of power but of surprises as well?
11th October – Sunday.
As was done in previous pilgrimages, the first day’s program activity in Rome, right after breakfast, was the recitation of the ‘Our Father’ prayer sung in the Aramaic language. Then came the preparation for the procession of the hundred and four clergy that represented fifteen different Church denominations that had to walk in a procession, escorted by the organizers, Anne-Marie Peters and Theodora Konidari together with Vassula. Unfortunately David Armitage, another organizer, was not well and did not go to Rome. All of the clergy were dressed in full splendour and in diversity representing their own Church; it is a formidable sight to see how the Church of Christ can appear when all the shepherds are dressed in all their regalia, in all their splendour and in their diversity. One can compare the Church to a beautiful garden with all sorts of flowers, a rich variety of flowers.
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Everyone watching could not deny being touched while they watched, and here I would emphasize: to watch ‘The One and Unique Church, the One Mystical Body’, solemnly walking together in silence through the aisle as one body with a background tune of Kyrié Eleisson. When the clergy reached the podium, each one of them in turn introduced himself and the church to which he belonged, while a great thunder of applause was heard with cheers.
When it came to Mgr. René Laurentin’s turn to introduce himself, there was a sudden louder uproar of acclamation, thundering the assembly hall with cheers, with a standing ovation for him. Mgr. Laurentin could hardly finish introducing himself. It was not only because Mgr. Laurentin was the eldest of all the pilgrims, just over 98 years of age, totally blind and barely walking, but also because he has been heroically defending the Messages of True Life in God. He was (and is still) a staunch defender of Vassula’s apostolic mission. He has never missed any of our Pilgrimages, not one. When everybody again was seated, Vassula read out to us the so awaited Message of Christ and what He had to tell us in this significant gathering. And as I said above, it was again a clear and decisive Message that Christ was once again inviting his shepherds to reconcile and unite by showing a visible sign of Unity around one Altar.
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After hearing Christ’s message, there was a slight pause among all, so as to reflect on the Message, and then the first speaker was called to give his speech. It was not the first time that Archbishop Georges Haddad was at our pilgrimages. He belongs to the Melkite Church, living in Lebanon. He had in the past invited Vassula to give a talk to his congregation in Lebanon. His speech was based on the words of the Heavenly Father saying that God has a special plan for each one of us and that we can only know Him through the Holy Spirit and the Truth. In fact, this is what Jesus has been asking us in the Messages of True Life in God: “come and get to know Me and understand Me…” and that He would be greatly disappointed were we to die without having known Him… He continued by saying that Salvation is the Door which opens into the Heavenly Father through Jesus and that the Holy Spirit makes the Unity of the Church, through the diversity of people, their culture, their personalities and their countries. He concluded his speech with a prayer of repentance that we all prayed together.
After that speech, his Excellency Bishop Athanasios Canepa, Bishop of all France, from the French Coptic Orthodox Church prepared Himself to celebrate the Holy Coptic Liturgy as programmed. It was the first time that a Coptic Bishop was inviting all of us to his Mass. It was also the first time that Bishop Athanasios joined our pilgrimages and he was delighted to be with us to contribute in our efforts towards Unity. He told Vassula, not long ago, that the Messages of Christ had touched him enormously; that he had read a good part of them and that he believes what Jesus asks from His shepherds. Having been so touched by the Spirit, he wanted to contribute through whatever means he could so as to progress the Unity that Christ was calling His Church to achieve. We thank God for giving us warriors of faith. This calling was also in the Message that Christ gave to us in Rome for the pilgrims. Christ was asking us to become warriors of faith; not to fear, but to walk forward into uniting. In other words, Christ is reminding us in this End of Times that we are indeed in a spiritual battle, that we would face harsh opposition and persecution, but that we must remain in Him and be strong and fearless when these persecutions come our way.
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After the speeches, there was not one moment to lose. The buses were waiting to drive all the pilgrims to visit the Santa Scala, the Holy Stairs on which Jesus climbed to reach His trial by Pontius Pilate. Pilgrims from all over the world climb each step on their knees in prayer. The holy staircase is covered by wood and people could see only parts of the original ones through small glass slits that seemed to be out of marble.
As the Basilica di Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was not far, the pilgrims walked over to that Basilica. This Basilica was built into part of the Imperial Palace of the Empress St. Helen. We had time to walk to the Chapel of the Holy relics, where we saw in awe a good part of the Good thief’s cross, the bone of the index finger said to be the incorruptible finger of St. Thomas, the finger as we know that he placed in the side wound of the Risen Christ, two thorns from the Crown of Thorns, three fragments from the True Cross and one nail used in the Crucifixion. Also on display was the ‘Titulus Crucis’, the inscription attached to the top of the True Cross. We were blessed to see with our own eyes some of the authentic instruments of the Passion of Christ.
12th October – Monday. We started our second blessed day with an early wake-up call, due to the long trip to Pompeii. The organizers had reserved the sanctuary della Beata Vergine del Santo Rosario in which an Ethiopian Mass was programmed to be celebrated by his Excellency, Bishop Lesanu-Christos Matheos and the homily to be presented by Bishop Markos Gebremedhin Woldesenbet. After Mass we would be visiting the famous archaeological city of Pompeii.
The history of the Sanctuary is told around that of a man, Bartolo Longo (1841-1926). Visiting Pompeii one day while he was in despair, a voice told him, “If you seek salvation, spread the Rosary. It is the promise of Mary: Whoever spreads the Rosary will experience salvation.” He moved an icon of Our Lady of the Rosary into the old church; soon the site produced miracles for those who came to pray there.
Four years later, Bartolo Longo decided to focus on the greatest work of his life: building a shrine in Pompeii that is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The sanctuary was built from 1876 to 1891, which also included a school, a workshop, an orphanage and a community center. After the manifestation of these miracles, Pope Leo XIII formally encouraged devotion to Our Lady of Pompeii. The sanctuary was erected in the papal basilica. On October 19, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI placed a golden rose onto the sanctuary, the highest distinction reserved by the Catholic Church for a Marian shrine.
The miraculous icon of Our Lady of the Rosary is installed above the main altar, in a gilt frame. It represents the Holy Mother of God sitting on a t