On the 23rd Feb 2009 after speaking about the True Life in God Messsages to an Inter-religious Meeting, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Vassula was presented with Gold Award by the Buddhist community for propagating peace and inter-faith harmony

Bouddha Kristi Prachar Sangha

Vassula Awarded Gold Medal and Certificate for her efforts of propagating “Inter-faith Harmony and Peaceful Co-existence”

After a six weeks’ mission in the USA and South America and having only five days of rest in Athens, Vassula and myself left for Dhaka in Bangladesh. Vassula was invited by the Most Ven. Suddhananda Mahathero, President of the Bangladesh Bouddha Kristi Prachar Sangha, to join the seminar for “Inter-faith harmony and peaceful co-existence” which took place in the Dharmarajika Buddhist Monastery in Dhaka.

Vassula, of whom they referred to her as Divine Messenger of God, True Life in God, was asked to be this time the key note speaker in that seminar. She has had several opportunities in the past, now and again, to speak at various inter-faith meetings. It is obvious that our Lord is not only calling the Christians to a True Life in Him, but our Lord is calling all His creation to live in peace. Our Lord prepared her as well in her mission to be among every race and every creed who do not share the same faith as ours. Her ability and her knowledge of languages is an asset for such meetings and it is not a coincidence that God gave her the knowledge of different languages for His Glory. Her knowledge of the Arabic language at which one time she read out from the Koran a prayer that gives glory to God praising Him was appreciated by our Moslem brothers in one of her meetings where many Moslems were present. She had shared then in that meeting with them, the Beatitudes from the Scriptures in (Mt. 5, 1-12) said by Jesus and her messages were most warmly welcomed by the crowd. It happened that in that meeting some Buddhist monks were present who then after her meeting invited her over to meet their Venerable. This is the way our Lord led her among them as well.

Inter-faith Dialogue

We know that great efforts are being done by the Secretary of the Pontifical Council of Culture, Father Bernard Ardura in Rome for inter-faith dialogue. In one of his statements he said that “The inter-faith dialogue is the best way to discern the “other”, to try to understand him and to give him a testimony of our faith” and he invites all the people of good will, “implies,” – as Father Bernard Ardura says – “to assume deeply the sense of the human being and the human fraternity in the respect of the sacralite de la vie, to recognize the solidarity of all human beings with the created world, with the other human beings and with God”. It is in those terms that Vassula’s dialogue is based.

As we approached the Temple, the orphan boys who were waiting in line on both sides of the path that led all the way to the Temple started to applaud. Ven. Suddhananda was in the centre waiting for Vassula and when he saw her, he walked forward and embraced her. Vassula took his arm around her arm and walked together as old and intimate friends. Their intimacy and their friendship towards each other touched me very much. She was greeted with a bouquet of flowers as well as to all of us.

Dr. Tony Mansour and Mr Paul Lauer who is from Motive Entertainment in Los Angeles arrived that same day and managed to be heroically present in this seminar after having travelled over 22 hours, with change of time. We had with us Mr. and Mrs Gay from Switzerland as well as Mr. Albert Muller from England. Last but not least, we had the whole time the presence of Mr. Duleep Gunesekere who was of great help to all of us.

Most Ven. Suddhananda Mahathero with Vassula and Guests

As people were pouring in and together with the Buddhist monks, the seminar started by a thorough presentation. The participants were Most Ven. Dr. T. Dhammaratana, Consultant to UNESCO, & WFB Vice-President in France. The second one was from Pakistan, Advocate Mir Nawaz Khan Marwat, Honorary President, Asian Conference of Religion for Peace. The seminar was inaugurated by Mr. Dilip Barua, Hon’ble Minister for Industries, Govt. of Bangladesh. The Chief guest was Dr. Md. Afsarul Ameen, M.P. Hon’ble Minister for Shipping, Gov. of Bangladesh.

Among the special guests were the Roman Catholic Archbishop Most Rev. Poulinis Costa (who could not attend due to poor health), Mr. Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Hon’ M.P. Mr Mayeedul Islam, Hon’ble M.P. Mr. Shamsul Haque Chowdhury, Hon’ble M.P. and the guest in honor, Most Ven. Chao Chu, Hon’ble President, from Los Angeles’ Buddhist Union, U.S.A. And last but not least, Vassula, as the Key Note Speaker. So here is how she addressed the people:

“God is calling everyone to Himself. Try to understand God’s Call of Peace. I exhort you to pray for peace. The world is dead to love. It lies in deep obscurity because hatred, greed and selfishness dominate the entire earth all the way to its core. The disasters, famines, afflictions, wars and plague, all these are drawn by the world. The earth is self-destroying itself and it is not God who gives you all these disasters as many of you tend to believe. God is Just and all Merciful, but evil draws evil.”

Our motto therefore, in True Life in God is, ‘repay evil with love.’ St. Paul in our Scriptures said: “When we are cursed, we answer with a blessing; when we are hounded, we put up with it; we are insulted and we answer politely. We are treated as the offal of the world, still to this day, the scum of the earth.”

According to our Scriptures it is written that anyone who hits us on the right cheek, we should offer him the other as well. And if a man takes us to law and would have our tunic, we should let him have our cloak as well. We are asked to give to anyone who asks, because God causes His sun to rise on bad men as well as good and His rain to fall on honest men and dishonest men alike. Of course all of these words of Wisdom need to be put into practice through humility and self sacrifice.

Buddhists Monks at the Ceremony

Don’t we all feel happier in giving rather than receiving? Unfortunately, very few follow the words of Wisdom that can bring peace and love on earth. But we put up with it for the sake of peace.

Everyone good or evil, with religion or no religion, appreciates love and compassion when it is given to him. Why then during the course of our limited lifetime we do not share this kindness and love with one another? Therefore, the remedy to save this world from violence and hatred is to open their heart and their spiritual ear and teach them about Forgiveness, Tolerance and about Affection and Respect for all human beings; that dictatorial leaderships, that are the causes of extreme violence and sufferings in our world, will lead us nowhere but only to a more violent world filled with poverty suffering, misery and injustice.

Forgiveness is vital. In our Scriptures Jesus says: “If you forgive others their failings, your Heavenly Father will forgive you yours. But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.”

Therefore to be able to resolve aggressive conflicts within and without our communities we have to educate our people and instill in them a divine spirituality based on love, forgiveness and peace to dismantle hatred and revenge. We have to become the image of the Living God who has no trace of darkness or spite, revenge or hatred.

Here I would like to share some spiritual sayings that Jesus Christ gave me during these last years when He appeared to me. He said:

“In the morning sow your seed of Love;
At noon sow your seed of Peace;
In the evening sow your seed of Reconciliation;

Then go and collect your harvest and offer it to Me, your Father in Heaven and I will tell you: ‘In your graciousness My child you have obtained your reward in Heaven.
From above I call to you all: Come! Come and make Peace with Me your God and your will have My Blessing. Return to Me and you will live forever.”

With this, I sincerely hope that the day will come that through our constant prayer and sacrifices, through our fasting, God will pity our failings and give us the peace we need and bring us together and recognize ourselves as one loving family in Him.

Prayer:

Blessed be our Lord God of Mercy who came to give us Light.
Use us as you please.
Make out of us Your instrument of Peace where there is conflict,
of Reconciliation where there is war,
of Unity where there is division and
of Love where there is much hatred.

May Your Will be done. Amen.

After Vassula’s speech, the two participants gave their comments.

• They gave emphasis to the following points:
• respect for each other’s faith

• respect of the other human being as being all children of the same God, and that we are one family.

• To repay evil with love

• charity (help the poor without selecting the faith)
• last but not least, to grow in our virtues especially the virtue of love.

They pointed out how the sentence, “we should repay evil with love” is important for all of us and how the expression of “that we are one big family on earth” is believed as well by them. That “tolerance and compassion” are key note words and that we are all the children of God and that on earth we should love one another. That love is very important to change the world.

After their comments, someone from the crowd came to ask Vassula two questions. The first was:

“How do you see Jesus and how do you hear Him when He talks to you?”

Vassula answered him by explaining to him that she sees Christ with the eyes of the soul and she hears Him within her. As we understand this is called interior visions and locutions.

His next question was, “In America, for example in California, girls go with girls, what do you think of this action?”

Vassula answered that this is a perverted action and that according to the Scriptures this act is considered an abomination in God’s Eyes. We know that these words are written in the Scriptures, especially if one reads Romans chapter one. God cannot be clearer in what He says there. It is a shame that some of our own theologians and clergy today deform the Scriptures and misinterpret them differently from what they say for their own perverted convenience and for their own interests. Vassula ended up saying that God did not create “Adam and Steve” but Adam and Eve.

After her answer there was an uproar of applaud. One of the Moslem leaders who was sitting on the podium with her, came over to her with delight and showed how much he appreciated her answer, saying to her that she spoke very well.

The first time Vassula was invited in that same Temple was back in 2003 where she was honoured to receive the gold medal for her efforts to promote Peace in the world. This time she was offered among four other honourable leaders of different faiths the gold medal for her efforts of propagating “Inter-faith Harmony and Peaceful co-existence.” Those that received the gold medals with Vassula were Most Ven. Dr. T. Dhammaratana, France, Advocate Mir Nawaz Kan Marwat, Pakistan, Most Ven. Phra-kru Sangaruk Boonsong Upasamoo, Thailand, and Ven. Achariya Bhikkhu Karuna Shastri, India.

It was amazing to see how all these people actually respected other faiths and how their spirit is open to the messages of God that He gives to Vassula whom He chose as His instrument of Peace, Love and Unity. I was witnessing how she was performing what God had given her as mission. What left me speechless was to notice their openness but most of all their respect they had for her and us, how respectful they were to hear Vassula quoting God’s words either from Scriptures or from the messages she receives. The honour they give Vassula and their appreciation is noticeable, many times more than I have ever seen among any of our Christian people. They are the only ones together with the Moslems that gave her the name ‘Divine Messenger of God!’ They refer to her with that name as well as calling her, sister, nothing to do with the word sister as nun, but sister, as of the same blood, as of one family, as of real friendship. This term means a lot, it means, acceptance as part of one family loved and without any discrimination . This reminds us of a message that Christ gave back in 1990 on 20th October where the Lord said to her, “And those who have never been told about Me will see Me, and those who never heard about Me, will listen and understand. I shall be found by those that did not seek Me. (..) I shall reveal Myself likewise to tho