True Life in God Newsletter
August 14, 2004

Are You Blessed?

Report on the TLIG Meteora Plgrimage

Meet Vergine Chakran and Her New CD of TLIG Songs!

The New 2004 International TLIG Prayer Meeting Booklet

ForumSeeks French Speaking Translator

Are You Blessed ?

Jesus Says :

“look now and learn:

blessed are those whose hearts were open to be cleansed and prepared to receive the Holy Spirit for a transformation, they shall be deified and called sons and daughters of the Most High, they shall be called gods by participation;

blessed are those who have been perfumed by grace and their fragrance like blended incense, perfuming with their presence My Icons, they will inherit My Kingdom;

blessed are those who received My Holy Spirit and have become joint-heirs of My Kingdom, illuminating others with My Words and My Knowledge and giving the possibility to the rest of the world to understand the dogmas of the Church – they will be called collaborators of My Kingdom since they will be ruling with Me;

blessed are those whose faith is revealed through acts of charity and services done to the Most High, their voice resounding like a melody, honouring My House, they will be receiving the fulness of Myself and will be covered by the grace of the Holy Spirit; even after their death their body will be prophesying; ⁵

blessed are those who allowed My Holy Spirit to govern them and herd them into My Fold; they will form one Body and will be forever united to Us, the Triune God;

blessed are those who after having been rooted in abominations, allowed the Holy Spirit to lead them into a metanoia, uprooting all the evil within them and allowing Him to pour Himself in them and well up inside their heart vivifying the dead substances; ⁶ like roses in the days of spring they shall bud and blossom for they will be part of the new and holy royal priesthood; yes, they will be called the people of God, who will sing praises to Me for having led them into My wonderful Light;

blessed are those, who, for My sake volunteered to sacrifice their time and themselves to go out into the battle of your times to fight against the evil forces, enlisting themselves as soldiers; the grace of the Holy Spirit will sustain them and girt them with strength, forming them to rank among the predominant Archangels Michael and Raphael;

blessed are the breach-menders who renounced to their passions for My Sake and to all that held them prisoners to this world and became, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, associates of My Divine Plan, embellishing My House; their soul and their entire being will become like a glorious Cathedral;

blessed are those who have learnt to thirst for Me and to desire to embrace Me and possess Me, they have discovered the Prodigy of prodigies and that is: to know Me and understand Me in My sweetness;”May 5th 2001

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Report on the Meteora Pilgrimage May 2004

The weekend of 1^st and 2^nd May was full of arrivals. At the international airport of Athens people arrived from Europe, Asia, South and North America. These were moments of excitement and expectation that were preparing us for the beautiful days that would follow. Vassula arrived on Sunday at noon from Rome accompanied by F.Julio Gaddi and Cecilia Lutz. We welcomed her with hugs and kisses and a bouquet of sunflowers that she liked very much. That afternoon the hotel’s lounge was full of happy faces, some of them not having seen each other from the pilgrimage in Egypt or the meeting in Rome, and other friends participating for the first time.
Theodora the pilgrimage organizer, Fr. Leenders at the Hotel in Athens greeting participants. As everybody wanted to have a taste of Athens, we set off towards the center of the city and the garden of Zappio where every year a Book Fair is taking place for 17 days. There, our friends were amazed to see one stand with the sign: “TRUE LIFE IN GOD”. Shelves packed with TLIG books in Greek, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Philippine, Japanese, Arabian, Hebrew, and also books written by theologians about Vassula, booklets with excerpts from these divine inspirations, video & audio tapes, cds and leaflets with information in Greek and English. Vassula was informed about our participation from our annual report and from videos and photographs, but it was the first time she visited our kiosk!

The True Life in God Athens Kiosk

The Athens TLIG Book Kiosk

What I kept is the comment a friend made: “Eventually, this walk was not for a coffee, it was an opportunity to get new ideas for the diffusion of the messages…! Next morning, 3^rd May 2004, a group of 100 people from 20 different countries started their journey to Meteora. Our first stop was at Pnika, just underneath the `rock of Acropolis’, at the place where St. Paul spoke to the Athenians about Jesus Christ, the One and True God.

Joe from New York on the ancient steps

Vassula with Fr. Nikolaos on Top.

Then we climbed to the monument of Acropolis where the temple of Parthenon was constructed in the 4^th century BC, and is considered to be a masterpiece of architecture. Our guide made a brief presentation on the history of the ancient exhibits, and added that the Parthenon during the first Christian years had been atemple consecrated to the Virgin Mary.

Fr. Richie waves from the Acropolis Halfway up.

After this tour we continued towards the village of Kalambaka, our starting point for the pilgrimage in Meteora. The weather was sunny; nature all dressed in green and the trip through valleys, mountains and seaside was excellent! In the evening we arrived in Kalambaka. The majestic stones of Meteora hovered over the village. At their top, Orthodox monasteries have been built centuries ago as places of worship, meditation and contemplation.
The Acropolis Mount Back Row: Mark and Henri Lemay Front row: Shirley and Jonathan.

After our arrival at the hotel, our priests celebrated Holy Mass. Vassula commenced with a prayer, that the Father gave her (15/5/92), thanking Him, and went on with an excerpt from a message of our Lord:

“Numerous are My calls and the grace of the Holy Spirit has never been so obvious before than in your times; men of blood can say what they want to say, state what they want to state, but I will go over them and their sayings and their statements, for I am raising apostles and saints who will shine with the grace of the Holy Spirit upon all mankind; I will teach them, Myself, to reach degrees of high holiness despite the emphatic cacophonies of their enemies who will show them neither pity nor charity; I will, though, give them the spirit of perseverance, a spirit so valiant that their mere presence will shake the foundations of hell, since they will be dressed with the glorious splendor of My Son, Jesus Christ, and their tongue will be like a double-edged sword; they will shine brightly on everyone, good and evil men together, to warm their hearts and enliven with My Word all the corpses that are scattered; eternal blessings will come out of their hands; they will free many from the passions of the world that kept them imprisoned and rooted in sin; and the “True Life in God” Ode, will be sung in My Assemblies to turn everyone into gods by participation.”(31.05.03)

Vassula greeted heartily all the participants who gathered from faraway countries to meet there and glorify God. After that, Theodora Konidari, who was responsible for organizing this pilgrimage, welcomed the assembly and read the following extract from a message of Jesus: “Ah…daughter, pray for the house of the East and the West to join together, like two hands when joined in prayer, a pair of hands, similar, and in beauty when joined together pointing toward heaven when in prayer. Let those two Hands, belonging to the same body work together and share their capacity and resources with each other…Let those two Hands lift Me together, Ah…when will those Hands of My Body lift Me over the Altar, holding Me together?”

Next day, on 4^th May, we started early in the morning and after a one-hour journey between green hills

we arrived at the convent where the church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was built. This church dates from the 10^th or 11^th century AD. In 1573 was repaired and the fresco was re-painted as a whole. Fr. Nikolaos and three more Orthodox priests celebrated Holy Mass. The words: `Christos Annesti!’ (Christ has risen) and `Alithos Annesti!’ (Truly He has risen) that were uttered from a hundred voices, penetrated the walls of the church and filled our hearts with happiness! The nuns welcomed us with love and joy, offering us coffee and sweets. Their interest for all of us was great. `The way I felt during Mass’ a nun remarked, `was extraordinary!’

The Convent of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Meteora, Greece

As we returned to the hotel, Fr. Nikolaos gave a lecture about the history of the monasteries. He told us that Meteora have been described as the second Agion Oros (Holy Mountain/Mount Athos, a number of monasteries located at northern Greece, Chalkidiki, built on mountains), and they continue the monastic tradition for 6 centuries. The first monasteries were constructed during the 14^th century. From the total of 26 monasteries, only six are currently in service, the rest of them being uninhabited. Two of them are convents.

Fr. Tony Sullivan continued with a speech about the splendor of the Cross. In the beginning, he gave to everyone a wooden cross, encouraging us to carry it with at all times, to hold it, and to ask for His divine help. At the end of his talk he read a prayer that we repeated, asking God to forgive the sins of our ancestors.

Dimitris from Greece, Michelle from Germany and Saturo, a new friend of TLIG from Tokyo, set a nice atmosphere with their guitars singing hymns and spiritual songs, bringing moments of joy and warmth among the people.

After lunch we left the hotel to visit two more monasteries. But the weather had changed from sunny to rainy and it was impossible to do so. But we grabbed the opportunity to visit the convent of St. Steven, where the miraculous skull of St. Charalambos is being kept. A young nun told us about the monastery, the treasures and the jewels that are preserved through the years in it, and explained some of the hagiographies (icon-paintings) that covered the walls of the church. We also visited the museum of the convent and we bought incense and other hand-made articles by the nuns.

Back to the hotel, and after a small break for coffee, Vassula started her speech with subject: “Different ascents: detachment, dispassion and impassibility.” She begun by saying that God always manifested Himself to man, not to give us something new, but to remind us of His Word. God, the Creator, makes Himself be recognized, conversing with us and listening to us as friend to friend. The True Life in God messages call us for a radical transformation of self, mind and soul. With the power of the Holy Spirit, God is leading us to the ascent of the deification of man. If we follow and live all that True Life in God is giving us, which is, only a reminder of God’s Word, and observe the Law of God, the Holy Spirit will give us an intellectual light, a deeper and divine understanding of God’s Mysteries and of his Word.

The Lord wants to draw us into the three higher ascents of perfection: 1) Detachment from earthly desires, 2) dispassion (a very high level of contemplation, and at the same time a distaste of all worldly things, a distaste of all evil thoughts and evil acts), and finally 3) impassibility which is a detachment of lust and passion, of pleasures and desires of the flesh. But the Holy Spirit will be free to operate in our soul only with a total surrender of will to God.

After Vassula, Fr. Richie continued speaking about “The Spirituality and Unity in TLIG”. The meeting came to an end with a healing prayer from Fr. Tony Sullivan, Fr. John Abberton, Fr. Richie, Henri Lemay and Vassula.

Next day, 5^th May, was rainy. After breakfast, the morning prayer was recited, praise and worship andafterwards Rev. Sverker Trônet gave his speech with the subject: “The position of the bishop of Rome during the first millennium of Christianity.” Next speaker was Fr. Vladimir Zielinsky, who presented the first part of his lecture: “The mystery of the Virgin Mary as a Source of Unity.”

Reverend Tronet with His Wife Lis Ascending Meteora

At 12.00 noon under a heavy rain, we set out for the monastery of the Transfiguration. The rock that lies underneath this monastery is the biggest in Meteora. This monastery had been located in the 14^th century and possesses a remarkable collection of manuscripts, icons and sacred old items. From the spot that the buses left us, our climbing was an adventure because of the wind and the heavy rain. Henri Lemay in his speech about the second Pentecost later on described this rain as a reminder of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

We crossed the narrow bridge that connects the two huge rocks walking through clouds and tunnels, we climbed over 200 steps and finally we arrived at the: “Megalo Meteoro” (Great Hovering Abbey). All this tour and the view of the gigantic rocks left us dazzled and in awe of the magnificent creation of God! The church was luminous and full of hagiographies and scenes from the miracles and the Passion of our Lord. That’s the place where we all chanted the: “Christos Annesti!” (Christ has risen). After this tour and a visit to the museum we enjoyed the traditional treat.We returned to the hotel where after lunch Fr. Nikolaos spoke about “The Fathers of the Orthodox Church and their relation with TLIG”.

A passionate speech about the “Second Pentecost” followed, this time by Henri Lemay. After the usual break for coffee Fr. John Abberton continued with his topic: “Consecrated to the Truth.” Holy Mass was celebrated right after his speech. At last the rain stopped…so after dinner, 30 of us decided to go out for a walk around the village of Kalambaka. What has been a pleasant surprise for the residents was the multinational air of our group. As they are accustomed to tourist expeditions to Meteora, they sensed something different in our company, seeing all these different nationalities and different languages. That is why their usual question was: “What kind of group are you?” “An ecumenical one” we replied!

On 6^th May the program begun with a speech by Fr. Tony Sullivan about “True repentance”. Next speaker was Fr. Julio Gaddi who talked about “Spirituality as an Ecumenical issue”.

A very powerful prayer in the Orthodox tradition is the following: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner” which Fr. Nikolaos explained the meaning of it in his presentation and then together with the other Orthodox priests blessed us with holy water. The holy liturgy followed.

After lunch we visited the monastery of Rusano. It had been a monastery of monks but now it is a convent. It was smaller than the others and it was consecrated to the Transfiguration of the Savior, where St. Barbara is also honored. A nun guided us through the halls of the convent.

After our return to the hotel, Vassula began the program with a speech. The subject was: “Renewal and the teachings of Asceticism”: Today’s Calling from God is for a renewal of spirit so that we may know Him and understand Him. God is pouring out His Holy Spirit, because only with His grace we can be transformed into divine beings. But we need a contrite heart without malice to attain His Wisdom. Also a total surrender of will to God is needed, enabling us to reach with His help higher ascents of holiness. The Father is calling us to contemplate Him, drawing us into a life of constant contemplation to Him while still on earth. We have to turn our lives into an unceasing prayer and remain awake and aware of His Presence, because there is a danger that we might fall from Grace. God gives us the opportunity to become one with Him. In the messages there is a repetitive call that He can turn us into gods; we, the creatures can be transfigured, and out of the very dust of the earth and out of the corruptible matter that we are, He can exalt us to the supreme heights of divinity, becoming a “sharer of the divine nature.” We are living in special times when grace is being given freely by the Holy Spirit to renew God’s creation.

Fr. John Abberton continued with a very interesting speech with the title: “Spiritual Battle”. (The Jezebel spirit).

A moving experience would follow, when 4 people, 2 from Denmark, 1 from Holland and 1 from Japan witnessed their conversion to God. One more time we were amazed to see the wonderful and unpredictable ways that God chooses to approach the souls and lead them closer to Him.

After the testimonies we had some time for the adoration of the Holy Sacrament.

During dinner we had the chance to meet new friends of TLIG and reunite with some older and beloved ones. With the grace of the Holy Spirit we shared many ideas on the spreading of the message.

But this last dinner in Meteora was special, full of surprises! We had almost finished when Vassula approached the musicians and asked Dimitris: “Are you still eating? Take your guitar and play something to dance to!” which set everyone on fire! The musicians took their instruments and played Greek traditional music, and of course Pop and Latin. The rest of us gave a great performance in singing and dancing. A pleasant surprise was when Vassula (after all our pleading!) also danced some Greek folk dances! Next highlight arrived from Fr. Nikolaos: he brought a basket with 100 eggs dyed red to follow the tradition in which one Christian `tips’ his red egg to the one of another person saying: “Christos Annesti!” (Christ has risen) and he receives the reply from the other one: “Alithos Annesti!” (Truly He has risen). If one side of the egg cracks then he must turn it to the other side and tip it again. And so we did! It was an evening filled with joy, the joy that the Holy Spirit brings!

Next day we learned from Vassula that our Lord had been especially content and happy from this meeting. That was the reason for her idea to dance!

On 7^th May, after breakfast, Fr. Vladimir Zielinsky continued with the 2^nd part of his speech: “The Virgin Mary as a Source of Unity”. After his talk we attended Holy Mass. The time for our return had arrived…

Before reaching Athens, we stopped at the city of Thebes to visit the church of St. Luke the Apostle. In the church there is a shrine with one relic of the Evangelist. His tomb is right by the Altar, open and empty. We chanted Easter hymns, glorifying and thanking God for the beautiful days He gave us. Late in the evening, we arrived at the hotel in the center of Athens. Everybody seemed pleased and thankful for the gifts and the blessings that we received from the Holy Spirit. Just before the end of the dinner, all the participants received a small icon as a present from the TLIG group of Greece, to remind them of this pilgrimage.

We hope, by God’s grace and your participation, that this gathering will take place again in our country in the near future!

God bless you!

TLIG, Greece

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Meet Vergine Chakran and Her New CD of TLIG Songs!

Picture of singer Vergine

Vergine Chakryan has recently released her first CD with TLIG songs. She is from Armenia. Her voice is lyric soprano. She started singing when she was 13 years old. In 2000 graduated from the Yerevan State Conservatoire. Born into a Christian Armenian family she began her career with Armenian Christian Hymns. Now she sings at church. Withthe support of Vassula and the American Association for True Life in God she recently released her first CD that includes Armenian Hymns and TLIG songs, the texts of which are prayers from the following messages in TLIG:

5.2.1991; 4.3.1991; 16.1.1992; 15.5.1992; 18.6.1992; 2.2.1993; 11.11.1993.

Vergine was so inspired by the TLIG prayers, that by God’s Grace she began composing music just after praying to Jesus for this gift. She was given melodies and thus, some of the prayers, you can listen to, became songs. This is what Vergine says:

“My second favorite book after the Bible became True Life in God. I was very impressed and inspired…and even once in my dream I was glorifying God by a Hymn that I had composed at that moment. Shortly after when I was requested to sing some prayers from TLIG I was first very hesitant, since I was not a composer, but a singer, and I had never ever composed music. It was just unbelievable, but at the same time I was asking God in my prayers for a special gift to compose the melody that would be in accord with the TLIG prayers that were so precious to me and so close to my heart. And the Lord Almighty and so full of love towards us the human beings, listened to the cry of my soul. As the sunrise dissipates the darkness of the night into a bright day, likewise the first melody was born and filled up my emptiness. Within an entire month by God’s mercy and by the intercessions of Our Lady 4 melodies were composed and they were included in this CD, which is my first one.”

As editor of the Forum all I can say is WOW! This is another expression of how all of us should use our talents to Glorify God! I want to encourage every single reader of the Forum to support this first CD of Vergine’s and order one. If possible order more than one for a friend. Vassula supported this young woman’s music being produced – so we too should also support it.

So “buckle your seat belts” and get ready to blast off to God!!! The best music always lifts the soul upwards towards our loving Father.

The CD can be purchased HERE

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The New 2004 InternationalTLIG Prayer MeetingBooklet

You can now Buy or Download for Free this is the culmination of almost 2 years of work by the Publications work team and others. Many enhancements are in the new booklet, which Vassula supervised.

It is simply a must have for everybody who wants to pray and the most up to date guidebook on how to structure a TLIG prayer meeting.

Ecumenical in character it shares the riches of the church east and west.

Ordering Instructions:

This booklet (5 1/2 x 4″) provides suggested prayers, True Life in God meditations and devotions used by TLIG prayer groups in their prayer meetings. General guidance is provided for the meetings.

A PDF file of the booklet can be viewed/downloaded HERE
(large file – 1Mb)

Acrobat reader required – free download here

This edition is the new 2004 edition which contains the Luminous mysteries meditations.
The printed version can be purchased HERE