True Life in God Newsletter
December 7, 2004
Vassula in Los Angeles: A Meeting Report
News from Africa: Evangelization Conference in a Prison
Vassula In Los Angeles May 18-21, 2004
Vassula accepted her invitation to come to Los Angeles this past May on the Feast of the Ascension . The organizers put everything together on shorter than ususal notice. The organizing team burst into action with weekly meetings, and with the help of the Two Hearts, everything fell into place by the time Vassula arrived .. It is interesting to point out that Glendale, California has the largest Armenian community in the United States after New York. A dream of the organizer was for Vassula to visit her local parish – St. Mary’s Armenian Church in Glendale, and introduce True Life in God to the priests and her fellow parishioners. So, again by the Grace of God, Archbishop Mardirossian indeed invited Vassula to come to St. Mary’s on the morning of May 19th. We could hardly wait for Vassula’s arrival!
On May 18, 2004, Vassula and her traveling companion Cecilia arrived at Los Angeles International Airport. The organizers were there to greet them upon their arrival. Vassula had also invited translator and interpreter Tigranouhi Margossian and Soprano Vergene Chakarian from Armenia to join us in the United States.
Meeting with Archbishop Mardirossian
The next morning after breakfast, Vassula, Cecilia and some of the organizers went to St. Mary’s Armenian Church in Glendale, CA, to meet with Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate of the Western Prelacy. Vassula had expected a meeting with the Archbishop in the Church office, but upon arrival, she was surprised to be greeted by the Archbishop and seven other Armenian Priests at the frontcourt of the Church. Vassula was immediately led into the Church within an enveloping procession of priests singing classic liturgical hymns of the Armenian Church. The procession proceeded to the altar where Vassula was asked to sit next to the Clergy. Bishop Mardirossian then warmly introduced Vassula with an attitude of brotherly love in Christ, his words rang with faith and respect for the messages of TLIG and for Vassula herself. The Archbishop said, “It is a privilege to have Vassula in the Armenian Church” and commended her for her hard work, her obedience to God’s call, and her devotion to her divine mission. He asked the Holy Spirit to fill Vassula with the strength necessary to continue her work. He then invited Vassula to say a few words about her mission.
She began by speaking of her initial encounter with the angel Daniel, how she started receiving the Messages, and how she surrendered to God’s call. The Messages are about repentance and love, as well as reconciliation and intimacy with God. The priests and parishoners listened with great interest, the presence of the Holy Spirit was greatly felt. Indeed, the morning at St. Mary’s, as Vassula said, Was “a surprise from the Blessed Mother”.
In the end Bishop Mardirossian presented her with a replica of a big, ancient Armenian Cross and a book entitled “Rescued Armenian Treasures From Cilicia”, which documents thirteenth century treasures rescued from the lost kingdom of Cilicia. After the Liturgical Ceremony, the Archbishop invited Vassula to his office where they sat for a brief talk where she was able to share the activities of True Life in God and extend an invitation for him to join the coming True Life in God Inter-Faith Pilgrimage. It was a spirit-filled morning, we were all impressed at the humility, warmth and openness of the Armenian Church.
TV Interview
The next morning, Vassula went to a local television station in Marina Del Rey, CA, to record two interiviews for the program “Veritas” with talk show hosts Denise and Michael Harvey, a dynamic, young couple on fire to bring God into the lives of everyone they can reach. After the interview, there was an enthusiastic concensus, even amongst the film crew present, that Vassula should record many more interviews in the future.
Meeting at the Glendale Civic Center
That afternoon, the organizing team, along with TLIG supporters from Alaska, Fresno, CA, the Phillipines and elsewhere helped set up according to the organizer’s floorplan. At this event we had 2 registration tables at the entrance for attendees, one for Beth Myriam information and sign-ups and another for Prayer Group sign-ups. The Beth Myriam table was beautifully laid out with pictures of various Beth Myriam charities in action. Two team members shared about their weekly mission to feed the poor and homeless in downtown Los Angeles. The poor now recognize the van by the beautiful picture of the Blessed Mother on magnetic signs on both doors! A table was also provided to Sr. Josephine of the American TLIG Association. All in all, five long tables filled with all the books of True Life in God and a huge array of Vassula’s many talks on audiocassettes, as well as several different TLIG VHS Videos were available for our guests to purchase and share. There were also 3 tables staffed by the local Armenian TLIG Prayer Group who were selling their newly translated copy of Volume One in the Armenian language along with Vergene’s new CD of her TLIG songs in Armenian.
The program for the evening began at 7.30pm. At that time, Dr. Mansour opened the evening with an introduction of Msgr. Raphael Minassian, an Armenian Catholic Priest, Pastor of the neighboring Parish of St. Gregory the Eliminator, who opened with beautiful prayers in both English and Armenian. The singer,Vergene Chakarian, sang beautiful TLIG songs, recited in English by Tigranouhi Margossian.
Vassula was then introduced and began her speech with The Lord’s Prayer in Aramaic. She then explained that she too was once an “earthly wanderer without God” until one day she was “astonished” to meet her Guardian Angel, Daniel. In her “wildest dreams” she could not have imagined that the Lord Himself would bring her into His Court to teach her everything Himself. She explained how the Lord taught her to read the Scriptures, how to “ponder” upon the meaning of His Presence, and how very important Confession is in order to clearly see and to be cleansed of your sins. For three weeks she went through an intense daily purification of reviewing and feeling wretched about her sins. She explained it was a necessary “fire of agony burning inside” in order to make room for the Holy Spirit.
Vassula shared that the Lord Himself wants her to tell us that “HE IS ALIVE and HE IS OUR FATHER’ and that we are to love Him intimately. The Lord asks Vassula to tell us her experiences so that we may receive Hope from His MERCY to renew us, and to TRANSFIGURE us and His Church. She says we are Royal Descendents from Majesty and Splendor and that Our Father says to each one of us, “COME BACK TO ME.” She went on to say that God is only well pleased with prayers that are said from the heart, that are said slowly and meaningfully, and in which you realize that you are actually speaking to your FATHER Who HEARS every word.
Vassula says Jesus appeared to her as the Sacred Heart to show her, an Orthodox Christian, that God does not differentiate among Christians. The language of the Sacred Heart is intimate, tender and sweet, and if we truly taste this, we will not be able to spend enough time with OUR Father, Who we will then love with ALL our heart, mind and soul. Vassula then explained that the Holy Spirit cannot possess or invade us ENTIRELY unless we repent and make space for Him. We must die to our own will and ego. She then shared how our souls can be transfigured from a desert into a garden, from a garden into a palace, and from a palace into heaven on earth through the steps of detachment, dispassion and impassibility, removing ourselves from the passions of the world, and surrendering our life to God. She told us that “praying without ceasing” means that our hearts will desire and thirst for God all day long and she offered us a marvelous suggestion to begin each task and daily routine by saying, “Come Lord. Let Us do this together” or “Lord, We shall now go on this errand together”, so that we are always aware that we are in Our Father’s presence and are ONE. “I” should be replaced with “We/Us.”
Vassula’s mission is first the Unification of the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches, followed by Unity and love among people of all faiths and nations. She spent several minutes telling how all can share Unity through the Fire of the Holy Spirit. She says she has received thousands of pages of teachings about the Holy Spirit, Who is the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity and a DIVINE BEING Who continues to speak to us today. Vassula says that we receive Light from the Holy Spirit and that, “Love is the most important virtue and from love springs all the other virtues. We will be judged by our measure of love.” Finally, she says that our prayers can change the world and that “the faithful are needed now more than ever to pray.” She then closed with a Healing and Deliverance Prayer for the attendees.
Close to 1000 people attended Vassula’s talk that evening and the feedback was very positive. One woman came up to one of the organizers after her talk and shared with us that she had felt a “peaceful rain” come down upon her. An academic from a local University also told us how impressed she was by Vassula’s talk. Since it was the Feast of the Ascension, our team of organizers were thankful and joyous for the response and the attendance, considering it was a weeknight. By evening’s end, over thirty people signed up to start or join English and Armenian TLIG prayer groups.
Later that evening, Vassula, Cecilia and the team, at Msgr. Minassian’s invitation, went to St. Gregory the Illuminator Church for continued fellowship and Thanksgiving for God’s many Blessings. The next morning, Vassula and her companions flew to San Francisco, where Vassula would speak to the people of the Bay area and surrounding cities.
Written by: Pam Fischer,
TLIG Los Angeles, Prayer Group
News from Africa: Evangelization Conference in a Prison.
In 2001, Théodore, a 26-years old Cameroonian, who was sentenced to imprisonment for 15 years, bought a TLIG journal from a Muslim. In the journal the addresses of different prayer groups were shown. The prayer groups in France sent the message books to the prison there. Then the correspondence between the prisoner and Raymond Bergeret, a French organizer started. Raymond taught Théodore how to follow the booklet “The Trinitarian Spirituality of TLIG”, how to read the Bible and how to put the Messages into practice, by meditating on them and by serving the brothers in the prison.
One morning, while Théodore was reading the 1st volume of the TLIG messages ,unexpectedly, he was noticed by the vice-director of the prison. The director asked him to show him the message book, and asked whether he would lend it to him. The next day, the vice-director brought him back the book and asked Théodore whether he, the vice-director of the prison, could come to his cell and read a passage with him together.
In 2003, Théodore tells in another letter that he has created a small prayer group with the help of the vice-director. He says, “Now, I have 3 years to serve. I need a lot of prayer in order to succeed in evangelizing the prison. I always continue reading the TLIG message books, in connection with the Bible. With the 30 Euros you sent me, I bought a hurricane lamp in order to read at night, as our prison does not have electricity. While reading at night, I find courage and I make good meditations. The prayer group is growing, with an ardent desire to be reconciled with God. We are now 42 members in this group, and I have just created a choir with 31 members. As a matter of fact, we can do nothing without your help. In our prison, we have 4 big buildings divided into blocks, and in each building we have created prayer units in some cells, saying the Holy Rosary every 4 hours, with the Bible reading from the daily mass. If you only knew how I struggle to save the prisoners! Here, we are exposed to great difficulties. My sole desire is to transform this prison into a monastery, so that the prayers of a marginal group, of the orphans ascend to heaven…”
The group of prisoners in Cameroon
In 2004, Théodore writes, “I thank our God, remembering the TLIG Association in my prayer. We say thanks endlessly to God who wanted to place us in the heart of his love. It’s the duty of the strong to bear the weakness of the weak. The world will know that we are Christians thanks to our acts of love. I am the watchman, I will not give up, my goal is to change this prison into a place of prayer, a monastery. Without your intervention, this prison will remain in an alarming obscurity.
Théodore wrote to Raymond, the TLIG volunteer organizer in France, “I would like say how much I thank you for having taught me and guided spiritually; not only me, but the whole prison is delighted by this loving zeal. The director of our prison, after reading your letter written to me, asks me to send you his best regards in Christ and Mary. This is a new director. He likes our prayer group. Thanks to God for sending us a new director who is a Christian.
Now, Théodore has received a testimony from Beatrice from the Benedictine Abbey in Savoy and is preparing himself to give witnessing conference in the prison.
The future mission of Théodore is to go to evangelize in other prisons of Cameroon that are completely isolated. He will be free in 2006. TLIG will continue to help him in this difficult mission with plenty of risks, in northern Cameroon, mainly Moslem. The Lord will help him in view of what he will have to do. Five Hundred TLIG books were distributed in Northern Cameroon, to the Prison of Tehollire by Theodore so far !!! Glory be to God!
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