Sunday, January 05, 2003 3:14 PM
A word of thanks
Dear TLIG family,
This is a brief letter to all of you to thank you for your prayers and Masses offered to me and my whole family. I also want to thank you for your condolences regarding my sister and my brother in law who passed away last summer in the same week. I must tell you that Yannula, my sister, was the one who made the TLIG messages known in Greece. She worked very hard promoting the messages in spite of the ferocious attacks and persecutions she got because of the messages. The more persecution she got all the more she widened up the messages bringing many people who had fallen away from the Church to discover once more the meaning of Mother Church and the meaning of Ecumenism.
During her illness even, that lasted four years, she never ceased to work for Jesus because of the great love she had for our Saviour. She was thirsting to save souls and bring them to get to know Jesus and have a special relationship with Him. Even 2 days before her death with hardly any life left in her, she reproached some of the group for having delayed to put in the newspaper the regular message of TLIG with a short report of the latest news and was instructing them how to go about with which pictures they should put in, asking them to take over this task when she is gone. She had taken up the task to put in regularly a short message and some event of TLIG in the local newspaper every few days. But, when she was dying this was somehow delayed. This is to tell you to what extent she felt responsible for TLIG.
I want to thank particularly the Greek group of TLIG who stood by her side and Stratos’s (her husband) side while very ill in the hospital, helping them, nursing them feeding them and staying up to mid-night in shifts. These people had their family and young children to attend to, but they managed between them to take turns and keep each others children while they would be attending Yannula and Strato. Their act of charity will never be forgotten by our Lord. In Greece still if you happen to be in the normal hospital and not a private clinic, the hospital does not provide you a constant nurse at one’s side even if one is dying. You have to employ one lady (not a nurse) and pay her.
Jan, my eldest who was very ill and had to go through chemo-therapy is doing very well and has completely recovered from his illness. I thank every one who prayed for him and had made Masses for his recovery.
Fabian my youngest who was with us in Egypt has left before yesterday to Singapore where he was recruited to work there. He was very excited to go to Asia as Asia is his favourite place on this planet. He was without a job for half a year more or less because of the present economic crisis in our days. At one point I remember, just 2 weeks before he received this offer he was starting to lose confidence in prayer. He felt that God had abandoned him completely, and everything seemed to turn against him. I remember our conversation while he was saying, “Jesus doesn’t even listen to your prayer for me. So many are praying for me and nothing is happening.” I replied: “Listen to me, and remember this moment when we are standing here at this bus station, the tempest God allowed you to go in is passing away. The tempest never lasts for ever, so it is coming now at its end and you will have bright days again.” When I said this, I was thinking, it had better come true now that I have given him hope again. So he persevered once more in prayer and confession and Mass after the group of Egypt left. (We stayed a week more in Egypt). And I thank God now that the tempest is over for him but I thank also everyone who had prayed for him as well who knew of his situation.
For the first time in many years my two boys, my daughter-in-law with my husband and myself gathered and met during Christmas altogether. It was a treat for all of us and I took it as a gift from Christ to gather us all at one go. So we passed a family Christmas in Sweden together. Even Per, my husband, met with his family who came together because they too do not live all in Sweden. They are six brother and sisters. Praised be Jesus.
Before I close this letter, I wish you to continue praying for the same intention I asked some time ago regarding the Church, as it is for a very special cause that will bring a big triumph to our Lord.
Scriptures say”By His divine power, He has given us all the things that we need for life and for true devotion, bringing us to know God himself, who has called us by His own glory and goodness. In making these gifts, He has given us the guarantee of something very great and wonderful to come; through them you will be able to share the divine nature and to escape corruption in a world that is sunk in vice. But to attain this, you will have to do your utmost yourselves, adding goodness to the faith that you have, understanding to your goodness, self-control to your understanding, patience to your self-control, true devotion to your patience, kindness towards your fellow men to your devotion, and to this kindness, love. If you have a generous supply of these, they will not leave you ineffectual or unproductive: they will bring you to a real knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2P 1:3-8
Thanks to you all for being bound together in the Lord. Thank you for your perseverance, your prayers, your Masses for TLIG, your acts of reparations and your good-will. And now I will close this letter by reminding you that the greatest service one can offer God is to bring one soul back to Him. Scriptures tells us as well that this act is beneficial as well for our soul. “My brothers, if one of you strays away from the truth, and another brings him back to it, he may be sure that anyone who can bring back a sinner from the wrong way that he has taken will be saving a soul from death and covering up a great number of sins.” Jm 5:19-20
May this year bring us closer to Jesus’ Heart and to His Triumph. For this year my whole program already has been laid out. It seems that our Lord wants me to go once more to Canada, where I will be speaking in Ontario, Sudbury, Cochrane and Lethbridge where I will have a TV program. In this same trip, I will visit the USA in Los Angeles where I will be speaking, as well in a place near Missouri, (I do not know yet). I am also invited by a Benedictine priest who wishes me to speak in his monastery in New Jersey where the monks including the superior are open to the messages. I am programmed for Czech and Austria as well as several places in Italy, (Benevento, Milan, Sardegnia and Rome). In March I will be speaking in Paris and near Nice. In May I will be giving a retreat for a week in Puerto Rico, where most S. American’s will be joining. Just after I will visit two places: Uruguay and Argentina where I will be speaking. I will have also one official ecumenical meeting, shared with other speakers in May in Italy, Rome. Next month in February I am invited by an inter-religious movement in Asia for peace talks where I will be speaking. This is an annual meeting promoted by this movement and directed by the Venerable Suddhanda, Buddhist monk leader who came with us to Egypt. He asked me to give a speech and wishes to offer me an award. (They give to two people they select, this award, once a year.)
I have noticed how the Lord is guiding me into inter-religious movements now. I was not looking for this sort of mission, but it is amazing how the Lord leads and gets me to understand His moves! Without much fuss and with gentleness I find myself into awesome situations. I am flabbergasted every time. I have learned not to struggle out of these situations put in front of me but allow myself to flow with confidence with the current, knowing that they come from our Lord and that He knows what He is doing. The mission of the unity of the Church is still going strongly but our Lord added this inter-religious situation too with all what He has given me to do.
The first inter-religious talk I had made was in Bangladesh. Nothing was planned but everything came in the last 3 days on its own, programmed by our Lord because everything started to build up as if on its own. As you may remember, we had an Imam opening the TLIG meeting. I shared by reading out in Arabic their opening prayer of praise to God, then I read out to them the Beatitudes telling them they were the words from Jesus. Muslims were sitting in the crowd as well as Buddhists and Hindus and Christians. At the podium was a Buddhist monk and a Hindu monk, with a couple of these also mixed with the crowd. There were some Charity sisters (Mother Teresa’s) and a few Catholic priests.
When I was in the Philippines there was a private meeting in which they had invited four Muslim leaders for inter-religious talks AMong our group. I did not know they were there actually and so I took up the speech of unity of the Church. After the speech they were the first to take up the conversation and praised the Christians for their efforts to unite and not remain divided! They gave me their address.
Later on in Taiwan in the Archbishop’s house with him together with an auxiliary bishop was arranged an inter-religious meeting. That same morning I had given a speech to different Christian denominations mainly for priests. It was of course about unity of the Church. Now I had thought there will be like 4 or 5 people but to my surprise there were around 18 people of different religions, Buddhists, Bahai, Muslims, Taoists and of course us. I had no speech in hand. I suddenly did not know why I was put in this. They were all waiting for me to speak. Jesus did not train me into this so what was I doing there? Too late. I was there, and they were all waiting for me to say something… In the back of my mind in a secret corner I knew that this was Jesus’ doing. So with this giving me confidence I spoke. After my speech, not knowing their reaction, the Muslim got up and with great emotion opened his heart to us. He was very touched apparently by what I said, and he broke into tears while speaking. As he broke into tears and sobbing many others started to feel emotion as well and they too started to cry because of his words. Then, after he had finished one after the other stood up and said a few words sharing the main
RECONCILIATION, PEACE, LOVE AND UNITY.
We exchanged addresses again to be in touch and promote peace in the world. I received recently an email from the manager of the Bahai faith which said this to pass on to me: “she is indeed a messenger of Peace and Unity. May God shower her with His endless Bounty and guide her through her cause of Love.” And signed Thomas Lee.
Let us not be surprised of the way Jesus is leading us. The world today is in danger. The danger of completely destroying humanity. As you hear in the news there is violence, hatred and terrorism. There is a great need for the leaders of every religion to get together and dialogue for peace. But at the same time these leaders should be encouraged to announce strongly to their own people the words they use in these meetings. They should double their efforts and use every means to announce their words of peace strongly and efficiently so that they reach the people who create havoc.
So I end my letter, wishing you all a very holy year 2003. United in prayer,
With love,
Vassula
