Monday, March 18, 2002 12:07 PM

God’s arithmetic is different to ours

This is a report of one of the meetings organised as a result of Vassula’s appeal of last year.

(see /forum/forum371.html )

Report on the meeting “True Life in God” in Dresden, Germany, on 8 December 2001 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception)

According to the statistics and because of communism, 85% of the people in the former German Democratic Republic are not baptised. Therefore I decided to organise a first TLIG -meeting in this Eastern part of Germany and chose Dresden. I invited Michéle Gericke from Berlin as witness. As we had no contact addresses of active TLIG people there (500 km away), we had to drive there to find a suitable place, signpost our posters, distribute fliers, introduce ourselves to the parishes, i.e. to prepare the soil. After many negative replies we found a room – beautifully decorated for the Christmas season – for 200 people in a well-known local guest house.

On Wednesday and Thursday before the meeting we visited the priests of three churches: the Russian Orthodox Church, the Catholic Cathedral and the Protestant Kreuzkirche (church of the Cross).

All of them gave us a hearty welcome. That gave us the chance for a conversation, and so we could introduce “True Life in God” to them, hand out a dossier about Vassula, the prayer meetings, testimonies given by theologians and laypeople, bibliography etc.

Our hearts were jumping with joy when we managed to hand out material about “True Life in God” to representatives of all three Christian churches, especially since the ecumenical movement in Dresden is rather powerful, and the relationship between the three churches seems to be obviously very good. Praise the Lord!

As we were preparing the meeting, there were quite a few problems we had to digest. For example: after four days we didn’t see a single poster we had posted! Parts of the article for the newspaper weren’t printed at all. Almost no one in the whole city wanted to get an invitation. On Thursday before the meeting two of us stood in the main shopping area; in this whole time we managed to hand out only 12 invitations. A total of 1000 fliers had been printed! The people who attended the church services reacted differently; they accepted our invitation. But our concern was much more with those being far away from the church. How were those people supposed to learn of the meeting, if they didn’t even get a chance or didn’t care to take notice of the invitation?

Gradually desperation started creeping in. We decided to place about 650 invitations in the mailboxes of the houses in the vicinity of the guest house, hoping that the people were more willing to read the invitation from within the shelter of their homes.

In the evening we couldn’t help but realize that virtually everything was in His hands. Only the short but powerful prayer: “Jesus, you take care of it” helped us to regain our inner peace. Again and again we repeated it, whenever fear, anguish or despair – will anybody show up at all – was hovering like heavy black clouds in and around us. But this short prayer chased away the clouds and he who wanted to cloud our hearts. Relaxed and with peace in the heart we attended a Eucharistic night adoration on Friday night to lay it all at the feet of our Lord.

For it is HE who moves the hearts.

On Saturday morning a local priest came, and in a lovely ceremony he blessed the room were our meeting was to be held. Then we waited for the participants. 5 young adults and 2 children came. 7 people.

The atmosphere was very good; we virtually felt the embrace of His peace and love! The talk moved the people in a positive way; we had a rather vivid exchange of views on some of the topics. The message had aroused interest. Owing to a donation we could give them the first volume for free. All of them happily accepted this gift, and some books were purchased in addition. We also gave them the Prayer of Consecration to the Two Hearts.

The participants inquired whether we were disappointed about the small number of people who had come. No, we were not, for God’s arithmetic is quite different from ours… Didn’t He say: “If it was necessary, I would lay down My life at any moment and without hesitation to save you.” This is how precious each single person is to Him!

On Saturday we celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Wasn’t that too a wonderful and great event in the history of salvation of His people, even though no one was capable of taking notice of it back then? It seems, God starts out very small and very inconspicuous! Thanks to the Lord for this wonderful experience!

While coming to an end with this report the Lord gave me the following message for Dresden:

“I give you My peace, let this Peace envelop you, do not fear and do not say: “What am I to do, Lord?” I tell you: Pray without ceasing to sanctify your own soul and those of others; pray with your heart and make the demon flee. Be united to Me, and no one and nothing will come between you and Me; the time has come when you should no hesitate anymore; spread vineyards wherever you can. Do not fear of the tempests that arise now and then, My Sacred Heart is your Refuge, so come and consecrate yourselves and your families to Me and to the Immaculate Heart of your Mother. I, Jesus, intend to remain in your country and sanctify it, for this I ask you to consecrate your country to Our Two Hearts. I bless you all out of the depths of My Heart.” (7-7-1992)

Barbara Sierp-Karasch
For the Dresden team with
Michéle Gericke
Renate Meis