from Vassula

Friday, March 21, 2003 8:53 AM

Dear friends of TLIG,

I have a variety of things to share with you in which I will number each different issue and put them all in this letter.

1. Some time ago I had asked the TLIG friends to pray for some important intention which regards the Church. I thank you for your prayers and Masses and now I can tell you that our Lord is hearing our prayers and is showing us His Powerful Hand, but that does not means that you should stop praying, pray even more now. Something wonderful is happening and I am sure that all heaven is rejoicing. You will discover it in the front pages of any new volume of the messages of TLIG that will be printed and you will rejoice too. If I could tell you more than this I can assure you I would have done so, but I am following certain instructions that come from the Church and therefore my enigmatic attitude.

2. This point might appear to you irrelevant now after what I have said above, but never mind. It concerns all those who produce magazines or newsletters. I thank you for your generosity and kindness in sending me always your material but I would appreciate you send me only two copies of your magazine or newsletter and not more. As for the ones that are not in English or French please just one would be enough. If I need more, I will simply ask you.

3. This point here regards the publishers of the messages. I would appreciate very much that each publisher publishing in English, whenever they publish a volume or reproduce it, I would like them to send me 20 copies of that new volume or republished volume. As for all other languages five of each will do. I will check each of the TLIG volumes in each language and if I am missing I will inform you. Then from there on it will be as I said. The French (Parvis) always gives me 50 volumes which they keep in their stock-rooms and 100 if it is a completely new book. That should remain as it is.

4. Some of you might know that we are organizing a Working Team for TLIG Web site to alleviate some of TLIG volunteers of being overloaded and to distribute more evenly all the work. The aim is as well to use each one’s qualities in this field and capacity to enable us to advance into improving the quality and widening the scope to reach far and wide. The TLIG message from a child grew now into an adult, with this I mean that we need a lot more labourers into the field that our Lord has prepared. We should thank our Lord that he has provided these labourers who are willing to work in this field and no one should feel menaced or threatened because these people are sent from God. This concerns as well the Internet.

5. For the same reason, all communication, including such communication as relating to the TLIG Forum, as anyone who wants to send a letter to me, or inform me of something I have to know about, or needs from me perhaps my opinion on an important matter concerning TLIG, please send all such communication to these new addresses: [email protected] Fax: ++39 06233 28155 The other one is: [email protected] Fax: ++39 06233 28152

God bless you
Vassula

And now, let me share with you my pilgrimage of Lent to Padre Pio.

Last year I was invited to meet with Gemma di Giorgi, a middle-aged lady from Sicily who by the grace of God received a miracle from Padre Pio when he was still alive. At that time she was seven years old. She was born without the retina in her eyes and was totally blind. It is like having a camera but without a film in it. Her grandmother, a fervent believer, prayed a lot for a miracle. Having heard so much about Padre Pio she decided one day to take her daughter and visit Padre Pio to ask him for his prayers. So both of them took the train and on the way to Padre Pio, she was healed. She could see. The first thing she saw was the sea and a ship. Then she turned around and looked at her grandmother. Since then she is well known all over Italy and last year I had met her just after her visit to the Holy Father who recognized her and gave her a Rosary. In many of Padre Pio’s books she is mentioned as one of his great miracles. The miracle is that she still has no retina and yet she can see. The doctors are all confounded…

When we met last year I asked her to join our Pilgrimage in Egypt and some of you have met her there already. We happened to travel together recently without arranging it, to Singapore. She was on her way to the Philippines and I was on my way to Dhaka. On her return from Asia we met and Gemma asked me to go with her to Padre Pio and pay him a visit. So we did. That day with Nicky Hvidt, we drove almost 1000 km to visit the two places of Padre Pio. First we went to Pietralcina his native village. As it was a Friday and quite cold and “out of season” for heavy pilgrimages, we were relieved not to have crowds and queue. We went in every room of his and visited and prayed in the nearby Church where he used to spend nights in there, many times being locked in there. Then we drove to San Giovanni Rotondo. Without Gemma we would not have seen what is usually not allowed to the public.

Arriving there, we went to Padre Pio’s monastery. All the Capuccines know Gemma well. She rang the bell of the main door and Padre Paulo answered the door who knew her as well. She asked him to take us around in every corner that Padre Pio was. Later on she told me that Padre Paulo, (who looked by the way just like Padre Pio too), was the one who gave Padre Pio the last unction before dying and he was the one who carried him to the tomb. He told us many stories, one of them was that the day Padre Pio received the visible stigmata and he was covered with blood, Padre Pio panicked; he thought at first that Jesus was perhaps upset with him and punished him. He had not seen the stigmata, but knew he was in pain and saw the blood all over him. He ran in the corridors of the monastery asking for help. Finally they had found out that he had received the stigmata from the crucifix he was adoring.

We visited of course the crucifix, and everything there was to visit. In the end we went where the tomb is. Gemma had been carrying from the Philippines a whole bag of letters from the Philippine people who entrusted her to place on the tomb of Padre Pio. Faithful to her promise she carried this bag all the way with her to the tomb of Padre Pio. Padre Paulo, in spite of all his kindness, he told her that it is forbidden to place anything, not even a flower on Padre Pio’s tomb, showing her an inscription on a tablet. His tomb was well enclosed with a fence and one could not even reach out to touch it. Gemma is a person with a strong personality. After praying, Padre Paulo greeted us all farewell and left. No one was there as it was closing time. She went to the guard and with the corner of my eye I saw her talking to him. She came back and told us that we are allowed to go and open the fence and go straight to his tomb. Just then, a thin monk arrived and opened the door to the fence because he himself wanted to do the same thing. So we found ourselves all around the tomb and Gemma posed the bag with the letters on his tomb. The monk asked that we all pray the Our Father and after that he gave us lilies that were lying on Padre Pio’s tomb. He took from Gemma the letters and we thanked him.

I thanked Padre Pio’s invitation during this Lent that he brought me over to his place. I prayed for all of you, that he intercedes for your intentions and that he asks our Lord to keep you strong for His messages and in your faith. I asked him to keep an eye on all of us and also to protect our Lord’s messages, which he does.