Friday, October 05, 2001 7:48 PM
TLIG in Gibraltar
News of a forthcoming meeting with Vassula in Sri Lanka, her first in that country.
The meeting will take place on Saturday 27th October 2001, at 11.00am Venue: Vihara Maha Devi Amphitheatre, Colombo 7.
Further details from Catarina at: [email protected]
True Life in God Visits Gibraltar
Early in August I was contacted by Anne Fisher from England, to tell me that she and Fr. Tony Sullivan were planning a visit to Gibraltar to introduce the messages of True Life in God and asking me to join them. Anne had felt inspired to organise this visit after a suggestion by Ann Seaman, because her daughter Dianne, who now lives and works in Gibraltar, had been brought back to the faith after reading ‘My Angel Daniel’ which recounts the early dawn of True Life in God. After Vassula’s approval had been given the visit was organised for 16th-20th September 2001.
I had met both Anne Fisher and Fr. Tony in the Holy Land when we all attended the True Life in God pilgrimage in March 2000. I live in Southern Spain and it seems providential that I have visited Gibraltar regularly for several years and know it well. For me it was also significant that I had bought my first rosary in the Cathedral shop in Gibraltar and from there had learned to pray the Rosary. It was a visit undertaken in the spirit of unity because Anne and Fr. Tony are both Roman Catholic and I am an Anglican. Anne was accompanied by her husband Steve who is also an Anglican and we were to meet Anne and Steve’s daughter Dianne, who lives in Gibraltar and is Roman Catholic.
Gibraltar is a British dependency that forms the southernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula. Most of the inhabitants are of Portuguese, Italian, Maltese, English or Spanish descent. The official language is English, although Spanish is widely spoken. About 75% of the population is Roman Catholic, but other faiths are also represented there including Anglicans, Muslims, Jews and Hindus and they each have their own places of worship. One thing that is very evident in Gibraltar, and that we all noticed, is the harmonious spirit of unity that prevails there.
Fr. George McGrail is a Marian priest that I have had some contact with and he kindly came to meet us at the airport. As the flight from England was delayed Fr. George and I had an opportunity to talk about the messages of True Life in God. He has known of Vassula for several years. Fr. George had arranged accommodation for Fr. Tony at the Cathedral. Unfortunately we were unaware until he mentioned it in passing that he and most of the other priests were leaving Gibraltar the next day for a four day retreat, and would Fr. Tony please say a morning mass in the Cathedral in their absence! As it was late we all arranged to meet in the morning to see how best to undertake the sharing of God’s Love Hymn with the people of Gibraltar.
Next day refreshed but a little disappointed by the exodus of priests, we agreed we should seek the help of our Blessed Mother and Dianne took us to the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe. This Shrine was formerly a mosque believed to have been built before 1309 and converted by the Spanish into a Christian shrine in 1462. A statue of the Virgin and Child was installed in this shrine, both Virgin and Child are crowned and The Virgin holds in her right hand a sceptre with three flowers denoting Love, Truth and Justice. Our Lady of Europe is the Patroness of Gibraltar and the shrine is a worthy focus of the strong Marian devotion of the people of Gibraltar and pilgrims from abroad. Portillo, a Spanish historian of the 17th century, gives evidence in books of the many miracles that occurred at the shrine. We all felt the presence and peace of Our Lady there and Fr. Tony led us in a Rosary asking for her guidance and also praying for the young people of Gibraltar and Spain.
Certainly from there on, our visit began to take its own direction. A lady I have contact with who is Gibraltarian but who lives in Spain, had given me some contact telephone numbers of people who she thought would be interested to know of Vassula’s writings, and as a result of phone calls made that evening we were able to arrange meetings for both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Our first contact was with Henry Earl. Henry is married with five children and is looking forward to the birth of a sixth child in December. He and his wife have a large ministry to young people and they organise and lead retreats, days of recollection, sacramental preparations, catechetical instructions, prayer groups etc. concentrating especially on the needs of young people, some of whom have problems with drugs, alcohol etc. Henry has been a leading figure in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement for twenty years.
This was an inspiring visit and Henry welcomed us and the books and a video of Vassula’s Abingdon visit we were able to leave with him. Fr. Tony spoke briefly about Vassula’s call and the messages she receives, and I was able to share my devotion to Mary and the Holy Rosary through the teachings of True Life in God. Henry invited us to participate in the prayer group to be held the following evening, and also to talk with the young people about the messages.
Another meeting was arranged for Wednesday morning in the parish of St. Paul’s church which is Fr. McGrail’s parish and one of the five Roman Catholic parish churches in Gibraltar. We were there to meet a lady called Adriana, who has some knowledge of Vassula and her writings, but had been discouraged by some negative response in the early days from the Marian movement of Priests. We were able to reassure her that this is no longer a problem. Her answer when given some books and a video was “if Jesus wants me to read these messages I will read them”. Adriana is a very spiritual lady who leads devotion to the Divine Mercy in this church and also does much to assist the poor people of Gibraltar. She organises a daily soup kitchen amongst other things, and works closely with Fr. McGrail.
Adriana invited us to meet her again in the afternoon as she had some things she wanted to give us. We were absolutely amazed but also overjoyed to be presented with two large statues of the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of Fatima and one statue of Rosa Mystica for Fr. Tony. Also a poster of the Divine Mercy that had come from Saint Faustina’s convent. One other thing that seemed to be providential at this meeting was making the acquaintance through Adriana, of Susan who is the wife of someone my husband works with in Gibraltar and is Adriana’s friend. Susan and her husband are going to be in Fatima at the end of October when my husband and I will also be there. They will be a party of twelve people I hope to speak with them then about True Life in God and I’m certain Our Blessed Mother will be blessing us at the same time!
During the course of Wednesday we spoke with and shared books with several other people and were able to speak to another priest on the telephone to ask for a meeting. It was not possible to organise it for the next day, but I will arrange to meet and speak with him when I return to Gibraltar hopefully in October. He also knows about the messages of True Life in God.
On Wednesday evening we joined Henry and his prayer group which proved to be a truly uplifting and spiritual sharing. The most surprising thing about this prayer group was that all of the young people (apart from one of the intercessors) were male! Ranging in ages from between twenty and thirty years, many had had problems with drugs and alcohol but their faith was truly evident and alive and we really witnessed in them the healing love of Jesus present today.
To begin with we prayed a most beautiful and devout Rosary led by the young people, and Fr. Tony mentioned that it was an ecumenical sharing as there were two Anglicans present; this delighted them. After the Rosary we were led in prayer by Keith and this also was a powerfully moving experience. At the end of the prayer Fr. Tony spoke about the messages of True Life in God and how Vassula had been prepared to undertake this mission for the Lord. They were so eager and enthusiastic to accept the selection of books and videos we had taken with us, that we had to return to Henry the next day with more! We will pray now for these young people that God may touch their hearts with His words of love because they are completing a course in evangelisation and will soon be going out to undertake this task.
Dianne was really touched by their fervour and is now participating in this prayer group. The True Life in God books we left with these young people have been well received and already she has been asked for more copies, so Anne is organising to send more books and videos to be distributed in Gibraltar. It is also relevant that Henry has worked with young people in Ronda, Malaga Spain which is a town only 60 Kms. from where I live in Coin. He plans to be there for a week in December and I am hoping that people from the Catholic Charismatic Renewal prayer group which I participate in may be interested to organise a day of prayer or something similar while they are there so that links between us may be made. Even with a view to inviting Henry to come and speak with the young people of Coin.
On Thursday morning Anne had to attend a meeting with her husband, so I attended the mass Fr. Tony was celebrating at the Cathedral, and afterwards we had a chance to get to know each other better. Later that morning together we attended an Anglican mass in the King’s Chapel. This Chapel is an historic building and today is the place where the worshipping community of the Armed Services meets. It is shared by Anglican, Roman Catholic, Church of Scotland and Free Churches. At this particular mass we were the only people present and the priest made us most welcome. We were able to chat for a while after the mass and Fr. Tony introduced himself. Mindful that Jesus tells us ‘Today any delicacy from the part of My creatures to restore My tottering House touches Me profoundly; any step towards unity, all heaven rejoices; any prayer offered for the restoration of My Body, My Father’s wrath diminishes; any gathering in My Name for unity, My blessings are poured out on these sharing these meetings.’ (TLIG 5/10/94) Jesus we hope we touched Your Heart just a little.
A final meeting at Dianne’s flat enabled us to assess the outcome of this first visit to Gibraltar. We all felt that it was the will of Jesus that we be there and that there is fertile ground to receive the messages of True Life in God. Dianne and I will continue working together to cultivate the first seeds sown there and trusting in the Lord to lead us forward we hope in the future to be able to offer Him a rich harvest. An added bonus to this visit to Gibraltar is that I will be able to introduce and circulate more of the True Life in God books and videos to the many English ex-patriots that live in Spain.
Judy Pattison, September 2001
[A prayer request is attached to this mailing]
