Vassula’s mission continues, opening 2006 with a trip to New Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata in India and Los Angeles (LA) in USA. The initial trip was scheduled to continue with a visit to Venezuela, but some notable events made it impossible to fulfill it:
(a) the breaking of the large bridge in the highway connecting the airport with Caracas in Venezuela during the firsts days of January,
(b) the delayed reply from the president of the Pôliedro to use the venue for Vassula’s meeting on February 5, because he didn’t know still if the government will use it for the Revolution celebration,
(c) Gogui Merced’s health problem, suffering from dengue fever. Gogui would be accompanying Vassula with Pillar de Oriol-Tarruella to Venezuela for the Beth Myriams in the country.
And this was not the only last minute change: the arranged venue for Christian Unity Conference in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in LA had to relocate due to the LA Archdiocese’s withdrawing its invitation to host the conference.
INDIA
Thursday, January 12, 2006, N. Delhi
After a very long flight of 14 ½ hours from Chicago on Wednesday 11th, we arrived late next night in N. Delhi, India. Fr. Joe Thomas, the loyal TLIG friend and supporter for years, met us at the airport and drove us to the Provincialate House (Salesians of Don Bosco) were we to spend the night. There was no availability in any hotel on that day due to weddings and the high tourist season.
Friday, January 13, 2006, N. Delhi
|
| Bishop Anil Couto and Vassula |
Vassula started sharing what had been happening for the last 3 days: attacks from the devil and all sorts of blockages to stop the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. She continued with a message of Unity: « …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 those sharing these meetings 
« October 5, 1994
Vassula continued emphasizing: « Love is missing, we don’t love Jesus, otherwise we would have understood everything! In True Life in God the essence is: repentance, acknowledgment of our wickedness and our sins and thus turn to Jesus to perfect us. TLIG doesn’t promise us to feel good about ourselves or have a prosperous life while on earth. It calls us to repentance, sacrifice and penance, lifting our cross. Today the people’s indifference is giving space to Satan who attacks fiercely and nature reacts with all the natural disasters we have seen recently. Patience and perseverance are needed to overcome the indifference that is covering the people and leads to division.
Division is not from God. Our division is a sin and scandal to the rest of the world. How do we want the Church to be credible in front of the world’s eyes when it preaches peace and reconciliation to countries that are massacring their people, when we, in our own center, are spiritually massacring the Body of Christ by throwing venomous arrows at each other? The Father said in a message: « O royal household of Mine, you have bartered your glory for shame! » September 25, 1997
« I look at the earth today and wish I never did…. My Eyes see what I never wanted to see and My Ears hear what I dreaded to ever hear! My Heart, as a Father sinks with grief; I fashioned man in the likeness of My Image, yet they have degraded themselves and today, so many of them have taken the likeness of the Beast! » April 15, 1996
But there is Hope: the Holy Spirit. Today you can see the renewal taking place everywhere. Consolation is found in this. The Holy Spirit of grace, despite our weakness and wretchedness, pours Himself continuously on all humanity, raising apostles and calling them, « apostles of the End of Times »: « …it had been said that at the end of times, Our Two Hearts would raise apostles, and they would be called: apostles of the end of times; these would be instructed by the Queen of Heaven and by Myself, to go forward in every nation, to proclaim without fear the Word of God, even when they would be drenched with blood, by the Enemy’s vicious attacks, they shall not be broken, their tongue would pierce the enemies of My Church, like a double-edged sword, by exposing their heresies… » April 3, 1996
To bend in humility and love will be the greatest act of charity that one can offer to Jesus. One should not esteem himself pious and just when the fruit of repentance, love, is not there! Repentance and love brings intimacy with God through which we experience the sweetness of God the Father. Jesus says to us how much we are offending the Father by our division: « My Father is more than offended; how much longer will the earth be divided and riven? How much longer will My Church be divided and in rebellion? the Spirit of My Father is constantly blasphemed and ridiculed by many of My ministers; has this generation not yet heard an uproar from heaven? have you not yet heard from the highest heaven a lamentation from the saints? » February 5, 1999
Division is like an evil master in us and we should not give that master opportunity in any instance to overrule us. But God, Who is the Source of all that is Good, can overpower this evil master, which is division. So when we come together to talk about unity, let us come with simplicity of heart, fastening beforehand our heart on God. We should leave aside the mistrust and the brilliance of worldly speeches. Do not let us meet with conceit and deceitfulness; no one who comes in that manner ever will see and understand things in God’s light. The sublime Source of Christian Unity is the Holy Spirit and it is in Him we should put our hopes and our union.
Jesus speaking to His priests says: « all priests should imitate Me in their life; I am not speaking of those who imitate Me and are like My Abel who was pleasing to Us, because of his sacrifices and his sincerity, but of those who are like Cain, and Essau and Juda and the Scribes and the Pharisees; of these I am speaking, for their conduct contradicts My Holy Rules; must I, for their sake, go on drinking from the cup of your division, this cup forced on Me by them?
So far I have put no pressure on you, I have been pleading with you to unify the dates of Easter but you are not hearing My Spirit; you have exploited the patience of My Father; this time again I am asking you to unite the Easter dates so that My Spirit shines on you with grace and brings My House into one; today I am speaking to you but you do not value My words in these Messages; when you will one day, it will be too late…. ah! if only one of these men working for unity, if only one of them does not give in to his passions, to his fears, and goes forward unifying the dates of Easter, I, God, will exalt him;
But what I see from the House of the East are tempers roused, obstinacies and fears, brothers yet adversaries; House of the East you have done well in maintaining the Tradition as I passed It on to you and as My primitive church exercised It, however, you are not allowing My Holy Spirit to nurture you enough for your salvation and the salvation of those who are in desperate need of salvation…. So I tell you, be ambitious for the gifts of My Spirit and do not leave My House barren; My House will benefit from My Spirit’s gifts if you open the door of your heart…
And you, House of the West, you have realized, through the Light of My Spirit, that a body needs its two lungs to breath freely, and that My Body is imperfect with one lung; pray that My vivifying Spirit will join you together, but what have I to suffer before! … So I implore you, House of the West, to go forward and unmask the Evil one by unifying the dates of Easter as in the primitive Church. City and bride of My Holy Spirit, your fragrance left you…. So come back to Me as a child and My grace will be upon you and My Holy Spirit thrice Holy will be your guide and your lamp; for this I need intense poverty of the spirit and an overflow of generosity… » November 27, 1996
Unity will come in the end, but with a struggle. » This was Vassula’s first Ecumenical meeting that left all present speechless.
Later on, at about 1:00 pm Fr. Joe had arranged a TV interview for Vassula at JAIN TV. The program was called « Voice of Christianity » and Fr. Dominic Emmanuel interviewed Vassula for 24 minutes. Fr. Dominic is the spokesman and director of the Communication/Info Bureau of the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese. It was an introductory interview but very impressive. Fr. Dominic asked Vassula about the recent natural disasters and evil attacks and to his surprise heard that Jesus had given prophetic messages in the past messages in TLIG for all these, not only about the attack on the two towers in NY, but also about the tsunami in S. Asia in December 2004. Vassula mentioned that if we continue the way we are leading our life now, we should expect an even worse situation that could involve and decide the future of this earth.
To his question, ‘why do you think all of these things are happening,’ Vassula boldly stated, ‘because love is missing!’ To which Fr. Dominic was caught by surprise; it was the last thing he was expecting to hear – as the tone of his voice revealed. Vassula explained that the lack of love we have inside us manifests in the world. Whatever we feel inside: anger, hatred, un-forgiveness, etc, all these things are expressed out into the world, giving space for evil and eventually nature reacts.
The program was aired 2 days later, in the evening of Sunday, January 15, 2006. Fr. Dominic was very happy to have Vassula in his TV program and after the interview was over, he introduced her to the people in the studio.
Saturday, January 14, 2006, Faridabad
|
| From Left Christopher Daruwalla, Veronica Peris, Fr. Joe, Fr. Martin, Eutropio, Vassula, Pramila and a local friend |
Fr. Anthony Kakkanat, financial director of the DRC, introduced Vassula to the about 2000 people present. When he finished, he reminded the people that Vassula’s birthday was in a few days and the people wished her well by singing « Happy Birthday » 4 days prior to her birthday.
|
| Vassula with translator and Fr. Martin sitting at the back |
« …you belonged to Me, you come from Me, you are My own… » Jesus emphasized on April 12, 1988. Vassula shared the story with the prayer of the « our Father, » where God the Father asked her to say this prayer. She started praying feeling confident because it was the only prayer she could remember since her childhood. But the Father wasn’t pleased. « Say it again, » He said, « it was too fast. » She said it. « Say it again, » He said, « you were moving. » She said it. Again and again and again. All through the day she was repeating in the Father’s presence the « our Father » prayer. At some point she thought she was asked to say all the « our Father » prayers she didn’t say all her life to catch up!!! Suddenly the Father was satisfied for every sentence she pronounced, saying: « Good! » with delight. Spending the whole day with God the Father, made her feel very close, at ease and intimate to Him, that during the day when He asked her again to say the prayer, instead of responding, ‘Yes Lord,’ she heard herself saying, ‘Yes Dad.’ Later on she apologized for the word ‘Dad’ but He said He had taken that word like a jewel.
Vassula emphasized on our noble descent and that we must be holy as God is Holy. Satan is attacking us to dirty the image God has given us… We should be like children, be intimate with God, be united with God, always remembering the « we, us. » Vassula shared with the audience the story with the oven to show the closeness/oneness of Jesus with us and how we should be with Jesus: it was in the very beginning and I was writing with Jesus when suddenly I remembered I was having some food in the oven. « Jesus, I think we will have to rush. » « Where to? » Jesus asked. « Downstairs, to check the oven. » « Come then let us go, » Jesus said and Vassula rushed with Jesus to the kitchen to check the food. Later on Jesus told her to write down the words, » ‘we, us.’ From now on you will say ‘we’ and ‘us.’ «
|
Vassula continued saying that « we must never forget Him and remember to pray for the conversion of the world. The greatest service we can offer God is to bring one soul back to God. To pray for others and especially for people we don’t know is like shedding our blood for others because our love resembles Christ’s love that was with no self-interest. It is a love that is ready to give oneself completely to save souls. Jesus says that the prayer is not only an act of love but also an act of reparation. She focused on the Unceasing Prayer, the silent prayer to long for God all day; to live perpetually in God and God to live perpetually in us; to thirst and love God with all our heart soul and might, fulfilling the 1st Commandment.
In order to obtain the gift of love, we should die to ourselves, to our ego, giving space to the Holy Spirit to work in us. There is no space available if our ego is there. Through repentance we obtain the Holy Spirit as we cleanse ourselves from sin. If sin is there, if we are debt to sin, the Holy Spirit has no space. How to cleanse space in us? Through confession. After that, the Holy Spirit is invading us! Only through the Holy Spirit we know God’s Will and do God’s Will. Jesus says:
« come, you who err still in this wilderness, saying:
« I have sought My Redeemer but
have not found Him; »
find Me, My beloved, in purity of heart,
by loving Me without self-interest;
find Me in holiness,
in the abandonment I desire of you;
find Me by observing My Commandments;
find Me by replacing evil with love,
find Me in simplicity of heart. » July 8, 1989
Immediately after Vassula’s speech, Mass was celebrated by Fr. Martin and Fr. Joe in English, Hindi and Malayalam through a translator. It is remarkable that all through Vassula’s speech for 1 ½ hour and during Mass, a number of children that were present were sitting and listening to what was said, in a very obedient manner…
|
|
The priests in the Retreat Centre offered lunch and a surprise for Vassula: they had baked a birthday cake to wish her « Happy Birthday »! It was so moving to see all of them remember her birthday and wanting to participate in this joy – although it was 4 days away!
|
Sunday, January 15, 2006, N. Delhi
|
| Fr. Joe, Vassula, Metropolitan Philoxenos, Fr. Sakariah |
|
At 3:00 pm Vassula was scheduled to speak at the Public meeting at St. Columbas School Ground. We arrived quite early, but this gave us the opportunity to sit with Archbishop Vincent Concessao for 20 minutes and enjoy some coffee he offered us. Christopher Daruwalla from the TLIG prayer group was also with us and when time came with the Archbishop we walked to the grounds for Vassula’s meeting.
There were many new people attending, so Vassula shared her experience with God from the beginning: How to obtain the gift of love; How to be united with Jesus all through the day and all through our lives; That division is offending God and we must do our best to bring unity and live through humility and love.
|
| Vassula addressing the audience during a power-cut |
|
| Archbishop Vincent Concessao addressing, St. Columba’s, N. Delhi |
The meeting ended and we headed for the Sacred Heart Cathedral, just some yards away, for Mass. The 1st reading and Gospel were about the call that certain people in the bible have received to follow God and accomplish a mission. One of the celebrant priests grasped the opportunity and during his sermon talked also about Vassula and her mission. That was to our surprise! Rev. Victor David, from the Baptist Church, met with Vassula after Mass and he accompanied us to the arranged dinner for all the TLIG group, as it was our last night in New Delhi.
Catarina Andritsaki
TLIG Bangladesh
