The Holy Spirit works in different ways

01 February 2001 15:28

Following Vassula’s two recent letters concerning Evangelization, the report copied below provides some useful help and advice for those wishing to respond to Vassula’s requests. It comes from Hans Enderle who has distributed the TLIG messages in Japan for many years.

As a Catholic publisher and bookseller, I was invited to speak about the Catholic book business in Japan on June 21, 1999 at the monthly meeting of a Catholic lay association called the Catholic Action Fellowship Association (CAFA) of which I am a member. Immediately, I decided to speak about Vassula and her messages. Our association is recognized by the Church, in fact Cardinal Shirayanagi always attends our annual general meeting.

First, in preparation, I prayed a lot, for Jesus said we can’t do anything without Him. I actually felt quite a bit of stress, however, since not only is Japanese not my best language, but I am not a particularly good speaker either. But most of all I felt it to be an awesome responsibility to be the one to properly talk about messages from God our Creator intended for each one of His so beloved creatures, especially after He had said that this is the ”noblest” of His works.

And to be honest, I was also worried about possible negative reactions. At Mass one day some days before June 21, as if Jesus wanted to re-assure me, I read the Epistle of St. Paul about the ”super apostles”, a passage I had never paid much attention to before. Those of you who are familiar with it know that St. Paul admits that he wasn’t the best speaker in the world but re-assures himself that as far as knowing about his subject, he had the greatest confidence. This greatly reassured me for after having read most of the ten TLIG volumes and ”My Angel Daniel” at least three times, having listened to Vassula herself speak at her previous two Tokyo visits, having read books about the messages, watched videos, read True Life in God Magazine, the Trinitas Newsletter, in short almost anything I could find on Vassula and having had countless conversations with friends and enthusiastic customers in our Bookstore I felt that I must know about my subject, especially since most of the audience, even if they knew about Vassula, would have been able to read at best only up to volume three, since volume 4 was not out in Japanese at the time.

I then practiced a little bit of good old Japanese ”newamashi” which is simply the fine art of talking personally to key people ahead of time to win their support. I spoke to our spiritual moderator Father Klaus Luhmer, S.J., former Chancellor of the prestigious Jesuit Sophia University here in Tokyo. In a way I was glad that Father Luhmer had not heard about Vassula, so he was able to hear everything with an open mind.

I planned to read at least one message from Jesus, one that I felt to be especially appropriate:

”…come, My child, you who hear Me or read Me, I have shown My Love for you again in this testimony, do not say, that I am too far away to love for at this very instant My Eyes are upon you with a special tenderness and an affection you can never understand fully; had I to return just for your sake alone to redeem you, without the slightest hesitation I would come and repeat My Passion, for your sake alone! Now do you believe Me when I tell you that a man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends? I am telling you all this so that you may find your peace in My Sacred Heart, so that you may find true life in Me, so that you find true love and rest in Me your God.” (October 22, 1990)

The best way for me to talk about Vassula I thought would be to tell everyone how I myself had learned about her and to concentrate on a few points that had particularly impressed me. For the second half of the talk I planned to let Vassula ”speak for herself” in showing a video of the 1995 Tokyo meeting. I reviewed the video and knew exactly where to stop after about half an hour.

But things don’t always work out the way you hope they will. First, the video machine which had been promised was not available. Also, by mistake, I did not receive the full Japanese translation (which had not been published yet) of the message I had chosen. Fortunately in the back of my mind I had thought about what to do if I were not able to show the video and when it happened I decided I would simply stretch my talk a bit and suggest that we leave some time for questions or discussion afterwards.

I started my talk with a prayer to the Holy Spirit, asking Him not only to help me, but to help open the hearts of those who were listening.

I told them how I had first learned about Vassula. About 5 years ago a priest telephoned me and asked if we had the book of messages called True Life in God. He assured me they were reliable, I will never forget it. At about the same time I had been talking to the Provincial of the Marianist Society in Japan asking for his financial help in publishing a one-volume encyclopedia on the Blessed Virgin Mary. We had decided that the best book to translate would be ”Theotokos” written and compiled by Father Michael O’Carroll.

Almost immediately after the Provincial had agreed to give us a substantial amount of money, I went to Vassula’s first Tokyo meeting in 1995, a visit I had learned about only by chance from a customer; imagine my surprise when who was accompanying her but none other than Father O’Carroll himself! I had no idea he was in Japan, much less that he was Vassula’s spiritual director. For me personally this was not only a confirmation to proceed with the encyclopedia, but also another strong sign of the authenticity of Vassula and her messages.

I spoke about how when I first read the messages God and my Catholic faith came alive, so to speak. Yes, this is the faith of our fathers, the faith I was taught, including things you don’t always hear about so often anymore: the existence of satan, purgatory and hell, your guardian angels, the need for confession, fasting, the Rosary, the importance of the Eucharist and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I then related a little anecdote. For those of you who are familiar with the interview of Vassula by Jacques Neirynck, you know that on a trip Vassula’s guardian angel Daniel suggested she listen to Schubert’s Ninth Symphony. When I first read this I thought there must be some mistake. I knew of Schubert’s famous 8th Symphony well known as the ”Unfinished”. I thought to myself, if he couldn’t finish the 8th, he couldn’t possibly have written a 9th. It probably is a mistake in the book, the angel probably meant Beethoven’s 9th which is so popular in Japan. How pleasantly surprised I was when I stopped by our local music shop to find not only that they had the 9th, but also that it is known as ”The Great”! I’ve since listened to it a number of times and have become a complete Schubert fan!

I have been trying to inform myself about the Passion of Jesus and what He suffered for us. I had read Emmerich, for instance. Recently I saw a video called ”How Jesus Died: The Final 18 Hours” which really describes the physical pain Jesus suffered. More recently I have been reading Luisa Picaretta and realizing more that the physical pain which was bad enough was almost nothing compared to the agony of the soul and the knowledge that despite His tremendous suffering so many would be lost. I told them how overwhelmed I was when Jesus in the messages says more than once (as in the message above) that He would willingly suffer His Passion all over again without hesitation even if He had to do it for just Vassula (or in other words, one of us). It really is unbelievable, His love for us.

Another point I touched on was the following. All my life I had always wondered why there seemed to be a general consensus among humanity as to what was the most beauitful say, in art, or in music, in nature, why philosophers seemed to agree on what was the highest good, why, in short, St. Augustine had said that ”our hearts would never rest until they rest in Thee”. And unless I am misreading Vassula, for an instant after our creation, God allows us to see Him. This memory is obviously deeply imprinted in our soul, so that deep inside, each one of us knows what is ultimately the most Good and the most Beautiful. And I almost get tears in my eyes every time I think of the Father’s tender words referring to the moment after our creation when He ”first held us in His hands”.

I didn’t want to ignore the Vatican notification , so I covered this at the end as best as I could. I told them about Vassula’s upcoming visit in August and encouraged them to read the messages. I was very happy with the comments and questions after the talk, I felt what the Japanese would call ”tegotai”, namely, the audience responded favorably. One gentleman who obviously knew about music reassured me that in fact Schubert’s 9th was actually number 7 in sequence but was only later re-named the 9th! Another gentleman who knew the Liturgy very well explained to all of us why it came to be that there are two dates for Easter (an explanation I still don’t quite understand!).

In preparing my talk I had the help and support of almost all the key Vassula persons in Japan, Bernard Kuhn in Osaka, Father Perez-Valera in Tokyo, Mrs. Hitomi the translator and Mr. Hayashi the publisher.

Because Jesus says it is very hard for his priests to accept the messages, almost the happiest moment for me came at the very end of our meeting when Father Luhmer in his spontaneous closing prayer included the words ”The Holy Spirit works in different ways” and ”we should ask Our Blessed Mother to intercede for us”.

Hans Enderle, Tokyo, Japan. First Saturday, Nov. 6, 1999