Report on Vassula's last three prayer meetings in Germany, July 1998

Introduction

Since the author of this report is simply one of the many, many visitors who attended Vassulas's recent three meetings in Germany, consequently, he can only inform to the best of his knowledge of what he personally could hear from Vassula and what he could observe during each meeting.

In spite of the heart-felt welcome that the German people used to offer Vassula in previous years each time she came to them to speak in God's name, she has the feeling that after the recent three meetings in Langerwehe, in Saarbrücken and in Freiburg, the Lord will not send her again to Germany, but rather to countries where the Lord wants her to expand her mission.

As a matter of fact, Vassula's recent three prayer meetings had been prepared and taken place in such a way that they should be considered as a big one but repeated three times, always with Fr. Theophile Pilgrims and Sr. Pia from Liechtenstein on her side. A Russian Orthodox priest, Fr. Theophile testified the spiritual and ecumenical dimension of Vassula's mission, whereas Sr. Pia translated simultaneously for Vassula who spoke either in French or English. The content of Vassula's message is always rich in its trinitarian spirituality. Some recurrent phenomena is always observed during each True Life in God prayer meeting, phenomena like Jesus appearing on her face, or a light surrounding her. It is worthwhile mentioning this in this report, because many people cannot help feeling that it is a tangible proof of God's presence, who undoubtedly speaks through Vassula, who is a simple housewife like many others. God has chosen her as His instrument to become His messenger and to proclaim His message of Love. In each meeting, listeners, including small children and teenagers, were very quiet and very heedful, never tiring of listening to Vassula who talked at least one hour, and even longer than that, due to the fact that she was interpreted in German.

1. Saturday, 25th July 1998

The first meeting was organised by Willy who is from Langerwehe bei Düren, a small township near Aachen.. He managed to book the cultural hall of Langerwehe for that day, a hall with 800 seats and very cheerful decorations on the podium. Moreover, through him, announcements about the Langerwehe meeting had also made in parish newsletters so that some 700 people came to the meeting, among them several nuns and priest, and many volunteers who helped wherever help was needed.

To prepare them spiritually, the visitors were asked to pray the Holy Rosary at the beginning of each True Life in God prayer meeting. Shortly after the rosary, at about 3 p.m. Vassula arrived. She immediately went up to the podium together with Fr. Theophile and her interpreter. Vassula told the people that it was God who sent her to them and she was only obeying His command to her. There were a considerable number of new comers in the audience. Vassula, inspired by the Holy Spirit, gave her testimony in such a way that both new-comers and habitués of her prayer meeting would be spiritually nourished. Our world, she said, has become cold and spiritually dead, because many people have abandoned God. But God, in His infinite Mercy, never forgets His children and will always love them. That is why He speaks us, calling us for our urgent conversion, in order to bring us back to Him and save us, reminding us that we should live holy. A holy life is to live God's Commandments and to know, understand and love God. One should share everything with Him, and God taught Vassula to become intimate with Him by using 'we', 'us' all the time. In this manner, we will lead a life that will become an incessant prayer : a life in God, which 'True Life in God' actually means.

Much emphasis was given on the urgent need to repent and on God's infinite Mercy for everybody: "Come to Me just as you are!", proclaimed Vassula repeatedly in the name and on behalf of God. This is exactly how man should repent, simply by answering to God's loving call without fear, without hesitation, approaching Him trustfully and happily, like a small child running towards its parents and relying on its parents in everything all the time. Vassula never forgets to remind her listeners of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, i.e. three Divine Persons - Yahweh the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit their mutual Love - yet being one and the same God... Perfectly aware of the spiritual richness of God's message and His teaching, Vassula concluded her testimony by comparing her testimony to a drop of water out of an ocean, insisting very warm-heartedly that people should read the messages themselves and meditate on them again and again.

After a short break, a Holy Mass in honour of the apostles Saint James and Saint Andrew was celebrated in the same hall. Thereupon Vassula prayed on almost 700 visitors, individually. Many of them fell on the ground, resting in the Holy Spirit, meanwhile a few burst into tears. Indeed, it was very touching to see how the visitors naturally joined together and sang, like a big choir praising God before saying goodbye to each other.

2. Sunday, 26th July 1998

The meeting in Saarbrücken, a city in the Southwest of Germany near the French border, was very similar to the meeting in Langerwehe in many regards: it took place in a public hall, the Kongreßhalle of Saarbrücken, a kind of city hall with more than 1,500 seats where concerts &/or conventions can be organised and it started at 2 p.m., first with the Holy Rosary asking the Holy Spirit especially for His seven gifts. A significant detail should be underlined here which is this: short meditations composed by the Authorities of the Catholic Church in Germany, for instance, Card. Lehmann and Card. Meisner, had been selected and read by the organiser who conducted the prayer. To show there isn't any and there should not be any opposition between True Life in God messages and the Church as an institution? Very likely, one can say.

Approximately, 900 visitors from Germany, but also from France, Belgium and Luxembourg - among them one could find Dominican sisters and father, Benedictine priest - came to Vassula's prayer meeting which was organised this time by Martin Wiechec and his wife. Again, like in Langerwehe, shortly after the Holy Rosary had been prayed, Vassula arrived with Fr. Theophile and Sr. Pia her interpreter, always so cheerful and natural, another quality given to her by the Lord for her mission that is so evident and pleasant to her listeners.

In the light of this particular grace, Vassula addressed the people with great earnestness. And the most astonishing thing is, and this coincides perfectly well with the symbolical meaning of the Rosary Prayer said a short while previously, to hear her saying at the beginning of her second meeting, that if God gives a charism to one of His children, it is only given for the benefit of His Church, adding : we are the Church. Vassula remembered that the first command God gave to her, when she was asked if she was willing to serve Him, was to consolidate His Church, to revive it, to embellish it and to unite it. Those who were spiritually dead, and were completely aloof of God, when reading the messages and living them, God, in His everlasting Love, brings them back to Himself. God has given her, and she gives.

In her prayer meeting in Saarbrücken, Vassula dedicated more time to make her listeners aware that personal conversion, i.e. leading a true life in God should have an ecclesial and universal dimension, so that those who love God as God teaches them in the "True Life In God" messages, could become witnesses of His Love, later on, and be called by God to renew His Church...

Vassula's testimony carried a rich theological language. The attention of the listeners was intense. The big congress hall and its religious decorations gave the impression that the visitors who had come, came to have a spiritual retreat in the hall rather than listen to the witness of a person.

It took more than one hour for Vassula to finish her witnessing. There were too many people in the hall for Vassula to pray on individually, so she asked them to pray with her to the Holy Sprit and prayed on them collectively. Then the choir which animated all three of Vassula's meetings joined in, singing wonderful and rhythmical songs. Thereupon everyone in the hall stood up spontaneously to give a very heart-felt thanks to Vassula for her coming, lasting more than ten minutes. The Holy Spirit made Vassula understand that she could continue to address the people for just a while more. She asked them, smilingly, "Do you still have time for more? Only three minutes more!" Indeed, not only they could, but also they wanted to. So Vassula continued to share with her eager listeners some teachings given by the Father and by Jesus, just enough time for those who wanted to attend evening Sunday mass in the local cathedral not very far from the Kongreßhalle.

3. Monday, 27th July 1998

The previous two meetings, each one in a different German town, happened to be two warm sunny days. However, the weather changed and the sky became cloudy when it was time for Vassula to travel south, to Freiburg in Brisgau, a very pictorial German town near France and Switzerland where she was to speak for the last time. Indeed, one hour before the prayer meeting which - in order to make it possible for working people to attend it, was planned for 8 p.m. - it suddenly started to rain quite heavily! Some people instinctively understood the rainfall as a symbol of the Holy Spirit's coming down to that meeting, whereas some people, who assuredly were more sensitive by nature, interpreted the downpour as 'tears' from above because it is almost certain that Vassula will not witness a second time in that town.

A local True Life in God organiser, Mr. Benner and his wife managed to book the Kolping Hall (Kolpinghalle) for that meeting, a small simple hall containing not more than 500 seats, in a building called Kolpinghaus run by a Catholic organisation well-known in Germany for social purpose. Because of the reasonable size of the area, no special co-ordination was needed for that evening. At 7 p.m. the Holy Rosary, and every now and then the choir sang a song to the Lord... It stopped raining 15 minutes before Vassula's arrival who had just attended the Holy Mass in the local cathedral. As she entered the hall with her travel companions, the hall was already so crowded that many people literally had to break their way in and remain standing throughout the meeting, at the wall and even at the entrance door. People prayed silently to God. Like Scripture says : "The footsteps of those who bring good news is a welcome sound." (Rm 10:15) Scriptures continue to say : "Not everyone, of course, listens to the good news. As Isaiah says : Lord, how many believed what we proclaimed ?" (Rm 10:16) But faith comes from what is preached, that is why the powerful message given to us in True Life in God touches hearts. God speaks. God converts. God touches hearts, and where there is love there is God.

The "True Life in God messages are given as a gift to us by God because He wants us to understand Him. He wants that every heart turns into a paradise and that the soul penetrates into the nuptial chamber of God to meet Him into a spiritual intimacy such as those of the saints and the angels have in heavens." This can summarise most appropriately the content of Vassula's third address.

God schooled her, then He sent her to us. 'True Life in God ' is a school and, like many schools, has different classes. Each book stands for a class in our spiritual life. In the beginning of God's school, one is taught to love God in an intimate way, nevertheless never forgetting that He is holy. Then God teaches you to pray with the heart. Then your life turns into an unceasing prayer. God teaches you to meditate, then leads you into a contemplative life. The real theology is to contemplate God.

Vassula never omits, in her presentations, to explain that, to achieve this level of contemplation, a total abandonment is required. One must be ready and willing to accept God. God is Joy and Peace. God wants to possess you but once the soul loves God, she would also want to possess God. Christ gives you graces but also His cross, because - and Vassula has always been very clear and explicit - there is no love without sacrifice, and no sacrifice without suffering, and suffering strengthens you. Yes, God purifies and strengthens those who decide to respond to His Love, detaching their soul and their mind from the material world, unstable values, vices, meaningless worries, human fear, both egoism and egocentrism, in a nutshell. All of this is not God.

While it was time for her to conclude her testimony, once again, she made a sudden pause, waiting to see what the Spirit would ask her to do, and she said : "I know that life has become very difficult for many of you. But God is Hope, God is Joy, God is Love and God is Peace. So never give up hoping.. Whoever finds God has found Hope already. Thank you!" And the listeners' reaction was instantaneous: heart-felt applause for several minutes. The 600 listeners were touched and encouraged as well. Vassula invited everyone to come forward one by one, and prayed on them individually. As usual, many rested in the Holy Spirit, a few cried, and everyone left the hall piously and quietly. Thereupon, Vassula accomplished her last mission in Germany with simplicity, letting the Lord decide for her where she will witness next time.

"May the God of peace make you perfect and holy; and may you all be kept safe and blameless, spirit, soul and body; God has called you and He will not fail you" (1 Th 5:23-24)