Vassula's Introduction

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Before last year in Rhodos in summer a handful of people from True Life in God gathered, to share and live the messages. We visited a few holy sites and prayed together in these places, still never realizing that what we were doing was a retreat, even if it was so very small. Then again, last year, in Rhodos, our good Shepherd called us once more to gather in the same way, but the number of people coming grew enormously. That gathering needed more organization and more work. My sister, Yannula, organized our gathering and our pilgrimage in Patmos. In that gathering we prayed and shared our problems and joys on the work we do on True Life in God. Later on we travelled again together visiting various holy sites. I did not know then that this sort of gatherings we were doing were called "a retreat".

Because of their success and the enthusiasm showed by everyone to meet again in the same manner, the Spirit of the Lord made me understand that we could gather again but in His own place, here, in the Holy Land. Thanks to the organizers things started to move already last summer for today's preparation. I had never imagined that our good Shepherd would gather so many of us here and make our number grow that we had to limit somewhat that number.

The way God always worked with me is to bring me the situation laid on a platter, so to speak, without me realizing that He was leading me by my sleeve into performing retreats.

I hope with all my heart that this reunion of prayer and praise here in the Holy Land will be a blessing to all of us and to the whole Church. In one of the messages Jesus once said:"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." 5.10.94

Here I shall quote a passage from St. Paul's second letter to the Corinthians: (2 Co 2:14-17)

"Thanks be to God who, wherever He goes, makes us, in Christ, partners of His triumph, and through us in spreading the knowledge of Himself, like a sweet smell, everywhere. We are Christ's incense to God for those who are being saved and for those who are not; for the last, the smell of death that leads to death, for the first the sweet smell of life that leads to life. And who could be qualified for work like this? At least we do not go round offering the word of God for sale, as many other people do. In Christ, we speak as men of sincerity, as envoys of God and in God's presence."

And we, my dear friends, who are assembled here today, we have been called by our Lord so that we pray fervently for reconciliation between brothers. We could have been three people or four to pray for unity, in a private house, but we are too many as you see to gather and pray in a private house. From 35 nations people have come to join to pray for unity and to pray for the conversion of the world with the sole desire to please God and do His Will.

Jesus is thirsty for unity but so are we and many others who are not with us. The Lord gathered us here, and although we seem to be many we are only a handful in front of the world, but it is to show the world that one can reconcile and live united and in harmony, emanating the love of God. God gathered us here from different Churches, to make ourselves an example of reconciliation for the others who do not want unity or complicate unity. We are here to show to those who avoid unity saying that "there are grave elements which divide us" that there are no serious differences among us. We have to pray for those who do not want unity according to our Lord's mind because they are opposing God's Will and committing a grave sin by remaining divided. This is what our Lord said:

"I desire my children united. Realize the gravity of your division, the urgency of my call and the importance of my request. All I ask is love to break the barriers of your division." 20.10.91

If there is no love or humility there will be no unity.
In these end of times we are called by God to become apostles of love and of unity by gathering together and by not differentiating ourselves from one another. When joining in this way to pray to the Holy Spirit and give Him the liberty to blow in our hearts His desires, in the end, we will do God's Divine Will, and unity will be performed according to God's mind.

We are called to expand God's Kingdom in this world that has become, in its great apostasy and its division, a desert. We are called to make God's Love known to our brothers and to our sisters who coldly reject God's love, because they have not known God nor tasted His sweet Love. We are called to practice the Holy Sacraments of the Church and be an example to our brothers and sisters of how to honour God by following what He has laid out for us. We are called to adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament, where in front of Jesus we can repose in His Heart and have the leisure of contemplating His Trinitarian Holiness. In this intent repose we would be suckled by His Divinity. We are called to remind the world that Jesus has truly resurrected and therefore, we should live His Resurrection every minute in our lives, calling Him Holy-Companion, Spouse, Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace.

We are called to be witnesses of God's intimate love, and teach the world the meaning of the Father's words when He said: "What I want is love, not sacrifice; what I want is knowledge of Myself, not holocausts." 25.9.97 and in another passage: "I offer you My Heart and as a bridegroom who steps out from his pavilion to join his bride, I step out to join My Heart to yours and take My pleasure in you and exchange in our caresses our mutual love. Let it be as in heaven: Love for love, Heart for heart." 25.9.97

I will remind you all of a message given on the 3rd of April 1996 by Jesus when He was telling us that at the end of times He together with our Blessed Mother would raise apostles and send them out to remind the world of their great love: "It had been said that at the end of times, Our 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. They would leave not one stone unturned; they would pursue the sinners, the great and the proud, the hypocrites, the traitors of My Church; they would pursue them with My Cross in one hand and the rosary in the other and We would stand by their side. They would shatter the heresies and build faithfulness and truth in their place. They would be the antidote of the poison, because they would sprout like buds from the royal Heart of Mary." 3.4.96

We know that God was telling us that He would raise with His powerful Hand, apostles for these end of times and that He would provide them with a spirit of zeal for His designs.

An apostolate is a duty that every Christian must do, whatever be his degree of charity. The Holy Spirit uses souls at all stages of their spiritual life for His work in the Church; and the missions with which He entrusts them are not according to the measure of their love nor their measure of their human capacity.

But God provides them with the power of the Holy Spirit and enables them to accomplish their mission. The Spirit will prepare them to go out into the world especially where heresy and iniquity and sin are flourishing so that they practice their apostolate. Filled with zeal and love for the House of Yahweh these souls that divine love united them in an inseparable union with God, would go through fire to gain souls for God, having realized the value of each soul. Remember: to gain a soul for our Lord surpasses all sort of services we could render God, for God prizes one soul more than anything else; and so through our prayers and sacrifices or with any other charism God provided our soul, we may gain these souls and bring them to God. Let us be the Net of God.

We have, therefore, to depend more on the Holy Spirit because it is in His grace that He adorns our soul with His gifts to prepare us. Grace exists and is given to us freely and without any merit. With grace our soul is elevated to the height of the mission required by God from us, filling us with divine love. How many times has our Lord said in the messages: "Go and evangelize with love for Love." The Spirit of the Lord will augment our love for our neighbour so that we would desire to go out in the world to conquer souls by loving and bring them to the Lord.

God is on our side because it is manifest with the blessings with which God crowns His message and continues to expand it marvelously in spite of all the opposition. It is manifest that God is on our side with the protection He assures me and gives me. Humanly speaking I should have been broken, but I am not broken, I should have weakened with all the travelling, but I am not weakened, I should have been discouraged with the persistent accusations, but I am not discouraged. I am up and about and joyfully bouncing with joy!

To each one of us He has given different amounts of talents. God never tires of rewarding the faithful who has fulfilled his task. To have buried the talent received entails the pain of hell; so let us multiply our talents for the glory of God.

As I said, let us depend more on the Holy Spirit who, when giving charisms to the people of God, He gives them for the benefit of the Church. Our Lord says that the Church today needs a revival and it reminds me of His words to me when He said in the beginning:

"Revive My Church, unite My Church and embellish My Church."

On our own we could do nothing but through the power of the Holy Spirit after allowing Him to act within us to perfect us and to grow in our love, we could then do God's Will, for the Spirit is power and life.

And the work we do will be His work and according to His mind. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love who revives and rebuilds with love the Church. Therefore, we should all be pliant so that the Spirit can form us to take the shape He wants us to be.

An apostolate mission applies to each one of us. Each Christian as a member of the Church, can prove his love for God and neighbour by multiplying his talents which were given to him from the beginning by the Lord. Although the temptations of burying it will be tremendous we should try to overcome them, otherwise we will be severely punished.

Thus, let us testify in our way and in the manner God has given us that in order to love one must serve, and that in serving one arrives at the perfection of love.

I will end up by saying that in these days while together again I will remind you what is the Trinitarian spirituality of True Life in God, this is why I will leave the freedom of God who lifted up the prophets and who spoke and revealed Himself "in many and various ways" (Hb 1:1) to convey again His message this week, through a weak hand, a member of Christ's Body. He poured out His Spirit upon all flesh and I am one of the sons and daughters through whom He returns to respell His blessed Word.

The Holy Trinity has entrusted us with Their Noble Theme which They called "True Life in God". They say:"We will address Our Hymn of Love to this dying generation and whosoever listens, is blessed. Whosoever listens to It will grow tall and strong too like a tree because its root will be growing in Our Commandments and Our decrees."

Let us pray:
Father, we consecrate ourselves in soul and body to Your service, so that Your Eyes and Your Heart never leave us.
Set Your Royal Throne inside us and give us Your orders.
Make us advance in purity of heart to accomplish all that You have given us.
Amen