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GOOD FRIDAY AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE CRUCIFIXION
DIVINE SLAVERY

April 28, 2000
Orthodox Calendar Good Friday

my Lord, my Resurrection,
my Blessedness,
I lack nothing in Your Holy Presence,
Lord, You open Your Mouth
to speak to me
and Light inundates me from Your Mouth;
my Liturgy, my Litany, the Light of Wisdom,
behold, stands before me;

Today again, is the day
when innocent Blood
was shed for my sake,
and while Satan is spitting out his venom
on Your Holy Name,
I come to You, to console You
and adore You;

ah, Lamb of God, you have not
overthrown your scourgers,
nor ordered them to lay the scourge aside,
You have not opened Your Mouth to plead:
"I am worn out with the blows you deal me;"
but remained silent towards Your tormentors;
because Your Heart was smouldering with Passion;
You remained silent,
You remained silent so as
not to aggravate Your Angels,
already distressed;

My friends and My companions shrank away from My Wounds and even the dearest ones kept their distance ....

they had abandoned Me ....

even to steady My step and keep Me from falling, while I was carrying My Cross, they were not there; My Heart was throbbing and My strength deserting Me; the light of My Eyes diminishing, while violent men were attacking Me, ranting in their speech with swords on their lips, My Heart writhed within Me; I could have asked the Angels to give Me wings like a dove, to fly away and find rest, and find a refuge from the storm of abuse, but I had answered when My Father called Me;

Your Father heard Your plea and
ransomed You and gave You His Peace,
from the feud against You;

Lying witnesses had taken their stand,
yet You wept when they were sick and dying;
like someone mourning his mother,
You wept for them;

Shame and dishonour was not of Your
concern, facing the Cross;
but in the face of Your tormentors,
You cried out once more to the Father;
'Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani?'
but the Father's attention was turned on us,
and saw all the human race, and pitied us ...
so once more Your Father denied
what Your lips were entreating Him
as He had denied Your supplication
in Gethsemane;

Yahweh had leaned down from the heights of His Sanctuary and looking down on the earth, He heard the sighing of the captive and to set free those doomed to die,

He sacrificed His only Begotten Son ....

yes, indeed, My Father gave Me to all of you as a gift for your redemption with My entire Will too;

yet, Holy One, You who are one
in the Father and the Father is one
in You, You, for my sake, preferred
to become on the Cross,
the scorn of the men who surrounded You
and the jest of Your people;
I AKRA TAPINOSI 1

"let Yahweh save Him", they said; "if Yahweh is His friend let Him rescue Him!" but I heard nothing, as though I were deaf, as though dumb, saying not a word; I was like the one who, hearing nothing, has no sharp answer to make My strength was trickling away from Me, the light had gone away from My Eyes,

ah Lord, when we stumble,
Your Powerful Hand is there to save us,
but, You, on the way to the Crucifixion, when You
stumbled, the crowd gathered in glee, gathered around You;
strangers You never even knew tore You apart incessantly;
when You made Your first fall, they surrounded You,
grinding their teeth at You,
thinking You had already given up Your Spirit
and would not make it for the Crucifixion;

the earth quivered and quaked; the foundations of the mountains trembled;

"I will not break My Covenant;
I will not revoke My given Word;
I have sworn on My Holiness,
once for all .... My dynasty
shall last forever;"

then the Anointed One gave up His Spirit ...

There is a River 2 whose streams
sanctify the dwelling 3 of the Most High;

and when God is in the city, 4 it cannot fall; today, in this hour of crisis, when the devil gathered all his evil dominion against you, pouring out his contempt upon the nobly born, I, in My turn call out My chosen ones, as it was My purpose to continue expanding My Church and progressing it, to bring within it many of My children into glory, it seemed to Me right to go through sufferings and become the prototype example for those who would follow Me in the future and become the bone of My Bone, the flesh of My Flesh and continue atoning for their brothers and sisters;

I have never ceased appointing prophets, setting them in the way of the Truth for My Salvific Plan; I bring them to fulfil their noble vows that had risen to their lips at our Divine enamoured encounter; when they allowed, in their great love for Me, and their noble conviction to be committed in My Salvific Plan, I stepped forward, and with My Royal Sceptre, I branded them with the same marks I, Myself, was branded, to resemble Me and turn them into My likeness

all those who truly accepted Me are not ashamed of Me; nor are they ashamed of those celestial marks showing that they do not belong to the world anymore; today you will recognize them by the zeal they have for My House, My House that dresses them, a zeal that devours them; you will recognize them when you see them putting up with insults for My Sake, calumny, spittle and persecution; yes, for My Sake they will allow themselves to be dragged in mire and constantly threatened; they will not hide their face from trouble but they will endure with peace all the trials and their hearts shall not be broken but sanctified; nor will they break their vow of fidelity of sharing My Cross;

so if you happen to notice their wounds and you ask them:

"who has made those wounds on you?" they will all tell you:

"I have offered my back to atone for you; these wounds you see I have received with savagery in the house of my Master's friends .... it is because I have been telling them the truth that they made me an enemy and treated me as such; they want to escape persecution for the Cross of our Saviour by not keeping the Law of Love; but it does not matter and I give no attention to my wounds because what is important to me it is to know about the Cross, the Instrument of our redemption; the Cross of our Redeemer, through whom the world is crucified to me now and I to the world; 5 obedience to God comes before obedience to men, say the Scriptures 6 and so I have obeyed and followed the heavenly instructions given to me;"

"what did you say when they descended on you as conquerors, those very ones who wounded you and who say are friends to your Master?"

"I have never asked myself why has this happened to me, because I made an oath to our God and Redeemer, signing it with my own blood to become the slave of our Saviour;"

"and what does your Divine Master say to all of this?"

"He who encompasses all beings without being contained by their limits is in mourning for His Household; many of His shepherds have laid His House waste; in their rebellion they have trampled down His Rules and have turned His glorious pastures into a desolation; their entire vineyard is ravaged as well; and the flock finding only barren lands and nothing to graze on, depraved, they died, 7 and they together with them died as well .... these things are happening and none of these seem to take it to heart; they have been assailed by their human rules and have failed Him;"

"how do you know of so many things and see them?"

"it is only through the Light of the Cross that one can perceive those things that are invisible to the eye; it is through the Eye of our Redemptive Instrument and of our Salvation that one sees all its bearings; but when it comes to know about these things, only through a joined divine union with Christ, being one with Him can one know from His Own Mouth of these things, and if one accepts to be marked as 'Slave of Christ'; yes, accepting divine slavery; one's heart then is not only grafted on Jesus' Divine Heart, but it is grafted as well on His Cross with all the bearings it could offer; they could be sorrows, but delights too; I am convinced that I belong to Christ and to the Holy Cross, for He has said so ....

our Divine Master but Bridegroom too, plants us in His Heart and when we take root and flourish within His Heart, we bear ample and good fruit; we have become heirs to His Kingdom and gods by participation, his adoptive children;

God does not deprive me of Knowledge, but speaks to me in plain words, face to face, and His Voice is music to my ears, addressing me with majestic power His thoughts, He enlightens my intellect to understand the hidden sense of proverbs and in His smiles and delight He unseals mysterious sayings of Scriptures that were kept hidden from our eyes;

yes, there is a proper time for everything He does; my Lord and my God has sealed me with divine kisses, He has sealed my soul with the imprint of His Triune Holiness so as to draw me even more into the fullness of Their Deity;"

ah, Vassula, see how My Father instructed you? rejoice then and be glad!

You left Your Royal Throne and Your Glory
to come to us Lord, assuming the condition of a
slave to serve us; no king was ever known to have
served his subordinates, and yet You, Eternal King,
King of kings came and served Your subordinates ....

You were made visible in the flesh
attested by the Spirit, seen by angels,
proclaimed to the pagans,
believed to the world taken up in glory ....

You came to ornament Your creation with a
prodigious Love that scandalized a multitude,
when You accepted the Cross,
leaving so many mouths open like gaping graves;
inebriated with Your Love for us,
You accepted to die and irrigate
Your flower-beds 8 with Your Blood,
in order to open Heaven and free
us from the bondage of sin;

Delight-of-the-Father,
Streams of faithful Love flowed from
Your Heart and in the folly of Your Love,
Lover of mankind, You accepted the
scandal of the Cross, and all its sufferings;

O Spring of the universe, perfuming the universe,
most lovable Bridegroom,
You are visiting once more the earth,
perfuming nation after nation,
but until when will those who roam on this
earth not notice Your perfume?

I am the Gateway through which the virtuous enter; not until they repent and make reparations will their nostrils open to inhale My sweet fragrance and revive; as for you, I want you as a lily, distilling purity, distilling myrrh on My Church to fragrance the House which I bought with My Own Blood through My Sacrifice on My Cross; remain near Me to spread your perfume all around; bear My Cross with tenderness and always remain enamoured of It

have My Peace; ic

1 Greek: the ultimate humility
2 River: Holy Spirit
3 dwelling: God lives in us
4 city: we are God's city
5 Gal 6 : 14
6 Acts 5 : 29
7 spiritually
8 souls