Vassula in Russia

Moscow, July 13 - 16, 1999

On Tuesday 13 July 1999 - one month only after her visit to Lebanon - Vassula, together with Fr Theophilus, left Rome for her second visit to Russia. They arrived in Moscow around 5 p.m. and were greeted by Fr Rolf, a Catholic priest, and a few Russian members of True Life in God.

They were astonished at the amount of work Fr Rolf had accomplished! Thanks to generous donations from our Catholic brothers he had succeeded in having 2000 copies of the fist volume of TLIG printed in record time.

When we arrived at his home, a colour print of the Holy Face of the Saviour Christ that appears on the cover of the Russian edition of Volume 1 of TLIG, was greeting us with a blessing gesture.

Vassula is expressing her thanks to all those who made possible this Russian version which, moreover, will be distributed free of charge. Thanks to our Lord Jesus for his priest Rolf whose generosity and zeal are "spiritual gold" used by our God and Father!

During the three days we participated in the Eucharist; every morning it was a true celebration of thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father for His covenant with us through his Beloved Jesus, the divine singer of the Father's love for us humans! Since the Eucharist is beneficial to the children who appreciate the divine banquet, we prayed with joyful songs. We all felt we were "sanctuaries and temples" of the Holy Spirit.

Inspired by the "Meekness and Humility of the Heart of Jesus", our Master, sincere unity and loyalty of the Christian churches may be obtained through a prayer of conversion and true love.

On Wednesday evening, July 14, before an audience of about 70 people, Vassula held her first meeting in the reading room of a public library. She began by talking about her spiritual journey to make us understand that our God, the friend of men, is truly in search of us and that since the beginning of creation God, who is Love, wishes to live among us not as a distant figure, but as a father, a friend, a brother. We should be intimate with our God, our Father. We must take seriously what Jesus conveys and reveals about His Father who is also our Father: 'To know you, Father, is to have eternal Life!'

My Vassula, - Jesus says, (and she adds: one must replace Vassula's name with one's own name) "let Me use your ear, so that you hear; let Me use your hand so that you write down My sayings; then let Me use your mind to fill it with My Knowledge and fill your whole being with the instructions coming from Wisdom... I want, My Vassula, for this generation and for the generations to come, to leave an everlasting memory of My Mercy. None of all these Riches that are coming from the treasury of My Heart would be attributed to you, since you knew nothing at all in the beginning at the time when you were called by the Lover of mankind, since your whole body laid then in darkness. But since I am the Lord of the saints, I am no less Lord than of the wretched; I looked at you and loved you... I am renown for My Mercy and for the tenderness of My Heart; I am renown for the weakness I have for children. Oh what would I not do for such a frail soul to bring it to a complete spiritual union with My Deity and make it one spirit with Me! I have bidden you, My beloved, to build a holy temple within you, an altar in the city where We would pitch Our tent... ...This Love I have, this thirst I have for souls, burns in My Heart; it is love that led Me to the Cross, unmindful of its shamefulness; it is My Love that leads Me now to you, generation..." (December 17, 1997)

The audience was deeply moved when Vassula told of her own experience in meeting our heavenly Father:One day, the heavenly Father was talking to me and I replied yes, dad. My first thought was that I had offended God, but our heavenly Father told me:
"Daughter, I have taken this word in My Hand like a jewel"
The heavenly Father was happy with my child-like behaviour..." It is not often that our Russian Orthodox brothers hear someone talk about this trusting and simple intimacy which we should have with our heavenly Abba.

On 15 July 1999 at 7 p.m., Vassula gave her second meeting in Father Rolf's parish hall. Before an audience of about 120 people she spoke at length of the Divine Heart of the Father. Vassula says that the Heart of our Heavenly Father is the bridal chamber where He invites us. To lose ourselves in God is the aim of our spiritual life. It is the Spirit of God that transforms our souls, preparing them to be dwellings most worthy of being inhabited by the three divine Persons.

"Continue to proclaim a Resurrected Christ and fill the whole world with fruit; tell them that Christ in His Divine Love is bending down from Heaven to revive by His Presence the work of My Hands; with this encouraging news, hordes of nations will come to know Us in an intimate union.Tell them, daughter, how We delight when We are also treated as your Holy Companion in your daily life...

Speak as My envoy and remind My people that I, Yahweh, am alive and active, then, go to those sacerdotals who do not seek Me anymore and ask them: "why are you never asking: where is God?" In My Day I will pronounce My judgment against these shepherds, who have no knowledge of Me and who have never tasted interiorly My sweetness; today these shepherds have exchanged Me for something that has no value nor any power in it. To remember My Presence is what they should observe. I am not observed... how can I say: "they are My Son's incense;" when their only fragrance is the smell of death? (September 25, 1997)

Then Vassula explained that True Life in God is like a school where the Holy Spirit leads souls to draw from the riches of our heavenly Abba. These riches are made of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. Finally, Vassula lifted the audience in a true spiritual apotheosis by speaking of and conveying the All-Holy and Good and Life-Giving Spirit!

"After having conquered them in Blessedness, I shall flow like a vivifying River inside them; My vivifying passage within them will not go by unnoticed. ...I will come to them and wed them and clothe them with Christ; I will transfigure their soul into an Eden

...I will remain in them taking care of them; and I Myself will be the One who will adorn them with bridal vestments; crowning them with My Deity, a royal crown of splendour, the diadem beauty from the Hand of the Trinity.

...Your entire body will be shining with a brilliant Light, I will be the Lamp of your body that will fill it with the splendours of Our Kingdom, which are: soundness, gentleness, love, mercy, joy, peace, patience, truthfulness, goodness and kindness; from the beginning We made you in the image of Our Own Nature; We had said: "let Us make mankind in Our Own Image, yes, in the likeness of Ourselves." (April 22, 1998)

We couldn't even hear breathing in the room which had become silent, filled with the energy of the divine Spirit. Vassula thus summarized admirably what we can read and savour in the message of 22 April 1998. After the applause of the audience, both consoled and inflamed, had subsided Fr Theophilus asked Vassula if he could add a word. Here's a brief resume:

Did not our hearts burn within us also while Jesus was talking to us through Vassula? In all events, Vassula, we have noticed how Christ, our God jealous of His souls, has seduced you. Yes, Vassula, you have been seduced by this considerate love of our Lord. Thank you for letting us discover Jesus as the divine tenderness of the Father for us.

St. John the Evangelist invites us in his Gospel to imitate his gesture during the Last Supper. Let us also rest on the loving Heart of our Saviour our heads so often filled with torment and stress. Besides, what John teaches us is the gesture of Jesus himself toward His heavenly Father. For "no one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father's heart, who has made him known" (Prologue of St John, verse 18). Lord Jesus, living euchologion of the Father, thank You for Your Love, thank You for Your messenger and bride Vassula. Yes, our Lord is King. He has robed Himself in the splendour of His devoted souls!

The audience, which also included confessor Alexander Gozodnikov, well-known in Russia, repeated in church Slavonic the verse that is sung every Saturday evening at Vespers: "He is robed in splendour". Vassula had planned a meeting with Metropolitan Kirill on Thursday morning 15 July, at the Danilov Monastery. He was absent but Vassula was warmly received by Father Hilarion. She told him of her mission and gave him the Russian translation of Volume 1 of True Life in God. Father Hilarion received her well and was willing to receive all the writings of the Love letter, True Life in God, in English.

May our Lord, Lover of mankind, in His tenderness for Russia help us spread there, through our prayers and zeal, his Hymn of Love.

Fr Theophilus Pelgrims