True Life in God discussion list

[Brother Andrew]

"The hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem." (John 4:21)

Where is the place of prayer, then, if it is neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem? In two places. In a particular geographical place, set aside for the purpose, and in the human heart. (Even when the heart has not yet been set aside for the purpose of prayer.) I would like to say a few words about the human heart as the place of prayer, and I shall do so with reference to the Messages. Where better to start than at the beginning? In the very first Message, (20th September 1986) we read;

Peace be with you.
Can I be with you?
yes, you are with Me; I am the Light
Can I be near you?
you are near Me, you are in Me, I am the Light
Can you shelter me?
you are sheltered by Me
Can I lean on you?
you can lean on Me
I need your strength to keep my faith
you are given strength
I need your Love
you are loved by Me


This is a noteworthy dialogue and it merits reflection. Look how it begins! Peace be with you. The salutation of the risen Lord to His disciples. Surely the best of all beginnings. In the ensuing conversation - in the religious life we call it Holy Converse, Colloquy with God - we note an astonishing thing. The lady is asking all the right questions. Can I be with you? Can I be near you? Can you shelter me? First encounter, but already she knows what she needs, she knows what's important. Can you shelter me? Can I lean on you?

She goes on to make the first of two affirmations. I need your strength to keep my faith. We are scarcely ten lines into the Messages and already she is talking of faith, already she recognizes that it is sometimes hard to keep faith, and already she understands that the keeping of faith requires dependence upon God.

When you learn a foreign language your passive knowledge is always greater than your active knowledge, that is to say you can read and understand much more than you can express. When you start to speak, your speech is marked by long pauses and hesitations while you search your memory for the word you know you have in there somewhere.

Speaking with God is, and yet is not, like that. The soul knows more than she thinks she knows, and when the time comes that she is called upon to speak, she draws effortlessly upon the remembrance of God that she carries in her deep heart. It is God Himself who puts this 'remembrance' in her deep memory in anticipation of this glad day, this great day, the Day of the Lord, the Day when, after long and careful preparation (and our Lord speaks of this in the Messages) He presents Himself to the soul, and makes Himself known to her waking mind with the immortal words, Peace be with you.

Because our Lord is God, when He says, Peace be with you, there is peace, a Peace like no other, a Peace that the world cannot bestow, and in that Peace, His creature enters quite naturally into the sort of nourishing conversation that she or he can never find anywhere else.

This remarkable dialogue ends with a second affirmation, one that completes and crowns all that has gone before; I need your Love.

There is a particular quality to divine encounter. It is not open to imaginative exploration, it is closed to rational inquiry, speculation, scientific investigation. It is what it is. It is unmistakable, it needs no authenticating. The soul recognizes God when she sees Him, and enters naturally into good, candid conversation which comes from the heart. More than with any human being this Holy Converse between creature and Creator is robust, truthful, wholesome, edifying, salutary, salvific, restorative, and essential to life and health.

When human beings are tricked into turning away from this good converse they are in very great danger, and it is to save Vassula - and all of us - that the Lord 'broke through' to where she was, in the midst of a busy life in this world, to warn her (and us) Do not let your era destroy you.

She took these word to heart, and so should we.

(To be continued)

Kind regards
Br Andrew

PS References to the way our Lord restores our memory to an already existing relationship with Him are to be found throughout the Messages, for example, that of June 16 1992

[stephen]

Thank you Br.Andrew. Oddly enough I was going to come in and ask about the very first message in the tlig messages. Which was the one you qouted. My question was going to be ''is this the first ever message or dialogiue with Vassula from the Lord? I think it was the first because Daniel came to her first and then afterwards the Lord.

[SueUSA]

Amen, Brother

The soul, indeed, knows her Lord
in spite of ourselves
Happy are they who follow her lead
surrendering all

Thanks!

[ang]

All the above posts encouraged me to post this beautiful message that I read for the first time:
February - April, 2003
I saw someone like the Son of man;
a formidable figure so perfect in grace
that only God can possess that grace;

His so perfectly beautiful movement
while descending some steps of a Palace, left me in awe;
I knew it could only be a Palace
because of their beauty and their dazzling surface;

this glorious divine Being was vested with, what seemed,
a heavy robe that extended over His Feet;
as once before I saw the Father,
the robe of this divine Being
whom I knew was the Holy Spirit,
had almost the same robe of the Father,
because the robe shone as though it was covered with precious stones;
the Father's robe though was an unidentified colour,
but this one was like diamonds that had a projector of light on them;
part of His very long robe was falling
well over the lower step partly on the left side
since the left Foot was on the lower step already;

to describe God is impossible,
one will always fall short of words...
to explore God is madness in itself!
to express the ultimate Source of All, would be delirium!
how can one elaborate a concept of what is given
in a vision of such inexpressible splendour?
without grace and a full revelation given from God Himself,
what is unseen by the eye will remain always unseen and well hidden;

but today, in our days,
it so pleases God to give us all the assurance
as He had given His disciples then and His apostles,
of the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit;

the Holy Spirit of Grace that will show us
the path of virtues that lead souls
into the Mystical union with the Bridegroom;

[Brother Andrew]

Yes, Ang, it is a beautiful Message. We've been discussing the first Message and noting how the soul 'knew' how to respond and what to say to God, and ask of God, even in the very early days. As Stephen pointed out, with his quote from Romans 8:26,27 "The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness....when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly..."

However,God does not leave us weak and unable to choose our words, in a 'permanent' state of arrested development. His aim - when He finds a willing soul - is to teach us to respond to Him, and the Messages show how His teaching and leading and guiding, teaches us, His creatures, how to hold converse with God. We note how the pupil is 'developed' as the conversations continue and by the time we reach the later stages of the Messages there is a real mutually-satisfying conversation going on, from which both parties derive great happiness. We, the readers, find that the pupil's remarks are as interesting as those of the teacher, and this is the didactic purpose of the Messages. God has always said to His people, "Learn of Me, and then tell your fellow men and women about Me, let them know who I am, pass on to them what I have given you."

This Message you quote, Ang, shows the skill the pupil has acquired from the Master, how to articulate, in the form of sound words (which means words that the Church recognizes as valid) the meaning and purpose of encounter with God, which is to say, the meaning and purpose of life on earth.

The greatness of the Messages lies in the fact that they are a complete account of that 'process' by means of which God draws souls to Himself to perfect them. It starts at Day One (so to speak) and takes us right up to the goal, and it does so in ways that make the whole ascent accessible to all of us. Such a complete account - over a period of 17 years - has never before been given to humankind.

In the second Message (27 September 1986) a week after the first, Jesus continues the pupil's (that is, our) education by teaching us a prayer;

Help me Father and lead me
to Your pastures of repose,
where everlasting water flows,
be My Light to show Me the Way;
with you by my side will I walk;
with you illuminating me will I talk;
Father, Beloved, remain within Me to have Peace, to feel Your Love;
I will follow in Your footsteps;
with You I will remain;
enlighten me, love me, be with me
here and forever; amen

Father Gregory used to speak of 'a vocabulary of prayer that needs to be learned.' Well, there's plenty of good vocabulary here - we learn to address God as Father, a Father who leads us to ... pastures of repose ...everlasting pure water ... Light, peace, love..

It seems to me that in this prayer we are being taught by God to ask God for the means to build up the place of prayer which is our own heart. In this work, God is the builder, ours is a work of co-operation.

There is an interesting footnote from Vassula to this second message, - "Jesus had come to show me this prayer." which I shall talk about in my next post.

Kind regards

Br Andrew

PS Stephen I don't know if this is the first , the very first Message God gave to Vassula, but you're right, she first met Daniel who prepared her to meet the Father.

[SueUSA]

I am astounded and just as amazed as the first day I came across tlig.org that God not only communicates in said "language of the heart" and instructs but actually provides the words (verbal & non-verbal) He longs to hear coming from within the deepest recess of the heart. I knew the Spirit prays for us when we cannot. I never knew to what extent that meant until coming across tlig.org. Looking forward to your next post, Bro. Andrew!

[ang]

Until I started reading the messages I never new you could converse with God and that prayer unites us with God as his companions. I new not even how to pray. I have no words to express how happy I am now..

God Bless

[Brother Andrew]

There is not a word on my tongue,
but you, Lord, know it altogether.

O Lord, you have searched me out and known me,
you know when I sit or when I stand,
you comprehend my thoughts long before.
You discern my path and the places where I rest,
you are acquainted with all my ways.

You have encompassed me behind and before,
and have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
so high that I cannot endure it.

(From Psalm 139)

The psalmist is expressing, here, his astonishment and amazement (and his delight) that he, the psalmist, is known through and through, inside out, by Someone. He says, truthfully, that such knowledge is too wonderful for him to endure, and yet, and yet, he can't get enough of it, indeed, he wants nothing else. When we, on our prayer journey, begin to realize that such is our God, we see the absurdity of trying to hide anything from Him. We suddenly realize that this is our God, the One who made me, who holds me in being, who loves me, and is inviting me to talk to Him.

Most of us, in our journey through life, play to our strengths. We have certain skills, things we are good at, which we develop, and certain 'dark' areas of our personality, which we manage to ignore or keep hidden, and so we mix with a certain type of person, we choose a suitable job, and put ourselves in circumstances in which we can feel relatively 'safe', so that, by and large, I can be a 'successful person.'

And then suddenly I realize that here is a God before whom I can simply stop doing that. Oh! Hooray! Free at last!

And here, at last, is a God to whom I can speak from my heart, in conversation that is true, and real, and not hedged about with concealment. This is not to suggest that we are brazen or presumptuous in our speech, He is holy, and in His presence we do not forget that. But we know (because He shows us) that He not only allows us to speak, but wants us to speak to Him in words that are true.

This God of ours has ways and means which are entirely His. I was saying above how, in a footnote to the Second Message Vassula writes 'Jesus had come to show me this prayer.'

God shows the soul things in a flash, in an instant, things that, if written down, would take pages and pages to convey, or if spoken verbally, would need long and involved explanation, with all sorts of opportunities for us to misunderstand Him. But God, being God, hands them to you 'complete' and leaves you, in the Holy Spirit, to unpack them and reflect upon their content. This 'unpacking' might take days, or weeks, or years, depending on the size of the package.

With her capacity (in the Spirit) to ask the right questions and say the right things, Vassula is using the right verb here ; 'show,' rather than 'teach.' This is because God intends, once he has established the soul in His friendship, to show us mysteries which are not accessible to the mind, and may not be grasped by the intellect. God has set parameters to human thinking, beyond which it may not proceed without a guide.

your mind ... should be united to Mine and I will immerse it with My divine light to see the things no eye has seen, and understand things with My Mind through My divine Light (13 Nov 2001)

Three times on page one of the Messages our Lord says I am the Light, eliciting from Vassula three references to Light "be my Light" ... "with you illuminating me", "enlighten me." The Messages are full of this Light - it is not of this world, it comes from above and is given, as gift. How glibly we say "God's ways are not our ways," and how clearly True Life in God shows us the gulf between our light and His Light, our understanding and His understanding, our knowledge and His knowledge, our wisdom and His Wisdom. I know of no other body of spiritual writings which so lucidly and compellingly places these realities before us.

My wondrous appearance in your obscure generation is like a Sun that never sets. My Light is perpetually contemplated by My Celestial Court with awe but with enthusiasm at the same time

blessed are those who will purify themselves and allow themselves to be enfolded in My embrace, they will become Light themselves

blessed are they who through My Light acquire Wisdom, they will receive the grace of Knowledge

blessed are those who, in spite of their so impoverished soul, have ears now (after years of converse with God) to hear Me, for these too will obtain a celestial light in their intellect to follow My observances; ... the ineffable Light will englobe them entirely, transforming them into gods by participation; how else will you enter into the Kingdom of Heaven? You would need to be vested properly and recognized by the Father.

(Feb-April 2003)


Kind regards
Br Andrew

[ang]

Quote
[b]He is holy, and in His presence we do not forget that. But we know (because He shows us) that He not only allows us to speak, but wants us to speak to Him in words that are true.

God has always said to His people, "Learn of Me, and then tell your fellow men and women about Me, let them know who I am, pass on to them what I have given you."

I was ill in my health but now my health has improved, our Holy Mother protected me...

Prayer:
My every hope I place in you Mother of God keep me under your protection.
God Bless

February 12, 1987
My Child, have you forgotten how you were a year ago; My beloved, let Me remind you; when I, Yahweh, was passing among the dead, 1 I saw you there among the wicked; they were holding you, tormenting you; I saw you lying there, struggling on your own, your soul close to death; I felt full of pity for you; you remembered My works of old times and you realised then that I could be your refuge and so I heard your plea from earth;

daughter, I always loved you, but you had forgotten Me; I yearned to be loved by you, to hear you call Me Father; for how many years I have been outside your door waiting, waiting that one day you might hear Me ... I was at hand's reach; yes, I was so near you; then, My Heart could not resist your plea; I came full of joy; finally, you called Me; I lifted you to My breast, daughter, and I healed your wounds; I taught you how to love Me; I taught you how to receive Me by elevating you, and I let My Light shine upon you .. My flower, do not despair; I am teaching you step by step, with the vocabulary that you understand;2

you are asking Me why has part of My guidance been written before your formation; 3 I will answer your question after you reply to My question; do you know how valuable just one single soul is to Me?

I know it is valuable, but how much, that I do not know My God.

I will tell you then how valuable souls are to Me thus replying to your question; a soul for Me is as valuable as to have written part of My guidance just for that single soul who would have had no other opportunity before his departure; do you understand now?

Yes, I do, and I know whom You mean.

I love you daughter, have no doubt that this guidance is from Me; I will always remind you who awakened you from your slumber;

I love you, be always sure of My love; work in peace and do not forget Me;

In Christ
God Bless