Page 6 - True Life in God Anniversary Magazine

From the depths of my heart, I wish to
welcome you all officially, here in the
Throne Room, where our companion is
St. Mark, the Apostle and Evangelist...
I would like to welcome you, Vassula. As
I said in church this morning, welcome
to your homeland, welcome to the
country of your birth, and greetings to
all who accompany you. As they say
here, Vassula, “anyone who drinks from
the waters of the Nile never forgets this
country”.
I would also like to greet the Bishop
from India - welcome dear brother to
our Apostolic Patriarchate. I wish to
welcome the monk, you, Sister, you,
Father and you, Father from the Roman
Catholic Church and tell you all that
with much love we receive you, we love
Official reception by Patriarch Theodore II of Vassula Ryden
with a group of over 150 clergy and lay people, readers of
“True Life in God”, in the Patriarchate Throne Room during
Holy Week of 2008.
The Patriarch had earlier presented Vassula with one of his
favourite icons which he had dedicated to her.
you and that we are under the same
protection and love of our Great Lord,
Jesus Christ.
Vassula, I would like to thank you for
this opportunity, to be together over
the next few days. This evening, we
will follow together the Passion of
Our Lord. Tomorrow, we shall worship
before His Epitaph and we shall live,
in our devoutly beating hearts, His
Passion and His Resurrection. And
that joy - that is my wish - that the
joy of the Resurrection and the Light
may be with us always all the days of
our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ I
wish to bless you all and your families
and please know that Alexandria’s and
the Patriarchate’s doors will always be
open to you. Thank you.
An Address
by the Bishop
of Babylon,
Theofylaktos
T R U E L I F E I N G O D
6
An excerpt from
the speech given
by His Grace
before nearly 300 pilgrims of True Life in
God in October 2002 in Cairo when he
was Bishop of Babylon.
My beloved brothers, bishops,
elders of all the Christian
denominations, I welcome you with
special love in this holy monastery.
I bring you the greetings and blessings
of His All-Holiness, our Patriarch,
Pope of Alexandria and all Africa, His
Holiness Peter VII, who couldn’t be
with you all because of other duties.
He is wishing you a pleasant stay in
the country of the Nile, Egypt. (...)
Our gathering today should have
a purpose, so that all of us make it
our daily program in our life to pray
everyday so that peace prevails in the
world. We should take the message
of peace and love and carry it to the
peoples of all the earth.
We can indeed be the new apostles
that will speak of love and peace. (...)
If we put aside our personal interests,
I’m sure that some day we will all
be happy. We will shake hands in
reconciliation. I believe and hope and
pray that this day will come where the
peoples of the world will meet at one
point, will shake hands, will lament for
the blood that was shed and they will
reconcile for ever in their life. From the
land of Egypt, which is ‘Theovadistos’
(walked by God) exactly because Our
Lord Jesus Christ walked on it, we
are to send today to the ends of the
world a brave message of love and
peace: as we gathered today in the
Church under the same dome and
we didn’t differentiate Christians from
non-Christians or of other religions.
From today we will announce to the
whole world that men can live in
reconciliation as long as they learn
to love first their God, whoever He is,
whatever His Name is, and then I’m
certain that love for their fellowman
will spring also. (...)
The Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Theodore II
Fr. Theophil Pélgrims, Belgian Orthodox priest of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate.
An excerpt from a talk of Fr. Theophil given in Russia in July 1999,
when he accompanied Vassula on her mission.
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 “Euchologian” 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 splendor of His devoted souls!