True Life in God Volume II

A-11 trying to swim in the opposite direction of a strong current, but after having seen how our Lord suffers in our division I could not refuse our Lord’s request when asked to carry this cross; therefore, I have accepted this mission, yet not without having gone through (and still going through) many fires. You have asked: “Why do you take up this mission?” My answer is, because I was called by God, I believed and I answered Him; therefore, I want to do God’s will. One of Christ’s first words were: “Which house is more important, your house or My House?” I answered, “Your House, Lord.” He said: “Revive My House, embellish My House and unite it.” Some of the Greek Orthodox hierarchy totally reject me, first because they do not believe me,4 secondly because I am a woman and thirdly because a woman should not speak. Some of the monks are suspicious of me saying that I am probably a Trojan horse sent and paid by the Pope, or that I am even a Uniate. Many do not want to hear of reconciliation or ecumenism. They consider it heresy if I pray with the Roman Catholics. That is where they see it as standing above both Churches without being committed to either. I am full and wholly committed to my Church but it is not heresy nor a sin if I live ecumenically and pray with other Christians to promote unity. The key to unity though, according to our Lord in the writings, is humility and love. Many of the people of the Churches do not have this key yet. Many of the Greek Orthodox lay people but as well as the simple priest around the corner, up to the monk in a remote monastery would call the Roman Catholic Church to this day heretic and dangerous; they are taught to believe this since their birth and it is wrong. Yet, I believe that in their rigidity they can change through a metanoia and the power of the Holy Spirit who will make them bend and through the prayers of the faithful. In our gatherings we pray to God for this change of heart. Nevertheless, it is not a question of them alone bending. Everyone must bend in humility and love. The people of each Church should be willing to die to their ego and to their rigidity and then through this act of humility and obedience to the truth, Christ’s presence will be shining in them. I believe that through this act of humility, the Churches’ past and present failures will be washed away and unity will be accomplished. I never lose hope to approach the Orthodox and this is why I always keep returning to them to give them my testimony. My testimony is given reminding them of our Lord’s words: “may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me,” (Jn 17:21). In this manner, despite the obstacles, a few ecumenical prayer groups were formed in Athens and in Rhodes with Orthodox priests included in them. All these prayer groups start by praying the Rosary, then other prayers. Nevertheless, it is not only rejection I get from the Orthodox hierarchy because of the reasons I mentioned above, but our Lord has provided me with a good number of Greek Orthodox clergy friends as well. The Bishop of Rome Our Lord gave me an interior vision of three iron bars symbolizing the three major Christian bodies, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestant Christians, calling their heads to meet by bending, so that they meet, but to meet they have to bend. This passage speaks of the attitude that is needed to arrive at the unity the Lord has been longing for since his prayer to his Father – “that all may be one”. This passage of the TLIG messages does not pretend to speak of unity on an ontological level, indicating that there should be no differences in which extent the various Christian groups have retained the truth Christ conferred to his church. And it is not true I claim that this calling to humility amongst Christian brothers should imply a pan-Christian approach to unity and that unity should be advanced through a 4 Although in our book of the doctrine of the Orthodox Church, Book I, published in 1997 by Mr. Trembelas, on p. 79 it reads: “Revelations are defined as an act taken by God by which He notifies His reasonable creatures about the mysteries of His existence, nature and will, according to their limited intellectual capacity…”

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