November 2, 1997

(Sunday)

(While I was in the Greek Orthodox Church, attending Mass, suddenly a fear gripped me and I thought that I might be indisposed to receive Our Good Lord in the Holy Communion, and that if that was the case, I might cause to bring forth upon me, with wrath, the Judgement of God.

While those thoughts were crossing back and forth in my mind, I experienced suddenly in my heart, a joy and delight that even though they came out first from my heart, these seemed to spread like a warm soothing liquid inside my very bones. While I was experiencing this consolation, my soul was being transformed to come out of its fear and gloom, into delights and light. In this joy, my soul praised the Lord and I sang to Him in silence. I revived.

Then, all of a sudden I saw our Lord open His Mouth to say something to me. I could not help notice how cheerful He was and with delight He said to me…)

come to Me ….

(…while opening at the same time His greenish-blue mantle. This gesture of His attracted me as an iron is attracted and drawn to a magnet. In this same manner my soul was drawn irresistibly to His Heart. And I found my head leaning on His Bosom. Then, ever so tenderly, the Lover of mankind said to me…)

ah, how utterly wretched you could be!

(…I was thinking, “Can someone hug fire to their breast without setting their bosom alight? Here I am, hugging the Sacred Heart, how can my own heart not catch the fire of love?”

When I had leaned my head on His Divine Heart and while I was still leaning on His Bosom, I felt His Bosom melting away and my head being absorbed into His Body. My head went through Him and through His Sacred Heart, and I found my head encompassed in His Heart, resting in this way on the Son who is nearest to the Father’s Heart…)

this Heart is your resting place; vessel-of-My-Light, this Heart is the Unique, the Prime and the Ultimate place in which your tormented souls would find an everlasting and affectionate peace and sweetness;

(…while my Beloved was saying these sweet words to me, He put His Arms around me, tightening them on me, pressing me now even more on His Bosom just like someone who wants to protect someone from being cold. He hid me completely in His Mantle. This form of holding me was just like someone who is afraid to lose the one he holds. I was considering, while I was having this experience, in the Church, whether I should write it down or not, and He said…)

write it for the benefit of souls and I will join too while you are writing, to write down My part;

(…the Lord’s Heart by now entirely absorbed my head. It was like a gateway to Heaven and during those delightful moments while my soul was enjoying this ineffable sweetness and tenderness of this heavenly repose, my head was being constantly covered by caresses…)

I have lavished your soul with My favours; I ask you now to remain in My Heart in this way; remain with Me, My beloved one;

(…then, while my soul felt inebriated as though with wine, the Lord made me taste in His Heart the sweetness of Himself, reminding me of the sweet taste of our Holy Communion¹ and at the same time my head was being covered by a sweet fragrance, again, like the Holy Communion.

Then, while I was still in that repose, I noticed my surroundings being filled with smoke, the sweet smoke of burnt incense. In this serene surrounding I kept hearing my Lord and my Beloved repeat these words…)

remain here, remain in Me, then come forward and receive Me; delight Me and remain in here;

(…I sighed and wondered what makes Our Lord delight so much in a creature such as me. The zero of the zeros. He, the Perfect Being, He who suffices by Himself, how was it possible to even imagine He would look at me twice?…)

your utter wretchedness moves My Heart and My whole Being to such an extent that My Eyes fill up with tears of Mercy every time I look at you,

(…I was about to say something.)

no; do not speak; absorb My Peace and satisfy your heart in this silence, enjoy these moments of grace and absorb the sweetness your Lord is offering you; refresh your heart, My loved one, and remain in My embrace and allow yourself to be loved; do not allow your mind to wander away in the world since from the world you will receive nothing; come to Me and taste My sweet love I have for you and always had for you; ² – say: an ineffable weakness for you, instead;

dearest gem in My Hand, the unction of My Love for you is so great that in those enflamed moments of love, My Divine Eyes cannot be but transfixed on you; think hard about this, until I arrive to fetch you;

I find no other pleasure elsewhere than in those moments when I am with you and you are like an open book to Me, to write in you My New Hymn of Love; always be available for Me and well-disposed, and in this way you will save both yourself and those who listen to you; I formed you to become My pupil;

Lord! when I think of it,
You formed me in a most amazing way;
You formed me in silence through Your Holy Spirit
and by breathing in me those divine revelations from Your Sacred Heart!
It was not like when You formed audibly Your disciples!

yes! I wanted you turn to Me wholeheartedly so that I would draw your heart towards My Love and My Fortitude; I wanted to prepare your soul to carry My Divine Message; ah Vassula, all that I say to you now, you will hear again when I will appear to you openly at the appointed time; now My Soul rejoices in looking at My garden³ and I enjoy breathing in you; every step you allow Me to take in My garden, will be done with gentleness and it will be consoling for you;

When Your Divine Gaze turned down on earth
to ravish my heart,
how was it possible that by only looking at me
You did not flee,
but instead, my unworthiness gave You so much joy,
attracting You to me?

I am known to call the least of My creation; then, I looked at you and loved you …. ⁴

I told you in the beginning that, were you to let Me form you, I would lead you with strings of love by My grace, imprinting on your soul My Divine Image, and with this Divine Seal which is the imprint of the Holy Trinity, you would be drawn into the fullness of Our Deity, perfecting thus your intimate union with Us in Our Divine Love;

I still intend, dearest one, to continue and whisper in your ear My secret revelations and while I will be pouring on you abundantly My gifts and My favours for My good pleasure, I will keep reminding you that by having drawn your heart so inseparably into Mine, it was so that in this courteous gesture of Mine, our union would be complete and that your spirit, through My grace, would become one with Me; ⁵

I had given you a prayer⁶ in which you consecrate body and soul to My Sacred Heart, so that your thoughts would be My thoughts, your acts My acts, giving Me voluntarily your will so that My Will be done in you;

I remind you, that by reposing your head on My Heart, in these moments of interior enjoyment, I would be the movement of your heart, the eloquence and charm of your speech, I would be the light of your eyes to give good counsel to those who need it; every movement of yours, every gesture would be coming from Me; you would be listening to all of My sighs, understanding⁷ their meaning so that you would be acting according to My Divine Will; through grace you will be inhaling My sweetness as you did when your head was resting on My Heart tasting Its sweet savours; ⁸

remember how My Father instructed you? ⁹ He told you that were you to allow Him to strengthen the bonds of union with Him, your soul then would be so joined to Him and your spirit so engloved in Mine that everything you would be doing would be according to My Mind; your works would be rooted in Our Goodness and your performance in Our Spirit; then My Father gave you an example of the way the members of your body work: “you just do not tell your hand what to do, but it works with your will;” this would be the manner in which We would be guiding you;

Lord, forgive my lack of confidence towards you, and to all these abundant graces that You have given to me freely in my utter unworthiness. I was hiding Your graces. I have sinned from fear of what others think.

the world will always be trying to deceive you and wound the one who is so precious to Me; and when you listen to the world that takes your mind away from contemplation, this alone wounds My Heart; ¹⁰ by grace I have drawn you into My Sacred Heart so that you be Mine alone and by grace I intend to keep you in this repose; when this cold world assails you with its temptations, and tries to disfigure your soul to resemble them, run to Me and take your refuge in My Heart; have confidence in Me and confide in Me all your problems; I am only waiting to be gracious to you, My chosen one;

the world would always try to draw you back into its entrails, a dark valley where there is only desolation; but I have chosen you amongst thousands, so why do you sadden Me with your lack of confidence? My union with you in the Light of My Divinity is so complete that you must no more lose trust but place your head on My Heart and doubt no longer on our blessed union; come and say to Me now:

“my Jesus, Divine Mercy,
I lacked confidence in You
and so I have brought Your Heart to distress;
I now ask You in my bareness and in all humility
to be forgiven so that You may,
in Your Infinite Mercy and Goodness,
restore my disfigured and wounded soul;
disfigured and wounded
by the world’s acts upon me and their sayings;” ¹¹

I have received your prayer with delight;

in your deficiencies, I will make up, to glorify My Name thrice Holy;