Apostolic awakening
in Greece under the patronage of Saint Paul
Fr. John Twisleton, parish priest of St Giles,
Horsted Keynes in the Anglican Diocese of Chichester reflects upon the 7th True
Life in God ecumenical pilgrimage to
‘When people come together something happens. When good people
come together something good happens. When Christians gather there is an
explosion of love!’ These words of Indian Cardinal Telesphore Toppo at the
start of the pilgrimage
were fulfilled among the 800 participants from 55 countries and 16 Christian
denominations.
From
3-11 September 2009 we travelled by boat, bus and on foot to holy places in
The
7th True Life in God
ecumenical pilgrimage was inspired by Vassula Ryden’s Divine Messages which call
for renewal in the Holy Spirit among Christians, recovery of visible unity in
the Church and a fresh evangelisation in the world.
We began our pilgrimage on the Friday in the ancient ruins of
In
With my fellow pilgrims I found myself asking. ‘Lord, build my
confidence in you so that my Christian witness can be more fearless! Take away my timidity! Give me your Spirit
afresh!’
Those first struggles in
O Father be with me until the end, I am weak; give me Your
Strength to glorify You, amen.
From
We were literally in the footsteps of
I walked up with Jim who has set up dialogues on
I thought to myself about devising more occasions for my church
members to invite dialogue with seekers about Christ. Jim had taken
Paul questioned the Athenians about their Unknown God. He quoted
their poets. He had researched Greek culture to find an opening for the good
news of Jesus. My visit to
Dialogue takes more humility than monologue. It takes time and
patience and, above all, love. In True Life in God ears are open to one
another across Christian traditions. They are also open to non- believers.
Jesus my only love, I pray for those whom You love but know not
how to love You, may they be purified and healed so that they too be exempt
from all evil; amen
On the Sunday appropriately we were on
I entered the cave where
As we broke bread for Sunday within the Orthodox Liturgy there
was a sense beyond the multitude of us of ‘that multitude beyond number’ that
we read of in the last book of the Bible.
Our pilgrimage was reminded on
Later the Abbot of Patmos spoke to our pilgrimage about the
world’s apostasy from the truth of God as being the root of the ecological
crisis. We need the sacraments to wake us up to the truth as God shows it.
Through prayer we are called to become mystics like
Father, Righteous One, My Shelter, send out Your Light and Your
Truth, let these be my guide.
St Michael,
Monday’s liturgy in Orthodox rites has a special invocation of
God’s faithful archangels. On that day pilgrims visited two monasteries, one of
them dedicated to St Michael Archangel who is patron of the
On their bus journeys pilgrims shared tales of encouragement,
sang and prayed to cheer their journey. I was moved to witness the powerful
intervention of Saint Michael in my own life, two remarkable occurrences on his
Feast day: my being spared in 1969 from a near fatal scooter crash and my being
filled with the Holy Spirit after a time of desolation in 1978.
Our Christian life is warfare. When we fail to admit this we are
submerged by the world, the flesh and the devil. God’s angels awaken us to join
battle in sure confidence that ‘he who is in us is greater than he who is in
the world’ (1 John 4.4).
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle, be
our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. Part
of the daily prayer recommended by Jesus in the Messages
On Tuesday from the
Acts 16 records how the good news of Jesus reached
As I led our group constructed across many Christian
denominations in prayer I found myself asking the Lord so to release praise in
his churches that the walls that separate us will also come down!
Following Paul's footsteps in
So be it for us in our own circumstances! May our eyes be
fixed on Jesus and our hearts filled with his praise whatever befalls us in
this world!
No man can glorify You enough, yet my heart calls incessantly
Your Name because You have set my heart on You.
Thessalonika – a call to
venturesome faith
Wednesday saw pilgrims landing from our boat in
Paul’s visit demonstrated a venturesome faith obedient to the
strategy of the Holy Spirit for world evangelisation which continues to our own
day and to which True Life in God is eloquent witness.
In Acts 17 we read how the citizens of Thessalonika got angry
with Paul. He had ‘turned their world upside down’ they said. That is a pretty
good accusation against an evangelist!
This Jesus, Paul insisted, is of universal significance.
Towering in the far distance we saw on our pilgrimage
Later he wrote back to Thessalonika of the Saviour's coming
return. Welcome this good news he said 'not
only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit' (1 Thessalonians 1.5)
Our pilgrimage to
May the Lord and God Almighty be Blessed, may His Kingdom reign
in eternal glory, may His Holy Name be glorified, may His Word penetrate and
rest in each heart; amen
Meteora
– a call to prayer
Our
last full day was a Thursday. It took us from the
This
form of prayer repeats the sentence ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy
on me a sinner’ constructed from the Gospels. It is one expression of
faithfulness to Paul’s call to the Thessalonians to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1
Thessalonians 5.17). The devotion is seen to centre prayer in the heart. It is associated
with Jesus prayer ropes or rosaries widely in use in Orthodoxy and catching on more
and more among True Life in God pilgrims.
At Saint Stephen’s
Monastery our bus load of pilgrims associated themselves with the worship of
that place by a time of public recitation of the Jesus Prayer. In a place where
formerly monks and their artefacts were hoisted on ropes into seclusion we were
discovering how a far smaller rope – the Jesus rope – can cause uplift and transformation.
I
tell you if anyone prays this Rosary to Me, heaven will open to him and My
Mercy shall save him.
True
Life in God - an apostolic awakening
Fearlessness, humility, fidelity to truth,
spiritual warfare, praise, venturesome faith and prayer are evidence of the
apostle, one ‘sent as the Father sends the Son’ (John 20.21). Fresh awakening
to this apostolate is aided by prophets since the church is ‘built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets’ (Ephesians 2.20) The prophetic ministry of
Vassula Ryden through the messages of True
Life in God is awakening fearless apostles who accept the
cause of building visible unity among Christians as prelude for a new
evangelisation.
Our
eight day pilgrimage concluded with the 110 bishops and priests leading the
other pilgrims in signing an appeal to the wider church to agree a common date
for Easter. ‘We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord’ was our song,
the song that continues ‘and we pray that all unity will one day be restored
and (then) they will know we are Christians by our love’.
Picture captions:
1
2
The
Parthenon,
3
Sunday
liturgy in
4
Miracle of
5
Ruins of
6
7
Church in
Thessalonika
8
St Stephen’s
monastery, Meteora
Fr
John Twisleton 13th
September 2009