Anniversary Celebration, April 29, 1953, Nice, Alps Maritimes, France
Located Avenue des Fleurs, in a quiet and lovely neighborhood not far from the sea, it was a small villa, with a little garden where a couple of fruit trees, lemon and orange, and a mimosa, surrounded by flower bushes offered a typical Mediterranean setting. In the large dining room, opening on the garden through glass doors, was the long Holy Communion Banquet Table which could sit a dozen people. At its head, the distinctive Picture of Father and Mother Divine.
Mrs. Suzanne Ketels- Vershoore, the owner, had been granted the right to supervise the place, and was in charge of the operation. American born, she had been living in France since the early thirties. An only child, she was of Scottish descent, and her dad, a Mason (32nd degree, Scottish Lodge) had brought her back in the twenties to England, in London, where she became at nineteen the personal Secretary of Frederic Lawrence Rawson.
Rawson, an Investigator of the New Thought Movement and an Engineer of repute, accredited to the United Kingdom Government as Consultant in matters of New inventions, was the founder of the Society of Spreading the Knowledge of True Prayer, akin to Christian Science but more precise in its affirmation of the Reality of the Presence of GOD, which gave invariably positive results - considered as miracles. Rawson, in his brilliant mind had connected the body to the Spirit, demonstrating its spiritual reality as a direct manifestation of GOD. Divested of the mortal concept, the Adamic, the body, in all purity materializes the Perfect Image and Likeness which is Angelic for it becomes the outward expression of the mind of GOD.
This Immaculate Concept of Life gives, when applied, instantaneous results. I have seen it, having been involved with the process. Mrs. Ketels within her own understanding and on an individual basis, could effortlessly duplicate what Rawson was doing at the turn of the Century on a large scale, bringing at times effective help and healing at distance, from his office in London to soldiers on the front lines in France and Germany,- GOD being Ever Present.
Another 1953 photo of aPeace Mission Extension in France
After World War I Mrs Ketels had been linked with Elsie Graves Benedict, a native of Santa Barbara, California, who had become the head of the American Red Cross in Europe, and on one occasion was able to help Dr. Warren, at the American Hospital in Paris, to save the life of her friend who had been severely injured in an accident.
Mrs Ketels showed no pretense, she was an educator, and all this was matter of fact to her. Never did we see her accept any money for her service to humanity. The results that came in her life were from her compassion and implicit trust in her GOD. She was totally independent and had a home in St Raphael, on the coast, and one in Nice. She was a true vegetarian, and following her example some of us became vegetarians too at the time.
While in St Raphael, during the German occupation of the Southern part of France, she published a pamphlet predicting the demise of the Third Reich, quoting ancient prophecies and the specific Words of FATHER DIVINE, with Whom she had been acquainted in the early thirties through the works of Walter Clemow Lanyon. She had signed the pamphlet, and the gestapo tracked her down But she had that day, providentially (!) an attack of asthma and went to the hospital where she stayed overnight. And when the Gestapo knocked at her door they could not find her. Neighbors let her know of the danger and she managed to flee, through the Pyrenees and Spain, to North Africa, where she joined the staff of General Eisenhower in Algiers as interpreter-translator for the Allied Forces.
Years later in 1952, when General Eisenhower invited by NATO was again
in Europe, we learned he was getting ready to return to the
States. And Mrs
Ketels thought to send him a bunch of New Days while he was in Paris. The General
remembered her and in his answer and with good wishes was thankful for the
New Days.
At his return to the States, interviewed by the Press, he welcomed them by :"Peace, It is Wonderful", saying, I am quoting Reverend M. J .Divine, better known as FATHER DIVINE.
Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Eisenhower had been responsible for launching the Normandy Invasion which provoked the utter defeat of the Third Reich. GOD had been with him all the way. And he became America's 34th President.
Incidentally, the book "The Eyes of the Blind" which we translated for the benefit of our group in Nice, had been sent to Mrs Ketels by Mr. Ferguson Brown, from Australia who had met her in Paris on one of his voyages. She was captivated by this Truth and taught it in different public lectures. In the late forties she had been invited to speak at a Symposium in Paris where most of the different religions of the World were represented. And her speech left everybody astounded. They had never heard of this Life of Purity as being Actual and wide spread, and of GOD and Heaven being a Plain Truth right Here on Earth. Every Religion had been looking for GOD and Heaven in the hereafter, and was accepting the human way of life as normal, forgetting the Words of the Master, of Christ, heralding Purity and Chastity in the present life.
But the scales are falling from our eyes, and we see that all is very simple. Revelation brings GOD Home. Celibacy opens the Door to your true Identity. For, as FATHER DIVINE says:
'You never came from the dust. You came from GOD! You came from the Angelic Host. You were breathed out of the Mouth of the Almighty, the Living Word made Flesh as it was in the beginning. This is your True Identity! It is Wonderful!'
As for me, just a witness of all these happenings, I have to tell how I became a recipient of the greatest blessing one can receive in this world.
One night, coming back home after meeting with a couple of friends and having talked seriously about religion, (it was in 1948), as I was walking alone in the dark streets of the sleeping city, I felt a sudden deep urge to call on GOD. I just said spontaneously:"DIEU Tout Puissant, si Tu Existes, Revele toi a moi!" - "GOD ALMIGHTY, if YOU exist, reveal YOURSELF to me!"
I remember passing at that instant under a street lamp. Across the sidewalk was a stone building with a black wrought iron gate, and some marble steps Soon I was home, and went to sleep. The next morning a friend of mine who was going to leave for Paris, - it was the end of summer, and he was student at the Sorbonne University,- invited me to go with him to a lecture at the Salle Carlonia in the center of town. He was excited, he said " You should not miss this, that Lecturer speaks of things you never heard before!" I was not impressed, but to please him as he was going to be away for part of the year, I went.
The Lecture Hall was full, the lady on the rostrum spoke of things, that even I as a journalist, had never heard before. I was captivated. My friend introduced me to her. And she offered, if I would accompany her to her place, which was not too far she said, to give me something to read. As we walked through the streets, what she said was answering questions I had considered all my life. Finally we reached the place where she lived I looked above me at the street lamp,- now in the light of a beautiful afternoon,- then the wrought iron gate of the stone building, and the marble steps How did this happen! The city, was big enough, some 380,000, - what was the chance to hit the same spot within a few hours!
On the second floor, coming out of the elevator, was her apartment. She was renting it to two elderly sisters, keeping one room for herself. She had in a corner books on shelves, under a glass door. She opened the door of the cabinet-library, and gave me a book, and a small magazine. They were in English: "The Eyes of the Blind, by Walter C. Lanyon, and The Spoken Word, featuring the Works of Father Divine". I did not know it then, but this was going to reorient and radically change my life. I had found GOD!
That is why I know, that if, per adventure you happen to call on Almighty GOD in all sincerity, HE will answer you. HE IS the FATHER and the SON and the HOLY SPIRIT, the same JESUS that died on the Cross, at Golgotha, and was buried and resurrected the third day, HE IS The ONE That was to COME. HE IS YOUR DIVINE FATHER, FATHER DIVINE.
HE Is SPIRIT, MIND and BODY, and when you recognize HIS BODY, HE recognizes your Body, and your Spirit and your Mind. FOR YOU WERE MADE BY HIM, and Through the MARRIAGE of the LAMB,- for HE IS THE VERY LAMB OF GOD that was slain at the foundation of the World, HE Has made You Whole again.
In the ANGELSHIP DEGREE of The BRIDE, The LAMB's WIFE, THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT, You are restored to THIS TRUE CREATION and shall live forever in HEAVEN, Right Here on Earth, not as a man or a woman, but as a True Angel of GOD. Wed to GOD we are Translated from Nature to Grace, from mortality to immortality, mentally, spiritually and physically. As Light dispels darkness, mortal man has to give way to the Angel. IMMORTALITY IS BROUGHT TO LIGHT, (L'Immortalite Mise en Lumiere) was the lecture we gave at the same Salle Carlonia in the center of town. And Dear FATHER DIVINE, in a letter He sent us from Philadelphia, called us His Ardent followers! In retrospect I realize how far I was from the prerequisite, but the Spirit brings you up to the mark. Thank You FATHER. Elie J. Diana.
I should add, the Spoken Word that was given to me that day, was very significant. In an article, 'A trip to Heaven and a glimpse on GOD' it showed the Transfiguration of FATHER DIVINE Who appeared in a Body of Light while in a barn, at Stone Ridge, N. Y ., in front of four brothers (and I met one of them, Mr. Andrew Peace, and they all saw the same thing. in FATHER and MOTHER DIVINE'S Web Site "fdipmm.libertynet.org".
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