A Modern Day Revelation

08 November 2000 21:50

Fran Corbett was introduced to True Life in God in 1994. He writes:

“I consumed the messages (or they consumed me) with a fervor over several years. In great part due to the wonderful influence of TLIG I applied to the Permanent Diaconate office here in Boston, in 1997, was accepted into the program, and am now in the middle of a four year study effort.

“Fully involved with my studies toward the Diaconate, I have not devoted any other real effort to further TLIG, other than my ‘one on one’ evangelizing as the opportunities arise. I finally reached the point where I felt the time was right to “go public” within the Diaconal community on TLIG.”

Fran sent the members of his community the following letter which others might find useful as an introduction to True Life in God.

TRUE LIFE IN GOD

A Modern Day Revelation

True Life In God, (TLIG) is the name of a wondrous phenomena that I have come to know about over the last six years. Of all the helping signs along my way toward Diaconate formation, it was this series of books more than anything else that led me to a much deeper love of the Lord and a desire to serve Him far more than I had ever thought of before. I made the leap (God really dragged me across the chasm) from that feeling of sometimes reluctant obligation to be a good person, ie. to obey God’s commandments, all the way to really being in love with Jesus Christ, and wanting to answer His call to do more for His work in the world.

True Life In God is a modern day series of revelations that started in 1985 and continues through to the present. They are a series of extensive, direct, divine revelations from Jesus Christ to a woman of the Eastern Christian rite in which He shows for all the world His love, and His, God’s total and complete committment to restore and redeem all humanity. I (no question led by the Holy Spirit) came across this unbelievable revelation in 1994 and literally consumed these writings over the next several years, and they are still gong on. I was awed and amazed over what I found.

They are overpowering in their message of God’s unrelenting, driving, pursuing love for His human creation, and I was so taken by their connectivity to all I had learned as a child, in so simple concepts of who God is and how He is. They, the writings, touch on literally all that I have known of God, for example the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the many truths of the Catholic Church, love, commitment to, and devotion for His vicar on earth John Paul. They allude to and intertwine so perfectly with scripture. They do not present anything counter to what I had been shown of God all my life, they propose no new truths or information about God. Yet they open a whole new vista, previously present in God’s word through Scripture and now brilliantly illuminated and focused on the condition of the world here in the 20th and 21st centuries.

As we have grown through all our new knowledge and wisdom during Diaconate formation, I have found, time and again complete harmony and reenforcement with TLIG concepts and guidance. As we read “Bruggemann” for instance where the rhetorical questions of “where are today’s prophets”, and “what are the essentials of true, prophetic communication” are posed, I became more and more solidly confident that here in True Life In God is true prophecy, is God’s word, His loving guidance.

For those who might think this is totally beyond possibility and thus are skeptical, I offer the following little bit of history.

While the work of Christ, of salvation is done through the works, the hands, the hearts of His people down through the ages in a normal “living His message in our physical world” way. And most of us receive His grace through action of the Holy Spirit in relatively “ordinary” ways; there are many instances of God’s talking directly to us through His messengers. In Brother Paul’s course we studied many of them, the prophets of the “Old Testament”. But over the last 2000 years, since Christ, there seem to be far fewer. Some say such prophets are not needed now that we have Christ living among us!

However there have been several well documented and accepted (by the Catholic Church) such prophets. Perhaps the most recent is Sister Faustina, just canonized on May 1st, 2000 by Pope John Paul. Her diary, in which details of Jesus’ direct communication and guidance are extensive, reads remarkably like today’s TLIG messages. The work Christ asked of Faustina was to initiate devotion to The Divine Mercy, by which “many souls would be saved”. Here He revealed His most amazing “mercy triumphed over justice at Calvary” message. His primary mission for Vassula Ryden, the recipient of the True Life In God Messages, is unification of all Christians, among other missions. In her lifetime Sister Faustina was often ridiculed and treated warily by many of her associates, and the same is true today of Vassula Ryden. It took the Church 30 years after Faustina’s death to lift the restrictions on her writings, to open investigations toward her canonization and another 33 to realize her as a saint.

The Church is always very cautious in approaching anyone who claims to speak for God, and we should be. Today the Catholic Church’s official position, as stated by Cardinal Ratzinger in 1995, is “you may continue to promote the writings (of True Life In God) with caution”. “Be cautious and test for what is good”. I have had the great pleasure of doing just that over the last six years and found these writings edited by Vassula Ryden just amazingly wonderful, full of the goodness of God!

Further back in time, in the 13th century, another great saint of the Catholic Church, Bridget, who brought Christianity to Sweden was also the recipient of literally volumes of direct messages from Jesus. Again the similarities to our 20th century reflections are striking. Again, nothing new from what He left us through His words as captured in Scripture, but a renewal and a call to a particular age to strengthen and spread His love, His word, His salvation for all.

Also in the 12th century lived Saint Gertrude who was understood to be priveleged with His grace of direct, divine conversation and an exposure to the mystery of His Sacred Heart.

Understanding of and an invitation to seek and find refuge in His Sacred Heart are also key parts of the TLIG messages. And we shouldn’t forget the greatest of all who stated his knowledge of Jesus Christ came directly to him; that is Saint Paul. Under Celia’s marvelous tutelage, I for one was surprised to realize how emphatic Paul was as he insists that he got none of his understanding of God’s will, of Christ’s passion, and of God’s plan for salvation from the apostles, but directly through divine revelation (Galatians 1:11-24)! I think most Christians today have lost sight of this fact since he was a contemporary of the apostles.

I believe these revelations are a great gift, which Jesus refers to as a “love hymn from heaven”; but they do not replace the mission, the task of all who have and continue to labor in the vinyard for Christ. Rather TLIG is a great source of enrichment and replenishment. I am constantly taken by, literally wowed by its relevancy to and its bouyancy for my journey.

True Life In God is a wondeful reference and community for me as I work toward a mission of deeper service for the Lord. I hope you might find it so also. You can see for yourself by reading some of the material, and what Cardinal Ratzinger says, what some of the great theologians have said about TLIG. You can get a quick overview and sense of all this by visiting the TLIG website, (tlig.org) or borrow my books.

Sincerely,

Fran Corbett