Testimonies from Clergy & Religious

I have no dramatic testimony to offer for Vassula, but I would like to say that reading her messages puts me in a spirit of prayer. I find myself quite convinced that Jesus is indeed speaking through them. To that, I would like to add that, as a professional theologian, I have always been watching to see if these messages diverge in any way from the teaching of the Church. Never have I found any doctrinal error in them. That is very impressive. For a lay person, with no theological training, without even any serious catechetical instruction, to write so many volumes about some of the profoundest spiritual matters, and never make a mis-step, is an extraordinary achievement. It is a powerful confirmation that it is indeed the Lord himself who is the source of these writings. I am aware that she has been accused of doctrinal error by high authorities in the Church. After careful reflection on this matter, I am convinced that the so-called « errors » reduce simply to the fact that she fails to use the language of professional theologians when seeking to express the divine mysteries. I don’t think she can be blamed for this, as the Scriptural authors did the same.
(Fr. Edward D. O’Connor, CSC Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame, December 1999)

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In reading the books of the divine messages, and knowing the author, Mrs Vassula Ryden, a daughter of the Greek Orthodox Church, I was very impressed in finding there, according to my firm conviction, an absolute fidelity to all the revealed truths as taught and expounded by the Catholic Church……… Therefore I unite myself to those Catholic bishops and theologians who defend the authenticity and sincere truthfulness of Vassula Ryden, one of the greatest mystics and seers of our times.
(Frane Franic, Archbishop Emeritus of Split and Makarska, November 1995)

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(Vassula) travels the world evangelizing for Christian unity; obedience to the Pope; veneration of the Eucharist; devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and especially, a Gospel morality of life; as well as for deep religious conversion of the world. Vassula Ryden has met with the Pope, with cardinals and with bishops around the world. This is a matter of private revelation and we allow her to speak because what she says conforms to Gospel truth.
(Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, Archbishop of Zagreb, February 1995)

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The testimony is convincing, joyful and stimulating. Everywhere in her writings we feel the Breath of Love … The Holy Spirit is everywhere at work, giving profusely … every day Vassula’s testimony is taken more seriously and is more fully accepted. This simultaneously facilitates and accelerates the final judgement of the entire Church, which judgement will, without doubt, consider the many fruits of Vassula’s message.
(Fr Lludevit Rupcic, OFM)

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It can be said that Vassula Ryden is in « moral security » under the spiritual counselling of Fr. Michael O’Carroll. His obvious competence should suffice to dispel the doubts of those who blindly and violently attack Vassula Ryden and her writings. Furthermore, she has the support of Fr.Rene Laurentin … For my part, having studied ascetical and mystical theology both in theory and in practice over more than fifty years, I do not hesitate to stand alongside these two « experts » and with the many priests who know Vassula Ryden and her writings very well … We must cease calling our fear `prudence’ and our skepticism `wisdom’.
(Rev O. M., C.S.C.)

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It is a hieratic writing, in other words, a sacred writing … clothed in such a majestic solemnity … the writing itself inspires a great peace … radiating light and serenity. Truly this writing is beautiful and can only be good!
(Rev. C. C., OFM)

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I feel that the evidence in favour of Vassula is very strong, and so I would urge especially those who have come to realize that Vassula may in fact be a prophet for our times to pray, fast, and reflect; in any event, to avoid spreading rumours or engaging in any attacks. With each passing day this matter will become clearer and clearer.
(Fr. « X », PIME)

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The message in these volumes is powerful indeed. It has touched me and others deeply.
(Brother E.C., New Mexico)

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I have been blessed to read these books. They have helped me tremendously in my spiritual life, and they have also helped many more and have brought them closer to God. Tears of repentance are many … it is not something really new, but based on scripture.
(Sister I.B., Chicago)

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There is a growing response to these messages here in Hong Kong.
(Father F.E., Hong Kong)

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I have actually met Vassula in Manchester, England when I began reading her revelations and I have read and meditated all the volumes up to number 5 … I would very much like to continue to immerse myself in the Lord’s words to us. I’m totally convinced of the authenticity of these words. They have helped me immensely in my own spiritual journey. I’m passing on this revelation to people I know will be open to it … I would like to write to her personally if only to encourage her.
(Father M.M., Bolivia)

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People are so hungry here for the True Life in God books that I am giving them away faster than I can keep track of them. I haven’t yet succeeded in keeping one for myself.
(Sister T.R., Ukiah, California)

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I am hoping to convert a few fellow-priests with these books.
(Rev. B.C., Toronto)

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Father Michael O’Carroll, who is presently her spiritual director is adequately qualified and competent in the area of ascetical and mystical theology … the testimony of Father O’Carroll should inspire great reassurance.
(Father O.M. Canada)

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I managed to get our parish priest, a priest visitor and my priest confessor interested in Vassula’s life … they were happy and I was very happy … What I long to hear now is Vassula’s talks on the Holy Spirit. [I prayed] « Oh God, if it is possible, in Your Almighty Power, cause Vassula to visit India. »
(Sister A.T., India)

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Quelle joie! J’ai reçu trois volumes écrits par Vassula Ryden. Combien de détails de ses entretiens avec le Christ. Déjà la lecture d’un seul cahier me permets à vivre dans la plus grande intimité avec Jésus. La lecture des ses écrits aide beaucoup à prier et méditer sur le Christ. Ces mots son tellement vivants et concrets que presqu’on peut Le toucher. Que ce livre inspire les coeurs des prêtres. Le livre de Vassula m’aide à découvrir comment vivre avec le Christ. C’est un nouveau trésor qui nous approche du Christ. Pourvu que beaucoup de croyants puissent goûter et se nourrir par les précieux et vivants écrits de Vassula.
(K.S., prêtre)

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Les écrits „La Vrai Vie en Dieu » m’ont attiré mais pendant un certain temps j’ai abandonné cette lecture. Alors Dieu a voulu que je me suis trouvé dans un état de la crise spirituelle. J’ai reçu une lumière intérieure; retourner aux écrits de Vassula. D’un coup les paroles de Jésus – qu’elle note – sont devenus pour moi une source de lumière et d’espérence. Tout d’abord je ne les lisais pas systématiquement pour enfin revenir et commencer par le début. Quel changement! Les difficultés ont disparues et les paroles de Jésus m’ont émerveillé … J’y retrouve maintenant une nourriture don’t j’avais tant besoin et aussi un renforcement. Grâce à „La Vrai Vie en Dieu » un bien se fait à l’intérieur de mon âme, un bien dont j’ai déjà douté.
(P.J., prêtre)

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Les livres „La Vrai Vie en Dieu » sont magnifiques. Ils nous approchent la Personne de Jésus et nous aident dans notre vie intérieure. J’ai lu tous les volumes et je les recommencent de nouveau.
(s. H., religieuse)

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Ce magnifique livre occupe chez moi la place juste après la Ste Écriture. Pour moi et aussi bien pour beaucoup de gens que je connais, „La Vrai Vie en Dieu » c’est une lumière et une nourriture et même un médicament pour l’ âme. Surtout le 4ème volume m’aide à connaître l’immensité de la Miséricorde Divine. Ce livre guérit les malades par la joie que Dieu verse sur les lecteurs.
(s. M.K., religieuse)

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Nous sommes tellement heureux que les livres de Vassula se trouvent dans notre communauté! Ils nous aident à vivre, plus profondément la Bonté sans mesures, l’Amour et Miséricorde que Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ a pour chaque âme … Ils nous aident à connaître plus profondément l’Amour sans limites que Jésus ressent envers nous, les hommes, Sa douleur et Sa préoccupation pour que «tous soient un», J’ai compris combien Il désire notre amour réciproque et notre union avec Lui par les sacrifices, pénitence, souffrance pour sauver les âmes et le monde …
(s. M, religieuse)

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Le cercle de plus en plus grand de gens est attiré vers le bien, grâce aux livres de Vassula … Ce qui est vraiment grand et a une grande valeur doit traverser par les preuves douloureuses et parfois rencontrer les immenses difficultés. Ayant confiance que Jésus vaincra aussi cette fois-ci. Je remercie toujours Dieu le Père qu’il y a des gens simples ouvrant leurs coeurs aux exigences de Jésus …
(s. I., religieuse)

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Les écrits „La Vrai Vie en Dieu » constituent comme une „somme mystique ». Les éléments caractéristiques: la simplicité évangélique, accessibilité et lisibilité pour les âmes „simples ». Ces mots peuvent sembler une exagération, mais pour moi c’est une vrais voix du Seigneur. La même voix qu’Abraham avait entendu, les Patriarches et Prophètes, enfin les Apôtres. La même voix qui résonne dans la Liturgie, dans la quelle Dieu parle aux hommes et les hommes parlent à Dieu. J’espère qu’un jour cette voix soit reconnue.
(s. M.N., religieuse)

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Tous ce qui lisent ces livres, les plus beaux livres, commencent une nouvelle vie, reçoivent le don de la joie intérieure et la connaissance de Dieu de Bonté et de Miséricorde. C’est vraiment pour le temps contemporain – le temps du froideur au niveau de la foi – le Feu de l’Amour Divin qui fait revivre les coeurs humains si froids. Je remercie la Miséricorde Divine pour l’aide salvatrice qu’Elle nous donne pour approfondir notre foi en Miséricorde de Dieu, en Amour de Dieu envers l’homme … Pendant la lecture de ce livre l’âme se repose … Si on lit tous les volumes, puis le livret de prières, la lumière de Dieu resplendit et éclaire l’homme. Alors dans le coeur s’allume l’amour et la reconnaissance à Dieu Trois Fois Saint pour Sa Miséricorde pour nous, Ses enfants – pécheurs.
(s. M.K. religieuse)

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Vassula’s messages I find challenging and I have made a decision to listen very carefully and weigh all that she says, for it would be terrible to live at a time when the Lord spoke and not to have heard him. … My advice to one reading these messages is that if they are read with only a passing curiosity they will be meaningless and become like ashes. However by allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to the reader, rereading the passages several times and place oneself as the recipient of the message, the passages will become more of a passing curiosity and their purpose revealed. These messages are for laymen, through a layman given by God.
(Fr. D. H., York, UK,)

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J’ai déjà lu le premier tome de la Vraie Vie en Dieu. Je l’ai lu pourtant comme un prêtre qui se trouve devant une révélation privée : avec circonspection et toutes les antennes dressées pour le discernement. Mais j’ai découvert un appel très fort à la conversion et à la rencontre personnelle avec le Seigneur Jésus. J’ai même retransmis dans l’anonymt certains de ces appels dans mes homélies. J’ai constaté combien les coeurs ont été touchés.
(Père R. H., Ivory Coast, July 1991)

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Vassula veio me clarear mais ainda a experiência da Universalidade da salvação de Deus. Inicialmente deixei-me levar pela simplicidade e profundidade bíblica desta espiritualidade que eu não conhecia. Pouco a pouco descobri um caminho de oração idêntico ao de Santa Terezinha do Menino Jesus, que volta o coração à intimidade efetiva com o Eterno Deus. Vassula é mais um modelo que me ajudou a ter mais carinho com a vida de oração e valorizar a busca de Deus, ou melhor, as formas corretas e variadas com que o ser humano pode se relacionar com Deus. Conheci a Vassula e a espiritualidade foi o incentivo à fidelidade, à vida de oração mais constante.
(Pe. N. M., Brazil, 1991)

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J’ai le coeur rempli de joie d’écrire à la personne qui me redonne le goût de la prière et j’y consacre un peu plus de mon temps ; ma façon d’aller à Jésus est plus respectueuse. Je vous écoute dire le Chapelet car nous avons des vidéocassettes et votre façon de le prier est une méditation.
(Soeur T. P., Quebec, Canada, June 1992)

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On te connaît comme ‘une grande amie’ pour avoir écouté, voire même savouré le contenu de ces belles cassettes que nous prêtons à d’autres. Merci pour ces messages pleins du Sacré Coeur et d’Esprit Saint. Merci à toi, pour cette fidélité à les transmettre à notre pauvre monde en désarroi qui ne sait pas où se trouvent les vraies valeurs. Nous prions beaucoup pour toi afin que tu passes à travers les difficultés inhérentes à cette Mission reçue. Que le Seigneur soit avec toi, pour Sa Gloire.
(Soeur G. R., s.c.c.m., Quebec, Canada, June 1992)

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First let me tell you (Vassula) that we believe totally in the Sacred Heart’s messages to you and have been praying for you since we read them. We especially felt sorry for you that few priests and religious supported you. Thus we wanted to write to you expressing our support of messages which we know are from the Sacred Heart.
(Brother J-J, USA, July, 1992)

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Je Lui rends grâces aussi d’avoir entendu à travers vous et vos livres Sa voix… entendu en moi, avec une telle puissance ‘Moi Dieu, Je t’aime’.
(Père Réginald Tardif, September 1992)

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Vassula is one of the most balanced and transparent seers that I know. I would even be tempted to say that she is, in a most satisfying way, more normal, more balanced than most others.
(Fr. Rene Laurentin, France, 1993)

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In March 1993 during my yearly retreats, as I was reading messages of Jesus, something wonderful happened to my spirit as I was filled with supernatural phenomenon penetrated my whole soul with love to my God and Saviour. I couldn’t hold back my tears, it’s something like falling in love with God, asking forgiveness and purification for passed sins. The messages of Jesus are now for me a regular part of my daily spiritual reading, reading them its like falling into spiritual coma. I have no doubt that these messages are of supernatural origin and that powerful wonderful revivement I received during my yearly retreats, Jesus be blessed and loved from all of us for His graces.
(Fr. V. W. P., OSBM, Canada, May, 1993)

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Prêtre depuis bientôt dix ans, je suis actuellement curé, responsable de cinq petites paroisses rurales. J’ai entendu parlé de vous, il y a quelques mois. A l’époque, je n’ai pas attaché d’importance à ce que l’on me disait jusqu’au jour où j’ai pu lire les cahiers 62 et suivants. Je fus bouleversé par les messages que Jésus, notre Bien-Aimé, nous transmet par votre intermédiaire. Par la pensée, par la prière, je vous suis très uni. Béni soit Jésus de vous avoir mise sur notre route. Que Notre Bien-Aimé vous bénisse et vous protège.
(Abbé A. B., France, October 1993)

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Je suis une passionnée des messages de Jésus à Vassula. Je crois même pouvoir affirmer que j’ai été convertie par ces messages. Je possède, j’ai lu et médité les quatre volumes de la Vraie Vie en Dieu et les quatre suppléments parus à ce jour, ainsi que le petit livre Prières de Jésus et Vassula extraites de ces ouvrages. En outre, je recopie les cassettes que l’on me prête pour les faire écouter autour de moi et, quand cela m’est possible, je vais avec quelques soeurs voir des vidéo-cassettes chez des voisins. Moi qui vivais très superficiellement, moi plus que peu fidèle à ma vocation, j’ai vu se lever une grande lumière et QUELQU’UN m’a tendu la main. Je revis et ma joie est profonde, indescriptible. Mes supérieures et mes consoeurs s’étonnent : elles ne me reconnaissent plus. Comme je voudrais que Vassula le sache pour l’encourager à continuer vaillamment l’oeuvre que Jésus fait avec elle, par elle et en elle ! Je crois que des milliers et des milliers de personnes retrouvent et retrouveront encore le Seigneur à cause de l’Amour qu’Il a pour elle (et pour nous : c’est ce qu’elle nous montre) et à cause de sa merveilleuse réponse au Seigneur, qui est un exemple et une force. Par deux fois, en regardant et écoutant une vidéo-cassette, j’ai vu le visage de Jésus et de Marie à la place de celui de Vassula. J’étais bouleversée.
(Soeur M-C. P., Switzerland, January1994)

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Sceptiques, malgré tout, comme eux, nous sommes allés vous (Vassula) entendre à Laval. Sceptiques, mais le coeur ouvert. Et Jésus nous a comblés. Vous n’y êtes pour rien, vous le savez, mais dès le début de la conférence, j’étais saisie par votre visage et ne comprenais pas. J’avais, devant moi, une femme élancée mais don le visage était étrangement masculin et le temps passant, je remarquais que ce visage masculin, que je connais mais ne pouvais identifier vraiment, s’affirmait surtout quand vous parliez au nom de JESUS. C’est alors que mon ami, prêtre non romain, me poussa du coude : ‘Mais, ne voyez-vous pas le visage de Jésus?’ Exactement ‘la Sainte Face de Jésus’. Je sortais alors cette Sainte Face de mon document, c’était cela ! et, jusqu’à la fin de la conférence nous avons vu et entendu Jésus. A la fin, le Père O’Carroll a fait allusion à ce phénomène déjà arrivé ailleurs, c’était pour nous une confirmation. Nous écoutions autour de nous ce qui se disait, mais, apparemment, seul notre petit groupe a reçu cette grâce, deux prêtres, un jeune couple et moi-même.
(Sr. J. L., France, June 1994)

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Since I met you (Vassula) I have experienced a genuine closeness to Jesus and you every day.
(Fr. J. B., USA, November, 1994)

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Vassula is for me a good friend, who tells me about the Love of God for all mankind. The messages are a hidden manna Jesus has reserved for our times of wilderness and iniquity. It is a powerful manna! And I am always hungry to re-read it. I pray that many, many others open their hearts to these beautiful Words from God.
(Sr. J, Holland, 1996)

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The messages contained in True Life in God are unique, extraordinary and very special. They reveal to us the most exalted treasures in the Sacred Heart of Jesus hidden in the past and reserved in a special way for our time. They are the most important private revelations ever made.
(Fr. Robert Hughes, SM, San Jose, California, USA, January 1996)

I must say that I believe in Vassula Ryden as an authentic Visionary. I have had no physical healings but am sure that through her beautiful Messages from Jesus, both merciful ad pertinent, that my love for Jesus and the Eternal Father has been enhanced and has become a stronger and more vital part of me.
(Sr. M. R. N, USA, January, 1996)

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I had personal love for Jesus but after reading Vassula;s books (messages of God) I come to know Jesus better and my love for Jesus grew deeper – These messages went to deep into my heart – Two or three, in fact 4 people told me their life also has changed.
(Sr. St. J., India, February, 1996)

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About five minutes after the beginning of the tape and during Vassula’s talk on the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I saw blood form in the hair at the top of the right side of her head, soaking the hair. The blood ran down from the top of her head to her ear, down her cheek, right down to under her chin, soaking both under the chin and neck. I could see this quite plainly. Then as I saw Vassula begin to gesticulate with her hands, she turned the palms of her hands towards me and I saw both palms covered with blood which ran down all of her fingers to her finger tips. I saw this every time she turned her palms towards me. … The video lasted an hour. The vision lasted right until the very end of the tape until she had finished speaking – about 55 minutes. I was amazed at what I was seeing and lost in awe and wonderment – but very much at peace. I don’t know why I was chosen to witness The Passion revealed to me through this chosen instrument Vassula, whom I reverence and respect; even after 24 hours I am still lost in awe and wonderment. I feel, through this vision, Christ is revealing to me the sufferings Vassula is going through at the present time.
(Brother M. A., Ireland, November 1996)

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She (Vassula) was totally in touch with her audience in focusing on the first essential steps: establishing a warm basic intimacy with God – Father, Son & Holy Spirit. It was sensitive, concrete, warm and emminently practical. … The great sign of the success of her talk was the fact that, except for a few cripples and very elderly, all stayed for the blessing. That was a great sign that should not go unnoticed. Not only that – the owner of the theatre, the management, the technicians, the service people – ALL came and listened to the talk and lined up for the blessing. I wish you could have heard their remarks!
(Fr B., USA, December, 1996)

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Que le Seigneur soit votre Tout. Merci pour votre fidélité, votre exemple. J’ai eu la joie de participer à la réunion de Lausanne le 18 décembre 1997. Quelle surprise, en montant sur le podium pour la bénédiction, de sentir un très fort parfum d’encens. Que le Saint Esprit vous couvre de son ombre et vous donne la grâce de vous conduire au Père.
(Soeur V. B, Switzerland, 1997)

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What happened is not for me; it is to testify that what Vassula is saying is true. What I have just experienced, proves it to me. I have never had experiences like this, this is the first time. In fact, I never pray out loud and today before the Healing Service I said a prayer out loud. I felt that I had to say it. There was a power in me, which made me pray out loud to thank Vassula for being here. I have prayed to be able to see Jesus and my prayer was answered, I saw Him in Vassula. As she was blessing me I kissed her hand because I saw Jesus in her. She repeated several times: « it’s true, it’s true, it’s true. »
(Nun, Holy Land, 1997)

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I started to read True Life in God, published by Obor at the end of 1995. When I read the book, I felt Jesus spoke to me directly. I became enthusiastic and read it till finished in a very short time. And I felt that my faith strengthened. So when Vassula was planning to come to Jakarta giving her testimony, I tried to get the ticket for myself and for some others straight-away. When I heard her words, I felt like reading True Life in God once again. And when I saw her appearance, my impression was: that lady is simple, honest and humble. Her simplicity can be seen from the way she dressed. Her honesty can be observed from her testimony that she was a nothing before Jesus came to her. Her humility can be observed from her style of conversation that she never boasts about her ability. Because of all this, I was very certain about the words that Vassula has been telling us cannot be from the evil spirit.
(Fr. I., Indonesia, March 1997)

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I am indissolubly tied to believing in Vassula. I am tied to the evidence that she cannot be the author of all those wonderful messages, for I believe that there really is Jesus, God and Mary in she who writes, making themselves known and heard. This continuous dialogue occurring in her is real. I am sure of this. I have the evidence because I have been reading and meditating Vassula’s books for years.
(Father Guido Sommavilla SJ, Milan, April 1997)

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Toute notre communauté religieuse vous reste profondément reconnaissante de votre passage à notre maison de Marseille et de ce que vous nous avez transmis. Bien souvent, nous nous unissons à votre prière et nous prions pour votre mission dans l’Eglise.
(Soeurs de Notre Dame des Neiges, France, October 1997)

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Ce que Vassula dit sur la prière continuelle demandée par Jésus est merveilleux et nous montre qu’elle est à un niveau mystique très élevé. Vassula nous pousse à l’intimité avec Dieu et à la réunification de tous les chrétiens dans l’unité d’une seule Eglise, sous l’autorité du Pape de Rome. Il faut rester fidèles à l’Eglise, chargée par le Christ de diriger les fidèles, mais aussi fidèles à la Volonté de Dieu qui, pour nous, s’exprime à l’évidence par l’intermédiaire du prophète qu’Il nous envoie maintenant et qui s’appelle Vassula.
(Père J. R., France, February 1998)

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I have also been asked to say why I support the messages of True Life in God. If somebody had told me about Vassula before I myself had heard her or had read the messages, I would probably have been uninterested, supposing it was another silly sect. I would not have said it was impossible with prophesies, revelations or messages like these, but I never had met anything like it. But since I for the first time heard Vassula in Rome in march 1995 I have been convinced that it is all true.
(Reverend Sverker Trônet, Sweden, May 1998)

Présent à la réunion de prière de Vassula tenue à Lyon le 17 octobre 1998, j’eus à la fin de la conférence la grâce particulière d’être appelé par elle pour la seconder dans sa longue prière sur les personnes présentes à la conférence qui se présentèrent en foule pour la lui demander. J’étais à ses côtés pour bénir pendant qu’elle priait intensément, gravement et en silence sur chaque personne. Or à deux reprises me tournant vers Vassula, je devais constater la modification totale de son visage dont les traits s’étaient non seulement masculinisés mais tels qu’ils apparaissaient à ce moment précis présentaient une ressemblance frappante avec ceux du visage du Christ restitué par l’élaboration de la NASA à partir du Saint Suaire. Le « phénomène » dura quelques secondes à chaque fois. Dès qu’il cessait, les traits du visage redevenaient ceux de Vassula. Très proche de Vassula, puisque à ses côtés pour devoir prier avec elle sur les personnes présentes, je n’ai pas pu être trompé par une quelconque illusion d’optique ou erreur de vision. D’autre part, je n’ai recherché d’aucune manière à « voir » ni même imaginé qu’un tel fait pouvait survenir à ce moment précis et en ma présence. J’atteste donc en conscience avoir été témoin direct et oculaire de cette transformation du visage de Vassula qui m’est apparu à deux reprises avec les traits propres de celui de Jésus, un visage de lumière, au regard brûlant d’amour, empreint de douleur et de grande fatigue, comme s’il était en sueur.
(Père R.-M. M., Toulon, France, November 1998)

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Soy una Carmelita Descalza española y estos escritos me han ayudado mucho. El primer fruto fue hacerme experimentar el Señor cuánto me ama, con una alegría tan profunda, que las cosas no me afectan más que exteriormente. También en mi vida de oración me han ayudado: desde entonces me he sentido estimulada a hacer más ratos de oración que los que marcan nuestras Reglas. Desde que conocí estos mensajes, todo me parece poco para el Señor. Y todo esto con una gran alegría y paz interiores, que me ayudan mucho a mejorar la convivencia con las Hermanas. Ahora me sucede que cuando pasa la oración personal y tomo el método dado por Vassula para las reuniones, se me pasa el tiempo sin distracciones, lo que no es así cuando no sigo este esquema. Para mí los otros cristianos eran « hermanos separados » por los que había que rezar, aunque sin mucha esperanza. Ahora son hermanos muy queridos. La división del Cuerpo de Cristo me duele mucho más profundamente.
(H. M. D. del C. de Jesús, Carmelitas Descalzas, Spain 1999)

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Je porte tout dans la prière quotidienne et l’Eucharistie – je suis un prêtre en retraite -. Toute ma reconnaissance pour cette oeuvre (la Vraie Vie en Dieu) tellement importante qui émane du Coeur de Jésus. Malgré toutes les oppositions « les fidèles resteront fidèles » et se multiplieront. Je prie avec vous tous. Loué soit Jésus-Christ !
(Père R. D., France, February 1999)

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Je suis une carmélite déchaussée espagnole et ces écrits [la Vraie Vie en Dieu} m’ont beaucoup aidée dans ma vie de prière. Depuis que je connais ces messages, tout me paraît peu pour le Seigneur. J’éprouve une grande joie et une grande paix intérieures qui m’aident beaucoup à améliorer ma vie en communauté. Un autre thème sur lequel j’ai été éclairée en lisant ces messages est l’œcuménisme: la division du Corps du Christ me blesse beaucoup plus profondément; j’ai compris que par l’humilité, en reconnaissant nos propres fautes et en demandant pardon, et par l’amour, signe distinctif des chrétiens, nous obtiendrons l’unité de Son Église.
(Sr D., cd, Spain, August 1999)

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My daily conversion is being assisted by Jesus’ messages given us through Vassula. These messages are not the only means Jesus is using but they do play a major role in guiding my life toward Him. I am especially helped by living my day with Jesus and Mary using ‘We, Us’ to remember that I am always in the presence of the Holy.
(H. S. B., OSB, Mexico, September 1999)

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About this time I heard of Vassula and became slightly acquainted with « The Messages ». Easter ’96 I wet to hear her speak in Limerick and realised that « the Pearl of great price » was within reach. Thereafter things happened very rapidly. In October’96 Vassula came to speak at « The Point » in Dublin. At that time we had the privilege of having her stay for a few days here in our Convent in Rathmines. The impact she made on me was tremendous. I felt awed by the fact that we were in the presence of a very special favourite of the Lord’s. Through the good offices of Frank Reynolds on November 24, ’96 we had a prayer meeting in Rathmines at which Sula and a companion from Rhodos were present. The events of that day changed my life. True Life in God became the focus of all my energies. The sins and failings of my earlier life had always been a burden of guilt that kept me looking back at me instead of into the loving face of my beloved Abba.
(Sr. N. D., Dublin, Ireland, September 1999)

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I was introduced to True Life in God in November of 1997. I can only BEGIN to speak of the difference it has made in my life. How I pray, who I pray to, what I pray for, what brings me joy, what grieves my heart, what gives me life, how I spend my time, what I talk about, how I relate with others, all this has changed since TLIG. I am a cradle Catholic and a Benedictine Sister. Brought up in a faith filled family, I was privileged to have a relationship with God from a tender age. Still, it seems by comparison, that I never knew the Triune God before. I have fallen in love with the Thrice Holy and this has changed my life. I have a greater love and deeper appreciation for Scriptures, the Sacraments (especially the Eucharist and Confession), my faith, Mary, the church and my vocation.
(Sr. J. H., OSB, USA, September 1999)

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I am a cradle Catholic and a Benedictine Sister. I was privileged to have a relationship with God from a tender age. Still, it seems by comparison, that I never knew the Triune God before. I have fallen in love with The Trice-Holy, and this has changed my life. I have a greater love and deeper appreciation for Scriptures, the Sacraments (especially the Eucharist and confession). My faith, Mary, the church and my vocation. I have always experienced the mercy and compassion of God in ways I never experienced them before-in me, effecting my own healing; and through me, into the lives of others. My knowledge and understanding of life and faith has deepened. I pray for Vassula, grateful for allowing herself to be used in such an incredible way.
(Sr. S.J.H., USA, September 1999)

In my mind and heart there was no question that Jesus was speaking to me through Vassula. Then I became as a sponge reading everything the Lord put before me. I experienced tremendous sorrow for my sins and cried for weeks. I sometimes still experience that. I had such a longing for God and a fear of sin that I actually wanted to die then to be with God. . . . . I can’t even begin to tell you the kindness and goodness of Our Lord and Our Lady to me! I would be forever writing. Suffice it to say They continue to lead me. Worldly things mean nothing to me anymore.
(Sr. M. A. of Jesus (novice), Fort Wayne, USA, September, 1999)

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I have been a Carmelite contemplative nun for over 28 years. It is important, I feel, for me to say at the outset of this that from when I was 18 years I have tried to give myself totally to God – never to refuse Him anything. However, as a result of becoming acquainted with Vassula I have experienced a radical conversion. As I began to read Jesus words to Vassula (and particularly after she prayed over me) I became aware to my amazement that my heart was quite hardened to God. Without my knowing it, a spirit of the world and rationalism under the guise of an « incarnational spirituality » had crept into my soul. Reading, allowing the words of Jesus through Vassula sink into my heart has helped me … to « convert » my « whole » being – especially my heart with all the hitherto dormant fires of its God given passion over to True Life in God.
(Sr. T. A. McC., Santa Clara, USA, September 1999)

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I believe that the messages of TLG are almost self-validating, for I cannot imagine how they could have been written except under the control of the Spirit. The aspects of the messages which strike me most are the sense of intimacy with Jesus and the Father which they convey, the help they supply in learning to trust them, and the sense of how God works step by step in the souls of Vassula, myself, and others. I have a doctorate in physics, have spent a great deal of time studying theology, and have had a fair amount of experience in giving spritual direction. I would like to confirm Fr. Edward O’Connor’s opinion expressed in his response to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Although isolated snippets from TLG could be understood in a negative way, the general context of the work makes it clear that TLG is not only free of error but is a profound, brilliant, and loving exposition of the gospel.
(Fr. R. J. P., S.J., USA, September 1999)

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About a year ago I started to read TLIG thanks to a member of my community. My life in general had been very dry for years. This included attitudinal problems with the Vatican and Church leadership in general and a weak stance on abortion. Changes began immediately within me after reading TLIG. First I began praying the rosary everyday and the more I read, the more conscious I became of God, our Blessed Mother and the angels in my daily life. The messages also clarified for me what the call to pray, pray, pray meant and have been given the grace during conscious moments day and night to invoke God more than I ever had in the past.
(S. R. V., OSB, USA, September 1999)

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It is now nearly three years I am in touch with the TLIG news which has brought about a remarkable change in my attitude towards my relationship with Jesus and Mary. It is an attitude of utter simplicity after knowing the mind of Jesus and His expectations of us humans, especially from those who have dedicated themselves by religious vows to strive after perfect love, which I picked up from the conversations between Jesus and Vassula. I have implicit faith in the authenticity of the messages that come to us through Vassula Ryden. The spiritual enlightenment that I have received is that spiritual the journey towards religious perfection isn’t as complicated as I formerly thought, but it is so very simple. Praying constantly means being aware of the living presence of Jesus at our side when we are busy at our work and not necessarily to be on our knees in our Chapel as I formerly understood. The T.L.I.G. books taught me that Jesus is so easily pleased and He is simply longing for our constant love and thought of Him. This has been a gradual process but is a new light with conviction.
(Sr. A., India, October 1999)

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Sou sacerdote, procurei sempre viver meu sacerdócio com dignidade, amor e obediência a Igreja. Não andei a procura de revelações, visões. Por fruto do acaso me deparei com os livros de ‘A Verdadeira Vida em Deus’, fui tentado a lê-los, foi a melhor experiência que tive em toda a minha vida como sacerdote. Sempre que vou celebrar a Eucaristia, antes, por alguns minutos, leio alguma mensagem de Jesus contida naqueles livros. Percebo claramente a força interior e a intimidade de Jesus em toda a celebração, de uma maneira muito especial no poder da palavra, pois minhas pregações se tornam mais convincentes, mais cheias de fé, tocando mais os corações dos ouvintes. A ‘A Verdadeira Vida em Deus’ tem sido vida em meu sacerdócio.
(Pe. J. C., Brazil, October 1999)

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Today I am enrolled in the Permanent Diaconate program within the Archdiocese of Boston, seeking to further serve The Lord, to work in His vineyard at a greater depth than ever before in my life. In many ways this is the direct result of Vassula’s visit to Boston when as part of my work on her visit I came to know the Director of Spirituality for the Archdiocese and drew closer to the PD program. TLIG has opened the door, shown me the way to becoming more deeply enveloped within His Sacred Heart. While many influences in my life have helped me to arrive here, primarily my wife with her love, it was TLIG that was the catalyst which helped move me to take these recent steps in my continuing journey to better serve the Lord.
(F. C., USA, October 1999)

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Vassula prend le relais de saint Jean, de sainte Gertrude, de sainte Marguerite-Marie et elle devient un livre où Jésus écrit son hymne d’amour. La Vraie Vie en Dieu m’apprend le regard que Jésus jette sur notre monde refroidi dont «les ossements sont desséchés». Elle m’éclaire sur son dessein de le ressusciter en lui présentant son Cœur, abîme d’amour et de miséricorde. Elle est aussi une lumière sur la vie mystique, la vie d’union à Dieu. J’ai sentique Dieu nous attire dans les profondeurs de la vie intérieure. Cette œuvre intensifie ma relation avec le Saint-Esprit. Elle annonce le «baptême de feu» que vit l’Église et qu’elle vivra de plus en plus. L’Esprit Créateur est à l’œuvre avec Marie pour préparer des colonnes dans cette Église chancelante à nos yeux. La victoire est à nos portes et quel aliment pour l’espérance que l’enfantement «des cieux nouveaux et de la terre nouvelle».
(M. Ethier, s.a.a., Canada, October 1999)

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Le cercle des gens est attirés vers le bien est de plus en plus grand, grâce aux livres de Vassula… Ce qui est vraiment grand et a une grande valeur doit traverser des épreuves douloureuses et parfois rencontrer d’immenses difficultés. Ayons confiance que Jésus vaincra cette fois-ci également. Je remercie toujours Dieu le Père qu’il y ait des gens simples ouvrant leurs coeurs aux exigences de Jésus…
(Sr. I, Poland, October 1999)

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Les écrits „La Vraie Vie en Vie » m’ont attiré, mais pendant un certain temps j’ai abandonné cette lecture. Alors Dieu a voulu que je me trouve dans un état de crise spirituelle. J’ai reçu une lumière intérieure : retourner aux écrits de Vassula. D’un coup, les paroles de Jésus – qu’elle note – sont devenues pour moi une source de lumière et d’espérance. Tout d’abord, je ne les lisais pas systématiquement, pour enfin revenir et commencer par le début. Quel changement! Les difficultés ont disparu et les paroles de Jésus m’ont émerveillé… J’y retrouve maintenant une nourriture dont j’avais tant besoin et aussi un renforcement. Grâce à „La Vraie Vie en Vie » un bien se fait à l’intérieur de mon âme, un bien dont j’avais douté.
(Fr. P.J., Poland, October 1999)

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Tous ceux qui lisent ces livres – les plus beaux livres -, commencent une nouvelle vie, reçoivent le don de la joie intérieure et la connaissance du Dieu de Bonté et de Miséricorde. C’est vraiment pour notre temps contemporain – le temps de la froideur au niveau de la foi – le Feu de l’Amour Divin qui fait revivre les coeurs humains si froids. Je remercie la Miséricorde Divine pour l’aide salvatrice qu’Elle nous donne pour approfondir notre foi en la Miséricorde de Dieu, en l’Amour de Dieu envers l’homme… Pendant la lecture de ce livre, l’âme se repose… Si on lit tous les volumes, puis le livret de prières, la lumière de Dieu resplendit et éclaire l’homme. Alors, dans le coeur, s’allume l’amour et la reconnaissance à Dieu Trois Fois Saint pour Sa Miséricorde pour nous, Ses enfants – pécheurs.
(Sr. M. K., Poland, October 1999)

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Nous sommes tellement heureux que les livres de Vassula se trouvent dans notre communauté ! Ils nous aident à vivre plus profondément la Bonté sans mesures, l’Amour et Miséricorde que Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ a pour chaque âme… Ils nous aident à connaître plus profondément l’Amour sans limites que Jésus ressent pour nous les hommes, Sa douleur et Sa préoccupation pour que « tous soient un ». J’ai compris combien Il désire notre amour réciproque et notre union avec Lui par les sacrifices, la pénitence, la souffrance pour sauver les âmes et le monde…
(Sr. M., Poland, October 1999)

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Les écrits « a Vraie Vie en Vie » constituent comme une « somme mystique ». Les éléments caractéristiques : simplicité évangélique, accessibilité et lisibilité pour les âmes « simples ». Ces paroles peuvent sembler une exagération, mais pour moi c’est la vraie voix du Seigneur. La même voix qu’Abraham avait entendu, les Patriarches et Prophètes, enfin les Apôtres. La même voix qui résonne dans la Liturgie, dans laquelle Dieu parle aux hommes et les hommes parlent à Dieu. J’espère qu’un jour cette voix soit reconnue.
(Sr. M.N., Poland, October 1999)

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I was first exposed to the writings that come from the hand of Vassula Ryden about two and a half years ago, in Peru. I also was able to meet her several years ago in Peru. I was especially impressed by the ‘ordinary-ness’ of Vassula, the simple clarity of her message, and the humble fidelity of her presentation. I did not see a person who was promoting herself. Rather she maitained a faithfulness to what the Lord had told her. Nothing added on. I did not begin to read the messages themselves, however, for a couple of years after first meeting her. I would not say that they provoked a dramatic change of my life, but the messages came to me like a breath of fresh air. The words I began to read sounded to me like the voice of the Lord that I already knew and loved, and came to renew me and draw me closer, to him and to his Holy Mother. I was astounded by the depth of the spirituality of the writings – touching those places that only those greatest mystics of the Church have been able to talk about
(Rev. J. H. P., C.S.C., USA, October 1999)

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Quelle joie! J’ai reçu trois volumes écrits par Vassula . Combien de détails de ses entretiens avec le Christ ! Déjà la lecture d’un seul cahier me permets de vivre dans la plus grande intimité avec Jésus. La lecture des ses écrits aide beaucoup à prier et méditer sur le Christ. Ces paroles sont tellement vivantes et concrètes qu’on peut presque Le toucher. Que ce livre inspire les coeurs des prêtres ! Le livre de Vassula m’aide à découvrir comment vivre avec le Christ. C’est un nouveau trésor qui nous rapproche du Christ. Pourvu que beaucoup de croyants puissent goûter et se nourrir par les précieux et vivants écrits de Vassula !
(Fr. K. S., Poland, October 1999)

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After reading TLIG, striving – despite Satan’s terrible oppressions – to live it, and finding it so helpful in making myself faithful too to the spirituality of St. John Bosco, I re-decided to be either a good Salesian priest or nothing at all and re-committed my self again to offer my life for the young persons God will send me as a Salesian and for any soul He wants me to guide for his or her salvation in Christ. Since then whatever God gave me to do: Holy Masses, confessions, retreats, catechetical sessions, classroom activities, conferences, counselling, homilies and spiritual directions – all for saving souls- have been powerful and grace-filled experiences. Never have I felt myself as a real instrument of His as now! Praised be Jesus Christ!
(Fr. R. S., SDB, Philippines, October 1999)

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Empecé a leer porque me dijeron que hablaba de Garabandal, más tarde a colaborar en su traducción. Ese contacto palabra por palabra me llevaba a menudo a interiorizarlo personalmente, a tener para mí los criterios de Jesús acerca de la vida y de la situación del mundo de hoy, tan distintos del pensamiento habitual en ambientes cristianos, pero que coinciden con otros mensajes del Señor o Marianos. He visto cambiar a personas que han tomado esta Obra en sus manos y ha puesto en mí el mismo deseo.
(L. M. T. de C., S.J., Spain, October 1999)

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Three years have passed since. I have read all 8 Volumes meanwhile not only once but several times. I consider these messages to be truly Gods word for our times and the most important readings for this world, especially for the clergy. My sacerdotal vocation has come back into full life and a new joy has filled my heart never dreamed of. Now I have become a fervent missionary in my country for the Pope, for unification of the churches and for the new Pentecost which is soon coming unto us. Praise be to God!
(Fr. G. Wenzel, Germany, October 1999)

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Response to Vassula’s detractors

« Vassula is one of the most balanced and transparent seers that I know. I would even be tempted to say that she is, in a most satisfying way, more normal, more balanced than most others. »

So writes Rene Laurentin in his book « When God gives a Sign », a response to objections made against Vassula. Copied below are two extracts from the book which deal with two of the most commonly repeated objections.

(For details of the book and sources of supply click here)

Vassula’s marriage status

« She is divorced and remarried. That seems to be the biggest problem. In fact, her marital status today is perfectly in order. She was married in church to a Protestant (1966) at a time when she was not practicing any religion. After a civil divorce (1980) she was remarried on June 13, 1981. She thought, at the time, that it was a Protestant ceremony according to her husband’s religion, but, in fact, it was a civil marriage. Only a nominal Christian, without contact with her Orthodox Church, she did not even know that her remarriage could be the source of problems. When she presented herself to her church to regularize her marriage, the first priest to whom she spoke could not even seem to feel that there was a problem since it was a mixed marriage. But she insisted, in order to be truly in accord with Orthodox legislation. It was then that she was referred to the priest in charge of marriage problems, and it was he who took care of the matter following the ‘law of economy’ that deals with broken marriages in her church.

« The marriage was celebrated on October 13,1990, in the Greek Orthodox Church of Lausanne. Thus, according to church law her situation presents no problems. »

Note also, Vassula was questioned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith on this very matter. See her response to question number two in the article entitled Dialogue with the CDF.

Theological error

« The most serious attacks concern the Trinity. On reading them, I was impressed. Could I have badly read Vassula, I asked myself? The ambiguities that exist in all prophetic, poetic, or mystical texts; even biblical, would they be demeaned by assumed errors? I lost much time trying to find incriminating phrases. They appeared entirely different in their context, stripped of the distortions and the changed nature to which the passion of the heresy seekers had submitted them.

« The most reputed theologian among Vassula’s adversaries thought he had found in her the ancient heresy called « patripassianisme » of Noet, Epigone, Cleomene and Praxas, for whom the Father is himself incarnated and suffered the Passion; because to them, he only had one person, no Trinity.

« In the original manuscript, of which the edition has erased the references to render more difficult control over the accusations, the author gives four references to the original English text according to the first Edition. NB10:18+ (in his dactylographic text, Vassula’s adversary always cites the first English edition: the offset reproduction of the manuscript – not the second, nor the typographical); NB18:10+; NB54:29+; NB48:38+.

1. On April 7,1987, it is not the Father who is speaking, which is, moreover, very rare for Vassula. It is Jesus, as she and her readers have always recognized him and as the context indicates. NB10:18

   That which has led the author to confusion is that sometimes Vassula calls Jesus « Father », according to a title given to the King Messiah by Isaiah 9:10 (9:6). And if he is our brother as a man, he is Father as God; Author of our very existence. Thus he calls his disciples, « My little children » (John 13:33). Vassula saw this filial relationship at the same time as being brotherly and spousal. These diverse facets are very well articulated for this married woman, who does not confuse the human plan with the mystical. Happily, because if she used the language of the Song of Songs: « Let him not kiss me with the kisses of his mouth »(Sg1:3), or even of certain mystics, celebrating their spousal marriage with Jesus, she would receive a terrible avalanche of criticism. By the simple fact that she uses the verb to « feel » to signify the love she owes Christ or that Christ has for us, her fault finder accuses her of sentimentalism and eroticism quite displaced in its sexual overtones. However, Vassula is without ambiguity. If Jesus kisses her, it is on the forehead, like a father. Everything is as it should be, in the realm of opinion as in the realm of theology. Christianity has never endowed with guilt, neither the heart nor feelings.

2. In the second incriminating passage:

   November 8,1987, the heavenly interlocutor says; « My Cross is on you, bear It with love, My Cross is the door to true tife, embrace It willingly. Abnegation and suffering lead into a divine path. » NB18:10

   It is Jesus who speaks, and it is clear, since he says in the first Me: « Me,(Moi) your Jesus. » Then why attribute it to the Father, why lance Vassula with the poison arrow of Patripassianism?

3. In the third incriminating passage it is Jesus who speaks of his cross and the context is most clear. It is Jesus alone who speaks on that particular day, for the duration of several pages. NB54:15+

   That which has permitted the inquisitor to find the heresy that he is looking for, is that in the preceding lines where Jesus echoes Jn 12:23-25, he calls to mind the moment where he announced the imminent arrival of his « hour » (Jn l2:23); and where the voice of the Father had just glorified him (12:24-25). But it is He who calls forth from the passage the voice of the Father, and not the Father who speaks in all the pages.

4. The accuser believed he had found the erroneous attribution of the Passion to the Father in a fourth passage. In fact, in this passage, Vassula hears successively the voice of the Father; who alone says: « My child »; then that of the Son: « penetrate my wounds, eat my Body and drink my Blood… » NB48:38

   Quotation marks, asterisks and a manuscript note at the bottom of the page indicate the change of interlocutor:

   « Now, it is the Son who speaks » says the note.

   The theologian, who read too quickly, attributes to the Father that which the Son says. He has, no doubt, the excuse of working on the handwritten text, worried about exactness. But after that he would have had to give attention to the least details to not distort the text. »

Archimandrite Eugene Nicolau

Once in a long while an extraordinary event occurs that people mark in their minds and hearts, and date subsequent events from this marker. Such is the experience of an open heart reading « True Life In God » whose messages -I am convinced- are of Divinely inspired origin and are granted to us prophetically (Acts 2:17), through Mrs. Vassula Ryden.

I will not belabor the point that these writings are scripturally intact and correct. Nor will I dwell on the fact that those who approach these messages with skepticism will remain skeptics. Nor will I try to explain why God has chosen Vassula to convey to us His word, once more. No « new » Good News are being announced, yet, God’s children hear the voice of their Father and know that it is He who speaks. He speaks to remind us of His eternal truths and to explain those things of His Word that have been ignored or miscalculated. The effects of His message and the impact of His words to His children are extraordinary. They are transforming. They are rejuvenating. This is what I want to talk about -albeit briefly- in this note.

I want to let everyone who reads this to know of a remarkable event. It is my experience that those that read and follow the messages of True Life In God behave as if they have been reborn into Christ! They have put on Christ as if to be enveloped by Him. They embrace their faith with a fire that is akin to that of the early neophyte Christians! They are even more attracted to their Church and follow Church Traditions and Sacramental Life with a rare devotion! From what I have observed, they live a life that is a true life in God!

What else could I as a pastor want from my flock of God? If these messages make them better Christians; if as a result of their reading of True Life In God they flock back into the Church and its Sacraments; if they not only understand their faith better, but are totally focused on living a Christ-like life; if they overflow with love for God and their neighbor; if they embrace an intimacy with God that resembles those of the Saints; if they submit their will to God and become examples for others; if the True Life In God messages cause such transformations, what more could I ask of my spiritual flock and congregation?

This transformation I have witnessed is without a doubt a « good fruit » of the Holy Spirit and hence the messages themselves must come from God (Matt. 7:20). I therefore will continue to study and draw from the Spirituality I have found in True Life In God.

Archimandrite Eugene Pappas, Greek Orthodox Church, New York, USA February 20, 2001

Lectio Divina for Our Times

by Brother Andrew CSWG

Brother Andrew is a member of the Community of the Servants of the Will of God, a small community of Anglican monks living in Crawley, UK.

I thought I would discuss Vassula Ryden’s Conversations with Jesus with reference to Lectio Divina. Spiritual reading forms an important part of the life of prayer. A well-stocked library is a feature of every monastery. Specific times of the day are set aside for reading. The silence of the monastery and the curb on speech which it places upon even the most talkative is conducive to profitable rumination, as we go about our business, upon what is put before us in our reading. It is rare for a monk not to have a book (or two) ‘on the go’. We read in refectory, and the refectory thus becomes a place where both body and spirit are nourished and renewed, food on the plate and on the bookrest in front of us. In some houses the meal is taken in silence, while one member of the community reads aloud to everyone, but in ours, each reads silently the book in front of him. « A little reading well digested at each session, » as our Rule states, « is the best mental diet for a monk. He should therefore discipline himself to read slowly, contemplating what is written in the light of the Holy Spirit. »

In the earlier stages of our life of prayer we select a passage from the reading material in front of us – it might be a paragraph, a phrase or even just one word, – and ruminate upon it. The Holy Spirit, who always stands ready to guide us, approaches from his side and sheds his light on what we are reading. If we will allow him, he will grant us a depth of insight into what we are reading to which we could never attain on our own. John Henry Newman speaks of « an angel’s reach of thought. » St Paul refers to the gift of « wisdom, knowledge and understanding, » and has much to say about spiritual maturity.

En route, so to speak, to this spiritual maturity, something happens. We find that we are no longer able to meditate upon our reading the way we used to, indeed whatever reading matter we might select, we find it dull, boring, lifeless, and ‘closed’. We frequently pick up texts that used to grant us refreshment and joy, and find nothing in them. If we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us through what has now become something of a desert experience as far as reading is concerned, he will lead us on to a later stage in which God, from his side, selects what we are to think about, ruminate upon, meditate on, and leads us in our thinking on the subject he has given us. The initiative is now on God’s side. Truly, now, « God proposes, man disposes. »

It is a joy when this begins to happen, the more so for its being such an unexpected turn of events. I was on my rest one summer in St David’s Hermitage. I had open on the table before me a book by Father Gilbert. I alternated my reading with manual work in the garden and as I worked, I found myself thinking along certain given lines, and enjoying it hugely. I worked and thought for some twenty minutes then went inside and sat down to my book again, and there in front of me, as if highlighted, was the matter I had just been reflecting upon, lucid, clear, ‘open’, the meaning revealed. I spent much of that sunny afternoon thus occupied -working a little, reading a little, and each time it was the same – there in front of me as I sat down to read was what I had been thinking about outside, and as I subsequently resumed my work in the garden, I was given to reflect on what I was about to read, before I read it. I was being led in my reading by the spirit, and not just led, but taught as well. It was a happy man who sat down to tea later that afternoon and reflected upon the words of the psalmist,

« In the scroll of the book it is written of me, that I should do your will: oh my God, I long to do it, your law delights my heart. » (Ps 40)

Understanding received in this way is ‘perfect’, that is to say, it is not a conclusion arrived at after thought. It is complete as given, and this quality of ‘perfection’ is immediately perceived by the recipient. It reassures, it calms, it is steady, stable, serene, it needs no verifying, it is above controversy, and the wisdom and knowledge that come with it share these characteristics. It is discrete. It does not belong in the debating chamber. It belongs, rather, in the heart of those whom the Holy Spirit has been preparing to receive it. I often think that if people would allow the Holy Spirit to teach them in this way then all the controversies over the meaning of Scripture and how it is to be interpreted would cease and they would then be able to answer the only question that really matters, namely, « Do you believe this? » with a definite

« yes » or « no ».

Sometimes the Holy Spirit will lead us to think along specific lines for a short period before leading us to find its verification on the page in front of us, as I have just described. At other times his leading of our thinking may last considerably longer. If he wants to prepare us to read a work such as, say, St John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul, we might be given to think and reflect for some weeks on themes as supplied by the Holy Spirit. Then, as we begin reading the book in question, we find laid out before us by the author the very themes we have been ruminating on over the previous weeks. It will be seen here that the reading of the book does not initiate a period of reflection, rather it concludes it. Reading the book becomes a matter of recognising what we have already been given, in the spirit, to understand. Primed, expectant, we have been looking out for what we now find before us, and we accept without hesitation, this, the fulfilment of our reflections.

Sometimes, depending on what the Holy Spirit has in mind for us, the lead period is even longer and he may lead us to think and reflect along given lines for years before bringing the work to its conclusion by putting the book he intends for us into our hands – and this is what he did with me concerning Vassula’s Conversations with Jesus. For a period of several years he gave me major themes to think about – the nature of salvation, purgatory and beyond, life in the new creation, the defeat of Satan and the ending of the Spiritual War, the transfer of the population of this world into the new creation, the raising of the shepherds needed to guide the flock into the new world, the Dark Night into which the world has been drawn in our times, the end of that Dark Night, and the central role, in all of this, of love, the love of God our creator for his creatures, and our response, in and through the power of love, to Him. Such was my food and drink during those years. Wonderful themes! Tremendous themes! As I went about my business around the monastery I kept them in my heart and reflected upon what I was being shown with what I can only describe as a great and secret gladness. I found in these meditations all the hallmarks of divine provenance which I have been taught by experience to look for and which I mention above – steadiness, stability, serenity and so on. So I went on quietly, and as I did so, I kept an eye open for the book that would draw these great themes together. Such themes! Such themes! Who could write them down? Who could even think of such tremendous matters and not be shaken to pieces? I frequently found myself reflecting upon the scroll, written inside and out, that St John was given to see in the book of Revelation, (5:1) or later (10:10) where the scroll is given him to eat, and in so doing I was restored to the peace, not of this world, that only our Lord can give.

These years of meditation and reflection were brought to their fulfilment the day Father Gregory suggested I read the Messages given by our Lord to Vassula, and I opened the first of twelve books of spiritual reading, the like of which I have never encountered before.

I do not intend to say much about the works themselves. As the psalmist says, and I use the phrase advisedly, « They are more than I am able to express », (Ps 40) but I urge you to read them and judge for yourselves. More than in any other work of theology I have read, the Holy Spirit, who is in them, will reveal to you both himself, and the other two members of the Trinity, the Father, and the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not for me to try to describe what this is actually like when it happens, find out for yourself as you read them. The reader of these works will find his own life in them, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the very life of everyone, and who is the author of these works. You may not want to meet him, or see your own life laid bare and revealed in the light of his truth, but he himself will grant you the wherewithal to stand in his presence when he comes in his glory, with his holy ones with him. (cf Lu 21:36, Matt 25:31, Lu 21:27, Lu 9:26) This, after all, is what our life of prayer is for. If you find that difficult to cope with then these works are not for you. I was speaking to someone recently who told me that on a recent visit to the monastery she read nine books in four days, and this, she admitted, was to avoid having to look up from her reading and acknowledge the presence of our Lord whom she knew was standing before her as she read. Here indeed is that mis-use of religion so prevalent in our own day, where religious practice itself becomes a « place » in which to hide from God.

As you read these works then, reader, when he who is their author appears to you, look up from your reading and speak to him, face to face. It is what you were born for. Once you have left this world you will no longer be able to meet him in this way, so make the most of the time given you. Give ear to what he says to you, look at him, smile at him, and read as he invites you. He has much to say to you, to us, and he says it in these volumes. Tremendous themes! The nature of salvation, purgatory and beyond, life in the new creation, the defeat of Satan and the ending of the Spiritual War, the transfer of the population of this world into the new creation, the raising of the shepherds needed to guide the flock into the new world, the Dark Night into which the world has been drawn in our times, the end of that Dark Night, and the means by which he accomplished, accomplishes, all of that, through love, the love God has for all of us, and our response to that love. It is all written in these books. It will be given to you at the time to respond in appropriate fashion. Your response will be a true one, either yes or no.

The theology to which these volumes introduce us is refreshing, lively, and candid. You do not need a PhD in Theology to understand it. Accessible to all who desire it, it is direct, simple, and a joy to read. It refreshes the parts that other theologies cannot reach. It is in fact everything you do not expect theology to be. I have a hunch that those who read it and take to it will be little inclined to argue about it, or enter into the theological polemic that has so riven the separated churches over the centuries and whose fruits are becoming so manifest in our day – their inability to bring their worshippers to the perfection I have been describing. This inability is remedied in these volumes. Our Lord Himself speaks in them, and for those willing to receive him he grants renewal, refreshment, life, and peace.

The work of True Life in God has hardly begun. I have a feeling that in this initial period the Messages are being presented to the churches, that they might give the simple response, yes, or no, that they elicit. Once this initial period is over they will be presented to the population at large, and then I think astonishing, astounding things will happen, things beyond the capacity of human thinking to encompass – huge numbers of people will recognise, in the reading of them, their author, the Lord Jesus Christ. They will see his face, hear his voice, smile at him, rejoice with him, and remember that they know him and love him, and have done, these many years. The amnesia into which the Prince of this world, Satan, has cast them, and which the churches in their present state are unable to remedy, will thus be overcome, and they will come back to the Church, since for those who love our Lord there is nowhere else to go. Their return will transform the Church out of all recognition.

There is a historical precedent for events of such magnitude. In the third century the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and a vast influx of the population into the Church took place. In a very real sense the Church has been coping with the aftermath of that event ever since. The future events I am pointing to will be the completion, the fulfilment, of that great work begun seventeen hundred years ago.

I think, in True Life in God, we are seeing the beginnings of great events. I suggest you read the Messages and think about them.

Andrew CSWG
(November 2004)

THE TRUE LIFE IN GOD MESSAGES

by Fr Gregory, Father Superior CSWG

Father Gregory is Father Superior of the Community of the Servants of the Will of God, a small community of Anglican monks living in Crawley, UK. Other testimonies from the community can be found here

These Messages Are From The Holy Trinity

The Messages, which Vassula has been receiving since 1985, have been studied by several eminent theologians, who have found them to be entirely consistent with the Scriptures and Tradition of the Church. They have been astonished to observe that Vassula, who had no previous catechetical training, could record teaching about the most profound doctrinal and spiritual matters with such ease and no trace of error. Moreover Vassula herself and the Messages have been investigated by the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who were satisfied by her answers to their questions. Cardinal Ratzinger asked Vassula to publish their questions with her answers, along with the related correspondence, which she has done; and the booklet, entitled ‘True Life In God: Clarifications With The Congregation For The Doctrine Of The Faith’, is now available gratis for all the clergy.

The Lord makes it clear in the Messages that they in no way add to the revelation, which is already complete in Scripture, but that they are intended to be reminders, to be heard in the Spirit, of what is now often ignored in that revelation, according to the provision He describes in John 16:12-15. In every age the Lord inspires His prophets for this task. Those who are enlightened by the same Spirit as moved the prophets to speak words from the Lord will discern the authenticity of the words of the prophets; and in the same way the Holy Spirit is the only Person who can finally convince the reader of the authenticity of the Messages of True Life in God. Indeed even those who have been satisfied, through external verbal criteria, that the Messages are genuine will still need to be taught by the Holy Spirit how to hear them from the heart, in a fully personal way, in order to benefit from them in the way that the Lord intends. Thousands of people from all over the world have already witnessed in this way to the authenticity of the Messages, and have found them to be, as the Lord has described them, His love hymn to His people.

The Messages Are A New Mode Of Evangelism

The Messages are intended primarily for the re-evangelisation of a generation that has been seduced by the prevailing rationalism of the age into apostatising from the Faith of their forebears; and since this rationalistic mentality is now spreading throughout the whole world, the Messages also present an effective method of evangelism for those who have not yet received the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel presented our pagan ancestors with an orderly and ‘rational’ universe that was apt for scientific study. By a profound ‘metanoia’ they adopted a mentality derived from the Word and Wisdom of God, the very Person who is the Son of the living God. For the creation can only be perceived and understood rightly, when it is being received and used as a good gift coming out of the love of God; and this true perception needs also to be fired and enlightened by a corresponding response of love to the Father-Creator for His good gift.

God never intended that humans should use the things of this world, nor their rational faculties, apart from a loving dependence upon His Holy Spirit of truth and His revealed purpose for His creation. The rationalism of this age is therefore a regression from the wisdom that derives from faith. It is satanic, in that it derives from the original temptation to misuse the human rational powers and the good things of creation for self-willed ends. As a consequence of this misuse, ‘the whole creation has been groaning and in travail together until now’. The primary aim of evangelism should be to restore the ‘sons of God’ to their faithful service of the revealed purpose of God for His creation (cf. Romans 8:19-23).

The Messages of True Life in God are accordingly an especially apt mode of evangelism for our day, because they begin with restoring the relationship of trust and loving dependence that the heavenly Father intends for each one of His children. All are invited personally to hear and respond to the Messages for their on-going self-knowledge, repentance and conversion of life. The Lord Jesus Christ would assure each and all of His ready forgiveness of those who turn to Him in repentance, and of His longing desire to be united with them in His Sacred Heart. The more faithless and disorderly the world becomes, the more essential it is that all Christians should strive for purity of heart, in order to be able to ‘see’ the loving presence and power of God at work in themselves and in the world around them, and to ‘hear’ His prophetic words of promise and warning. Here is a God-given opportunity to form and empower a ‘mission-shaped’ Church.

Restoring the Scriptural Language of Prayer and Worship

In the Messages the Lord restores the use of the typological language found in the Gospels, further developed by the New Testament writers, and refined by the Fathers and other spiritual masters of the Church. This typology unites the Old and the New Testaments by using words from the Old Testament, such as ‘serpent’, ‘Abel and Cain’, ‘Egypt’, ‘wilderness’, ‘promised land’, ‘temple’, ‘sanctuary’, etc., with renewed spiritual meanings, to relate the new people of God to the present spiritual realities of the Church, now fulfilled by the coming into this world of the Kingdom of God in Christ and the Holy Spirit. The key to the use of this typological language, as a means of profound spiritual communication, is the word ‘heart’, common to both Testaments and the whole spiritual Tradition of the Churches of East and West. The human heart has been created by God to serve within creation as a temple of the Holy Spirit, and the centre of unity for each person and humanity as a whole.

By His incarnation and redemptive work, the Lord Jesus Christ has restored the human heart to its God-given purpose for unity. Jesus now holds the whole world in His loving Heart for its salvation, and He shares this concern first of all with His Mother, Mary, whom He has appointed to serve as the Mother of all Christians (cf. John 19:26-27 & Revelation 12:17), by whose loving intercession we are nurtured in the Holy Spirit and protected from Satan. We are now in the era of Christ’s coming; not yet His final coming, but rather in that preparatory era when ‘all things are being put under His feet’, through the heart to Heart union with Him, in prayer and worship, of Mary and all the faithful members of His one Body, the Church; for He has triumphed over all His enemies on the Cross.

Why the Clergy Need to Read the Messages

The Lord claims the right, as the Head of His body the Church, to direct it in its obedient service to Himself , and to re-form its unity in the communion of the Holy Spirit. Accordingly He has much to say in the Messages to correct and encourage the shepherds of His Church. He wants them to share with Him the pain that wracks His Body, while the hierarchies still maintain their separate ecclesiastical identities. This sharing in Christ’s sufferings is necessary for overcoming the divisions and restoring the unity, and thereby making effective the evangelism intended by the Messages. For they are given for all Christians, and indeed for all of humankind, to prepare them for the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the fire that the Lord comes to cast upon the earth, to save His people from the darkness and death of separation from Himself. Moreover He wants His priests to restore the integrity of the Eucharist as the celebration of His Perpetual Sacrifice, so as to gather His whole priestly people into the unity of that Sacrifice, and to feed them on Himself at the heavenly Table of the Father; for He is true God and true Man, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, to whom be glory for evermore!

Father Gregory CSWG

Contemporary Messages of the One Great Tradition

by Father Peter of the Community of the Servants of the Will of God

Father Peter is a member of a small community of Anglican monks living in Crawley, UK, whose origins go back to 1938. The community has always had Christian Unity as a primary focus.

Messages of the Tradition

As I began to read these Conversations with Jesus, my first response was that of relief. They did not contain exaggerated or eccentric expressions of Christian Faith, as can sometimes happen in this kind of visionary literature. In fact, they seemed in their content to be quite ‘on-centre,’ even orthodox. It was as the reading progressed that the change occurred: I kept meeting words like ‘metanoia‘, ‘repentance’, ‘grow in holiness’, ‘love’, ‘joy’, ‘peace’, ‘forgive’, ‘reconciliation’, ‘constant prayer’, ‘the Holy Trinity’, ‘the Holy Spirit’, ‘abandonment’. The Beatitudes were invoked, as was the need for urgent prayer, in view of the imminence of the Lord’s coming. The whole culminates in a call for unity and a common date for Easter: ‘Orthodox! Catholics! Protestants! You all belong to Me! You are all One in My Eyes’, ‘Bend to be able to unite’, ‘unify, for My sake, the Feast of Easter’. I found prayers and love-songs that echoed for me the biblical Song of Songs, and the hymns of St Symeon the New Theologian (c.950 – 1022). Parts of the messages echo the Hebrew prophets (Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos) and one gets an intuitive sense of how their own words came to be given and written down. Other parts manifest an uncanny resonance to the Tradition in their prophetic character and exalted mystical and nuptial love-poetry: of St Symeon the New Theologian from the East, and St Catherine of Siena in the West. I concluded that this was no marginal expression of faith: this was everything I have been taught as a monk. This was the One Great Tradition and all encapsulated in these Messages from the Lord Himself. If before there had been any trace of uncertainty, from that moment it vanished, and I never looked back.

‘It is the Lord’

How do we know these messages are from God? When you read them, you will be convinced: they are in that sense self-authenticating. Personal confirmation came to me unexpectedly early as, following the received advice to begin at the beginning, I started to read Volume 1. I discovered on page 8 an account by the Lord himself of his Passion. I thought as I read it – and it is not easy reading: Vassula herself relates how difficult it had been for her to take down – no human being however inspired could have written this imaginatively. This comes from the inside, from the consciousness of the One who actually underwent it. Again, one morning as I was preparing the Gospel reading for Lauds – it was from St John’s Gospel – something suddenly hit me very forcibly. I realised that the Person of whom I was conscious as I read through those words was the very same Person I was conscious of when reading these messages. I found myself responding in the words of the Apostle John on the sea of Tiberias: « It is the Lord! » (Jn21:7).

What is the content of the messages?

Vassula’s own description of the messages is a « re-spelling of the Gospel » (Brighton Conference, October 2003), that is, a fresh statement of the Gospel. What you will find is the same Gospel we hear in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but with an immediacy and a contemporary ring. It is the Lord speaking to us now in 2004 with all the ethos and ambience of our modern world and culture. It is what the Church means by the Tradition: the Holy Spirit speaking directly to each age and culture through chosen instruments as well as the Church’s own teaching authority. It is the one original Gospel that is teased out, made explicit and clear. St John of the Cross once wrote that God has spoken to us in his Son and having thus spoken, he has nothing more to say. So there is no question of something new, even less, innovative. The messages then are a Reminder: The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you’ (Jn 14: 26).

A gift for the whole Church

The charism of Vassula is a gift (Gk. charis) from God for the whole Church, if only we will be humble enough to receive it from God. With God’s gifts come also a test and a challenge. First, there will be a real temptation to doubt. We will have to meet this doubt within ourselves as well as in the response of others, even those set over us in the Lord. Some will be moved to encourage, but from others there may be simply silence, an absence of response. Nevertheless, these messages are not for a few individuals (‘if you like that sort of thing’), nor for one particular part of the Church, which would divert from their true purpose. The Lord is quite clear that the messages are for everyone, every Christian, indeed every human being. A faithful response on our part is the guarantee that what the Lord purposed in giving them will come to fruition. For every doubt coming into our minds, or proposed to us, our question will need to be, Is this thought coming to me from Truth Himself, or is it something in my old nature, looking for a way to avoid such a challenge?’ There is the ever-present danger, especially for our age, of rationalising the event. The Lord has much to say concerning the Rationalism of our age.

A challenge to insincerity

In addition, one can understand that this presents a challenging word for the Church, not altogether unlike that presented to the Seven Churches by John in his Revelation (Rev: 2 & 3). As there, the Lord is calling for the purification of His Church – ‘I want you to live holy as I am holy’ – so it may become like the primitive apostolic church: ‘I intend to clothe you all in my garments of old and rebuild my church on its old foundation’. There is a continuing challenge to all insincerity in the Church, so it may become more truly servant to the world, proclaim the authentic Gospel, and minister healing and salvation to the world’s real ills. It is not comfortable reading at times. Tell my people that I do not want administrators in My House. They will not be justified in My Day because they are the very ones who have industrialised My House.’ The Lord is deeply concerned about those ‘who seek chairs and authority, rather than the salvation of souls’ and all ‘traders’ (cf. Mt 21: 12-13, and parallels).

Institution and charisma

For the Church, reception of these messages presents the age-old problem of the tension between the institution and the charisma of her members. St Paul bids his fellow-Christians: ‘Do not quench the Spirit’ (1 Thess 5: 19). He also urges the Corinthians: ‘Be eager to prophesy’ (1 Cors 14: 39). The prophetic role is deemed second only to that of the apostle: ‘The Lord has appointed first apostles, second prophets…’ (1 Cors 12: 28). ‘The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets…’ (Ephes 4: 11). The prophetic role has not readily been recognised nor accepted in the Church, as indeed the old Israel had difficulty in accepting those chosen servants with their message, sent to it from God. Those responsible for the institution are concerned to maintain proper order, yet there is the need to receive the challenge of the prophetic word and take it on board. This must happen if a way forward is to be found through dialogue and growth, working through love. Is not love after all the heart of the Gospel (1 Cors 13)? ‘Let love be present in all your acts. Your love should not be just words or mere talk but something real and active.’ The question remains whether the challenge can be met so that a charism is not kept under wraps for fear of the consequences.

Comfort and strength from heaven

These messages will be a strengthening for all who have wondered how God is viewing recent struggles in the church, and in the contemporary world. For it is that very world of wars, famine, oppression, abortion, and ecological imbalance that we meet in these messages. The same Lord who first spoke to (he Hebrews, and proclaimed his Gospel to the whole human race through his Son speaks to us with exactly the same urgency, compassion, searching penetration. ‘Love is missing among you.’ ‘Let love be the principle of your life, let love be your root. Beware of your thoughts. Do not judge each other.’ The messages like their ‘parent’ the Gospel, confront us with the unique challenge of Christian faith. This is the challenge of « hearing the word (will) of God and doing it. » ‘Live the messages’ is a continuing refrain spoken by the Lord’s mother. The call is that of our common baptismal calling, to grow in holiness and all its attendant elements: forgiveness, reconciliation, peace, humility, continuous prayer, those dispositions (poverty of spirit, meekness, mercy, purity of heart) which the Lord asks of us in order to receive the blessings (Beatitudes) he desires for us. It is an invitation for each one of us to become the man or woman in Christ we were baptised to become: a unified person within the Body of Christ, the local church to which we belong. That and nothing less would represent the completion and fulfilment of this ‘revelation’ from God.

Father Peter CSWG

Fr Ion Bria, Professor of Orthodox Theology

A former Director of the Unit 1 Unity of Renewal of the World Council of Churches, Geneva, discusses the book, « Fire of Love », a collection of extracts from « True Life in God » which speak of the Holy Spirit.

Within the fellowship of God’s people, commitment to Christ constitutes the foundation and core of the life and ministry of all believers, priests, teachers and bishops. Some are called to a discipleship in which their personal identity and faithfulness to Christ is of paramount significance, or to a distinctive calling which may represent an intensification of a close familiarity with the Risen Christ. Out of this intimate proximity and abundant dialogue, the faithful disciple is committed, under a solemn vow, to echo this unique joy. He/she is not sent to disclose a new revelation, but to re-tell and re-write anew what has been already revealed and manifested; « I find it necessary to write and to appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints »(Jude 3).

Fire of Love is a story written by a reminder of The Reminder. At this stage of history and in this particular place and situation, the reminder’s name is Vassula. Her analysis is realistic. Facing the present human unbelief, disobedience to the church, false prophecy, all speaking « the language of the world », there is no time for complacency and lack of discipline. Christ wants a disciplined community with disciplined faithfulness to God. Where there is faith, God works through the feeble and the powerless, but where there is no repentance and faith, the weakness is weakness. There is an urgency of time, for the intruders and « traders » of Christ are increasing the ignorance of God, perverting and undermining the grace of God, and rejecting our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (Jude 4). By saying: Christ is risen, one goes beyond denouncing this world. One becomes a witness to the new world which will not pass. This introduction is not meant to canonize the content and method of Vassula’s Spiritual Conversations, nor to judge her as a skilful writer in various styles: doxological, sentimental, poetical, penitential. Rather it is to see how the two arms of God, the Son and the Spirit, (St Irenaeus about 130-2) take a disciple and do mighty works through her.

Jesus Christ taught us the Word of God, being Himself the living Logos of God. When the Jews reproached Jesus for not himself having been taught, He answered: « My teaching is not from Myself: it comes from the One who sent Me; and if anyone is prepared to do His Will, he will know whether My teaching is from God » (John 7:16). Jesus insisted on the content of love: « If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word…. Those who do not love Me, do not keep My words. And My word is not My own: it is the word of the One who sent Me » (John 14:23-24). And the Good News has a certain objectivity. He refers to « My commandments », to what is written in the Book of Psalms (Luke 20:42), in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets (Luke 24:44). Jesus did not remain in the desert, but explained the passages from the Scriptures in the Temple, and in encounters on the road (Luke 24:27-32). It is precisely by His teaching that He created a circle of disciples: « Because He taught them with authority, and not like the scribes » (Matt 7:29). All His life and ministry are in « conformity » with the oikonomia of the God of Salvation. He was absorbed by His Father’s affairs, (Luke 2:49). He went about the Holy Land but finally He turned back to Jerusalem, where His Crucifixion became His glorification.

The Risen Christ is now active in the Spirit, as becomes clear on the day of Pentecost. He needs the Spirit to communicate with us, therefore He enjoins on us: « Do not suppress My Spirit ». The Spirit is the Truth, who « will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you » (John 14:26). The Spirit is His witness, « another witness » (John 5, 6), since He will not speak as from Himself, but will say only what He has learned, and will teach you of the things to come » (John 16:13). But the Spirit is freedom, like a wind blowing where it pleases. Where there are false teachers and teaching, the Spirit repeats strictly what Jesus said. Where there are faithful disciples, the Spirit reveals the hidden jewels of God’s wisdom. The Spirit will complete in us the perfect love of the Risen Christ. « do not say that all I had to say to you has been said; why limit me as yourself? » Jesus imparts gifts, abilities, ministries, through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, who is present everywhere and fills all things, goes out to reach the whole world.

« For you too will be my witnesses ». Here is the role of the reminders of The Reminder and witnesses to The Witness, who are not selected and appointed to an office, but blessed and anointed to testify that Christ is Risen! « I am free to send you new portents and fresh wonders ». Their quality is perfect love and loyalty, and when it is necessary Jesus Christ asks them to rewrite His message. What a lesson about the « schola » character of Christianity! The Gospel is not imposed by imperial edict, decree of a magisterium, decisions of a council, by intellectual oppression or cultural conformism. The Christian is a scholastics absorbed in a master-disciple colloquium and gracious mutual communications. It could be turned into conversion, renewal of mind and heart. The scholastics will then say: « I vow to remain faithful to You; this is my solemn vow; help me keep this vow forever and ever. » The disciple of the Master remains a student, a pupil.

Fire of Love utters a heavy word and warning for ecumenical Christianity. The symbol of  » three iron bars » is true, and corresponds with the « rigidity » of Churches petrified in the sleep and lethargy of division. This is also here a matter of commitment to Christ. In His Message, Christ asks for some urgent « reparations », at least to celebrate Easter on a common date. Only the fire of the Spirit can melt and bend the immobile bars. If not, Jesus will reject Christians like « rotten wood ». In an age when so many sectarian and fundamentalist groups retain all our attention and leave no time for remembrance of God, Christians cannot be completely deaf to the persuasion and advice of Vassula in regard to new signs of unity, here and now. There is something universal in this message, recalling that « all of you are one in Christ Jesus » (Gal 3:28).

Tradition specifies no limits to the material and medium to be used in communicating the Gospel message, requiring only that it be appropriate. The historical practice retains a strict number of teaching ministries: pastors, priests, teachers, theologians and bishops. Could we interpret Tradition as being concerned with other kinds of communication, e.g. exceptional charismatic reminders? Does it provide sufficient ground for taking as comprehensive a view as possible of those who are bearers of a vision of Christ, communicating through written words, received from above? The Church then has to recognize the gifts of the faithful, to develop and integrate them into the life of the whole Body. Discerning them, restraining some and encouraging others.

The author of Fire of Love possesses a visible testimony of her experience through her hands. The task of the voice and hand of the Reminder is not a mechanical one. She has to cope with her humanity, strengths, failures and weakness. She needs to come before God in penance and prayer. She needs to be sustained by the communion of believers and saints. Her stubbornness to say « Christ is Risen » as an unceasing prayer can irritate many. She is under the scrutiny of those who are questioning the objectivity and history of her apparitions, revelation and prediction. Her strength pointing beyond herself to Christ. She must be aware that she takes a great risk, because her authority is a subject-authority, itself under the judgement and correction of God. The Risen Christ, like the widow, keeps bothering her (Luke 18:5). Her availability, as a late comer, is already a grace, allowing the Lord to transform and to use her: « I have pleaded with the Lord three times for it to leave me but He said ‘My grace is enough for you: My power is at its best in weakness’. So I shall be very happy to make my weaknesses my special boast so that the power of Christ may stay over me, and that is why I am quite content with my weaknesses, and with insults, hardships, persecutions and the agonies I go through for Christ’s sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong » (2 Cor 12:8-10).

Fr. René Laurentin

Fr. René Laurentin is well known for his promotion of Medjugorje and for his investigations into the widespread apparitions of Our Lady throughout the world in recent years. He has written many definitive works on Church life, the Second Vatican Council and Marian theology. The following is taken from ‘When God gives a Sign’ a response to objections made against Vassula and published in 1993 by Trinitas in the United States (see sources of the books)

Vassula is one of the most balanced and transparent seers that I know. I would even be tempted to say that she is, in a most satisfying way, more normal, more balanced than most others. Nevertheless, she has excited more opposition than any other. Why? Is it because she is Orthodox? A woman? Remarried? Is it the extent of her influence such to make one fear that the fruits of her activity give rise to persecutions from Satan? It is difficult to measure the role of each of these factors as well as several others.

Vassula is Orthodox, thus it is presumed that she is certainly a heretic. The Orthodox are separated from the Catholics by a schism, not by a heresy. They acknowledge all the dogmas before the separation of 1054. That leaves the Pope and the Immaculate Conception. The latter comes to us from their oriental tradition, but it is now rejected by most due to the papal definition. In these two points, Vassula adheres fully to the Catholic doctrine, and that creates a problem for certain Orthodox people. An Orthodox theologian who had been invited to write a preface for her messages declined the invitation, saying: « It is too Catholic. » Vassula’s ecumenism is not minimal; it is whole.

Another prejudice: She is a woman who speaks of theology. That is still not accepted by all. She is of Greek origin. She comes from another culture. That causes misunderstanding for others.

She is divorced and remarried. That seems to be the biggest problem. In fact, her marital status today is perfectly in order. She was married in church to a Protestant (1966) at a time when she was not practicing any religion. After a civil divorce (1980) she was remarried on June 13, 1981. She thought, at the time, that it was a Protestant ceremony according to her husband’s religion, but, in fact, it was a civil marriage. Only a nominal Christian, without contact with her Orthodox Church, she did not even know that her remarriage could be the source of problems. When she presented herself to her church to regularize her marriage, the first priest to whom she spoke could not even seem to feel that there was a problem since it was a mixed marriage. But she insisted, in order to be truly in accord with Orthodox legislation. It was then that she was referred to the priest in charge of marriage problems, and it was he who took care of the matter following the « law of economy » that deals with broken marriages in her church. The marriage was celebrated on October 13, 1990, in the Greek Orthodox Church of Lausanne. Thus, according to church law her situation presents no problems.

One might ask, but why did Christ not begin by asking her to straighten out this matter? It is because he has led her progressively, like a teacher, as he has done since the Old Testament. He did not ask Abraham and the Patriarchs to give up their polygamy. It was a tolerance that gradually disappeared by the spiritual progress of revelation. It was thus that Vassula gradually re-entered her church and took on values of Catholic teaching, including the Sacred Heart, the Pope and purgatory.

Fr. Michael O´Carroll CSSp

Fr. Michael O’Carroll, Vassula’s spiritual adviser for many years, travelled widely with her on her speaking missions. He is a renowned theologian and member of the Pontifical Marian Academy. He released the following statement at the beginning of 1997 after having had to relinquish his travelling role.

I wish my support for Vassula Ryden to be known, as is already evident from the two books which I have written: Vassula of the Sacred Heart’s Passion and Bearer of the Light and a third in preparation which is: Vassula: Apostle of the Holy Trinity. It is scarcely necessary to add anything to this statement but I wish to make it clear that this priest, who has been her counsellor so far, wishes any listener to be relieved of any suspicion or doubt of any kind whatsoever about my belief in the divine origin of the messages given to Vassula.

This question has been discussed and an affirmative conclusion amply expressed by theologians around the world in North and South America, as far away as Japan, and by many in Europe. And I am pleased to state that I am in total agreement with all those who have voiced their fidelity, their faith in the messages, expressing this to the highest authority available; that is to the Cardinal Prefect of the Congragation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger, who eventually, after many letters had been sent to him, made an important statement to our friends in Guadalajara who have assured us that they are prepared to testify under oath what he had said to them, and I quote the essential words of his message: « You may continue to promote her writings… »

This, it seems to me, is sufficient evidence and I wish to affirm my total acceptance of this position which does not in any way compromise my attachment to the Holy See. I am known as a defender of the papacy.

When I met the present Pope on the 29th November 1995, I asked him for a blessing for Vassula. I had previously offered to him my two books on himself, one on his Polish origins and one on his life and teachings and I assured him, « I am your defender. » To this he replied, « There are many enemies. »

He gave me then a blessing, at my request, for Vassula. It is also known that when he knew there were representatives of our Spanish friends in an audience with him on August 11, 1996 he publicly gave them his encouragement and he asked them to continue to witness to the love of God, as we know is so beautifully expressed in the messages.

I think this ought to reassure anyone who may be tempted to think that I have changed my opinion in regard to the messages in True Life in God.

Father Michael O´Carroll CSSp,
January 2, 1997
Black Rock College
Dublin, Ireland

Vassula Ryden’s writings

by Fr. Michael O´Carroll, CSSp

More has been written on Jesus Christ in the last fifty years than in all the previous Christian centuries. This immense volume of writing, with its echo in the spoken word, in pulpit and lecture room, constitutes undeniable testimony to His might; His uniqueness within human experience and the flow of history is manifest. A very different kind of testimony with a tragic overtone is the fact that, at the present time, more than twenty thousand churches, communities sects, groups and splinter groups claim Him as their nominal central figure or their founder. Within a cosmic or worldwide setting it is noteworthy that though He was a Jew, a Semite and an Asiatic, his following is minimal among His own people and race, and in His continent. The temptation is to settle for this in a fatalistic spirit; to do so deliberately would be to surrender belief in his universal mission and message.

Will the immense intellectual ferment, the labours of scholars, effect the change so desirable, not only among those who do not explicitly accept Jesus as their Saviour, but among those who do but pay little heed to his teaching? We have had so many Christologies; so much has been written on the « Jesus of history » and the « Christ of faith »; every possible detail and aspect of the Bible has been scrutinized; marginal disciplines like archaeology, the Qumran fields, inter-testamental and Jewish-Christian texts have been studied; we have recently had a whole new literature on the most obvious thing about Jesus, his Jewishness.

Having had to go through some of this literary forest I am convinced that all who search for Jesus Christ, who wish to share in his healing, transforming self-disclosure must seriously heed the claim of the mystics. I submit that to ignore their testimony is to miss a powerful, enlightening dimension of Jesus Christ. It is also to close his mystery to the sincere votaries of the great world religions, which we are invited to view with sympathy and understanding. They are open at times strikingly to the appeal of mysticism, have not allowed perversion of its meaning. On the level of history great mystics have profoundly influenced their times. Jesus Christ, by his action on them, discloses a psychic potential, deep, subtle, rich on which he alone can directly act. What history and psychology indicate, theology clarifies and confirms.

It is in such a deep perspective that I would wish to present this volume of Vassula Rydn’s writings. I would ask to be taken as speaking a strictly theological language, valid and accurate, when I describe her work as a valuable record of mystical experience. Irrespective of terminology the value is beyond question. Others like Maria Concepcion de Armida and Adrienne von Speyr have taken dictation directly from the Lord, or given it to another under his inspiration. Vassula’s case is singular in that the handwriting is directly controlled. We have the transcription of an intensely personal experience of Jesus Christ with the assurance that he was involved down to the physical element of putting the words on paper.

Readers who have not seen the scientific evidence for this phenomenon, in so far as there can be evidence, may be reassured. An expert graphologist, attached to the Paris Court of Appeals, J A Munier, examined the writing with no knowledge of the author’s identity and found it astonishing in many particulars; to the ordinary observer it is in marked contrast with Vassula’s normal handwriting.

To those who accept the message of Jesus in Vassula’s testimony, the contents of her books are thought-provoking, at times disturbing, overall elevating and powerfully encouraging. It is easy to see why her books have caused so many striking conversions. The leit-motiv throughout is the love of Jesus, expressed in the sponsal terms characteristic of mysticism, but manifested as an effulgence, an outpouring of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I consider this revelation one of the most helpful, promising of all that have been recorded in recent times. It is so, for the Lord’s messenger is of the Orthodox Church, and we have never heard the language of the Sacred Heart from this communion. Historically unique for this reason, it is the long-awaited revival for Catholics of an ideal, an intuition of Jesus, which for centuries, especially since the age of St Margaret Mary, made countless saints and apostles. After Vatican II what really was an outlook, a total vision of the Saviour was dismissed by many as mere « devotion ». Those who hoped for better days scarcely expected the dawn to appear in the East.

The message is thus an augury for the Christian unity which is a cherished theme and a promise in Vassula’s pages. Where could Christians meet more securely than in the Heart of Christ? He has made it clear that the miracle of unity will be seen as his work.

It is not the first benefit that we have received from the Orthodox. During the Second Vatican Council it was the Orthodox, notably one Greek theologian, Nikos Nissiotis, who kept pressing for a theology of the Holy Spirit, without this the Council Documents would have little impact in their world. Much has been done since then to make good any possible loss. It is noteworthy that Jesus instructs Vassula on the Holy Spirit, speaks to her of Him frequently.

The language which He speaks to her is that of love. But He does not dispense with the Commandments; the reader is urged to contrast the clarity of His utterance with so much that is hazy and vague in some popular presentations of the faith. Ecumenists would also read with profit the warnings against dilution of doctrine; as preachers should take to heart the advice not to give priority to social concern over the divine claim to adoration – they must not cut themselves off from God the source of life, nor minimize the divinity of Jesus Christ, nor the mysteries of his life, death and resurrection.

There are searing pages in Vassula’s communications on the present state of the Church. How are we to react to the application of Apocalypse XIII to our time? I would say with great humility, attentive to its realism, concerned to reap the reward of fidelity. There is much to console in the whole corpus. We have a word of reassurance on the many apparitions and visions which in our day the Spirit is bestowing on the faithful. We are reminded that the Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. Jesus cares for His Church with all the love of His Heart, realizes its dreadful need and intends to renew it.

At this stage I am reminded of another work which has some similarity with that of Vassula, Confidences de Jesus given to an Italian priest, Mgr Ottavio Michellini of the diocese of Carpi. He was given a very clear idea of the evils within the Church, but also a firm hope that through the intercession of Mary, through her triumph over the forces of evil, the reign of Jesus would be established. Pius XII, in a broadcast message to the International Marian Congress at Lourdes on 17th September 1958, three weeks before his death, spoke these words: `I wish to affirm my unshakeable confidence that the reign of Jesus will come through the reign of Mary.’

True to the great Orthodox tradition, Vassula believes in the power of Mary. How many people forgot this rich, living legacy when they spoke of Mary as an obstacle to Christian unity ! If Christian unity is to be complete it must include the Orthodox, who would never compromise on Marian theology or devotion. This was made crystal clear in the early days of Faith and Order by one of its most committed members, the giant of modern Russian Orthodox Marian theology, Sergey Bulgakov.

In Marian devotion Vassula is responsive to a particularly Catholic form of piety, the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Heart of Mary united to the Heart of Jesus is a theme to inspire and encourage. Pope John Paul II speaking of it used the phrase `Alliance of the Two Hearts.’ This was chosen as the title of an international symposium sponsored in Fatima from 14th to 19th September, 1986 by Cardinal Sin. The symposium enjoyed formal approval in a special message received from the Pope, who later received the participants in Rome and was given the complete proceedings. In these papers speciality theologians had supported with impeccable research the continuity of the theme through the centuries, noting obviously the high points; the great saints of Helfta in medieval times, the saints and teachers of seventeenth century France, notably St John Eudes, the awakening of the nineteenth century and then the culmination in our time, with the formal teaching of the Popes since Pius XII, the promise of Fatima that with the triumph of the Immaculate Heart over Russia, Jesus wishes it to be glorified along with his own Sacred Heart – and so many other private revelations at the present time.

I am convinced that we may expect an enriched theology of the heart within the Church from a close, profound fusion of the eastern and western traditions. It is well known that the idea of divinization, of man made in the image of God, is basic to the thinking of the Greek Fathers, especially those of the school of Alexandria. In the theological renewal which will precede the Christian unity which we long for, there must be serious reflection on the Heart of Jesus, God-man, as the means and model of divinization.

An immense perspective opens before us in Christian theology. John Paul II has shown how his philosophy of the human person, influenced to some extent by his studies in phenomenology, may be integrated in the theology of the heart. At the symposium of Fatima the theologians agreed that it is with the idea of the Holy Spirit that the fruitful synthesis will be achieved. There is here a sense of profound spiritual harmony. But the field is still open for theological research and reflection.

It is, meanwhile, a matter for deep satisfaction that Vassula Rydn, guided word by word by Jesus, joins the company of theologians and spiritual writers vowed to the regeneration and divinization of mankind through the mediation of the two Hearts. It is an honour to commend and by so doing to support the ideal which she proposes with such clear intuition and courageous candour, with the eloquence of simplicity, at times poignant: the Ideal who is Christ himself, the « Mediator and the fullness of all revelation » as Vatican II calls him, the One who is the Centre of all life and of all creation, for He is the Origin, the Alpha and the Omega. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and understanding (Colossians 2:3); He is the first-born of all creation… in whom all things subsist (Colossians 1:15,17). To Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory from all creatures evermore, through the mediation of Blessed Maria Theotokos.

19th May, 1991 – Pentecost Sunday

Fr. Theophil Pelgrims

Testimony in front of an audience while accompanying Vassula in Russia, July 1999

Did not our hearts burn within us also while Jesus was talking to us through Vassula? In all events, Vassula, we have noticed how Christ, our God jealous of His souls, has seduced you. Yes, Vassula, you have been seduced by this considerate love of our Lord. Thank you for letting us discover Jesus as the divine tenderness of the Father for us. St. John the Evangelist invites us in his Gospel to imitate his gesture during the Last Supper. Let us also rest on the loving Heart of our Saviour our heads so often filled with torment and stress. Besides, what John teaches us is the gesture of Jesus himself toward His heavenly Father. For « no one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart, who has made him known » (Prologue of St John, verse 18). Lord Jesus, living euchologion of the Father, thank You for Your Love, thank You for Your messenger and bride Vassula. Yes, our Lord is King. He has robed Himself in the splendour of His devoted souls!

Unity and our Holy Mother Mary

(from a Protestant point of view)

by Reverend Sverker Trônet

This talk was given to the international gathering of True Life in God in Jerusalem, May 1998

I have been asked to speak from a Protestant point of view about the Unity of the Church and Our Lady. First I must say something about being a Protestant or Lutheran.

The Church of Sweden as a whole was severed from the Church of Rome and the Pope during the Reformation in the sixteenth century. It was the king who wanted to be the sole ruler of his country and he did not want any interference from abroad, that is from the Pope and the bishops who really had a good deal also of worldly power.

The teachings of Martin Luther suited the king’s purposes very well. The king took the place of the Pope. From Germany, the mainland of the reformation, was imported the most important of the reformation confessions – the Augsburg Confession, which was critical of abuses in the late medieval Church but was otherwise very traditional, with no intention of teaching anything new, but only being a witness to the faith of the one, holy, catholic (also Roman) and apostolic Church. The Augsburg Confession is today considered, by the official Catholic and Lutheran Ecumenical Commission, to have a catholic intention and an ecumenical will.

There certainly was a great change of the Church in Sweden and for the faithful in the reformation time, but there was also a certain continuity. Some priests and bishops left the country, but some stayed and saved what could be saved.

After the turmoil of the reformation there was just one Church in Sweden. There still were bishops and priests, who by now could be married. The Mass was celebrated, but it was in Swedish instead of Latin and the people could now communicate also from the chalice. Mary and the saints soon disappeared. And so did the monasteries, often by violence. The Bible was translated and there was catechetical work in the schools. For three hundred years there was no alternative. Being a Swede meant being a Lutheran.

Today, despite a radical secularisation, most Swedes belong to the Church which is no longer governed by the king but by democratically voted politicians and their parties. I cannot call myself a Protestant or a Lutheran, but I belong to the Church of Sweden.

I don’t think the reformation in Sweden, from a religious point of view, could be justified or was necessary or for the good of the Church, but I can see some good things in it, despite the undisputedly bad things, and also what these good things came to mean for the future.

The Bible, read within the horizon of the old tradition and the Augsburg Confession, was kept as the first and last authority for the faith. This is what preserved the Church in Sweden as a fairly orthodox Christian Church, despite its severance from Rome. But you can imagine what happens today when the Bible, at least in practice, is no longer an authority and if it is taken notice of at all, it is interpreted according to the opinions of the day.

In the example of the Church of Sweden you can see, both positively and negatively, the vital necessity of the unity of the Church, both in space and time, being in communion with all the other local Churches all over the world, in the bishops unity with the Bishop of Rome, but also being in communion with the saints of all times, which means an active remembrance of the tradition. When a Church both has lost its memory and is cut away from the universal Church it is exposed to the pressure of the world and modern secular opinion without the God-given defence and corrective. I believe only the reunion with Rome could save and preserve the Church of Sweden as a Christian Church.

This is said as an example. Now something more general about Christian Unity. There certainly are many things that keep all Christians together, also from different denominations. We believe in and pray to the same triune God. We believe in the incarnation of God the Son. We all believe in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are baptized with the same baptism, Even if all Christians can’t go to communion together we believe that we receive and are joined to the one and same body of Christ in the different churches. With slight variations we share the same beliefs. Isn’t that enough? Our Lord prays to the Father, in his priestly prayer in St. John’s seventeenth chapter and says: « May they all be one … so that the world may believe it was You who sent me. »(v.21)

The unity that Jesus prays for is not only a spiritual unity, but a visible unity in this visible world, « that the world may believe ». The Church certainly is an instrument in God’s hands for the salvation of the world. It is God’s Church. He has made it according to his plan and for his purposes. That the Church should be one and visibly one is certainly part of the founder’s will and intention. The visible unity belongs to the nature of the Church and is very important – a top priority. Visible unity demands a visible center of unity. For the local community there is the parish priest. For the diocese the bishop. For the patriarchate there is the patriarch. And for the whole fold, for the universal Church, there is the Pope.

That there should be a pope is part of Christ’s plans for his Church. This is not what was in dispute from the beginning by the reformers, only the misuse of the papal power. That there is and should be a petrine primacy is clear from the gospels. And as certain as there is an apostolical succession from the apostles to the bishops, there is a petrine succession from St. Peter to his followers on the apostolic throne in the Church of Rome.

Can a Protestant really say so? There are liberals who wouldn’t, because they would say the papacy is part of a patriarcalistic structure. There are others who would reiterate the confessional formulas from the sixteenth century and would eventually say the pope is the antichrist. But if by ‘Protestant’ you mean a person who wants to be true to the Bible, read with the glasses of the old orthodox and catholic tradition, a Protestant certainly could say that the papacy is instituted by Christ.

In the papal encyclical letter from 1995, « Ut Unum Sint », John Paul II asks the non-Roman Catholic Church leaders to consider with him the forms in which the Petrine Primacy could best serve its mission, « that they all may be one … so that the world may believe .. » With regard to the Church of Sweden and the Anglican Churches this invitation should have been very interesting three years earlier, but in 1995 there had already happened things in these churches that made dialogue seem impossible.

The ecumenical dialogue between The Church of Sweden and Rome was for some years, between 1989 and 1993 very promising. The Swedish archbishop declared from the high altar in St. Peter’s in the presence of John Paul II: « The moment has come to declare that the denunciations from the time of the reformation are no longer valid. » The Pope visited Sweden and Cardinal Cassidy the head of the Papal secretariat of Christian Unity wanted an examination of and a dialogue about the apostolic succession in the Churches of Finland and Sweden, to see what was needed for a full recognition.

In the question of the important reformation doctrine of « Justification by faith » a consensus has been reached between Rome and the Lutherans. A dialogue at least as promising was also going on between Rome and the Church of England. But in both cases it came to an end because of new divisive developments. John Paul II declared at Pentecost 1994 that the Church has no right whatsoever to ordain women for the priesthood and that this decision is definitive for all the faithful in the Church. Only four and a half months later the Bishops and other leaders in the Church of Sweden declared that « You cannot be ordained to the priesthood unless you acknowledge women as priests. »

The Lutheran World Federation declared that they would not be without or sacrifice women priests for the sake of unity. After this, two women have been made bishops in Sweden and more women than men are ordained and on their way to ordination. There is also a very vocal feministic theology, which makes new interpretations of the faith and also, of morals. This development has made a total relativism necessary. You cannot criticize and say that it is not according to the Bible. They will answer: It is just pictures and symbols and anything will do. You could just as well say that God is our mother as our father.

This development (in Sweden and England and also in other countries) has made divisions within the Churches of Sweden and England seem necessary and groups are now trying to find their way. The eyes are of course on Rome. The situation is felt to be so serious for the Church of Sweden that many people ask whether it will survive at all. My personal feeling is that only being with the Church which Christ has built on Peter could save us from being transformed into something else than a Christian Church or from annihilation. Only a Church in communion with Peter could rightly put its trust in the promise of Christ: « You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it » (Mt,16:18)

Our Holy Mother Mary is together with the Pope, by the typical Protestant, considered to be what is typically Catholic, and therefore to be shunned. The Pope was by one blow of the sword severed from the Church in Sweden. Mary probably remained in the hearts of the faithful of the first reformation-generation. That was a thing the king couldn’t do anything about. But as the Rosary was forbidden and most of the Marian statues were removed, neither was there any place for our lady in the Protestant Swedish hearts. You can only speculate about what this has meant. To live without the Mother Our Lord has given to his Church.

Typically enough in liberal Protestantism Jesus is not Immanuel, that is God with man, but he is man with God and that is what Mary in reality is. To live without Mary as mother and ideal has made Protestant Christianity more of a teaching to understand, than a life to live. The Church in the reformation became more of a school than a place for prayer and adoration. At the same time it must be said that Mary wasn’t banished from the Church’s teaching, although her place was very much in the background.

So you can find in the confessional writings, in the hymns and in the writings of Martin Luther, sentences that in one way or other affirm the teaching of all the Marian dogmas, although not as dogmas. This, together with other similar catholic elements, has not been without consequence for a Marian renaissance in the Church of Sweden and it has also made it possible to remain in the Church of Sweden with a Catholic faith, without a conflict with the official teaching.

As there are no problems with Peter and the pope, there are no difficulties for a biblical Protestant, of what our old ecumenical archbishop Nathan Sderblom called the evangelical-catholic tradition, to share the catholic and orthodox beliefs about Our Lady. The problem with present day Protestants is that very many of them, I speak first of all about the Church of Sweden but perhaps it could be said also about Lutherans and Anglicans in Western Europe and the USA, that they don’t seem any longer to believe in Gods revelation nor in the Bible as the Word of God. But if The Word of God is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path, it will lead you to honour and bless Mary.

We can take it for certain that all of Our Lord’s actions and words had a meaning, not just for the singular situation in which they were performed or uttered, but were meant for the Church he founded and therefore had a universal meaning and were to be valid until the end of time. Therefore it is very natural to see that Jesus, from the Cross, gave Mary to be the mother not only of John, but of all the apostles and of all the Church in all times and places.

Next we are led by the word of God to see with John « the great sign which appeared in heaven: a woman adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown ». Of course this is Mary. She is alive, She is taken up to heaven with her body and crowned to be the Queen of heaven and earth. We can turn to her and ask for her motherly care and her prayers for us. Mary is the Mother of the Church, but she is also The Church – Our Mother. She is a personification of the Church. In her everything that we are waiting for is already fulfilled and she is already there, where we hope to meet her and her Son, in heaven.

In this way I could go on, from the Bible to the Catholic dogma. And in the case of, for example the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, where it isn’t absolutely self-evident, from the Bible, that « Gratia Plena » – « full of grace » – means that there was not ever any place for sin in Mary, I am fully confident that the Holy Spirit has led the Church to the complete truth according to the promise of Jesus. (Jn,16:13)

Among the many titles of our Lady and among all the things She is, let us ask her to be, for the Church, the Mother of Unity. That unity which Jesus prayed for and which seems to be so very difficult, sometimes even impossible. Let us confide it to her care and to her prayers, that it may come soon, at that time and in that way which is according to the will of God.

I have also been asked to say why I support the messages of True Life in God. If somebody had told me about Vassula before I myself had heard her or had read the messages, I would probably have been uninterested, supposing it was another silly sect. I would not have said it was impossible with prophesies, revelations or messages like these, but I never had met anything like it. But since I for the first time heard Vassula in Rome in march 1995 I have been convinced that it is all true.

Perhaps I could say that I recognized the voice, I was very moved and had tears in my eyes. Since then I have read the messages and I have never come across anything that sounded strange or foreign to what I have learned from the Bible and the tradition of the Church. What has meant most to me is of course the intimacy of the messages. The important position of Mary. The centrality of the unity of the Church around the Pope and also the admonitions to be one with John Paul II. As you may have understood, I think I have seen instances of that apostasy, which Jesus has spoken of in the messages. What is not unimportant to me is also the fact of Vassula not being formally a Roman Catholic, but living a Catholic life and having the catholic faith. That is my situation also and with me many in the Church of Sweden.

Sr. Lucy Rooney and Fr. Bob Faricy

Lucy Rooney and Bob Faricy have written widely on contemporary apparition events, having strongly defended Medjugorje.

Vassula Ryden: national tennis champion of Bangladesh, Sheraton Hotel model, exhibiting painter, socialite, her husband’s hostess, mother of two sons, the ideal person to receives revelations in our times? Perhaps so, since God’s ways are always surprising, his choices not usually those we would make (cf. Isaiah 55:8)

The extraordinary way in which these revelations are made – by Vassula’s hand being taken over to write messages, is off-putting. She herself had doubts from time to time – yet knows in her heart that it really is Jesus who moves her hand. « I am too realistic, too sceptic. I can’t help feeling again today doubtful that this is happening … I who very well know that I can’t handle my hand and that I know how powerless I become when God takes possession of my hand. » (10:23)

She has examined all the arguments: that she is influenced by the sub-conscious, or by evil spirits, by psychological disturbances. She knows what will be said about her: ridicule at least, even hatred. Yet courageously, risking all the scorn, she publishes these messages. She knows too her own lowliness as the messenger, as Jesus said to her: « Do not think for one moment that I gave you this charisma because I love you more than the rest of My children. » (23 January 1987)

But how do you know that the words here attributed to the Lord really come from Jesus? How can you be sure that Jesus spoke to Vassula, wrote through her, dictated to her? Do you have a right to believe that? Can you believe it? We believe that Vassula’s experience is authentic. That is our personal discernment. We do not, of course, nor could we, make any kind of official recognition or pronouncement of validity. On the contrary, we submit our judgement to the judgement of legitimate church authority.

Obviously, no one is obliged to believe that Jesus says what Vassula says He says. But anyone can believe that these are Jesus’ words. Should you believe? Make your own discernment. Read, and decide for yourself with the Lord’s help.

What is the message of Jesus to us through Vassula? He said: « I come and refresh all that has already been taught by Me. » (1 March 1987) « My message is one of Peace and Love … I come to show this world My Mercy. » (8 March 1987)

It becomes clear from the multiplicity of apparitions and revelations in our times, and it is perfectly in accord with the Gospels, that the end of these times is near. There is a battle on, before Satan loses his power. There is no indication of the end of the world, but of a time of tribulation followed, for those who endure, by a new era of love and of peace. We are in training for those dark days. Meanwhile we are living in a time not of judgement, but of Mercy. Jesus said to Vassula: « Your era has lost all spiritual values. » (26 August 1987) « The world has incessantly been offending Me, and I, for my part, have incessantly been reminding them of My existence and of how I love them. My Chalice of Justice is full, creation! My Justice lies heavily upon you … My cries resound and shake the entire heavens leaving My angels trembling for what has to come. I am a God of Justice and My eyes have grown weary watching hypocrisy, atheism, immorality; my creation has become in its decadence a replica what Sodom was. I will thunder you with My Justice as I have thundered the Sodomites. Repent, creation, before I come.: (1 September 1987 and following) When Vassula pleaded that his clildren were only asleep, He replied: « They are sleeping hour after hour, year after year. »

Jesus says that He has sent signs and warnings but they have been rejected (1 September 1987) Here then in Vassula we have another message of mercy: « You are one of the many signs. » (8 January 1987) And Jesus confirms what has startled us all – the present day outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all who ask, and the multiplication of apparitions and wonders all over the world: « I tell you solemnly that I shall keep spreading My Holy Spirit on your sons and daughters as has never happened among many generations, to nourish you from My Own Hand, and to place My entire Law in your hearts ». (message from the Sacred Heart for England, February 1991).

« All the messages bearing the call of love and peace, leading those that are lost to find their way back to me, are all from the Father and Me. » (10 October 1986) This is the good news: « The weaker and more wretched you are the more I seek you and love you. » (17 March 1987) It is our unbelievable privilege that Jesus can say to each one of us, through Vassula: « I love you to a degree you are unable to grasp. » (8 January 1987) « I, God, love you to distraction. » (8 December 1986) And most profoundly of all: « Love loves you. »(29 August 1987)

Read the book and share in Vassula’s experience of the Lord. That sharing will constitute a part of your own experience of the Lord. Read with faith. Not with faith in Vassula, and not with faith in the authenticity of her experience, but with faith in Jesus. Have faith, Jesus wants to share himself and His love for you with you through these messages. Through your reading, Jesus can lead you to know Him better, and to love Him more, and to follow Him more closely.

What if you, the reader, are not a Roman Catholic? Neither is Vassula. This book is not just for Roman Catholics, but for everyone, for anyone that the Lord leads to read it. Whoever you are, if you know Jesus, this book will help you to know him better. And if you don’t, the messages can help you to know him. He knows you. And He has already led you to read at least this far.

Echo of the Gospel

Rev. Ljudevit Rupčić OFM
Theologian, Professor of Exegesis, Author

Every day Vassula Ryden has a new experience of the divine; she continues to spread her prophetic message in today’ world which is increasingly more remote from God, remote from the foundation on which it is established, risking its very existence. Vassula is a true prophet of our times. On the one hand, she deals with the problems and the needs of our times; on the other hand, she seeks new prospects from God, to come finally enriched from her difficulties and fin in Him harmony, peace, and fullness. Her message is imbued with the Gospel. Its special feature consists only in the way of transmitting it to us; besides, Vassula offers to the old and new problems of our world nothing but the everlasting Gospel.

Vassula is, like all other prophets, convinced of the truthfulness of her message and the authenticity of her mission. She knows her own weakness but she resolutely keeps to her commitment to diffuse the messages to others. She finds God’ help in continuous prayer and in the Eucharist. Persevering in her will and desires, she strives to be entirely united with God. She is conscious of the urgency to diffuse the message because time is running out and an inescapable great chastisement is looming; it can be avoided only if we come back to God, and accept Him again.

Vassula’ experience with God is a lasting and inexhaustible spring of wisdom, love enthusiasm for God and the salvation of the world. For that reason the testimony is convincing, joyful, and stimulating. Besides conversion and a call that humankind should answer love with love, there is also concern for church unity. « Love loves you » (3/7/92) means that, in Vassula’ talks and union with God, each one of us can and is allowed to, put himself or herself in Vassula’ place. God loves everyone in that way. Everywhere in here writings we feel the Breath of Love. Grace flows everywhere; the Holy Spirit is everywhere at work, giving profusely. Everywhere one hears to Lord’ steps.

Vassula’ writings are an echo of the Gospel. The One who speaks is, indeed, the very Word of God. Most readers and listeners recognise in His words the voice of God (14/7/92). Vassula does not tell anything basically new that God would not have already told, but Gods Word is brought up to date through her mouth, giving prominence to priorities and needed emphasis. In this way the Word is actualised, serious, convincing, a testimony.

The question, « Why repeat what has already been said? » means that one does not know the needs of humankind, who have the right to hear God’ Word in an understandable, updated way. Besides this, there is the obligation to become a messenger of the Word, which gives testimony within human experience. Due to the forgetfulness of men and women, one too easily overlooks the forthcoming disaster and the immediacy of the catastrophe to which mankind is exposed; it is necessary to take it out of this indifference so as to allow grace to flow continuously and to foster conversion.

Despite the objective authenticity of Vassula’ testimony, people, here and there, raise objections to its truth. Though they are not sufficient to call the testimony in question, the reasons are both of an objective and subjective nature. Reservations arise mainly from a narrow and fragmentary view of the mystery of race, especially when grace is poured out gratuitously, grace whereby God makes the human person a partner in this life and of his works. All these objections amount to human notions and language because they come from a limited human experience, unable by its limitations to accept the Mystery of God. Hence man questions the Word of God and refuses to accept God. For the sceptic the Word of God is always too difficult, even « scandalous », and consequently taken as untrue. The initial assumption of the human mind should be to accept the fact that things which cannot be perceived do exist, and to this one should remain open. It is only in openness to God’ grace that human beings can attain a sure, valuable and adequate knowledge of the mystery.

Criticism arises from the fact that Vassula’ experiences and testimonies are not in harmony with the ignorance and prejudice of those who are prisoners of their own imagination. Vassula’ testimonies are witness against the false understanding of those who disparage her, not against the Gospel or the faith. In no way is she against the God of the Bible, or against faith in him. Those who disparage her are really seeing one opposed to their own way of imagining God whom they assume generally to be One seated on his Throne, far from humankind. For Vassula, human existence is capable of receiving God’ love, his grace and his omnipotence. This « scandalous » view is, in reality, a rediscovery of God. It is a baseless charge to represent Vassula as a supporter of « New Age ». It is as illogical as mixing fire and water. Such criticism merely shows that the critics do not know either Vassula or « New Age ».

On the other hand, one should reflect on where Vassula’ message would lead if it were put into practice. If people faced the reality of love in God an din men, they would be led to love God and one another. If people answered the request for prayer, the message would spread throughout the world the note of thankfulness ot God. If one accepted that there must be unity between the Christian Churches, already there would be a hope of the fulfilment of Jesus’ promise – « one fold and one Shepherd ». (Jn. 10:16). If people accepted God the way Vassula recommends, He would already be « everything in everyone » (1 Cor. 15:28). If people took seriously Vassula’ warning about Satan, the latter would already be banished from men’ hearts and form the world. If people would heed Vassula’ call to conversion, all men and women would be sains already. If everyone shared in Vassula’ experiences, the personal history of each one, and consequently the history of all humankind, would be a Song of Love.

All this is completely in the radical style of the Gospel. On this assumption there are no grounds for separating Vassula’ experiences with God from the Gospel, still less for opposing them. Vassula’ messages presuppose an aptitude in human nature for dialogue. Individual believers, those especially who are rich in the Spirit, have the right to evaluate the case of Vassula, not setting themselves up independently of the Church. In this way they can support the Church’ judgement efficaciously. The final judgement remains with the Church, which has its guarantee in god and His confirmation in the « sensus fidelium », of which the Spirit of Truth is the author and the witness to veracity.

All the evidence before us so far shows that every day Vassula’ testimony is taken more seriously and is more fully accepted. This simultaneously facilitates and accelerates the final judgement of the entire Church, which judgement will, without doubt, take as a criteria, the many good fruits of Vassula’ message.

Prof. Todor Sabev, Bulgarian Orthodox

Theologian, Church historian and former Deputy General Secretary of the World Council of Churches.

In His divine plan for the salvation of humankind, God, throughout history has been sending His messengers as prophets and apostles, teachers and guardians to lead all nations into the right path, to nourish faith, sustain peace and protect unity.

Nowadays, the prophecies of Isaiah (44:3) and Joel (2:28): « I will pour my Spirit upon your descendants »; « your sons and your daughters shall prophesy (and) shall see visions » come true in a variety of charisms. Gifts of grace are being bestowed on women and men for the enhancement of Christian life, worship and service to the glory of God.

Such a spiritual gift (charisma) has been granted to Mrs. Vassula Ryden for the fulfillment of a particular vocation. ‘From the depths of her obscurity, » Vassula has seen the Light. The Lord has touched her heart to cleanse and heal it. Since then, she is « seeing Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary interiorly » and « has been enabled to hear their Messages. » This unique experience of visions is testified in 70 notebooks published in seven volumes. The Messages that Vassula is receiving are written by herself but dictated « from on high. » Her human handwriting is completely transformed.

The Messages are God’s gifts of spiritual healing, love and mercy « directed to all. » Vassula was called to become an ardent witness of Christ, carrying His Cross « to the four corners » of the secularized world. Together with many other disciples, she has to be an instrument of divine providence, an echo of God’s Word, compassion, reconciliation and peace.

The Messages are not a new revelation but a reminder of the Gospel of Christ. The basic task of Vassula is sharing of the Good News through proclamation in communities and assemblies of prayer and meditation, diffusion of the Writings by publication, and « drawing souls to Jesus Christ. »

The surprising nature of this calling has raised questions and bewilderment for Vassula herself, as well as for friends and listeners. Some of the wonders will still accompany readers of True Life in God. Nevertheless, we are aware of the fact that many expressions of mysticism have encountered different assessments and attitudes within one’s Christian tradition. During the whole period of marxist militant atheism, imposed by state authorities in my country, Bulgaria, a woman with great gifts as a seer kept telling both native and foreign people secrets of their past, present and future. Her faith and prophetic voice have shaken atheistic conceptions and changed the lifestyle of tens of thousands. Bishops, priests and theologians have personally experienced and individually recognized the gifts of that woman. But it was not in the tradition of the Church to make an authoritative pronouncement on this phenomenon.

Several years ago, I was so much impressed by the story of the apparition of the Virgin Mary, which three of my very dear Protestant friends had seen simultaneously « without considering however this event an extraordinary spiritual experience » because this was not part of their church’s tradition!

« We walk by faith (2 Cor. 5:7) » and « by faith understand… » (Fleb. 11:3f). Distinguishing between the Spirit of God and other spirits is a delicate Christian duty. Discernment is also a gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 12: 10-1 1; I jn.4: 1). The main criterion for testing the spirits is the faith in Christ as Incarnate Son of God and our Saviour (1 jn. 4:2f).

Basically, the content of the Messages in ‘True Life in God’ is in harmony with the Holy Scriptures and with the tradition of the Church. They are being distributed, read and meditated within the Church, aiming at a revival of Christian faith, renewal and unity. References are often made to the Bible as source of truth, knowledge and wisdom. The doxological part of the Messages is biblicallybased. Very dear to Orthodox spirituality are the numerous prayers, the urgent call to conversion and repentance, fast and a holy life. In the centre of Vassula’s vision are placed also many other fundamental truths, values and teachings of the Church. Prayer, humility, charity, generosity, peace, reconciliation and mutual love in Christ’s name are continuously underscored in all notebooks. God’s abundant grace and tenderness are often presented in the context of concern and care for the groaning creation, a warning about sin corrupting humanity, and a call to awakening for « the battle against Satan and his followers. » Thus one can feel the « prophetic tone » and the appeal to all Christians.

Remember the Beatitudes! Follow the Ten Commandments! Now is the time of repentance! « Live as though it is your last day on earth. » « Have you reconciled with your brothers and sisters? » « Share My Cross. » « Search for justice and help the oppressed. » « Wealth is to be converted. » « Evangelize with love, for love. » Your era of little faith is dead. « Do not accept Satan’s fruits which are … disunity and impurity. » Be vigilant and prepared for « the last days, » because the Lord is « on the Path of Return. »

And again we hear the Message of hope and Iife: « Shake off the dust that covers you and rise from the dead. » « The Holy Eucharist will keep you alive. » The « time of tribulations » shall be followed « by a new era of love and peace. » « My Kingdom is at your very doors. » God wants everyone to be saved (cf. Rm. 10:12-13).

The Messages are a hymn of God’s love which is « like a fountain, a well of living waters. » Love is « the Root of the Tree of Life » and of all virtues. Therefore, « sow the seeds of love in all directions. » « Judge nobody, and repay evil with love. » The Source of love is the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life. He guides us « into all truths, » transforming the darkness into Light. He uplifts and purifies our hearts, sanctifies us through the Sacraments, drives out ill spirits and brings renewal to the Church. The Holy Spirit creates community in which love rules. He gratifies the poor and the humble people of God.

One of the strongest elements in Vassula Ryden’s visions is the gravity of the divisions between the churches, the urgency of the work for unity of the Church, and the importance of the ecumenical movement.

The sin of division and wounds in the Body of Christ are so often due to lack of fidelity, humility and mutual love. « Rivalry and competition for earthly power, » egoism and pride cannot bring about unity. Those who endeavor to gather together the scattered sheep of Christ « should lower their voices » in order to hear the voice of the Lord; they should « bow down their heads » for blessing by the Head of the Church – Jesus Christ. Then He shall lift all and draw them to Himself. « Blessed are those who do not differentiate themselves » under Christ’s Holy Name. « Pray for the World Council of Churches » and for the world-wide ecumenical movement. Let us always remember that « the keys to unity are love and humility. »

The real unity is and will be in the heart, not « of the letter but of the spirit. » It is a gift of God, but requires also human commitment and effort: « where there is division give peace and love, where there is confusion ask for Light. » « Unity shall come upon you like Dawn … It shall come from God, and your nations shall name it the Great Miracle, the Blessed Day … In this day all Heaven shall … rejoice. » « Behold, what joy I will have when around One Altar you will gather … and praise Me; acknowledging your mistake, repenting for your rebellion and remembering My love for you. » God’s plan is « to unite all nations, from East to West, from North to South. »

In several Messages a great desire is expressed for a simultaneous celebration of Easter – « the Feast of Feasts, » and the « Triumph of Triumphs. » May this become a new impetus for bringing back such a tremendous issue on the ecumenical agenda. Actually it comes from the heart of the decision made by the first Ecumenical Council (325) to strengthen unity and inspire common witness.

While many Orthodox rejoice at Vassula’s gift and appreciate the texts referred to, they are prudent about accepting all points and details. I personally still struggle with some of the questions which had troubled me before. But cannot we find relief in the understanding that the Messages come to us also through the limited human nature, and are perceived according to our own spiritual capacity? The reading of Vassula’s Writings requires a mystical soul, prayer for « knowledge and all discemment » (Phil. 1:9), seeking for truth in the power of love and resisting any easy judgment.

The gifts of the Spirit should be spiritually distinguished (1 Cor. 12:10). Let us measure the value of the tree by its fruits (Nlt. 3:10; 7:16f). The great quality of the numerous fruits of ‘True Life in God’ has been acknowledged by many people. The Messages have deepened spiritual life, strengthened Christian faith and opened the sight of a certain number of non-believers. And we have yet to see the fulfillment of God’s promises: « I the Lord, will multiply the visions … (and) will pour the Holy Spirit without reserve on all humankind.  » You will grow like grass in the areas where there is plenty of water. »

Let us give thanks to God for all charismata.

Heavenly Father,
Kindle our hearts with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Give us the Spirit of wisdom and faith,
of daring and of patience,
of humility and of firmness,
of love and of repentance.

Geneva, Easter 1994

Bishop João Evangelista Terra

Bishop João Evangelista Terra is a well-known exegete who has worked in
different parts of the world, including the Vatican where he worked with
Cardinal Ratzinger for ten years. Totally supportive of Vassula, he wished to give the following testimony at the conclusion of the prayer meeting in Brasilia, October 12, 1997.

Continuously applauded by the thousands of participants at the meeting,
Bishop João Terra, an imperturbable smile on his lips, spoke with such
firmness and conviction that he did not seem to notice the uninterrupted
applause. His firm conviction, as well as the extraordinary joy he was
feeling, were obvious in this atmosphere of faith and charismatic
evangelisation. Attentive and thankful, we listen to Bishop Terra:

— I would like to say a few words of thanks, as auxiliary bishop, for
the joy we are feeling at Vassula’s presence here in Brasilia. It is truly
an extraordinary grace!

We have all of us, this week, lived with the Pope’s presence in Rio de Janeiro. This was worth more than many missions. There were two million people. It was truly the presence of transforming grace. We, who were there, came back truly renewed. The Pope urged us to prepare during these three years for the Third Millennium. We are now coming to the end of the first of those years.

This year, we are meditating on Jesus Christ, on the theological virtue of Faith, on the Sacrament of Baptism. The Pope himself is now inviting us to meditate, as of now, in November, on the next year which is entirely dedicated to the Holy Spirit. The year 1998 will be the year of charismatic renewal, a year filled with the Holy Spirit, during which we will meditate on the Sacrament of Confirmation, the theological virtue
of Hope, and Mary, the Model of Hope.

The year 1999, the vigil of the Great Jubilee of the coming Third Millennium, is entirely dedicated to God the Father. And we see how Vassula speaks with such tenderness, calling God « Dad », very boldly, as Jesus did. During 1999, we are, all of us, going to meditate also on the Father, the theological virtue of Love — the Father is the fountain of Love — , on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We see that Mary is the
Model of Love, the Mother of Tender Love. This is the preparation, the three years of preparation.

Last year we were at a conference in Jerusalem at the invitation of Rabbis. There were a hundred Rabbis, five hundred Christian bishops — Catholic and Orthodox — and twelve Cardinals. On my return, I spoke to the Pope. He was enthusiastic. I have lived two years in Jerusalem. So I told the Pope of my great hope. For the year 2000, he (the Pope) is actively preparing the meeting of Christians with the members of the
monotheistic religions — Jews and Muslims. There will be a big meeting on Mount Sinai where Jews, Christians and Muslims will gather: a hope, a dream of the Pope. This Pope is a saint! His dream is truly inspired by God: a great meeting in Jerusalem of Christian Churches, dealing intensively with the Orthodox Church, the Evangelical Churches — the great Evangelical churches — in the hope that Jesus’s prayer will be
fulfilled: that there will be only one heart, one flock and one Shepherd.

That is Vassula’s mission. This is what her mission amounts to also: to make this prayer of Jesus come true in the year 2000. This prayer of Jesus is truly scandalous. Scandalous! « Father, I want that all be one. » Pardon me! Is that the way to ask? One should at least say « please ». But He said: « Father, I want! » He wants. It’s not lack of education, no, He knows that this is what the Father wants — that the Father’s Will be His own will: that there be only one flock and one Shepherd. It is Christ’s prayer.

This millennium, from year 1000 to year 2000, has been a millennium of great trials, and divisions within the Church. May the Third Millennium be a millennium of unity. God is sending us this charismatic person. I have known Vassula for five years, since I first met her in Recife (It was Vassula’s first visit to Brazil, accompanied with Fr.
O’Carroll and the representatives of the Ediciones Boa Nova). I speak her mother tongue a little. I have also worked two years in the Middle East, in Egypt, I greeted her and she replied with tenderness, in Arabic

As a matter of fact, what joy that Mass was!… I don’t know if she remembers: in the Colegio de las Damas (the Ladies’ College), in the overflowing gymnasium. When I began to read the Gospel, in the manner of Jesus, saying: « be silent and come out of this man », suddenly, from the mouth of a man possessed, a thundering voice cried out « I’m not coming out! I don’t want to come out! » Ten thousand people stood petrified. I said nothing and remained quiet. I didn’t want to argue with Satan. I lowered my head. Everybody started to recite the Our Father, to pray… suddenly all were silent: he was standing up there, on the third floor, ready to throw himself over.. It took five people to hold him back. The Mass ended. The possessed man came to ask Vassula to forgive him,
saying: « I don’t know what happened. » And he went on: « when I was born my father dedicated me to Satan. My life has been hell. My only hope is that you lay hands on me. » He was kneeling, transformed. It was amazing!…

Our great friend, Bishop Victor (Most Reverend Victor Tielbeeck, Bishop of the diocese of Formosa, in the state of Goías, Brazil), used to say: « every time Vassula
shows up, Satan acts up! » Last year, you’ll remember, the lights went out, here, before the meeting started.

And speaking of Bishop Victor, this year we had a meeting of the Regional Bishops’ Conference with the Holy Father. So he asked about Vassula. Cardinal Ratzinger then said « I’ve received a mountain of letters from cardinals. »

Although the Cardinal was speaking only in Italian, Bishop Victor asked him in German: « But, Cardinal, should I change my attitude? » « Continue as you have done until now, » the Cardinal replied, in German, (in front of us who understood him) but be prudent. » (This reply by Cardinal Ratzinger is in perfect agreement with what
he had said in Mexico on May 10, 1996: « you may continue to promote her
writings, but always with discernment. »)

So, let us look at the deeds… by their fruits we’ll know them. Ask yourself: « in this movement, what have you observed? What are the fruits? How many transformations? How many conversions? By its fruit you will know the tree.

Today, you’ve filled this hall. Why did you come here? Why? Because there was an invitation, I don’t know why… But this is an opportunity. The reason why we have come is that Someone has drawn us here. « No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me. » (Jn 6:44). You have been drawn by someone who loved you first. Someone who has drawn us here to listen to a word of light, a word of salvation. Do you
understand? You should be very happy; you have been given an opportunity.

In a way you represent a select part of this diocese. Those who were drawn by the Father have come here. What beauty in this welcome! You are seeing what signifies the presence of a charismatic person. A charism is not a grace for one’s (personal) sanctification. It does not mean that Vassula is holier than you are. It is a grace for the
sanctification of others. We should be grateful because this grace sanctifies us, brings us closer to Jesus Christ. It prepares us for the Third Millennium..

Vassula, a few words in French: Je veux vous dire ma grande joie. Nous sommes vraiment très heureux de voir votre présence chez nous; c’est une présence de grâce, de lumi re et de soleil. Merci bien, Vassula. (« I would like to tell you what a great joy it is for me. We are really very happy that you are with us; your presence is one of grace, light, and sunshine. Thank you very much, Vassula »)

Source: Ediçoes Boa Nova and « Actualizando Medjugorje »

Reconciliation: the Trinitarian Approach

by Father Vladimir Zielinski (Russian Orthodox)

Nicolas Fedorov, the great Russian thinker of the 19th century, says: « Our social program is the Trinity. » Today, we can say — with reason — almost the same thing: our program of reconciliation is also the Trinity. Because the very essence of the Trinity is relation and love. It is the same in the bosom of the Trinity. Relation-love unites the Three Persons within the divine essence, and our Christian faith, if we try to break it down into elements, is also made up of relation, love, hope, joy, fear, the certitude of a certain presence and amazement, wonder. Let us begin with wonder, because, before thinking we must be able to be filled with wonder. We must pause and plunge into a prayerful silence so that the Trinitarian mystery enters in us and engages us, embraces us, unites us.

A feeling of wonder before the Trinity is not a fleeting sentiment, but a way of letting it reveal itself within ourselves. If we are searching for unity and reconciliation in wonder and contemplative veneration, we arrive also at unity in the unveiling of the mystery, lived together, and, at the end, we can with the grace of the Spirit attain also unity in thought, experience and the triadological formulas which express the incomprehensible.

I will try to approach the incomprehensible as it is seen and lived in my Orthodox Church. But I believe that the vision of God in his depth is common to us all. Divided in our understanding, we are secretly united in this inexpressible reality which manifests itself openly or secretly. The path to reconciliation is here, on the road toward the mystery which lies at the origin of humankind.

Let us start, then, with the visible and go to the revelation of the invisible, on the traces left by the light and, as a starting point, let us take the words of St. John at the beginning of his Gospel.
« No one has ever seen God;
it is the only son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart,
who has made him known » (Jn 1:18)

1. The images of Christ

« He has made him known ». We enter the abyss of the Trinity through the door of the only Son. « I am the gate of the sheepfold, » says Christ. Those sheep are our souls, our bodies, our thoughts. Through that door, the abyss opens and God enters and makes himself at home in the human family. Christ is the gate to vision, because He is visible, we can hear his voice, we can almost touch his hand. But when we get closer to Him we touch the unfathomable. We enter the mystery, the ineffable.

We, humans, live outside this mystery, at the boundary. It challenges us from everywhere. It cannot be seized, neither by the thoughts that reflect it nor by the words that seek to describe it. But everything that makes us human is rooted in Christ and in the abyss which he uncovers, discloses or unveils. Thanks to Him, we are gifted with our concepts of good and evil, our images of beauty and ugliness, our notions of heaven and hell. This abyss hidden in us is the habitat of our nostalgia and of this anguished questioning before death which cannot be separated from man. All those human things are in a way illuminated from inside by this light coming from the depths of the mystery. Everything that is truly human may serve its direct or discreet messenger.

I> »The Word was the true light that enlightens all men » (Jn 1.9). The light touches everyone of us, but often remains unnameable. But it is not an enigma to be deciphered. And it will not let itself be reached by darkness. And, for this reason, the eye accustomed to confusion between light and darkness perceives it with difficulty. It is the heart that recognises it first, because the light shines in its depths. But, everywhere it leaves traces of its presence, of its residence. The light talks. The Word shines from the heart of silence, the face is drawn in the depths of the mystery. That interior face is engraved on every human being. It is like a personal message to each one of us. It often remains anonymous, when we do not wish to see it, but, from its anonymity, it calls us to dialogue, to acknowledgement. It looks at us, scrutinises us, listens to us. It reveals itself constantly but, for the true meeting, we have to choose it, to take a step toward it, to call it: You.

The Mystery, the Light, the Face – those three words are the first that come to my mind when I reflect upon the immediate experience of Christ. They are common all. Every Christian knows that we are chosen by Him as His friends, His brothers, His fellow citizens living on the same earth and destined for the same heaven. Our faith comes from the acknowledgement, the encounter.

Man is created as the one who must encounter another one. This encounter is more intimate than any intimacy and, at the same time, it is social. In Christ’s word, every one can recognize another who becomes his neighbour, his brother; and, in that way, we all constitute the fellowship of the word. « I have spoken openly to the world, » Christ says and everyone can hear Him. Jesus speaks openly to the world and secretly in the hearts. Thus the word which « was with God in the beginning » achieves the sacrament of the human person. « The light inside you » (Luke 11.35), the image of God, the face of Christ in the depths of our being, « constitute » this divine beginning in man. We are always on our way toward that source or toward Christ who allows us to meet him, to discover him anew.

How many discoveries have been made during those twenty centuries? It was thought that Christianity had been defeated in the 19th century; in the 20th century, pagan ideologies could celebrate their triumph, but today, at the dawn of the new millennium, it is becoming more obvious that the coming century (as, for that matter, every century since the Incarnation) shall be that of Christ.

The Gospel is not yet being preached in the world, not in the geographical sense, but in all its fullness, in its depth, in all its unknown grace. Christ, it seems, sometimes withdraws into the shadows of history, allows Himself to be driven away, to be ridiculed, and then manifests Himself again in an unexpected manner. The sap of his words is stronger than the « wisdom of this world »; its shoots pierce through all systems of thought, even those that call themselves Christian. I remember the words of Teilhard de Chardin that, after every crisis in history, Christ appears again in an unexpected depth, in the new light. That will be in the future until the time when he comes, because it is not men who have created Christ, but the Father created them in His Son and gave them a spark of His Spirit. And the Spirit will remain the mother who revives in our souls – in the unexpected holiness, in the new discovery – Christ who is the same today and throughout the centuries is the same, the one who saves, the one who unites.

II. The Holy Spirit and the transmutation of gifts

« Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe… » says Christ.

Our knowledge of Christ resembles the image drawn by the One who really knows Him. « No one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him » (Mt 11.27). This act of revelation wanted by the Father is the action of the Holy Spirit. The names of that we find in our memory, in our heart, are the names given by the Holy Spirit. Our experience of the Holy Spirit is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. But he always remains invisible, out of reach.

God’s name is beyond anything man is able to say with his mouth or to define with his mind. Our Jewish or Muslim brothers are quite justified in wanting to protect it. But there are words that are messengers, words that are icons, words that unite the fire which created the world with its beauty and this little spark of faith ignited in us. The first of these words is love. It is not a matter of sentimental affection but, first of all, a bond which unites us, mortals, with the God incomprehensible and indefinable as the liturgy says. It is some mysterious common substance which exists between God and us, the truth which is one for heaven and for earth, the miracle of God’s presence among us. He is present not as a distant concept but as a friend, a brother, a Saviour. This bond which unites us, this miracle of the presence, this abyss of love is called the Holy Spirit.

When we invoke the name of the Trinity, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we not only confess a certain vision of God, but we are already at the centre of this mystery, open before us. And we are already united in the love that « has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit » as St. Paul says (Rm 5.5). What we call Revelation consists in this effusion of the mystery of love, unveiled by the Spirit.

We answer spontaneously with gratitude. But gratitude for love is also the action of the Spirit. The Son who discovers the Father through the Son is also the action of the Spirit. The heart which purifies itself to leave space for God is the action of the Spirit. Those actions are the three components of our faith. But faith is first the answer to love. The Spirit reveals the Father. The Spirit revives our memory. The Spirit suggests the words of the prayer. The Spirit is the exchange of gifts between God and us, our little gifts, our miniscule efforts and God’s immense gifts that surpass us.

The miracle of Christianity consists in God’s presence among us. Not only « God is in Heaven and you are on earth » which is the rule of all monotheistic religions, but God is with us, with his Word, His grace and His love put in our memory and in our heart.

We are not worthy of serving in that abode because of our sins, our weaknesses and our limits before the Lord and, at the same time, we are admitted into the Holy of holies. Jesus says : « If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him » (Jn 14.23). Oriental tradition understands this home in the most personal and concrete sense, as the house of God, built with us and within us. Let’s listen to the Orthodox liturgy: it can be assimilated to the building of God’s house in the community of the faithful and in the human heart. This building is done by means of art, prayer and even our sentiments. In the sacramental sense, this house is built through the transmutation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. But the sacramental Eucharist is the sign of the Eucharist of creation about which spoke the Catholic theologian Teilhard de Chardin and the Orthodox theologian John Ziziulas. The Eucharist, in its direct and spiritual sense, is the gratitude of the son or sons who remember the eternal sacrifice of the Lord. That memory is transformed in the sacrament, in the corporal and spiritual union with our God. We are in the home of Jesus and his Father or in the union of love, that is in the Spirit who changes, who transforms, who accomplishes this union.

What does the Holy Spirit do? He enters into the love and desire of the man and woman, creating another human being, another soul, another temple of God. He touches the face of the animal endowed with thought, becomes a human face with its beauty, its enigma, its eyes that have encountered God’s gaze. He descends on simple human food and it becomes the home of God, His Body and His Blood, His sacrifice and His love.

The key-word of this action, of this incredible change is transmutation.

The transmutation of human words into the Word of the Lord.
The transmutation of our fragile memories into sacred memory.
The transmutation of our thoughts and feelings into the mystery of faith
The transmutation of the community of the faithful into the Church.
The transmutation of human love into the temple of the Holy Spirit
The transmutation of our food into the sacrifice of the Lord

Each time, the new reality appears and builds itself from the elements of this world. This temporary earthly reality has its roots in another reality, eternal and heavenly, which surpasses us infinitely. It unites without confusing them two orders of being and creates a new reality, divino-human, which carries the principal message of Christianity: God has given the gift of the transmutation of his existence in our life and that gift is always achieved through the action of the Spirit. The action of the Spirit signifies that what God gives us is united to man and becomes divine. The most radical transmutation is that which makes us into citizens of the Kingdom.

In the long and difficult process of transforming our souls and bodies to prepare them for the Kingdom, one part belongs to man, the other to God. Man becomes God’s associate and participates in the common task, in the work of transmutation or transfiguration of humankind into Christ. But in order that this task may be achieved, another transmutation must occur: that of divided, often opposed communities into a united family.

The Spirit makes Christ present and near, but glorified Christ sends us the Spirit. They are two reciprocal missions of those two hands of the Father, as St. Irenee says. The Orthodox Church declares that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and becomes the splendour of the Son, but the Spirit illuminates the Son not only at the side of the Father but also in us, in our hearts, in our lives. The Spirit penetrates our conscience and creates a kind of reciprocity, of correlation, that is the capacity of knowing the Son and, through the Son, the Father. Now, true knowledge can happen only in the conciliarity of our souls, of our consciences, in the sacrament of reconciliation before our common Father.

III. The revelation of the Father through the mirror of liturgy

There are a thousand reflections of the invisible Father in the reality that is accessible to man. « The heavens declare the glory of God, the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork; day discourses it to day, night to night hands on the knowledge » (Ps 18.1). If we lend an ear to the knowledge conveyed by heavens, days, nights, mountains, clouds, rivers, herbs, we’ll say that the Son has made it appear, that he has incarnated it everywhere, that the invisible Spirit has made it present in the glory of being. But here we choose a praying man as a witness to the Father, a liturgical man as His son who loves the One he knows « as if seeing the invisible, » according to the words of St. Paul.

In the environment of the Byzantine liturgy, created by prayer and spiritual experience, we can get closer to the Father, speak to Him informally (In French: Lui dire « Toi ») as Christ Himself did. The miracle of the liturgy, which only opens itself to the eyes of faith, is our future, the Body of Christ, that is in the transmutation of our selves. And, inasmuch as we are His Body, we become seers, the Trinitarian mystery reveals itself to us. Prayer transmits us the knowledge of the One who cannot be known. « No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him » (Mt 11.27).

The Son reveals the Father to us in the place and time where He is Himself present. There are a thousand ways to approach the Father (through beauty, the wisdom of creation, the human face), but, to avoid falling into vague and worn out words, we take the royal way, that of the Oriental liturgy. Here we approach the Father in incredible and redoubtable intimacy. Here we are so close to Him that we are like Moses who was forced « to cover his face, afraid to look at God » (Ex 3.6). But it is the liturgy itself which gives us the courage, because it is Christ who is looking at the Father with our eyes, it is Christ who is praying with our words.

But let’s examine more closely the steps (symbolic and approximate, of course) of this revelation of the Father as it is developed in the Eucharistic celebration.

The first part could be called the liturgy of memory. The rite of preparation (or prothesis or proskomidia) is entirely dedicated to the commemoration being celebrated. The prayer said by the priest gathers together around Christ his whole Church, from the Mother of God and John the Baptist to all those near us, living or dead, all those who live in our memory and in our heart. And with Christ, represented by the Lamb (a small loaf of bread which will be consecrated), His whole flock presents itself before the invisible Father:

« Bless us and sanctify us, bless this offering, and accept it upon your Heavenly altar », prays the Church with Christ at the head, because it is the Father who is the recipient of all the liturgical prayers and of the sacrifice itself. The Father looks at us, listens to us, greets us. We perceive His face through « the obscure mirror » (1 Co 13.12) of our words, our supplications, and that face is that of love and compassion.

In this gathering of names and memories, memory becomes a sacrament, a sign of unity… and of division. The « other sheep that are not of this fold », as Christ says (Jn 10.16) are forgotten, left outside. For this reason every liturgy, for me as a celebrant, is a silent and urgent call to reconciliation not only in our sentiments but in the mystical and sacramental Body of Christ.

We proceed toward the liturgy of the Word; in the Orthodox church it is called the liturgy of the catechumens, but I would rather call it the liturgy of initiation. We are now being introduced, carried, initiated into the vision of the « new creature » renewed in Christ. With the words of Psalm 102, we enter the prayerful dialogue of man with his soul seized with admiration and wonder. « Bless Yahweh, my soul, bless his holy name, all that is in me ». The son discovers and confesses the Father through His works. Right away the liturgy proclaims the revelation of Christ (Only begotten Son and Word of God, although immortal You humbled Yourself for our salvation, taking flesh…) and a few minutes later the choir sings the Beatitudes. Each beatitude is like a reflection which allows us to see the reality of Heavens in the secret of the human heart. With the beatitudes, we anticipate our transfiguration of children of the Father into the only Son. « We now pray in Christ and He with His Holy Spirit prays in us who are gathered in His Name » (Fr. A. Schmemann). And that prayer achieves in itself the unity that has been initiated.

The liturgy of the catechumens is realised in the metanoia which signifies the change of the heart. From this change proceeds the beginning of the liturgy of the faithful which I dare call the liturgy of adoption. It is the adoption by the Father in Christ who makes us discover the face of the invisible Father. We approach Him like the Angels. – « We who mystically represent the Cherubim », sings the choir. We see the face of love as Christ saw it, because we are adopted by the Father in the Eucharist. « The soul », says St. Maxim the Confessor, « with a dignity equal to that of the holy angels, is led to adoption according to grace by means of the same identity ».

This identity with Christ is a central point, more mysterious and incredible, of every liturgical action. Here is revealed the mystery of the Church as communion and as adoption. We enter this mystery through the sacrament of the Eucharist, through the transmutation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. The adoption is a mystery of the Eucharistic and spiritual identity, through the grace of the transmutation of humankind in Christ, through the transfiguration of the members of the Church into the Body of Christ. « The spiritual man is the Church, » adds St. Maxim the Confessor, « and the mystical Church is man. »
In the formula of the anamnesis, after the words of Christ: « Take, eat… » come the words of Christ himself addressed to the Father: « We offer to You these gifts from Your own gifts in all and for all ». Christ’s sacrifice has become our offering in the liturgy; we enter into mystical, spiritual, sacramental communion with the Father Himself.

The revelation of the Father is open in the Church, yet we are often outside. The presence of Christ is revealed but, without Christ living in us, in our hearts, we can be blind to His presence. The liturgy puts important questions to man: who are you? Where are you? With whom are you? With Christ or with his enemy? Are you truly united and reconciled with those around you, with your brothers, with the others? But those questions come from answers already given. The liturgy leads us into the Father’s bosom and presents us with a triple image of man: a sinner who repents, an angel who serves the glory of God, and a Christ who knows His Father and our Father from within, in Spirit.

In the Trinitarian approach the challenge of unity is becoming clearer. There are three ways of solving this problem. We can pursue our long-drawn-out theological discussions and ask for a solution in yet a thousand or two thousand years.. We can proclaim unity and reconciliation with the finest sentiments as if all those centuries-old divisions had never existed and the differences were nothing more than the invention of a few medieval fogies. In a burst of enthusiasm, we can sign a contract to decree unity and reconciliation effective the day after, or the next, or any date we will find suitable.

Finally, we can enter into the mystery of the other, into the intimacy of his relation to God, into his vision of God, and try to share it, to live it truly. It is here, in the intimate space of prayer, of contemplation, of wonder and repentance that the call of the divine Bridegroom, of the Trinity, of Christ, speaks to our heart: « May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe… » (Jn 17.21)

I have proposed to you the Orthodox vision of the Trinity and I invite you to share it with me. That doesn’t mean that I refuse to enter into other visions, on the contrary; but I think that true reconciliation, before being celebrated on the public squares, must be concluded in everyone’s house.

That means that the unity in Trinity, a reconciliation stronger and deeper than that of enthusiasm or theological formulas, must begin in the mystery shared and lived together. It opens our hearts, and even our heart of hearts, to the others, beginning with love for the others. But love, as we have said before, is already the communion to the Holy Trinity. The key to unity is to be found in us, in the Trinitarian life itself to which we communicate. We must find it in our hearts open to the Trinity which already unites us. « For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also », says Christ (Luke 12:34). For, on the reconciliation of the hearts, he celebrates Himself the sacrament of unity.