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Vassula Rydén

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Vassula Ryden
File:Vassula.jpg
BornVassiliki Claudia Pendakis
(1942-01-18) January 18, 1942 (age 82)
Cairo, Egypt
OccupationAuthor
Children2

Vassula Rydén was born in Egypt on January 18, 1942 into a Greek Orthodox family. She has composed the messages she claims to have received in a series of books called True Life In God. There are currently over 107 Notebooks compiled in 12 Volumes of the True Life in God series, which have been translated by volunteers into over 40 different languages. Since 1988, Vassula has been invited to speak in more than 70 countries and has given over 900 presentations. She receives no personal royalties, fees or benefit for her efforts.

Biography

Vassula Ryden, the daughter of Greek parents established in Egypt, was born on January 18, 1942 in Heliopolis on the outskirts of Cairo. She started school in Egypt, and then at the age of 15, she emigrated to Europe.

In November 1966, she married a Lutheran man in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland, at a Greek Orthodox Church. She later got divorced in Sweden in November 1980. In June 1981, she married her current husband, Per Ryden, a Swedish Lutheran, at the registry office. On October 31, 1990, she regularized her union in the Greek Orthodox Church and celebrated her religious marriage in Lausanne. Vassula has two adult sons.

For 30 years, from 1955 to 1985, Vassula was not a church-goer; for social reasons, she appeared occasionally at marriages and funerals. She had not lost her faith in God; she just felt no inclination towards any observance. Before the turning point in her career, she led the life of the typical expatriate in Africa and Asia: the social round, amusement, cocktail parties for her husband’s business friends, such games as the climate permitted. Her choice was tennis, in which she became quite proficient; she was champion of Bangladesh. The word at the time was, “If you want Vassula, go to the tennis court.” She also modeled clothes, as a hobby to while away the time. She took up painting seriously and with considerable success.

Supernatural Phenomena

Vassula Ryden is now most known throughout the world for her writings entitled “True Life in God”, which is a compilation of nearly 2000 messages she claims to have received from God since the year 1985 when she was living in Bangladesh. While she was writing a grocery list, she reports to have suddenly experienced a light electrical feeling in her right hand and at the same time an invisible presence. She says she felt led by this presence, and permitting her hand to be guided, she wrote a line in a very different style from her own with the words "I am your guardian Angel and my name is Daniel."

She adheres to the idea that she has been called to transmit to the world the messages she receives. People who have studied her case believe that God through her message seeks to consolidate his church, especially by bringing it into unity, which is the main theme of her books.. The True Life in God messages have been translated by volunteers into more than 40 languages and have wide-spread distribution and readership.

Fr. Robert Faricy, said regarding Vassula that:

She receives God’s messages in an extraordinary way – her hand being taken over to write them. The handwriting in which the messages are written is big, vertical and clearly distinguishable from her normal pattern of writing.

According to professional graphologist interpretation of her manuscripts her handwriting displays an “extraordinary telluric force”. The writer is filled with a force that goes beyond her normal self with “invisible power”. “She is an intermediary, like a center of transmission and amplification”.

Vassula had never received any catechetical instruction, or theological formation. A “spiritual zero” before the revelations began, Vassula believes that God chooses those otherwise incapable of such achievements so as to leave no doubt that it is his power at work. She believes that she was chosen for all that she was not. She stated that:

"Jesus wanted a nothing,” she explains, "in order to prove that I have not invented all this and that it comes from Him. He said it in a message: “All you have comes from Me and is My Work and not yours. Without Me, you are unable to even wink your eyes-so abandon yourself to Me.

Other investigations of Vassula’s works include that of world renowned Mariologist Theologian Father Rene Laurentin, who has called Vassula “the most authentic mystic living in the world today.” and has since written two books on Vassula and her works.

Her Mission

Vassula has been invited to to several countries to give her “testimony” and to pass on the message she has received. According the the official True Life in God website, she has been invited to more than 900 meetings in 75 countries.

In 1998, and 2001, the United Nations in New York, a section based on Peace in the World working specifically between Jews and Palestinians, invited Vassula to address them and transmit the messages she receives regarding how to obtain peace in the world.

Christian Unity

One of the strongest elements in these messages is the gravity of the division between churches and the urgency of the work for unity of the Church and the importance of the ecumenical movement.

Therefore, in addition to delivering the message, she also believes she has been called by God to promote Christian Unity. She and many volunteers organize ecumenical pilgrimages every two years where Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, clergy and lay people of all faiths gather and “practice unity” without making distinctions among each other. In 2001, she was invited, along with other speakers, to an official symposium on ecumenism by the International Bridgettine Centre of Farfa to speak on Ecumenism and Spirituality. Her presentation was entitled: God’s Calling to His People.

She was invited by Fr. Ion Bria, of the Romanian Orthodox Church working for the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Geneva, and by Metropolitan Daniel of Moldavia and Bukovina, to assist at the Congress organized by the WCC on Christian Spirituality, held in Iasi; her proposal for discussion of the unification of the dates of Easter was accepted by the closing general assembly.

In 2009, she was invited to speak, along with three other speakers, at the Christian Unity conference “United in Christ” at Namur, Belgium. The conference took place in the Namur diocese of Bishop Andre-Mutien Leonard, who attended the conference and led the celebration of the concluding Eucharistic Liturgy. Reporting later on the gathering, he said

And from the message of Vassula Ryden, I was convinced that, for the reconciliation of Christians of the West and East, the decision to find a common date for the feast of Easter will be decisive.

Churches' stance on Vassula Ryden

In 1995, the Roman Catholic Church gave a negative opinion on the writings through the publication of a notification by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in which "several negative elements and errors are pointed out". It concludes by requesting the faithful "not to regard Mrs. Ryden's writings and speeches of divine or supernatural origin, but rather as the result of her private meditations".

After a request was made by Vassula in 2000 to the aforementioned congregation (the CDF), the then Cardinal Ratzinger invited Vassula, in 2002, to answer five questions about her messages and its relation to the Holy Bible and Sacred Tradition. Vassula sent her replies to the Congregation later that same year. At the ending of this dialogue, the former president of the CDF, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - Now Pope Benedict XVI asked Vassula to publish the full correspondence between herself and the CDF in the published TLIG books. Later still, the Cardinal wrote a letter, dated 10 July 2004, to five episcopal conferences who had been negative about Vassula and her writings indicating that she had given "useful clarifications regarding her marital situation, as well as some difficulties which in the aforesaid Notification were suggested towards her writings and her participation in the sacraments" . In 2005, the True Life in God writings were granted a Nihil obstat by Bishop Felix Toppo S.J. (India) and Imprimatur by Archbishop Ramon C. Arguelles (Philippines).

In 2007, the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, William Cardinal Levada, following continued requests for clarifications on the writings and activities of Vassula, sent a letter to the Catholic hierarchy around the world confirming that the Notification of 1995 remained valid. The letter, dated 25 January 2007, requires -- regarding the reading of the writings -- "a case by case prudential judgement". The Congregation cautions bluntly but gently against participation of the faithful in True Life in God prayer groups: "Finally, it remains inappropriate for Catholics to take part in prayer groups established by Mrs Ryden."

However, to date there continues to be confusion and apparent conflict with previous statements from the CDF. Many Catholic Clergy, including Bishops and Cardinals, have chosen to continue their support for Vassula Ryden and even promote TLIG. Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, in a statement he made to his Archdiocese dated June 2009, said regarding Vassula that:

Another matter of interest is her relationship with the Holy See. She enjoys cordial relations with many of the top officials at the Vatican who are anything but negative towards her. It is therefore reasonable to state categorically that as far as the Church is concerned Vassula poses no threat to the Catholic Faith whatsoever. Indeed the messages which are communicated through her are consistent with the Church's own call to repentance and a return to the basics of the faith - in particular the basic prayers such as the Rosary and other devotions once so common in Catholic family and parish spiritual life.

Sources

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources.
Find sources: "Vassula Rydén" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
  • « Le Phénomène Vassula – Etude critique », Marie-France James, Nouvelles Editions Latines, Paris, 1992.
  • « Mon Ange Daniel – Les débuts de La Vraie Vie en Dieu » , Vassula Ryden, Editions du Parvis, Hauteville (Suisse), 2001.
  • « Quand Dieu Fait Signe » , René Laurentin, F.X. de Guibert, Paris, 1993

www.tlig.org

  1. ^ The Vassula Enigma, 2003, pages 5,33,6,13,34,35,122,123 by Jacques Neirynck, ISBN 1-883225-30-2
  2. ^ http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1996-12-05/news/when-god-talks-vassula-listens/1 Phoenix New Times News, www.phoenixnewtimes.com, When God Talks Vassula Listens, December 5, 1996
  3. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-191120914.html]
  4. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-190354804.html
  5. When God Gives a Sign, 1993, pages 33-34 by , ISBN 1-883225-14-0
  6. In True Life in God, Volume 1, Original Handwriting Edition (Notebooks 1-16), Second Edition 2004-2005, page V, ISBN 0-9631193-3-8
  7. Vassula of the Sacred Heart’s Passion, 1993, pages 1-2,119-133 by Fr. Michael O’Carroll CSSp, ISBN 0-9519973-3-5
  8. ^ Christian Prophecy – the Post Biblical Tradition, 2007, pages 111,112,112,116 by Niels Christian Hvidt, ISBN 978-0-19-531447-2
  9. Lucy Rooney, SND and Robert Faricy, SJ “A Note to the Reader”, True Life in God Volume 1, Original Handwriting Edition, (Notebooks 1-16), 1991, page I, by Vassula Ryden, ISBN 0-9631193-3-8]
  10. http://www.tlig.org/en/testimonies/christian/catholic/rooneyfaricy/
  11. http://www.davidtlig.org.uk/writing.html
  12. http://www.tligvideo.org/writingvid.html
  13. http://www.tlig.org/en/messages/365/
  14. Volume 3 Original Handwriting Edition,(Notebooks 29-41), 1991, page 24, by Vassula Ryden, ISBN 0-9631193-5-4
  15. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-191120914.html
  16. http://www.tlig.org/en/mission/meetings/
  17. The Echo, Ireland, September 1 2005, Page 36
  18. Geneseo Republic, USA, January 16 2009; Claudia Loucks, Page A9
  19. Galway Advertizer, Ireland, October 10,1996, Bernadette Fallon, Page 16
  20. http://www.tlig.org/print/en/mission/reports/1998/1023-1101/
  21. http://thirdworldorphans.org/gpage10.html
  22. The Voice of Delhi, July 2005, Vol XV No 7, by Bishop Anil Couto, pg17
  23. Vassula Comes to the Monastery, Published 2005, Pages iii, iv, Preface by Fr. John Abberton, ISBN 0-948108-13-4
  24. http://www.select-sources.com/VassulaRyden.html
  25. http://www.farfa.info/library/pdf/program_2001.pdf
  26. http://www.tlig.org/en/churchunity/farfa/
  27. Vassula and Rome, Published 1996, ISBN 1-899228-03-9; Author: Michael Dore, page 22
  28. http://s1.e-monsite.com/2009/06/28/56851043flyer-namur-5-6-dec-en-ver-1-word-2-pdf.pdf
  29. http://martinmanou.e-monsite.com/rubrique,welcome,86240.html

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