Mystic/Author Vassula Ryden

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Born Vassiliki Claudia Pendakis, this lady has written the book, “Heaven Is Real, But So Is Hell.” Is anyone here familiar with Ryden or her writings…? Does anyone here recommend (or not recommend) this book…? (I’m a Traditional Roman Catholic). Thanks for your help, my friends…! 🙂
 
VintageRose said:
Born Vassiliki Claudia Pendakis, this lady has written the book, “Heaven Is Real, But So Is Hell.” Is anyone here familiar with Ryden or her writings…? Does anyone here recommend (or not recommend) this book…? (I’m a Traditional Roman Catholic). Thanks for your help, my friends…! 🙂
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She is a Greek Orthodox and - many years ago - was living in SE Asia when her husband worked there. As an expatriate wife she had little to do with her time. She started to have experiences in which she was asked to write down messages from an angel and then - she says - Our Lord. These filled many notebooks which she later published.
The writings are spiritual and powerful and engage the reader’s full attention. There is nothing against Catholic doctrine in them. She does speaking tours and I heard a talk she gave in Britain about 15 years ago. The Catholic Church has not condemned her public statements, but nor (as far as I know) does the Church endorse her activities - partly because Vassula is not the Church’s responsibility. She is not a Catholic. But the writings she published are very Catholic in spirit. The case of Vassula is a curious one!
 
Hi! I wanted to point out that the Catholic Church has indeed found doctrinal problems in Ryden’s writings, and has said so in two documents available on the Vatican website:

1995 Notification: vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19951006_ryden_en.html

And a circular letter after a dialogue Ryden had with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070125_vassula-ryden_en.html

Moreover, Vassula Ryden has also had serious problems with her own Greek Orthodox authorities.

For more detailed information, you might want to check the website www.pseudomystica.info , where you will find all the above documents as well as a selection of articles explaining the many problems linked with Vassula’s activities and writings.

Personally, I was appalled when visiting the blog for Vassula’s new book, and seeing that she puts a photo of her giving her book to Pope Benedict during a public audience, pretending that she is recognized by the Church. It is so misleading.

Alex
 
Concerning the 1995 notification, as cardinal Ratsinger said, the situation has been altered. After a dialogue between Vassula and the CDF where she had to answer some questions to clarify certain points in the messages, the Church withdrew the previous warning and the faithfull were told that they could promote the messages with discernment.

As for the pseudomystica site, it is extremely biased against Vassula and, for a reader of the messages, it is pretty obvious why.

fr Dermine who runs the site is either a freemason or he has strong connections with freemasonry (you only need to take a look at the credits of his anti-vassula book, full of masonic names and symbolisms), and, in the messages, Jesus is speaking a lot about the freemasons’ plot to destroy the church from the inside. He has every reason to try to block God’s voice, since His voice is against him.

If you really want a good opinion, read Vassula’s book, or the messages she receives from God and our Lady, and make your opinion according to what you know from the teachings of the Church.
 
salusanimarum17 said:
See here: vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070125_vassula-ryden_en.html

I would only “recommend” her books in the same way I would recommend any non-Catholic’s spiritual reflections/meditations. There may be some good points but there are so many Catholic authors–even saints–who are more reliable. So, why bother with this other stuff?
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??? “why bother with this other stuff”???

If God speaks my friend… IT IS GOD WHO SPEAKS… not the granny next door…

And if God speaks… He REALLY has a good reason to do so, and is ALWAYS for the salvation of souls…

Only a person that doesn’t really seek God would be so indifferent in such matters…
 
I have just read ioannides’ postings, and I am flabbergasted! Fr. Dermine is not only a very well known Dominican priest in Italy, but also well-known abroad. His article on Vassula is on several Catholic websites (Catholic Culture, Catholic.net) He is exorcist of his diocese (Bologna) and professor of theology. He has a regular program on Radio Maria Italy. He is also the President of GRIS, which is an Italian association which studies new religious groups and is recognized by the Italian Bishops’ Conference.

It is in fact the GRIS association that has re-opened the website on Vassula (www.pseudomystica.info). Ioannides seems to accuse Dermine of freemasonry simply because of his negative conclusions regarding the authenticity of Vassula. In fact, from what I have read, it seems that all of Vassula’s critics end up being accused of freemasonry or of being possessed by the devil.

Regarding the Church’s position on Vassula, the “old stuff” is on the Vatican website, including the CDF’s letter of 2007 regarding the famous dialogue with Vassula, in which they CONFIRMED the validity of the Notification (= the “old stuff”) and advised against the participation of the faithful in her prayer groups.

I have been going through the many pro-Vassula websites, and they seem to systematically ignore or down-play not only the Catholic Church’s official documents, but also those of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which consider her teachings contrary to the Orthodox faith.

Alex
 
Alex I said “fr Dermine who runs the site is either a freemason or he has strong connections with freemasonry”, i didn’t say he is 100% a freemason. And I did not say that “simply because of his negative conclusions regarding the authenticity of Vassula”…
I said it because in the credits of his anti-vassula book (which by the way is not published by any publishing house, but criculates around hand by hand), there are suspicous credits to people who are reffered with some weird names and titles which are used by freemasons.

Of course not all vassula’s critics are freemasons or “possesed by the devil” (who ever told that??). There are sceptics and people who are afraid of being misled too, and also people (particularly certain priests or bishops) who are motivated by personal matters or either feelings (as is the case in the island of Rhodos with the bishop there), and I don’t just say that. There have been eye witnesses in front of conversations between those priests and their superiors and their attitude is really not according to the church’s spirit. Those very people accuse “true life in god” for a million of things but they do not present any solid proof of their accusations ever. They even accuses Vassula of being a woman… (according to their belief God could not ever approach a woman in that way)

As for the official notifications of the churches we could say a lot of things. For the orthodox patriarxhate of Constantinople I can say that the “notification” was not the product of a synod. It was not a synodical descision (which is the canonical way of issuing any warings or notifications). It was an non-signed document from the secretary of the Patriarchate, which also was erroneously translated in english giving the impression that vassula has been excomunicated (where actually the word used in greek meens “discouraged”). Even more, the document, once more was talking about true life in God “not conforming to the faith” but, again, not even one proof of that.
I mean, if you want to accuse “true life in god” at least point out the reason why. If you see a doctrinal error somewhere, just point it out. They never did. Their accusation was “you should not interefere in the dioscese’s matters, it’s not your business”.

Another text that circulates around withing the orthodox church, and is against true life in God is based on manipulation of excerpts of the messages (pieces of here and pieces of there putting them together) in such a way that the reader would get an extremely wrong and negative impression of what the messages say… Vassula met with the priest responsible for this (he is like the equivelant of the head of the CDF in the greek orthodox church), and in their conversation (in front of witnesses), he admitted that he did it, but he also said “I would never admit it in public”… Well, ok. If THIS is how those people work, what can I say. He is supposed to be a priest of God, but he uses lies as a weapon?? What kind of priest is that? And he is supposed to “protect” the flock?

Many priests may critisize vassula but many also have studied the writings and have a very different opinion from the former ones. At the end of the day, no private revelation has ever been accepted by the official Church as long as the person was still alive. The girls of Fatima have been seriously persecuted by the priests during the first years, even tortured in order to “deny” what they have seen. This happened and always will happen.

If one seeks God, let him read the messages of "True Life in God’ and let him decide according to his consciense.
 
ioannidis said:
??? “why bother with this other stuff”???

If God speaks my friend… IT IS GOD WHO SPEAKS… not the granny next door…

And if God speaks… He REALLY has a good reason to do so, and is ALWAYS for the salvation of souls…

Only a person that doesn’t really seek God would be so indifferent in such matters…
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Thank you for the implication that I am not really seeking God. You may be right but you’re in no position to imply it. Anyway, from the link I posted above, one can find this:
“2) Mrs Vassula Rydén, however, after dialogue with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has offered clarifications on some problematic points in her writings and on the nature of her messages which are presented not as divine revelations, but rather as her personal meditations (see Vassula Rydén: Letter of 26 June 2002, published in True Life in God, vol. 12, XXI-LI).”

So, to suggest that “God speaks” in these writings is misleading. They are her personal meditations.
 
ioannidis said:
… At the end of the day, no private revelation has ever been accepted by the official Church as long as the person was still alive. The girls of Fatima have been seriously persecuted by the priests during the first years, even tortured in order to “deny” what they have seen. This happened and always will happen. …
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The “official Church” has certainly accepted private revelation while the visionary was still alive. Fatima itself is an example. I also would ask if you meant to imply that priests tortured the Fatima children.
 
salusanimarum17 said:
“2) Mrs Vassula Rydén, however, after dialogue with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has offered clarifications on some problematic points in her writings and on the nature of her messages which are presented not as divine revelations, but rather as her personal meditations (see Vassula Rydén: Letter of 26 June 2002, published in True Life in God, vol. 12, XXI-LI).”

So, to suggest that “God speaks” in these writings is misleading. They are her personal meditations.
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The above statement that “which are presented not as divine revelations, but rather as her personal meditations” is a totally false statement because this is exactly what Vassula did NOT do when she answered the questions of the CDF.

This is one ofe the cases where her words were deliberatly altered to misinform the reader. She NEVER presented the messages as personal meditations, she always presented them as direct dictation from God through the charism of locutions.
 
salusanimarum17 said:
The “official Church” has certainly accepted private revelation while the visionary was still alive. Fatima itself is an example. I also would ask if you meant to imply that priests tortured the Fatima children.
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The kids where tortured psychologically when they were imprisoned in different cells, and each one was visited by some priests who were telling them to deny what they saw “otherwise the other kids (in the other cell) would be tortured”. They were never tortured physically though, it was only to frighten the kids to deny their visions.
 
Ioannides: I’m sorry, but Fr. Dermine’s critical analysis of Vassula’s writings was published by the Italian publishing house Elle Di Ci in 1995 under the title “Vassula Ryden: Indagine Critica”. See for instance: books.google.ch/books/about/Vassula_Ryden.html?id=bN7sAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y He afterwards wrote at least two other books on the catholic discernment of mysticism and seers. The one titled “Mistici, veggenti e medium” was published by the Vatican publishing house, and the other one by the Dominicans publishing house.

You write: “there are suspicous credits to people who are referred with some weird names and titles which are used by freemasons.” Can you give some examples please?

I have often exchanged mails with people who defend Vassula, and when I refer to articles written by critics, their answer is that those persons are not credible because they are linked to freemasonry or are “victims of the devil”. The messages of Vassula themselves accuse those who do not believe in their authenticity and sayso publicly, of being guilty of mortal sin and doing the devil’s work.

You say that people criticize Vassula without giving examples or by taking the messages out of context. Well, I invite the readers of this thread to read any of the critical articles listed on the pseudomystica website (pseudomystica.info/tligerrors.htm and judge for themselves.

Alex
 
Alexx said:
You write: “there are suspicous credits to people who are referred with some weird names and titles which are used by freemasons.” Can you give some examples please?
Alex
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I will do provide the examples of which i speak there.
Alexx said:
I have often exchanged mails with people who defend Vassula, and when I refer to articles written by critics, their answer is that those persons are not credible because they are linked to freemasonry or are “victims of the devil”. The messages of Vassula themselves accuse those who do not believe in their authenticity and sayso publicly, of being guilty of mortal sin and doing the devil’s work.
Alex
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There is “not believing” and there is “trying to prevent others from believing”. If it is God who speaks, then He has every right to “accuse” those who don’t believe in His words. Of course it’s not God who accuses but His word as Jesus also said.
When God speaks it is for the salvation of souls. Anyone who prevents a soul from listening to God’s word is guilty against God, the same way anyone who prevents a doctor from visiting a dying patient is guilty since his action will lead to the death of that man.
It is extremely serious sin to try to muffle God’s voice. It’s not a joke. And the Scripures really tell us that there will be people that will do that THINKING that they offer service to God!
Anyone, of course, could write anything on a paper and say “God told me that, if you don’t believe you are condemend”.

So the real question, after all, is not what the messages say, but “‘are the True Life in God’ messages from God or not? And if not, then from whom they are?”.
You can’t tell it’s from Vassula’s mind, since there are numerous testified supernatural phaenomena following her mission. If it was fabricated, those phaenomena wouldn’t exist at all. So it is really a spiritual entity behind that.
Alexx said:
You say that people criticize Vassula without giving examples or by taking the messages out of context. Well, I invite the readers of this thread to read any of the critical articles listed on the pseudomystica website (pseudomystica.info/tligerrors.htm and judge for themselves.
Alex
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You suggesting all the critical articles to the readers and then say “let them judge for themselves”. Isn’t that a little bit silly?

How are you to judge for your self when
  1. first you do not know what you are judging, and
  2. second, the only clues you have are those one presented by the accusers?
If a person reads the critics without having first read all the messages of True Life in God, will this person have an objective point of view? If those messages are indeed false, why don’t you suggest reading them along with the critics?

I would suggest to the readers of this articles:

If you seek God, read the messages of True life in God, or the witnessing of Vassula in her book “Heaven is Real but so is Hell”, and pray to God as if there was no tommorow, to show you if she is a true or false prophet.

If you are sincere in your prayer He WILL answer you since He told us “When a child asks His father for food, the father doesn’t give poison”.
 
Ioannides: please keep to your promise of providing the examples to back up your accusations against Fr. Dermine.
 
The 1995 Notification and Circular of 2007 posted by Alexx answer the OPs questions sufficiently. Discussion closed.
 
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