I saw this name pop up on the forum yesterday and was a bit surprised to see her name is still floating around. In the early nineties this person was invited to St John's chapel on the falls road Belfast by a good friend of mine Bill Mc Cavanagh.Bill was a remarkable man and until his death spent all of his spare time promoting Our Lady and her apparitions all around the world, his slide shows always received a full house,he was responsible for bringing different visionaries to Belfast, he was close to Vicka and spent time with her, Vicka asked Our Lady was she pleased with Bill and Our Lady replied "I am pleased with the little things that William does for me" firstly Bill noted that Our Lady called him by his baptismal name and secondly was humbled by Our Lady saying "little things" after all he spent most of his life spreading the good news..Bill was also a very good friend with Sister Briege McKenna and I'm sure he met a lot more, after all in his younger days he lived in the usa and rubbed shoulders with the kennedy's and marilyn monroe.When Bill died he left his slide shows in his will to my brother in law..Well getting back to the story on vassula I remember bill was very excited about her visit and was pleased to see yet another packed audience, I helped him out that night with the organisation and he was excited and a bit nervous that he brought her to St Johns as he did not know how she would be greeted..vassula started to give her talk and people listened the priest asked her questions and she replied and generally the night was going well, until vassula was speaking of one of her vissions which she proclaimed that during the vission God the Father had appeared to her, the priest who was quite excited asked her did The father say anything she said no he just winked at her,Bill turned white at this remark and was furious I asked him Bill are you ok he replied quietly to me and said Ive had enough of this garbage that's my mind made up, I asked him what was wrong because I was not as wise as him and he said, John a wink is haughty look, a sly gesture nothing from God would do such a thing go read your Bible,Bill looked at me and said this woman wont be back in my town..That was the last time I ever herd of Vassula and as I said I was surprised to see her name again.
There was another thread here not so long ago on her. She is officially forbidden by the Church. I had never heard of her and out of curiosity read one message. During that time I was reading Way to Perfection by St Teresa of Avila.....WOW the difference in the message and writing for me immediately dissmissed Vasuula as fake! Never bothered to read another word of hers. Saw she was forbidden, and end of story for me. I too was a little surprised she even came up in Catholic forums. I think if we immerse ourselves in the Saints writings it makes it easier to see the Wolf under the Sheep's clothing. It sure has helped me!
Vassula was just mentioned on the other thread as a person who is actually a millenialist( therefore wrong) and the responce to her was the reason she was actually mentioned at all.
Speaking as a trained theologian who has studied Vassula Ryden's case extensively while carrying out extensive research into contemporary mystical writing, and especially the entirety of her dialogue over several years with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, things seem very much more complex than this. I have commented on this at some length on the 'false prophets' thread on this Forum. Opinion is clearly divided within the Magisterium over 'True Life in God', but VR's supporters include a number of Cardinals (one of whom - Cardinal Toppo - was considered 'papabile' prior to the recent conclave), the Primate of Belgium, and twenty Indian bishops. So to say that Vassula Ryden is 'forbidden' by the Church is an over-simplification.
Peter B, may I ask if you have studied Dr of the Church St Teresa of Avila's writings? The HUGE difference between her and Vassula was obvious from the beginning. St Teresa saw Jesus frequently and was a mystic who levitated, but spent her in time in humble holy obedience to the Church and her Order. The level of her coversations with God are profound, all which are lacking in Vasuula and these fake prophets around today.
Peter I would not have the intelligence for your skills could I dare to ask would God the father wink ??? has there ever been a time in the Bible or other visions that this has been mentioned, as I said I wouldn't know either way but Bills reaction and statement at the time was enough for me.. Thanks John
All I can say is that I try not to base my discernment on any pre-conceived notions of what God may or may not do (after all, if I did that, I would probably reject many passages of Scripture as fanciful or even offensive). That would effectively be to expect God to conform human criteria, which can't be a good theological principle. Especially with regard to what may well be symbolic visions in which God communicates with an individual's subjectivity in ways that may seem incomprehensible to outsiders (try working your way through Ezekiel if you want a really wild ride ...). If God for pedagogical reasons deemed that Vassula Ryden's relationship with Him would be edified by a vision in which she perceived a Divine wink (she knows as well as anyone that God is Spirit...), I'm not going to stand in judgment over that. So for me it's neither here nor there - and the question didn't come up in the theological dialogue between Vassula and the CDF, although the issue of the proper differentiation of the persons of the Trinity certainly did. According to Danish theologian Niels Hvidt, the then Cardinal Ratzinger was impressed with her response to this and other disputed questions - and Hvidt's report carries weight given that his subsequent OUP book, Christian Prophecy - the post-Biblical Tradition (which devotes a chapter to Vassula Ryden), received a foreword from Cardinal Ratzinger. I don't want to go over the argumentation concerning VR that has already been set out in extenso on other threads (put 'Niels Hvidt' into the search box at the top of the page and you can find it). Of course it is fine if people want to ignore her or find her writing implausible. Naturally it has to be acknowledged that she has many detractors. BUT, since the death of Don Stefano Gobbi in 2011, I would defy anyone to name a living alleged mystic who has as many supporters within the Magisterium, and that in spite of the 1995 Notification against her. Maybe they are all mistaken, but their number ought to give pause for thought.
Perhaps she is receiving communication from something supernatural, however, her disobedience to not only the Catholic Church, but to her own Orthodox Church, just for starters, is enough to turn me off. I too have received messages, and was told to ALWAYS be obedient to the Church in even small things, even if I don't understand them. THAT is what pleases God the most. Demons FLY from holy obedience, and anyone practicing it will understand much more about God than any theology book can ever teach. Demons love those that are disobedient, and those that are disobedient are always wanting new revelations and such, and demons are more than happy to comply. THAT is what my problem is with all these so called prophets of today. Major apparitions like Garabandal, where the children were obedient and taught by Mary to BE obedient no matter what, are the kind of apparitions I will take seriously.
Peter in the above post, I did not mean at all to undermine your theology teaching, which is a good and holy thing to study God's word. I only meant that when it comes to supernatural messages and phenomina, we must then be very careful to be obedient to deter demons from jumping in. Two of the Carmelite Saints (Teresa of Avila and Therese) that were made Doctors of the Church had no if very little formal theology teaching, yet in their holy obedience, God gave them huge amounts of knowledge and sometimes in one instant of loving infusion. This is what I am getting at with be wary of prophets.
I would avoid her...apart from anything else she makes me uneasy. Catholicism is all about Tradition and I can't slot her into anything I know from the past. I know she is Orthodox, but still.....Catholics should avoid the novel, for we build on the past and she is novel. If we can't see where in our past she comes from, how can we know where she is taking us?
