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A critical website on Vassula Ryden and the TLIG messages Reading
Guide to Heaven is real, but so is hell. |
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Title:
Heaven is real, but so is hell Author:
Vassula Ryd�n Publication:
English editions published by Alexian (New York, USA / Bath, UK), March 2013. French
edition published by Editions le Parvis (Hauteville, Switzerland). Genre:
Autobiography, although not marketed as such when launched in the USA. Why
read it?
Written by Vassula, it contains mostly autobiographical information, some of which has not
been printed before. It gives a good insight into her personality and how she sees
herself. She clearly believes she was personally chosen by God and that it places her in a
special place, which gives her authority to do whatever she considers necessary for the
success of the "mission" she was given. It
is a must read for anyone interested in the Vassula phenomenon, although there is little
new information for those who have been following her since the '90s. For those readers,
the main interest of the book would be to relive the events of the TLIG saga from
Vassula's perspective. They will however remain disappointed by the absence of some key
episodes, such as the fallout with Fr. Fannan or her many clashes with Greek Orthodox
authorities. A
critical reading guide is included hereunder in the form of a chapter by chapter
commentary of the book. Related
articles:
Marketing
Vassula.
An insight into the marketing campaign for the launch of Heaven is real, but so is hell. Who is Vassula
and what is TLIG.
A compendium of what every reader should know.
Heaven
is real, but so is hell: A
chapter by chapter review and commentary
Chapter
1 PREMONITIONS The chapter covers Vassula's
childhood, teenage years, her first marriage and the birth of her two boys, her life in
African countries as an expatriate, her separation and divorce, her marriage to Per
Ryd�n. Vassula's paranormal
childhood and teenage experiences are basically the same she wrote about in her book My Angel Daniel. She insists here
on her ability as a teenager to
see the dead and be able to understand
what they wanted. She writes that she was impressed by their silence and the respect they
had for her, apparently because they knew she was called to become Gods prophet. Several of the chapter's
episodes are particularly revealing. For instance, the attitude of Vassula's mother
towards her. Vassulas mother believed that her daughter had the ability to see the
future, to the point of cancelling a vacation to Vassula describes her
predisposition for daydreaming and entering what seem to be altered states of
consciousness (which she describes as floating away), as well as having
"supernatural" experiences (p.14). The reader also learns that Vassula was not as
catechistically illiterate as her supporters generally present her, since she
attended a religious parochial school where missionary schoolteachers taught.
Each day started with a moment of prayer and students had to attend religion class (p.
13). Vassula recognizes having a
big ego and not liking to be criticized nor losing. She seems to consider
these traits positive, as illustrated by her attitude in school towards teachers and
fellow students. Vassula tells that she did not like being told what to do and got easily
bored. Therefore, she started to have a rebellious behavior in school, answering back to
teachers and having disciplinary problems. This attitude and her sense of humor, she says,
made her a popular girl. When her classroom had to choose a President, that is a student
who would be in charge of maintaining order in the class during the teachers
absence, Vassula was chosen by her schoolmates, precisely because she was the class rebel,
who would make life easy and fun. But the minute Vassula got the job, she
didnt hesitate to immediately report to the teacher all her schoolmates who did not
submit to her authority as class President (p.12-13), leaving her classmates stunned and
feeling betrayed. She tells the story proudly. It shows an aspect of her character, which
probably contributed in making her get as far as she did: being able to betray
so easily those who a moment before were her friends, without remorse or second thoughts,
in order to get the job done.
Chapter
2 CONTACT Vassula recounts how she was
contacted by her "guardian angel", the purification she went through and her
first conversations with God. These are arguments already covered in My Angel Daniel. An interesting detail is her
husband's positive reaction when she told him about her guardian angel contacting her by
moving her hand: Then [my husband] told me
that he had read quite a bit on the subject of mystical experiences in his student days.
He assured me that what had taken place was not unique it had happened to others as
well. (p.25) As her mother did during her
childhood, her husband encouraged her to be open to the phenomenon, which he sees as
a "mystical" experience.
Chapter
3 THE DARK NIGHT After a period of contact
with God described as an infatuation and how new lovers feel, all
contact with the angel and God ceases abruptly. Vassula describes feeling
"dead", and starts to see again the souls of the dead in Purgatory. She
describes them as gray bodies (
) creeping slowly out of a fog and asking
her for help. (p.36) God re-manifests himself to
Vassula, opens for her the Gates of Heaven,
allowing [her] access to His inner Courts, to step in and out any time [she] wished.
She glorifies God with a hymn of her composition, which brings to mind the Magnificat
(p.39). The chapter ends with God promising Vassula to help her earn the gifts of Wisdom,
fortitude and knowledge (p.41).
New Age and spiritualist
concepts When the book was launched in
the For instance, one of the
chapter's most puzzling statements (at least for a Christian) is when Vassula says she
realized how important it was not to keep a
grudge against those who have died, because that holds
them back and keeps them from higher realms; they seemed to remain chained
and do not reach Heaven. We must forgive them (p.37). This concept is connected
to the idea that the souls of the dead cannot reach Heaven if they have "unfinished
business" on Earth, a popular belief
in New Age/Spiritualist groups. Christians instead believe
that salvation of those who have passed away is in God's Misericordious Hands, and
certainly not dependent on someone else's misplaced "grudge" or unwillingness to
forgive. Vassula also claims that by
simply sprinkling water on the souls of the dead, she freed them from Purgatory: I saw many of them whooshing upwards, like
shooting stars being sucked up towards heaven. They were so happy! (p.38) Another puzzling information,
is that Vassula says that she went to get Holy Water at the church across from our
house (p.37). In chapter 2, Vassula described how the angel had told her to read the
Bible, and when she told him that she lived in a Muslim country and didnt know where
to find one, the angel sent her to her sons school library (p.27). That seems a bit
odd, since we learn now that there was a Catholic Church right across the road.
Wouldnt it have made more sense to send her to that parish? We are not Christians on
our own; we are Christians inside a community, a Church. The New Age movement instead
considers that spirituality and contact with God must be direct and not through
institutionalized religion. It is only several months
later that Vassula will be given instructions to approach Catholic priests only with the
scope of informing them of her mission and get help to spread the messages.
Chapter
4 ANGELS OR DEMONS? In this chapter Vassula tells
about a series of visions and encounters she had with the devil. The stories are meant to convince the reader of the
existence of the devil based on her personal
experience, but the descriptions are so caricatured that they seem to belong to a bad
horror movie on exorcism: smell of sulphur
in the air (p.45), insults, choking sensations as if a force was squeezing all the breath
out of her (p.46), demons resembling chimpanzees (p.53), the devil manifesting itself in
the form of a snake that her angel Daniel scares away with a broom (p. 50). She also
describes Satan as busy in hell throwing lava at the faces of the damned (p.51). She says
she overheard Satan instruct a demon to be after her in order to discourage her and
destroy her mission (p.53). Vassula reminds the reader of
her first encounters with evil during her childhood in the form of a pair of hands trying
to strangle her or a black dog with red eyes, as well as feelings of dread causing her to
"freeze with fear" and feel the "heavy weight of evil" and "an
awful stench of sulfur" (p.45). Vassula states that she felt
alone and that she had nobody to turn to for advice or spiritual help (p.48).
Again, we are puzzled by this
statement, as she informed us herself that there was a Catholic Church right across the
street from her house, where the priest had been
open-minded when she went for Holy Water to sprinkle on the souls of the dead (p.38). Generally, people who are
confronted with phenomena such as those Vassula describes, seek to put an end to it by
requesting an exorcism or consulting a mental health professional. Although she says that she
would have wanted to get advice or spiritual help, Vassula did neither.
Chapter
5 THE SPIRIT WORLD The chapter is mainly
dedicated to stories of how Vassula was able to see peoples sins and defeat the
devil. She is the center of each
story, where she seems to have supernatural knowledge and the power to make demons flee. For instance, while trying to
get a reticent friend to talk about her sins, maggots appeared in that friends
glass. Vassula tells her that it is a sign: I
said to her: Do you know what this is? This is one of Satans signatures. (
) I
uncovered your sins but in truth it was the devil that was being revealed.
(p.59). In another story, she
reconciles a daughter and mother, and her success was confirmed when she saw several demons jumping out of that window,
fleeing the house. They all had the appearance of ugly chimpanzees (p.60). Vassula ends the chapter with
one of her few attempts to be
self-critical. She says that she wondered if
the devil wanted her to believe that she was such an "important" and
"holy" person, that her "mere
presence [would] drive the demons berserk". So, she decided "to settle" with the theory that the
devil "pretended to be scared" of
her (p.62). She isn't very convincing and a few chapters later, she is back to writing "how wonderful to be feared by Satan"
(p.96).
Chapter
6 - CONFRONTATION In this chapter, Vassula
tells how she was instructed by her "Guardian Angel" to contact a specific
Catholic priest in order to get her experience authenticated as supernatural and of divine
origin. These events have been previously narrated by Ren� Laurentin in his 1994 book Qui est Vassula (Who is Vassula)
and by Vassula herself in her 1995 book My Angel
Daniel. Vassula starts by explaining
that it was her Angel who told her to go to the parishs seminary and ask for a
particular priest: Fr. Jim. According to Laurentins book, the priest in question is Fr. James Fannan, a PIME
priest and member of Fr. Gobis Marian Movement for Priests (MMP). Instead,
Vassula meets another priest: Fr. Karl. The name of this other priest is not indicated in
Laurentins account. It is probable that "Karl" is a variation of the
priest's name, as "Jim" is of James Fannan's (there is no trace of Fr. Fannan
being called "Fr. Jim" before). Fr. Karl tells Vassula that
he believes she has some type of mental health
problem, perhaps schizophrenia (p.63).
Fr. Karl then consults Fr. Jim, who concludes that the phenomenon is diabolical (p.64) and that
she should throw away all the notebooks and refuse to write down any message from the
entities (p.68). Vassula is disgusted by this conclusion. She suggests that the reason
for the priests rejection was envy (p.67) and comments: For several years this priest was to become such
a thorn to me, followed later by others, so much so that without the consolation of God I
would not have been able to continue (p.67). Vassula however follows the
priests' advice, but only halfway: she refuses to communicate
with "God the Father" and "Jesus", but continues to write down her
Angel Daniels messages, because she trusts him (p.68). During this
period of time, the Angel uses Vassulas hand to draw pictures, which will later be
used as illustrations for the covers of the first editions of the TLIG books (examples
below).
Vassula continues to have
contact with Fr. Jim, who in the end tells her to go see a Catholic hermit: Fr. Dujarrier, who lives in a
difficult to reach region, requiring a whole day of travel. In the original version of the
TLIG messages, Vassula describes Fr. Raymond Dujarrier as a French,
semi-hermit, mystic, Catholic priest, but also Hindu, Moslem and Buddhist. All in
one (http://www.tlig.net/pageflip2/Volume1/files/assets/basic-html/page39.html ). Vassula
describes her visit to Dujarrier as a sort of initiatic journey to consult a wise man, who
confirms that she has been given a gift and
must not reject the calling of God. He wants to tell us something (p.72). Back in Those who are familiar with the
story of Vassula cannot help but notice that the conclusion omits any mention of Fr.
Jim/James Fannan. According to Laurentin, after Fr. Fannans
initial rejection of the messages, Vassula had asked God for a sign, and received the
following answer I will bend him
[in Qui est Vassula, p.11]. Several months
later, Fr. Fannan starts to believe in
the authenticity of the messages and becomes Vassulas spiritual director [Qui est Vassula, p. 14]. From that moment on, he
became instrumental in making Vassula and her messages known in Catholic settings and took
her defense in several occasions. He is mentioned in the messages as someone who would
play an important role in the recognition of the messages by the Church [www.pseudomystica.info/dermine2.htm]. But something happened in 2001. Fr. Fannan was
openly criticized by Vassula , who accused him of silencing
Gods Voice for refusing to organize one of her meetings in
Chapter
7 THE Vassula describes the vision
of the three iron bars that have to bend, representing the three Churches (Roman Catholic,
Protestant and Orthodox), and how God asked her to serve him by uniting the Churches
(p.78). He tells Vassula that in this mission, she will have to serve him among evil, unbelievers (
) where darkness
prevails (
) where every good is deformed into evil (p.77). In order to succeed in her
mission, she will have to transmit the TLIG messages to the Pope and other Church leaders, for the
messages contain the key to unity
(p.83). God reveals to her that the reason of
division in the Church is that the people of
the Church are divided and reluctant to die to their ego and reconcile. He also
tells Vassula that in the end, all Churches will unite, but the question is, will it come through our
voluntary cooperation, or through a Chastisement (p.82). The chapter gives the image of a God who will turn
against his children if they do not do as He pleases. It is 1987 and Vassula's
Angel tells her that she will soon leave
Chapter
8 THE DOVE The chapter starts with
Vassula recalling the visions that made her understand how she had been specially chosen
by the Holy Spirit to receive Gods messages and make them known to humanity (p.87),
followed by a brief summary of her first public meetings in Switzerland, the creation of
the first prayer groups and the fast spreading of the messages. She tells how difficult it
was for her in the beginning, but that she always trusted in God. She was even full of joy
thinking how wonderful to be feared by
Satan, because she was entrusted with something that the devil considered a real threat against him (p.96).
Apparently, she no longer believed that "Satan
pretended to be scared" of her (p.62). Vassula mentions the negative
stance of the local Catholic and Orthodox bishops, the latter having issued a negative statement regarding
her. She suggests that the Orthodox Metropolitan took this negative stance because he was
envious of the success she was having (p.93-95). During that time, Catholic and Orthodox clergy
advised her to put an end to her activities. She consulted Jesus on these
persons who did not believe in the authenticity of her mission, and he answered her by
affirming that those persons were spiritually dead and that he found no
holiness in them: they are
denying Me as God. (
) they are comparing themselves to Me. Do you know what they are
doing? They are promoting paganism, they are multiplying My scourgers; they are increasing
spiritual deafness; they are not defending Me, they are deriding Me (p.98). The whole chapter insists on
the interpretation of any type of skepticism towards TLIG as the result of the
devils intervention, and that therefore those
Church representatives, who want to limit Vassulas access to religious venues, are
acting against Gods Will. Throughout the book, Vassula
never concedes that any of her critics or opponents (mostly clergy members) could have
legitimate reasons to question the authenticity of her claims and warn the faithful
accordingly. She consistently portrays her
critics as lacking Christian virtues and being motivated by evil.
Chapter
9 SUPERNATURAL Vassula describes the
different types of supernatural and mystical experiences that God gave her. She insists
that the messages God writes down using her hand but in a different handwriting -
are not the result of automatic writing, and
refers to the opinion of Fr. Curty, an exorcist and graphologist (p.105). [See Fr.
Dermines article for a rebuttal of Curtys conclusions: http://www.pseudomystica.info/dermine3.htm ]. Vassula then describes how
she discovered a tender God, who loves us in spite of our sins, wants us to love him right
away and have a relationship with him without waiting until we are perfect (p.101). This
is the theme of the first volume of messages, which draws most people to TLIG. Vassula also presents two
arguments in favor of the authenticity of the messages: her ignorance of religious matters
and the good fruit. She writes: How do you
explain the knowledge of spiritual matters in someone like me who had not even received an
hour of catechism? (p.108), which is a misleading assertion, since in
chapter one she tells about studying in a parochial school where missionary schoolteachers
taught, and where daily prayer and religion class were mandatory
(p.13-14). Vassula then asserts that the
conversions triggered by the Messages are proof of their good fruit and therefore of their
divine origin (p.108-109). The argument of
"good fruit" is a popular one when trying to authenticate apparitions and
private revelations, but it is not enough. The case of the Legionaries of
Christ is a good example of this. The conversions, deep life of faith and works of the lay
and clergy members of the Legionaries of Christ were presented as proof that the founder,
Fr. Maciel, was a holy person, to the extent that even when his terrible sins were
publicly exposed, followers could still not believe them to be true. The way Fr. Maciel
acted and covered up his deceit can be best described as cynical and
diabolical". Several Legionaries testified that their conversion would have
never taken place without Fr. Maciel. The result was a deep crisis of faith in many
followers. Former TLIG followers have
pointed out the divisions the messages cause in families and parishes, the
doctrinal problems, the demonization of critics, the lack of respect for Church
authorities that are not favorable to Vassula. These are also the "fruit" of the
messages. In many ways, TLIG has become a religious group that acts on its own, with its
TLIG priests and its TLIG followers, who consider themselves all
part of the TLIG family, the chosen ones entrusted with the holy mission of
making Gods message known to humanity. The chapter ends with two
strange episodes. The first one involves Vassula interacting with a young boy, who ends up
disappearing in front of her eyes, in what sounds like a typical ghost story (p.112-113).
She claims God had sent this boy to console her. The second episode is about
another false seer, to whom Vassula wanted to give one of her rosary rings as a gift, but
that God unmasks by making Vassulas ring disappear from her finger (p.113-114). More strange stories will follow in chapter 11.
Chapter
10 LIFTING THE VEIL In this chapter Vassula tells
her side of the story regarding her relationship with Fr. Stefano Gobbi, founder of
the Marian Movement of Priests (MMP), which she avoids naming but is
easily recognizable to anyone who was her follower in the 1990s. In her version of the
events, a Benedictine monk was to blame for having spread slander and calumny about her to Fr.
Gobbi, who later changed opinion after the intervention of the mariologist Ren�
Laurentin. Vassula tells about an
episode where Fr. Gobbi forced the Benedictine monk to make peace with her, although the
monk maintained his negative opinion. She also claims that some years later the monk fell
gravely ill and before dying, he accepted his
mistake and repented, implying that he recognized the authenticity of
Vassulas messages (p.119-121). The rest of the chapter is a
collection of signs such as unexplained perfumes smelt by people in Vassulas
house - that contributed to their religious conversion. She also reveals that she receives
personal messages from God to private persons, which she writes down and gives to the
persons in question.
The "miracle" of
Jesus' face Answering a question
regarding signs (=extraordinary phenomena), she advises to respect them and not question
them. Regarding the sign that people see the miracle (p.137) of Jesus face superimposed
on hers, Vassula explains that God
told her that it is to prove that I
am is the Author of True Life in God (p.136). There might however be a
simpler explanation for this miracle. Vassulas
conference venues are decorated with posters and banners representing Jesus portrait
in the version created by NASA and based on the shroud of
Now, add the other effects
that usually precede Vassulas performances: singing and repetitive prayers that can
last as long as an hour, touching testimonies from members of clergy and lay people who
present Vassula as Gods prophet directly in contact with the divinity. Then Vassula
enters the scene. Spots on her and the banners. Dimmed lights. People expecting to see
something extraordinary. They are set up to see that phenomenon and some do see what they
wish to see. And once Vassula gets the fame of showing Jesus face,
suggestible people will see the phenomenon manifest itself in other
circumstances, as those described by Vassula.
The Shekinah and the miraculous
glitter Both the Shekinah photos and the
"miraculous glitter" seem to have become popular in the Charismatic Renewal
both Pentecostal and Catholic too often thirsty for
"unexplainable" phenomena "proving" God's presence among us. Vassula describes the
Shekinah as a visible presence of God in the form of "white
mist that looks like a cloud" and claims that it "usually appears in photographs
because of the sensitive eye of the camera" (ipse dixit!). In fact, there are
websites claiming to have captured God on film "for the first time in recorded
history", such as http://thenewholybible.org/picture_of_the_cloud_of_gods_glory.htm . In this case,
the photos show a sunset with some light effects. Another website mentions the
Shekinah in connection with the miraculous
glitter, to which Vassula also refers as escarchas. Some
research on the Internet came up with two series of articles mentioning the
miraculous glitter being analyzed. The first article (http://www.spiritdaily.net/Sign_Wonders/escarchas.htm ) refers to two
sets of studies (1993 and 1995) performed by the Central University of Venezuela on
samples that had been taken at a Catholic monastery and a Marian conference. The glitter
was different from the commercial type available, and was found to contain protozoans,
algae or fungi, bubbles of air, water and crystals, without activity: "They seemed
like fossils". Nothing out of this world then. (Note: the title of the Spirit Daily
article is misleading, because the studies DID identify the composition of the glitters.) A second series of articles
referred to the claim made by charismatic Christians and Evangelists, of God manifesting
himself by producing a glittering substance, which is also referred to as Gold Dust,
Glory Dust and Shekinah Glory. According to the website of
Max Greiner (http://www.maxgreinerart.com/ShekinaGloryDustMiracle.html ), an evangelist
who claims to have received this anointing himself and gives tips on how to
see it, the Glory Dust first appeared in the
(sic) North America in 1998, with the arrival and testimony of a Christian mother from
Brazil, named Silvana Machado, who started a healing ministry after
being miraculously healed of cancer when Christians prayed over her. Since
then, the glittery powder is said to fall from her head when she prays for others. Charisma magazine (no longer on-line, but the text
is copied here: http://www.banner.org.uk/news/flash%20archives/Flash-archive1.html#plastic ) looked into the
matter and had two samples of the flecks analyzed by the US Geological Survey in
Washington, D.C. , that found the substance to
be more like plastic glitter, with no gold content. A similar conclusion was
also reached by the Vassula asserts that this
miraculous glitter appeared on her face and in her hotel room during the TLIG pilgrimage
to Vassula says that she
researched the matter and found out that scientists
have examined these occurrences and found that it is a living matter, a sort of plasma,
and not paper or aluminum. It is something that is not of this world (p.142).
However, those who did study the
glitter identified it as dead organic matter in one case, and plastic in the other. As for glittering
plasma, it can be found in the lava plasma lamps that were in vogue in the 1970s, but they
too are from this world.
Chapter
12 THE DAY OF THE LORD Vassula explains her visions
of Purgatory and of the purifying fire which has already started. This
Day of the Lord - which she says is the equivalent of a Baptism of
Fire or a Baptism of the Holy Spirit is described in the
following way: The terrible Day of the Lord (
) is a sort
of a mini-tribunal before the actual Day of Judgment. (
) This Fire reveals and rids
you of your innumerable sins. You can call it, Gods Merciful act. God is
love, and not less when He reveals Himself as a consuming Fire. It is better to experience
this purifying Fire here on earth rather than later in Purgatory. Why? Because your life
will become like an unceasing prayer, pleasing to God and it will lessen the amount of
time youll spend in Purgatory after you die, where the souls suffering is even
more intense due to its separation from God. God, in His benevolence, showed me in She affirms that this
purification has already started and that many as herself have experienced it (p.149). She also says that God told her that He had
planned to give the TLIG messages to humanity through Vassula well before He
created her and that He created [Vassula] at
this specific time in history, for this specific mission. She believes that she is Gods child, trained by Him and sent as an
unsuspected secret agent on earth to look after His Interests
(p.150).
Chapter
13 THE SPIRITUAL Vassula starts the chapter by
explaining that spiritual life is spiritual
warfare. Spiritual warfare is the battle between Good and Evil and the battlefield is
us. She then explains that demons exist and seek to destroy Gods plans by
using people and circumstances. They are responsible for all evil in the world, including
the lack of unity among Churches. (p.153-154) Vassula then repeats that Christ gave her the mission to unite the
Churches, and that it is a battle such as that fought by the prophets (p.155). She then
narrates the events of a conference in Incidentally, the Puerto
Rican Bishops were among the first to warn
the faithful about attending Vassula's conferences, in this case pointing out that: While the reunion of the separated ecclesial
communities with the Catholic Church is indeed an objective of the greatest importance,
for which we should all work and pray to the extent possible, there also exists
a danger that certain persons, even though well-meaning, may propose false, inadequate,
and confusing paths toward that unity which we long therefy impeding rather than fostering
true ecumencial progress. For that reason, Catholics
should not feel themselves called to participate in any self-styled ecumenical
activity that has not been approved by the competent authority of their own
Church. (see: http://ephesians511blog.com/2013/03/03/vassula-ryden-fr-brian-harrison-puerto-rican-bishops-warn-against-vassulas-false-ecumenism/ ) The chapter ends with her "mission" to
inform Pope John Paul II of TLIG , how she was able to tuck into
his robe a piece of paper with a message during a public audience, a series of visions she
had and a dream which made her
understand that the Pope had read the Messages
ad that he appreciated them, and that they are a good means of evangelization.
(p.164) She seems to consider this
conclusion as a fact, although it only happened in her mind. It was during John Paul II's
papacy that the Notification against Vassula was published (see: http://www.pseudomystica.info/dermine.htm )
Chapter
14 PROPHECIES Vassula recounts the
catastrophic prophecies she has received and shows how in her eyes they
corresponded with events that occurred: the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 2004 Asian
tsunami, the fall of communist According to Vassula, this
Chastisement, as well as the other tragedies and catastrophes, are Gods response to
our lack of faith, our sins, division among the Churches, the worlds godlessness and
rejection of Gods Word, atheism, immorality, turning Christmas into a commercial
holiday, refusing to believe in the TLIG messages and other private revelations as well as
opposing their spreading. Vassula writes that God will not allow us to offend Him forever
(p.181) and the only way to avoid or diminish the effects of the destruction by fire is
for people to repent and convert to God, believe that God talks through the TLIG messages
and Churches end their divisions by uniting
around one Altar (p.179). The question of evil The general
message of the Chapter is that you better love God and fear him, or he will destroy you in
the cruelest way you can imagine in order to "appease" his wrath (p. 177, 190).
So here, we face the question of evil: Why would God allow evil to exist? The Catechism of
the Catholic Church (CCC) answers that it is a mystery linked to God creating us as
creatures with free will on a journey to perfection. Every single aspect of the Christian
message is part of the answer to the question of evil, illuminated by Jesus' death on the
cross to vanquish evil. God does not answer to evil with evil, but seeks a way to cause a
good to come from that very evil. (CCC n. 309-314) Vassula is close to this
understanding of the question of evil, but with a twist as to what motivates God. According to the
TLIG messages, God permits evil because people "offend" him and don't love him,
making him feel angry, and so it is the only way to make them "learn to fear"
him (p.190) and convert. She makes him go as far as saying that when the chastisement will
come, even if people call to him, he will not listen (p.209). Many of us have
grown up with that flawed image of God, perhaps the result of a too literal interpretation
of biblical texts. However, any expression of love and conversion under that type of
duress are not real and only the result of intimidation. Why would God want to force us to
love him? The Gospel is
clear: if someone has to die for our sins, God sacrifices Himself. He sent His Son to show
us His True Image. His only motivation is His love for us. He is the Father of the
prodigal son, on the threshold waiting for our return (Luke 15, 11-32). He does not punish
us by refusing to listen to our prayers, even if they come late. He suffers with us the
consequences of evil, but with the knowledge that He can make good come out of it. And
only understanding this will our conversion be as sincere and complete as that of
Zacchaeus (Luke 19, 1-10). The prophecies Most of Vassula's visions and
prophecies are quite generic, and therefore it is only a matter of time until a natural or
man-induced catastrophe can be fitted to them, at least approximately. For instance, a
meteorite is called "star" by Vassula to back up the claim that her prayer
groups had prevented a meteor from crashing in the Midwest region of the The same 2009 text
used to claim the prediction of the Midwest meteor sighting was then used again to claim
the prediction of the 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption (http://www.tlig.org/en/spirituality/letters/prophecies-2010/ ), although a
much more catastrophic event had occurred first: the January 2010 Haiti earthquake, that
had shown people covered in ash-like dust. Vassula's text read: From the horizon a star will be seen; the night will be
ravaged and ashes will fall as snow in winter, covering Your people like ghosts
(
). The One wonders why
God would be more interested in preventing such low-impact and not so rare
events in rich countries, and not say a word about the horrible The only Vassula
prophecy that does have a sort of wow factor, is the one matched to the 9/11 terrorist attack on the
Chapter
15 MIRACLES In this short chapter (4
pages) Vassula tells about the miraculous healings performed by the Holy Spirit through
her witnessing and praying over people. Vassula claims that in this way she has healed
several persons who suffered from illnesses such as crippling juvenile rheumatoid
arthritis (a condition where spontaneous remission is well known, see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2927687/ ), leukemia,
mouth cancer, a deaf boy, as well as other less serious health problems. In the case of the little boy
suffering from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, Vassula says that this is the only case
where she has the medical file, which was sent to the
Chapter
16 THE NARROW PATH This chapter deals with the
events that took place during the six year period that Vassula lived in Vassula confides how
difficult it was for her to face these events in such a short period of time and wondered
who would be the next victim. She expresses her
conviction that all these deaths were the result of witchcraft used by
Satanists against her and her family. She connected this to the
fact that she had found spiders in one of her purses, and that a famous exorcist had
confirmed to her that it was an evil
manifestation done by someone who worked with Satan and against [her]. (p.191
and 196) While in Rome, Vassula worked
on getting recognition from the Vatican, and certainly one of her main
achievements was to obtain the opportunity to defend her case with the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Vassula gives a very brief account of this dialogue with
the CDF, which she hoped would lead to the cancellation or modification of the
Notification that had been issued against her in 1995. She insists that the outcome of
that dialogue was positive, and that this was confirmed to her by then Cardinal Ratzinger
during a private audience he conceded her in 2004. She says that this positive
rapport was later contradicted by Ratzingers successor as head of the CDF
Cardinal Levada, who decided to send out a
letter to all Catholic Bishops of the world in 2007, reiterating the During her time in Regarding these audiences,
there is a detail one cannot leave without mentioning. Vassula says that in one occasion,
she accompanied a Greek Orthodox Archimandrite who was going to meet the then head of the
Christian Unity Office Msgr Cassidy. She writes: Later
they took a picture and I purposely stayed out of the picture so the Cardinal
wouldnt think I wanted to use a picture with him to promote myself
(p.194). But, in 2004, during the private meeting that then Cardinal Ratzinger was kind
enough to grant her, Vassula asked him if she could have a picture taken with him. According to Dr. Niels Hvidt,
who took the picture, Cardinal Ratzinger accepted with the express condition that it would
not be used for cheap propaganda. This picture is today all over
the net, including web pages promoting Heaven is
Real, and has even been used as
the cover of a booklet in Italian as "proof" of Pope Benedicts support of
Vassula and TLIG. Clearly it is used to facilitate the selling of her books to a Catholic
public. This picture started to be used in this way when it became clear that the result
of the dialogue between Vassula and the Vatican had not been an approval of her writings
and that the negative doctrinal assessment of the 1995 Notification remained in full
force. In spite of the
propagandistic exploitation of emeritus Pope Benedicts image, Vassula included at
the end of chapter 16 the description of a vision where she sees several cardinals trying
to open the gate of a Cathedral and failing to do so, and then herself arriving and
opening it without difficulty. She writes:
From this vision I understood that the leaders of the Church are not listening to
Christs Message that can lead them to Unity because they lack humility and love. The only Cardinal she names
in her vision is Cardinal Ratzinger, suggesting therefore to the reader that he did little
for unity even as Pope, because lacking basic Christian
virtues. Is this a sort of payback for
what happened during the 2012 TLIG pilgrimage to
Chapter
17 END OF TIMES The conclusive chapter is a
call for the reader to be aware that humanity is living the End of Times, which Vassula
defines as a spiritual battle between good and evil, whose outcome will be defined by
peoples choices (p.205). Vassula warns that if humanity does not choose God, then
there will be a devastating destruction of Earth, brought upon by humanitys lack of
values of life and change of heart (p.217). Vassula says that she saw this
destruction in a vision, and that it would involve an earthquake of magnitude 8 on the
Richter scale, the skies becoming dark at
daytime and stars falling or speeding away (p.208). She then quotes the Voice of
God saying that His Angel will throw a censer with Fire down to the earth and (
) a violent
earthquake will come, and the elements of the earth will catch fire and fall apart.
God is also quoted as saying
that people will call to Him, but that He will
not listen (p.209). The last pages of the book
resume Vassulas Mission and solution to
make a better world", as well as contact details for her USA Prayer groups,
information on TLIG pilgrimages and retreats, her charity work through the Beth Myriams,
and where to buy the complete 1'150 page TLIG Book of Messages. Written
by a former TLIG follower. Published October 2014. For comments, write to staff@pseudomystica.info
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