“The way God has been leading me, I believe that this urge [to found a center] too comes from Him.” (Letter from Vassula, July 2022)
In 2022, Vassula Rydén was 80 years old, and after almost 40 years of travelling, giving talks and lectures on the teaching of her writings the whole world over, she began to feel an urge to find a center for her mission. A place where she could gather all the material collected during her long mission. One year later, this urge from God lead her to meet us and discuss and then to name Kastanjegården as the main center for her messages True Life in God.
After Vassula’s death, the plans for making Kastanjegården the main center of her messages were changed, and it was decided to place the main-center elsewhere.
However, we have chosen to pursue Vassula’s inspiration for Kastanjegården even though it will not be the main center, and to do so in the form of a non profit association.
In this same letter from 2022, where she officially announces her will to establish a center, she mentions the French woman, Marthe Robin, as an inspiration. Marthe was considered a living saint and also received inspirations from Jesus, and established many “foyers,” or homes. These homes or ’foyers’, are very popular today, and they are holding many retreats. This activity of having constant retreats, was something Vassula returned to in the letter:
“The Center should be active with constant retreats, Masses, and Adoration”.
Just when Vassula felt this urge in 2022 to build a center, we also, unknowingly felt an urge to build a center.
One might call it divine coincidence. We made gardening and architectural plans for a center that were ready just two months before Vassulas letter. However, at that time, we didn’t know for what purpose.
In november 2023, in her house in Rhodos, when we presented our plans, we showed Vassula that we had been inspired at the same time for the same project as she was without knowing it. Vassula was sincerely surprised. ”Did you really plan this? At the same time as I began to plan for a center?”
For Vassula, it was a sign.
So, we began to work for this, from 2023 to her passing in the autumn 2024. We worked hard on developing the idea of a main center for TLIG.
On the sickbed on the hospital, she sent her most important belongings from her nearly 40 years of missionary work worldwide — from her house in Rhodes to our farm. A few days later, she passed away. These belongings were supposed to be used to set up an exhibition in the main center here at Kastanjegården, now it will be elsewhere.
***
Vassula did not live to see our plans come to fruition at Kastanjegården.
But we made the decision to honor her final wish. From this, the idea of creating an association emerged — one dedicated to fulfilling Vassula’s heartfelt desire: to establish, at Kastanjegården, a place — or rather, a home — that would embody her spirituality and further her work for Christian unity.
The association presented here is therefore an attempt to fulfill her plans with Kastanjegården, and with us.
One could say that Vassula’s future home at Kastanjegården with us will be something like Marthe Robin’s homes in the sense that what Christ described for Marthe—“the Home of My Heart open to all”—expands to The Home of the Two Hearts, open to all.
Why we have chosen to add Mary’s heart to Marthe Robin’s foyer de charité, is inspired by Vassula’s writings. The alliance of the Two Hearts is clearly present throughout her writings. This co-redemptive unity between the Virgin Mary and Jesus is also present in Christ’s words to Marthe Robin in her Foundation document:
“Sa création, dit-Il, sera le refuge des grandes détresses humaines qui viendront y puiser la consolation et l’espérance ; et l’abri de ses murs, le signe évident de ma Volonté et l’appel émouvant de mon Cœur aux pécheurs innombrables qui viendront de toutes parts attirés par ma Mère et par Moi y chercher la Lumière et la guérison de leurs maux dans mon pardon divin. Je veux qu’elle soit un Foyer éclatant de Lumière, de Charité, d’Amour … la Maison de mon Cœur ouvert à tous.”
https://www.lesfoyersdecharite.com/custom/uploads/2019/10/texte-fondateur-des-foyers-de-charite.pdf
(Translation: “Its creation will be the refuge for those in great distress that will come to draw consolation and hope from it… Countless sinners will come from all over, drawn by my Mother and by Me, to find the light and healing of their sorrows in my divine forgiveness. I want it to be a Foyer that radiates with Light, Charity, Love… the home of my heart, open to all.”)
https://www.martherobin.com/en/son-heritage/les-foyers-de-charite/
Why choose the name Home?
The answer is simple. It is how Jesus himself describes his heart. Jesus’ Heart is more often than not portraited as a home in Vassula’s writings, as we can see from the extracts below.
A center would thus become a home of his heart and his mother’s: a place where people would encounter and experience the hearts of Jesus and Mary.
“… your home is in My Sacred Heart.” (May 1, 1988)
“… let My Shoulder be your head-rest, My Sacred Heart your Home…” (July 8, 1989)
“… make My Sacred Heart your Home, like a dove that has its cote, have My Sacred Heart to be your Home.”
Thus, we can safely say that His Sacred Heart being our home, is an integral part of Vassula’s messages, and to create a place or a home, for Vassula’s spirituality is nothing more than to create a home for His Heart.
The Unity of the Two Hearts
Not only is the theme of the sacred heart present in Vassula’s messages, but so is also the Alliance of the Two Hearts: the heart of the virgin Mary and of Christ.
Here is a message:
“… have you not heard that Our Two Hearts are united in One? Consider My Redemptive Heart, consider Her Co-Redemptive Heart…”
In the message of March 20, 1996, the theme of the unity of the Two Hearts comes to full realization. Jesus praises the Heart of Mary passage after passage. This message gives us the impetus for creating the name Home of the Two Hearts.
The Two Hearts – A Truth
“Be firm about the Two Hearts, united in love; I have spoken in many hearts already about this truth, a truth that many will reject but in the end, Our Two Hearts will prevail.” (TLIG, December 8, 1991)
These messages are emphasizing the profound union between the hearts of Jesus and Mary, not only in love but also in their shared divine mission. Several passages highlight this unity.
And as the sacred heart of Jesus is our home, and the two hearts are inseperable, thus we can safely extrapolate The Two Hearts, to The Home of the Two Hearts.
The Home of the Two Hearts – A Truth
It is clearly a part of Vassula’s spirituality that His Sacred Heart is regarded as a home. Building on this, it is also part of the same spirituality that the hearts of Jesus and Mary are so united that they form one heart.
It follows only logically, then, that we can now conceptualize the Two Hearts as a Home:
His heart is our home, and since Mary’s heart and His are united as one, these two hearts make out our home.