Patristic views of charisms in Orthodoxy

[Mina Mounir]

hi!
in my search on the internet i found a website of a woman called " Vassula Ryden"
she claims she is Greek Orthodox, and claims that she is receiving messages , prophecies and visions from the Trinity since 1985.
I found that she is using her "Orthodox" membership to give a legality to her visions inside the church members ,
she established a group ( TLIG ) and travels many countries around the world to talk about her messages ( which definitely will be full of good things to cover the bad things as far as I touched in her messages )
on the other side , there is a website http://www.infovassula.ch/ criticizing and examining her messages.

in 1995 the congregation of Doctrine and faith in the Vatican warned against her doctrinal faults , and reaffirmed this on 2007 .

What is the Orthodox view to such claims of visions?

I was talking to one of the TLIG members, he told me there is not doctrinal mistakes in her visions , I simply told him I can write a very good book about Orthodox doctrines , does this mean that Christ appeared to me and gave me this book?
the question is how should the orthodox treat with such claims? and is it possible to excommunicate a person says so ?

XC Anesti
Mina

[M.C. Steenberg]

Dear friends,

For one reason or another, there seems a certain fascination with talking about this certain individual on the internet at the moment.

Let us refrain from that trend. This thread could usefully be used to address, rather than the question of this individual and her teachings (which the Church has clearly dismissed), the matter of patristic views on 'charisms' and their nature in the Church.

XB, Dcn Matthew

[M.C. Steenberg]

It seems like a good place to begin, in studying the patristic view of personal charismata in the Church, would be with the Montanist / New Prophecy controversy of the early Church. This was the first major dispute involving the question of personal charism and its relationship to the larger ecclesial body of Christian truth; and while the outcome of the long dispute was firmly to reject the teachings and practices of the specific groups in question, it was not a blanket rejection of personal charism.

Perhaps discussion of that historical context might prove a useful and fruitful way forward.

XB, Dcn Matthew

[Misha]

Dear Mina,when Holy Apostle Paul received the vision of Living God he didn't start immediately to preach and teach.
God sent him to an experienced elder (apostle Ananias) who guided him spiritually.
Without a proper guidance ,which shows an inner sense of humility and disposal to obay to the Church, there's a major danger of confusion .