Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/0824

0824 Climbing the mountains.... striving for spiritual height....

March 23, 1939: Book 17

Behold, if you aspire to climb the mountains, you must not lack strength of purpose, for everything that is high up must, as it were, be climbed. A sluggish man cannot easily reach his aim, for he must apply double strength in order to look down with double satisfaction and bless the path he has travelled which has led him to the heights. Spiritual striving must also be regarded in this way. It is likewise a perpetual desire to climb to the summit, which is spiritual perfection. The tireless wanderer ascends the heights with certainty, if he does not allow himself to be distracted by the toils and efforts which the path brings him. His gaze is directed upwards, he spares no effort and strives only towards the aim. If the walk on earth takes place in the same way, if the human being with his gaze turned upwards also takes every effort and strain upon himself, if he does not let himself be distracted by the momentary pleasures of the world but sends his soul ahead into the upper regions and uses all his will to reach the spiritual height, he will one day be able to look back with satisfaction on his earthly path, and he will never regret what he has sacrificed to reach this aim, to stand in the light and be relieved of all suffering. Anyone who stands on top of the mountain and feels free from all earthly burdens, who believes to be closer to his lord and creator, as it were, who can now let his gaze wander over endless vast regions and behold everything in its splendour and beauty, will be able to roughly imagine the spiritual freedom in which the soul can behold everything that exists around it after having completed its ascent, how it feels free from all earthly heaviness and, standing in the light of the divine sun of grace, may enjoy unspeakable delights. And even if the ascent is arduous, the reward is so incomparably glorious that it outweighs a thousandfold all the sufferings and renunciations that preceded it....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers