Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6053

6053 Way of following Jesus....

September 15, 1954: Book 65

The path you walk should be the path of following Jesus; you should take Him as your example, you should live on earth as He has exemplified to you.... You should live a life of love and also humbly accept the suffering imposed on you so that you will mature in your soul. The man Jesus has preceded you on the path, which is why you can now follow Him and then you will also surely reach your aim: to return to the father from Whom you once came. And Jesus has shown you this way by giving you the commandments of love for God and neighbor, by following which you walk the path of following Jesus.... But this requires your will and overcoming yourselves, putting aside your own wishes and desires in order to help your neighbor if he needs help. Love should be ignited in you, because otherwise the aim cannot be reached.... the union with God, Who Himself is love and therefore can also only be won through love. The man Jesus was filled with love for His fellow human beings, and therefore He was also able to unite with God, He was able to receive the eternal deity into Himself, Who can only unite with a human being who has shaped himself into love.... And this alone is the purpose and aim of man in earthly life, that his whole being changes to love.... that he gives up self-love, that he only ever wants to give and make happy and thus deifies himself, because love is divine and the man who shapes himself to love becomes a divine being. The less man thinks of himself and the more he gives out in love to his fellow men, the closer he is to his aim and the closer God Himself is to him, then he goes the right way to Him, and God Himself comes to meet him.... But then he will also bear suffering without grumbling, he will feel himself to be a cross-bearer and gladly take the cross on his shoulders, because he takes Jesus as his model, he follows Him.... he walks the path that Jesus preceded him.... that all must walk in order to attain eternal bliss....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers