Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6701

6701 Love and suffering as means of purification....

November 29, 1956: Book 72

My Gospel teaches you love again and again, for only love purifies the soul from all impurities; love is the fire which cleanses the soul and turns all base notions into the opposite. And love is often accompanied by suffering, as this first dissolves all hard layers which had still offered resistance to love. Hence, love and suffering are the means of the soul's purification, and love and suffering can change bad habits into virtues, they can disperse pride and arouse true humility in a person's heart, they can train an impatient person to become gentle and patient, they can inspire compassion and let justice emerge.... They can entirely change a person's nature and thus spiritualise the soul while it is still on earth. For this reason you should constantly practise love and patiently shoulder all suffering.... You should bear the cross which was placed upon you and, in so doing, constantly keep suffering at bay from your fellow human beings, pleasing them and also helping them attain maturity of soul by preaching and exemplifying the Gospel of love to them. The human being must consciously work at improving his soul; he must try to release himself from all vices and cravings, and the strength to do so will arise from the love which he practices on his fellow human being. If suffering is imposed on him, he should likewise regard this suffering as a means towards reaching perfection, because it helps where love is still too weak.... The soul should be able to leave its body in a crystal clear state so that, permeated by light, it can enter the kingdom of the beyond .... However, you humans still need to dissolve more layers which prevent the soul from being permeated by this light.... You must still work on yourselves in order to develop the virtues which should adorn a soul; you must attain humility, gentleness, peacefulness, compassion, righteousness and patience, and that necessitates conscious work at improving yourselves, which is therefore often accompanied by all kinds of suffering. And so you should also recognise the blessing of suffering, which has a redemptive purpose, which should not always be regarded as punishment for sins but is often merely an effective means to attain maturity of soul.... You should discard all you bad habits and vices and that often necessitates a battle which, however, is much easier for you in the form of physical suffering than in a state of physical well-being, since the latter is more likely to increase these evils than to reduce them. I did not thoughtlessly say the Words 'If any man will come after Me, let him.... take up his cross....' I certainly died on the cross for your guilt of sin, I took all suffering upon Me.... and thereby made it possible for you to release yourselves, to gain strength.... For the sake of the act of Salvation you can be forgiven of all your sins and, once you acknowledge Me and My act of Salvation and avail yourselves of the blessings of the act of Salvation by appealing to Me for redemption and forgiveness of your guilt, this will ensure your entry into the kingdom of light .... Nevertheless, you cannot be spared a certain amount psychological work, for this will determine the degree of light in which you depart from earth. And the willingness to endure suffering is the conscious or unconscious participation in My path to the cross, and anyone who takes the path to Golgotha by My side is truly doing his soul a great service, for it can take the path into the kingdom of light like Me and, in radiant brilliance, it will be with Me in paradise, for the change from an imperfect being into the divine being it was in the beginning, had still occurred on earth and, in a manner of speaking, it has already participated in Christ's act of Salvation on earth because it had humbly carried the cross.... Therefore you should bless the suffering which accompanies your path across earth, and let the love in you evolve fully, then your earthly path will not be in vain, it will let you reach the most beautiful goal: the complete union with Me, your God and Father of eternity....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna