Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/0444

0444 Forgiveness of sins.... I.

May 31, 1938: Book 10

Take stock of yourselves and recognise your sins.... And if you transgressed, appeal to the Lord for forgiveness and His grace.... only that is pleasing before God. But if you believe that incessant prayers will reach God, which do not arise from deep within the heart.... if you believe that the Lord only forgives those who deem themselves to be closer to the Lord in their life due to privilege.... who have devised a scheme by which all sins will systematically be absolved within a specific time.... the Lord will teach you otherwise.... Through the Saviour's divine love you acquired the right to be able to release yourselves from your sins if you recognise them in your heart of hearts.... genuinely regret them and at the same time implore the Lord and Saviour for His divine mercy to release you from these sins.... and then firmly decide to avoid these sins for love of the divine Saviour. Everything a person recognises to be wrong must also be abhorred by him in his heart, and this, in turn, will result in his intention to avoid sinning again. If he confides, like a child, his serious intention to his Father that he will never want to sadden Him by committing such wrong again....if his abhorrence gives rise to profound remorse and the intention to improve himself.... then the Lord will lovingly draw the remorseful sinner to His heart and forgive his sins. However, customs and traditions have been established in the world by which a person can quite automatically be absolved from his sins.... And thereby an even greater evil and sacrilege on the human race has been promoted. For the absolution of sins became a truly faith-destroying bad habit because it occurred in such a way, that the sincerity of heart was indeed mentioned as being essential... but that the least of the sinners made an effort to enter into complete contact with the Lord.... that all formal conditions were in fact observed but that the actual act of the remission of sin left people under the impression of having complied with their duty.... even though the person's heart had not yet fulfilled the conditions needed for the forgiveness of sin through the Lord. And thereby a misguided teaching became increasingly more prevalent which, in its basic principle and intention, is indeed good and noble but merely gets people into the habit of performing a dutiful action whose profound depth is not understood seriously enough and yet is so infinitely essential for humanity's salvation of soul.... (Break)

Translated by Heidi Hanna