Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/0766

0766 Care and cult of the body.... anticipating nature.... ageing....

February 1, 1939: Book 16

If life on earth becomes difficult for you, take refuge in Me.... I want to be your strength and comfort in difficult times, and whoever walks with Me will overcome all difficulties. But let it be said to you that you must also be active yourselves if you want Me to bless you.

Nature demands its law and so you must submit to the laws of nature, but you must also practice self-conquest where possible. And life will often present you with the decision as to whether you want to be at the will of the body or the soul. And the body will demand many things and you will want to grant them to it, yet the soul's benefit is only slight if the body is granted fulfilment, whereas the soul will gain immensely if the body renounces what is granted to it. The greatest danger of all is that the body is granted the right to rule.... that only its comfort is always taken into account and man's concern is constantly to care for it, and a perpetual cult around it is cause to neglect the actual work on the soul, and (it = ed.) this is certainly conducive to the preservation of the body, but never to the shaping of the soul, and the former is extremely unimportant in relation to the actual earthly task, which must be seriously considered where concern for the physical well-being is predominant. So never let yourselves be tempted to want to anticipate nature by trying to change or stop what must take its natural course. Test your power.... it will be inadequate compared to the existing laws of nature.... yet where the body takes the path of decay, there the soul shall mature and become ever more perfect, which is why the former must pass away to the same extent as the soul endeavours to live spiritually. The soul has to overcome a greater obstacle, as it were, in an outwardly well-educated body, since all inclination to the world is inherent in it and greater demands are made on the soul in overcoming itself through frequent stimuli from the world. Anyone who despises his body but carefully looks after his soul with spiritual care will have made good use of his time on earth and he will also feel purely outwardly well since this does not appear to him to be the only thing worth striving for and he will therefore be provided with everything he needs to live. For I consider My children on earth as it serves them.... I give where they gladly renounce and deny where they are overly desirous of earthly goods, because I do not want the body alone to be considered but the soul should first be rescued from its misery....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers