Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1034

1034 Immortality of the soul.... granting of grace....

August 1, 1939: Book 19

So hear the voice of the lord and pay attention to it: You deprive yourselves of the greatest favour as long as you doubt the immortality of the soul, because on the assumption that life has found its end with the death of the earthly body, you desire nothing that lasts for eternity. You are therefore as it were content with the care of your body on earth and do not ask for any help for life after death. And you do not consider the spirit but are content with what is only beneficial for the body. And if you do not ask, help cannot be granted to you. You will certainly end the life of the body with the death of the body but not the life of the soul. In a form, which your way of life on earth determines itself, will be the soul's new stay according to this bodily life, you will no longer be able to do anything out of your own strength, however use your senses exactly as on earth and therefore feel joy and also suffering, and this is every soul's inevitable fate that it has to take upon itself the just atonement or the just reward and cannot escape it. And therefore it is of utmost importance to count on the soul's continued life on earth, because without faith in it the human being does not avail himself of God's grace, that is, he believes that he does not need divine help and only focuses all his thoughts and actions on the fulfilment of earthly duties, and this lets him fall seriously behind when he is asked for spiritual merit in eternity.... Nothing depresses the soul more than unutilized opportunities of earthly life.... And every earthly life will remain unused for eternity if the concept of 'eternity' is incomprehensible to the human being without faith in the soul's continued existence, for who cares for eternity if he simply lacks faith in it?.... And thus a soul certainly enters into earthly rest but can only bask in the peace of heaven if it was restlessly active on earth for life in the beyond. Or else it must now seek to reach it by a laborious path, which would have been many times easier for it when it was still in the body of flesh. And so I call out to all doubters on earth: Remember life after death and do not live in the delusion that everything ends with the death of the body.... but know that only then does the real life begin.... know that you only have to pass a probationary period on earth, but that only then does the real life begin and this life is completely dependent on how you have utilized earthly life. For it is a dreadful certainty for the soul that it let earthly life pass by and now has to regocnize its poverty of spiritual treasures at the entrance into the beyond. And therefore make use of your life as long as you are still in full possession of your strength and ask for grace unceasingly, for it alone enables your spiritual progress and clears the path to your eternal home....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers