Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1083

1083 Places of worship....

September 5, 1939: Book 20

The buildings you humans created as permanent places for the worship of God hardly correspond to the Lord's will since thereby the actual worship of God within the human being's heart has been reduced to a minimum; far more importance is attached to external appearances in houses specially built for this purpose than to the internal contact of a person with the Heavenly Father. Yet this alone must be the foundation of all worship of God. Every action accompanied by a display of splendour lacks profound inwardness, and understandably so, since in so doing the human being is too involved with all earthly matter as to be able to form a simple and intimate bond with the Father in heaven. Where a visual representation intends to motivate something of a spiritual nature there is always the danger that everything visible will be observed and the spiritual aspect neglected.... The earthly child can, in fact, only attain inner calm, inner spiritualisation, when all visual things and those which affect the senses are completely excluded.... Every person has to make an incredible effort and be constantly on guard that earthly longings and earthly thoughts will not gain the upper hand, for to the same degree as they increase the will for the spirit recedes, and then it will be extremely difficult to establish an innermost spiritual contact.

Therefore it is understandable that also all ceremonies, all rites, which effectively intend to illustrate to people something of a spiritual nature are especially suited to externalise a person or make him become superficial. If the human being aims to spiritualise himself of his own accord he will understand how persistently he has to fight against all external influences.... how he must time and again try to disregard everything that goes on around him in order to be able to completely entrust himself to the state of pure spirituality. And all this is not possible in a place where so many people congregate and where rites are regularly performed which require a person's complete attention but which, on the other hand, divert his attention away from that which alone is important before God.... The human being should not entertain the thought that it will count as a sin if he does not comply with these ceremonies.... The Lord only acknowledges the depth of faith, the degree of love and the earthly child's absolute submission to its Father.... and anyone who endeavours to do so need not fear the Father's Judgment either.... he will conduct himself as it pleases the Father and he will look for the core in everything but not for the outer shell.... The Lord takes no notice of the perfectly devised procedures which are nevertheless purely externally conducted but do not touch the core of the matter, because the internalisation of the soul requires a continuous connecting-oneself with the divine Lord and Saviour. And the designated times for the worship of God do not suffice in the slightest to achieve maturity of soul.... Instead, the earthly child has to show God the Lord his love, veneration and his gratitude every hour of the day and constantly strive for spiritual deliverance.... And specified ceremonies are truly not suitable for this, for they are more likely to make the human soul indifferent and even leave it in the mistaken belief that it has complied with divine will. And this is, in view of the spiritual standstill or regression, extraordinarily regrettable, since the human being should make use of every hour in order to work at improving himself and his soul for the purpose of attaining perfection....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna