Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1451

1451 Need for prayer and strength.... prayer proof of faith....

June 3, 1940: Book 24

The dangers of life on earth are indescribably great if a person relies on his own strength. For the adversary can use his power without encountering any resistance. And he uses this power to weaken the human will. And since the being is still in a banished state, albeit in a lightened form, its will is not sufficiently resistant without the support of divine strength and will therefore fall prey to the enemy. And that is why the strength from God has to be requested without fail, i.e., the human being has to utilize the grace of prayer, without prayer, without the pleading thought to God, he cannot possibly be prepared for earthly dangers, and the human being who does not believe he needs prayer will never survive the battle on earth. Prayer is the admission of his helplessness; prayer proves the earthly child's will to comply with divine will; prayer is the bridge upwards which is therefore entered in the good will to flee the adversary's power and to unite with God. And this will is the reason why God hears the prayer if it rises up to God in deepest faith, trusting in His help. The state of helplessness makes prayer indispensable. So whoever believes he can manage without prayer feels strong enough on the one hand and suffers too little from his spellbound state on the other to desire to be freed from it. He therefore still lacks the realization of his present situation, his end and his destiny. Earthly life is enough for him; he believes he can master it by his own strength. But he also does not regocnize a power above him as an entity to which he can entrust himself or approach for help. And so he cannot pray and call upon a being that he doubts. He therefore lacks faith. And thus prayer, on the other hand, is always proof of inner faith, whereas an unbelieving person will never pray.... A person must therefore first believe before he can avail himself of the favours of prayer, and a person who lacks faith is to be pitied beyond words, as he lacks all spiritual help, without which he cannot take the path to the heights. Therefore, prayer cannot be eliminated in earthly life if it is to be lived appropriately and bring the soul the success of higher development. For only through prayer does the human being establish the connection with good spiritual strength, and only then can he fulfil his task on earth.... only now can he do everything that brings his soul a higher degree of maturity and is therefore the only purpose of life on earth....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers