Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1482

1482 Forgiveness of sins.... Infallibility.... Routine actions....

June 20, 1940: Book 24

The alleged act of forgiveness of sins is only the symbol of what the Lord taught on earth. It is not at all necessary to fulfil a formality because the forgiveness of sin depends entirely on how guilty the human being feels before God and on confessing this to Him in heartfelt prayer by appealing for His mercy and forgiveness of his guilt. Formality is once again only a danger to the soul because an act will be mechanised which is, or should be, far too intimate to be made outwardly identifiable. The act of public confession of sins can lead to superficiality, in as much as the person more or less follows a routine act without being so internally united with God that he has a need to confess his guilt of sin to Him. Everything you do for the sake of your soul’s salvation should be alive, and a ceremony like that can easily result in a lifeless act because not all people are infused by God at the same time in order to reveal themselves to Him in all their weakness and guilt of sin. But this is a prerequisite for the forgiveness of sin, all external acts are mere symbols of what corresponds to God’s will but not the accomplishment of divine will.

When the spirit of God draws your attention to the danger you place yourselves in, you should not oppose it but be grateful to your Heavenly Father with all your heart for guiding you correctly, because you waste a lot of strength by fulfilling external formalities, which you should use for your inner progress. A heartfelt thought of devoted love will bring you infinitely more blessings than the eager fulfilment of ecclesiastical commandments, which were given to people without God’s approval. The representatives of these teachings once again took refuge behind a humanly evolved doctrine about the infallibility of the head of the Church in regards to spiritual laws.

Everything given to people from above is purest truth; however, through His messages from above, God is only expressing His will but He will never want to control or use coercive measures to make people obey. Because this would be in complete contradiction to divine love and wisdom’s emanated law of the beings’ voluntary deliverance. A humanly decreed commandment is an interference with divine ordinances.... commandments which impel people to commit actions, although officially their own will is prerequisite, will never be considered right by God. The human being’s will cannot routinely carry out its activity, in that case it is no longer free but already bound by the will of the person who, as a result of such commandments, allocates a specific time for people to perform their duty.

This is an immense human error which threatens to stifle the developing delicate seed of inner longing for God, unless a human being’s loving actions become particularly dynamic and spiritual enlightenment suddenly makes him realise God’s true will. Only then will he be able to liberate himself from a teaching which, due to human contribution, already deviates considerably from the teaching given to people by Jesus Himself on earth. The human being usually strives to fulfil his obligation, and this is the greatest danger for the soul.... For it does not consciously strive for perfection since it is effectively given a plan which it aims to implement, and by following the groundwork done by other people it is neglecting its own psychological task but is convinced that it is living a life which is pleasing to God, the Lord....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna