Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/2286

2286 Possibility of higher development in the hereafter.... help....

April 2, 1942: Book 32

The realization of a wrongly lived earthly life is unspeakably bitter for the soul, which is now without a body, and usually puts it into a state of remorse which is agonizing and at the same time discouraging. For it now sees itself deprived of every opportunity to make up for what it has missed, because it feels that it is powerless. It is not yet aware of the possibilities for higher development in the beyond, for the knowledge of this is only a consequence of a complete change of heart. What it lacked on earth was love, which expressed itself in good deeds, and this lack of love is the cause of its now agonizing state. If it wants to reach the heights in the hereafter, it must first awaken the feeling of love it lacked. The hardship of the souls suffering with it must have such an effect on it that it becomes willing to serve and tries to alleviate this hardship for them. Before that, however, an improvement of their situation is impossible and often unimaginably long times pass before such a soul decides to serve in love. These souls' selfish love is usually so great that they only think of their own suffering and have no sympathy for the hardship of other souls, and then they cannot be released from their present state, for the law of love has to be fulfilled, this is and remains the first condition for spiritual progress. And yet the path upwards can be climbed so easily if these souls make contact with each other and try to alleviate their hardship together. For the will to do so already provides them with strength, which is imparted to them by the beings of light who respect every loving feeling and are immediately willing to help them. This mutual help does not consist of earthly activity but rather of exchanging their experiences and wanting to enlighten them. Understandably, the latter is only possible if the soul has knowledge, for it must first possess what it wants to give. And this knowledge is still very limited in such a soul, hence the willingness to help is also very minimal. Thus the soul must have the desire to increase its knowledge in order to be able to help the other souls. Then knowledge will be imparted to it in accordance with this desire, it will be offered the opportunity to participate in teachings, and if it is not completely hardened by its own hardship it will seize every opportunity, for by accepting such teachings it will also experience an increase in strength and a lessening of its own hardship. Once the soul has taken this path, it will inevitably strive upwards, for it is then happy to be able to give and will now share in the other souls' hardship, i.e. it will try to help them. This teaching of the souls, which are even less knowledgeable, is a happy state which drives them to ever more active endeavours; consequently, their soul's distress comes to an end at the moment when they compassionately turn to the souls suffering with them. And people can contribute infinitely to this change in their thinking and will, which brings liberation to the soul, if they sincerely remember in prayer those who are unable to redeem themselves from the agonizing state of self-love by their own efforts, if they impart strength to these souls through their prayer and thereby make the path upwards accessible to them. A soul redeemed through prayer thanks the human being a thousandfold for having granted it assistance in complete weakness of will and wrong thinking. And with it the many souls who are likewise relieved of their great need through this help....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers