2303 Spiritual direction without truth neither light nor power....

April 15, 1942: Book 32

Spiritual success is minimal if people have formed a wrong view and are not prepared to surrender it. For then there is no striving from the innermost impulse and a maturing of the souls is impossible. A spiritual direction which does not completely correspond to the truth can never result in higher development, thus progress, and the human being will always remain on the same level. He has adopted an opinion and is now content with what has been presented to him intellectually. And he would now have the duty to likewise examine it intellectually, which he usually does not do. For an examination and an intellectual thinking through would make him recognize the flimsiness of some teachings. However, he usually accepts what is offered to him as the truth and then holds on to it with a tenacity that he would reject if he were to seriously scrutinize it. And yet he has no guarantee of pure truth. But what is not truth cannot bring him spiritual success either, for only pure truth simultaneously conveys strength, without which the human being cannot reach the heights. And that is why a person who is not in full possession of the truth always remains on the same level. A spiritual direction which does not fully correspond to the truth radiates neither light nor strength, i.e. the human being is ignorant although he believes himself to be knowledgeable and also powerless in spiritual relationship.... He lacks the strength to recognize as well as to be spiritually active, and if the human being tries to shape himself according to his spiritual direction he only ever pursues an earthly purpose, i.e. he only educates himself for this world, for earthly life, but does not think about life after death and therefore spiritual progress cannot be recorded. And from this point of view, a spiritual direction has no value as long as it does not correspond to the truth because it has no effect on the human being's soul. Only the intellect is kept active and only thought activity is stimulated, but the heart remains untouched, and thus the knowledge the human being now calls his own is dead if it does not correspond to the truth. And thus earthly life will bring him little success if he is not exceptionally active in love. For only loving activity leads him towards the right knowledge.... And as soon as a person is lovingly active he will also soon recognize a wrong spiritual direction as wrong and thereby come closer to the pure truth, because love is the first prerequisite in order to attain realization and thus brings spiritual maturity to the soul. Truth can be advocated to a loving person because it also appears acceptable to him and the person does not resist it because he also recognizes it as truth. For where there is love, there will also be recognition....

Amen

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