Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/2745

2745 God's help.... grace.... benefits of free will....

May 18, 1943: Book 34/35/36

The worldly-minded person makes no use of God's grace. It is certainly available to him to the same extent but he does not use it, he has no desire for it and therefore does not ask for it either. To be in the grace of God means to be given all the means for the soul's higher development, i.e. to always and everywhere find help that enables the soul to mature. The worldly-minded person, however, does not strive for the soul's state of maturity, consequently he also takes no notice of the means of help, he does not need them, he ignores God's grace and is too weak to reach his goal on earth without divine help. He will constantly pass by all opportunities which would be beneficial to his soul. For even if the human being makes no use whatsoever of God's grace, God will nevertheless not let him go without, thus He will not completely withdraw from him by leaving him heedless, thus excluding him from the gift of grace, but throughout his whole life He will repeatedly approach the human being, He will repeatedly show him the right path, He will lead His servants to him, He will in a manner of speaking repeatedly offer him grace because He wants to win the human being for Himself. Yet the human being's free will has to become active to accept the grace if he wants to be spiritually successful. He must consciously avail himself of God's help. Mostly, however, worldly-minded people are without all faith, and consequently they do not avail themselves of something which is based on faith alone. They do not ask for help because they do not consider themselves to be in need and because they do not recognize any power which could help them when they need help. They do not feel their spiritual hardship, earthly life is completely sufficient for them and they utilize every vitality to create an earthly life of well-being for themselves. But their spiritual development lies so far away from their thinking that they do not muster the slightest strength for it and also do not feel their lack of strength, consequently they also do not ask for help and consequently also do not grasp the help when it is offered to them in the form of enlightenment from knowledgeable people. For every attempt by a spiritually striving person to bring his worldly fellow human being onto the same path of striving is already a blessing; it is a help which God sends to the latter through a person if He does not obviously express Himself in order not to jeopardize the person's freedom of faith. But if the human being rejects it then he has not accepted God's grace, he has spurned it and therefore spiritually remains on the same low level, because in his disenchanted state he has to be offered active help and without it he will never be able to overcome his love of the world which, however, is an obstacle to spiritual endeavour. The human being as such is too weak to overcome all his faults and desires; however, he can do so with God's help, with the grace which is offered to him time and again by His love and which he only needs to utilize in order to mature spiritually as long as he still dwells on earth....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers