Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/2782

2782 Establishing the right relationship with God....

June 21, 1943: Book 37

Man enters into the right relationship with God when he turns to Him for help. For then he recognizes his own weakness and the power of the one Who created him. In the original state the being turned away from its creator by virtue of its free will by leaning towards the will of the one who misused the strength from God for creations which no longer completely corresponded to God's will. However, every being which emerged from the will of God's adversary and from God's strength was free to choose to whom it wanted to belong, thus it was able to decide for itself, by virtue of its free will, in favour of God or in favour of His adversary. And it turned away from God, the original source of strength from Whom it had emerged.... But the original state cannot be restored in any other way than that the beingness fully and completely confesses itself to God again. The being is not forced into this right relationship with God, but its free will has to find its way to Him itself, and everything God has created only serves to change this free will so that it strives towards God of its own accord. This is why the being has almost reached its goal when it prays to God as a human being.... It is then no longer of a will turned away from God, and only a short probationary period is still necessary in order to become mature for life in eternity, for the kingdom where no earthly external form weighs it down, where it can fulfil its actual purpose and is blissfully happy. The free will of man may not be touched neither by God nor by evil power, and therefore he can never be determined to the right relationship with God, but he must enter into it of his own accord. The harder and more unbending this human will is, the greater tribulations it requires in order to give up this resistance to God. This is the only means God uses, that He moulds his earthly life such that it appears unbearable to him in order to indirectly induce him to turn to Him for help. He will also do so as soon as he believes in a higher powerful being. Yet precisely this faith is lacking in people who still have a completely wrong will within themselves. This is the endeavour of God's adversary to destroy all faith in Him and to confuse people's thinking. But here, too, God stands by people, and He tries to make them think through painful experiences; He often gives them the opportunity to take a serious stand on the question: What is the relationship between the creature and its creator.... God also reveals Himself to people who deny Him if only they pay attention to all the events that accompany their earthly life. He only tries to change their will, and if an unbearable adversity causes the human being to turn to Him for help, then the spell is broken, then he no longer completely belongs to God's adversary but tries to detach himself from his power and submits himself to his creator of eternity of his own free will. And that is why prayer is the first thing. It is the admission of one's own weakness and the acknowledgement of a power of such great importance, for the human being is now prepared to allow himself to be guided and led by this power, and now he can abandon himself to this divine guidance without worrying, and as soon as his will turns towards God he will be seized by God's love and safely guided upwards. Anyone who calls upon God for help confesses that he belongs to Him, that he is His child, and thus he establishes the right relationship of a child to the father and is now also given His fatherly love.... he will receive strength and grace unmeasured, and earthly life will now earn him the maturity he needs to be able to enter His kingdom as a child of the father....

amen

Translated by Doris Boekers