Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3355a

3355a Ability to know and love God.... restriction of freedom.... state of ignorance.... free will.... power of life grace of God....

December 3, 1944: Book 43

God has certainly given people the ability to recognize Him but made this dependent on the individual's way of life, which he can lead according to his will. Thus the state of knowledge, of light, is also the result of his correctly used will, just as a wrong will results in a state of ignorance, of ignorance. Then the human being will not be able to make use of the ability given to him, he will indeed be able to think but with wrong results; the essence of the eternal deity will remain incomprehensible and unfathomable to him because it is love, omnipotence and wisdom and the human being with a wrong will will neither accept one nor the other because it is simply incomprehensible and therefore unacceptable to him. But if the human being does not recognize the eternal deity he cannot love it either, and therefore he does not seriously strive towards God either, for the spirit only seeks unity with that which it loves. But God wants people to love Him, to desire Him and strive for complete unity, and therefore He first tries to guide the human being into realization, and for this He requires free will, because everything achieved through compulsion is detrimental to the human being's soul. Love is absolutely necessary, only love brings knowledge to life, only through love is knowledge happy, and only through love is knowledge utilized. But the human being's love is a matter of will, and a human being is never forced into loving activity. But the ability to think remains primitive as soon as God recognizes that the human being's will is not turned towards Him and He withdraws His love and grace. Then his thinking will produce results which do not correspond to the pure truth which God Himself offers. Then the ability to think will only have an earthly effect, i.e. he will only use the gift of intellect to brood over earthly matters. But then one cannot speak of spiritual knowledge, and thus he will not use God's gift, the ability to recognize and love Him for the sake of His unsurpassability....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers