Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/4117

4117 Much suffering - Much grace....

September 7, 1947: Book 50

Excessive suffering is an exceptional grace, even if you find this incomprehensible; for My love does not want to let you humans slide into the delirium of the world and confronts some of you with hours of starkest adversity in order to bring you back to your senses, or the soul would remain empty-handed and not progress in its spiritual development. Suffering must always be considered as a means to render the human being helpless and make him aware of his weakness, and as soon as the suffering has contributed towards the fact that the soul turns to Me, that it appeals to Me for help and humbly entrusts itself to Me, it is a great blessing and should therefore be viewed as a gift of grace. For suffering leads to Me, whereas the joys of the world as well as all earthly pleasures will achieve the opposite. Suffering motivates people to pray, without prayer it is impossible to make contact with Me. Without prayer you cannot be given the gift of grace, because prayer expresses the will and the longing for Me and thus enables Me to meet the human being and, as fulfilment of his prayer, give to him what he needs.

If, however, the human being is spared suffering, the body will continue to reject the spirit when it wants to communicate with the soul in order to give the person the right guidance and instruction. But it is absolutely essential for spiritual progress, for reaching a high degree of maturity, that the soul be instructed by the spirit and that the soul will thus unite with the spirit. For this purpose I must absolutely grant help to the soul with My strength and therefore must first be asked for it, because the human being's will is decisive and suffering impels its decision. Suffering can also harden a human heart, in which case the person will drift away and no longer strive for ascent, and then there is no other means that would be more successful. But as a rule suffering leads to Me, generally a human being perfects himself through suffering and then it has fulfilled its purpose. Subsequently, you should be grateful for it and also acknowledge it as a grace; for earthly suffering is not a permanent condition and extremely beneficial, providing you want to mature. Then you will be eternally thankful to Me, and in the state of realisation earthly life will be easier for you to understand and you will also be able to cope during the time of great need, for then you will not live your life alone but with Me, because you will open yourselves to Me in prayer and thus receive strength which you, in turn, can use after your own will and with certainty will use for your spiritual ascent, as you are destined to do....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna