5069 Prayer in spirit and in truth.... Pious gestures....

February 22, 1951: Book 57

I take no notice of pious gestures; they are, after all, merely outer ostentatious covers which are intended to conceal the heart from onlookers. Anyone who truly sincerely thinks of Me and speaks to Me with simple, unembellished words considers every ceremony, every external movement or gesture to be strange; the heart does not need it, it takes the straight path to Me and exclaims its distress or its love and adoration of Me and I hear every thought which rises up to Me from the heart. But where an inner feeling is meant to be outwardly recognisable too much value is placed on other people's opinion, since I Myself have no need of such external testimonies and without them a person's heart lies openly before Me. In that case you only want to convince your fellow human beings of an apparently intimate relationship with Me, and thus you don't approach Me with an undivided mind but place too much importance on other people's judgment. But, in addition, your prayer will also lack depth of feeling, for heartfelt contact with Me lets you forget everything around you but also makes every external gesture seem absurd and derisive.

Therefore, as long as you still outwardly portray what should only move you within you still have not found heartfelt union with Me in your thoughts, which does not allow for external actions, because then you will be so completely seized by Me that you will forget the world around you, that you will be true children of your Father whose love for the Father leaves no space for anything else. You should certainly not forget your fellow human being and always have an open eye and ear for his problems, you should not carelessly ignore him if he comes to you full of grief; you should not neglect him, not be arrogant towards him but humbly stand by him with patience and compassion and do everything in your power to help him for love of him. However, if you desire to enter into heartfelt communication with Me your thoughts should only apply to Me, and nothing of an external nature should disturb or identify this heartfelt bond.... For I want to be prayed to in spirit and in truth and this should happen in private, where no-one is a witness of the communication of heart between Father and child.... And all pretence should fall away from you, for I Am the Eternal Truth and also want to be called upon in all truthfulness....

Amen

This proclamation is used in the following themebook:

Themebook	Title	Download
22	The Right Kind of Prayer	ePub   PDF   Kindle

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