Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6920

6920 The souls' fate in the beyond....

September 16, 1957: Book 74

As yet you still wear the earthly garment; as yet your soul is still enclosed by a cover preventing its carefree flight into the spiritual realm, you are still bound to this earth.... But the time will come when the soul will leave its fleshy cover, when earth will no longer be able to hold it and it will lift itself up to heaven, if it has acquired sufficient strength to raise itself from the earthly sphere into a world without obstacles, where it will be able to zoom through time and space and enjoy blissful happiness in radiant heights. But this flight of ascent requires strength.... the kind of strength which should not be confused with the vitality of life but by which it is permeated when it has entered into heartfelt union again with the eternal source of strength, with its God and Father.... when it has returned to its Father's house, where no hardship or suffering but only happiness and eternal life exist.

However, it is also possible that the hour of death will not denote a great change for the soul.... It will indeed also be able to leave the physical body and yet not be free, if it is weak and unable to elevate itself from earthly spheres because matter had dominated its mind, because it completely allowed itself to be ruled by it and never accepted the divine strength of love. Then it will indeed also occupy spiritual spheres, that is, it will exist beyond this earthly world, yet it will lack vitality and be condemned to inactivity. And this is a state of torment for the soul, a state of helplessness and darkness, and yet it is aware of itself.

Death is the conclusion of a developmental chapter; the soul will change its abode in any case.... but the sphere the soul will then occupy may well be rather different.... And the human being himself creates on earth his soul's fate after death. And therefore he should value every day as an immeasurable gift of grace, he should be prudent with every hour and use it for the salvation of his soul.... he should not content himself with earthly joys and pleasures since the beatitudes in the spiritual kingdom will outweigh them a thousand fold.

The human being should always remember that he has to take it into his own hands to acquire an abundance of bliss, and so he then also has to be willing during the short lifetime on earth to renounce what gives the body a sense of well-being but is detrimental to the soul. For the soul is enclosed by a layer from which it should free itself in earthly life. The impurities still adhering to the soul obstruct God's light ray of love from entering.... They first have to be dissolved so that the light of love can fully permeate the soul, and this also means that after death the soul will be able to raise itself entirely unburdened and enter the spheres of the blessed. And heartfelt prayer to God, deeds of love and even various forms of physical suffering will cause the dissolution of this layer....

Love and suffering are the most effective means of purification, love and suffering internalize the human being, love and suffering distance him from the world and its pleasures.... The path of love and of suffering is the path Jesus took. He called upon people to become His followers, and He has promised life to those who follow Him. For His path will lead to the goal for sure. It leads out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, and He will also help anyone who loves Him and wants to follow Him carry the small cross, when it seems too heavy to the human being and he turns for help to Him, to the divine bearer of the cross.... But once the physical cover is shed the soul will rejoice and jubilantly enter through the gate to eternity. Then it will have fulfilled its purpose of earthly life, it will have returned to its true home of eternal life and eternal beatitude....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna