NEUOFFENBARUNG← Gifts of Heaven · Volume 1 · Contents
About praying for the deceased
28th October 1840
[1] So write to the thirsty in My name and tell the hungry in My mercy that I really love them. And they should just ask more often a day whether I am with them.
[2] For there you should say: ‘Oh my dearest Jesus, my sweetest love, my life, my bridegroom, my everything, everything, everything – are you still with me? Have You not forsaken me? Oh You my very sweetest Jesus, look mercifully upon the heart of Your poor beloved, who sighs so longingly for You, and in my love pines only for You, Oh You my very sweetest Jesus!’
[3] And I will then put a sweet answer in the heart, which will be as follows: "Just look at Me in your love, I am very well with you and have never left your side, and My heart will forever be facing you. But you too remain loyal to Me, remain loyal to your dear Jesus, Who loved you with all the might of His divinity before the world was founded!"
[4] And if you will feel such, then you can also already be quite well assured that I,as a quite glorious Bridegroom, and with Me the eternal life – am quite near to you.”
[5] And also tell them that true love must be a little quarrelsome – therefore I must also quarrel a little with them. But this is My quarrel, that they turn your daughters a little too little to Me and tell them much in the day about worldly things, but only little about Me or let yourself be told by them.
[6] For tell and report to them that I am very jealous and therefore do not like to see people talking about other things than Me.
[7] I am like a passionate lover who listens and eavesdrop behind the door of his beloved and who turns from over-great joys into the most blissful delight when he hears his dearest lover raving about nothing but him; but also immediately becomes sad as soon as his lover directs her conversation to other things not related to her lover, whereupon the sad lover starts to think and to speak to himself:
[8] "Oh my beloved, if you love me as I love you, how can other thoughts come into your mind, while I think of you constantly and wait anxiously at your door, begging for the soonest entrance?
[9] Behold, you My servant, tell them all this, if you will be My messenger of love. For this is more than the question: "How to pray for the dead?"
[10] However, since there has already been a question, namely from a beloved soul, I will tell you how one should pray for the dead.
[11] Whoever wants to pray for the deceased, must first know who and what the "deceased" actually are, and then also how and why he should pray.
[12] But the "deceased" does not only mean those who have departed from the world, but especially those who are still alive in the world, but who have died in their hearts and have no faith and no love and are therefore truly dead.
[13] See, for these you should first pray with advice and action, shining before them like a sun to the weary wanderer through sand and deserts, and refreshing like the dew that has fallen abundantly on the dry moss of the hard rock – so that they might find themselves again to you as the boundary beacons of My grace and would like to recover through the moss of My grace, which has abundantly covered My boundary stones.
[14] There you have for whom, how and why you should pray! Your love for Me and your brothers should always be the most noble prayer. ‘How and why’ should be clear to you with a little example:
[15] "You see, some great, powerful lord had several prisoners in his dungeon, which indeed remained there a long time, being all seducers of the poor. But in his righteousness he could not revoke the law once given and thereby free them from the punishment that the law had imposed on them. But when they had languished long enough in the dungeons of recovery and thereby satisfied the holy requirements of the law, the lord resolved to set them free again. But he thought to himself: “I have a lover too! So that my joy may be perfect, I want someone to tell her that so many unfortunates languish in my dungeon. She loves me infinitely and has the fullest trust in me; she will certainly come quickly and with a pounding heart plead with me for mercy and grace for the prisoners. And as the lord thought, so it happened."
[16] What do you think the Lord has done? The Lord was very pleased that he could show his beloved how much her love and trust were capable of, and that he could at the same time provide his beloved with an opportunity through which the fruits of true love and faithfulness would become very clear to her. The prisoners, however, will praise the lord when they see how he is accessible only through love, and will then themselves become friends and children of the beloved and thus also of their beloved.
[17] Behold, you shall pray, not thinking to move Me to mercy by your loud prayer, but that you may strengthen yourselves before Me in your love, and that therefore your petition may be acceptable to Me. Not for the sake of the prisoners, but for your own sake you should pray for them.
[18] But as far as the departed are concerned, this is just as true as for the "departed of the world". – You do not know in which state the departed are on the other side. But that is not the reason, but everything is because you know that I am a great friend of love and will be forever and that love is good for everyone.
[19] You will be happy if your children give you gifts, even though you know that the children have paid for them out of your money. It will please Me all the more if you do as your children do. And it will be no less joyful for your blessed departed ones when they learn that those they left behind, remember them with true love.
[20] See, this is how things are, and this is how you must also act if you truly want to be My dear children.
[21] But you, my beloved soul, pray confidently – and I, your dear Jesus, will not let you be put to shame. Amen. I, your dear Jesus, say that!