A person grows older—however, to be old is to be imprinted by a wrong way of thinking and acting.
To accept your age means not to become aged. This aging begins with the many complaints about the difficulties of life on earth.
To be young is not merely a phase in the life cycle of a person; instead, it is an inner attitude that is not tied to either time or a certain age. Whether a person is young in years or older is not decisive; it depends on what he has made of his life. This is what counts and tells him how young he is spiritually. The course of a person’s earthly existence depends on his thoughts. Because just as a person thinks, so will he be, at the latest, in old age.
Aperson who circles only around himself is old, regardless of how many years old he is in his earthly existence.
The one who during his youth and middle age purposefully reflects on the higher values of life and strives for them will be dynamic in old age and remain youthful.
A word of advice for young people: Don’t give in!
Whoever wants to remain spiritually alert and active into old age may not stop learning and above all, not lose sight of his life’s goal, because the following holds true: Forward, always forward! Then, what you are striving for takes shape more each day.
The decisive inner step for the development of the course of our life on earth, whether during our youth, middle age or old age, is the recognition that all our earthly existence is a learning process. Those who cease to learn cannot mature spiritually.
Life is constant evolution for person and soul.The learning that flows into a higher way of thinking and acting keeps the spirit alive and the body young.
Young or old—a person should struggle to attain the awareness that life on earth is merely a preliminary step to a higher life and that dying is merely a transition to another form of existence, which, in turn, means life. The gain in life that young and old talk about does not lie in a highly varied diversion of the senses, but in setting goals and taking steps toward an ethically and morally higher life.
To learn means to gain clarity in yourself in the orientation to a higher goal in life, and then to follow what you have recognized. This brings inner security, inner freedom and the strength to stride forward.
To live consciously means to learn consciously, to affirm each phase of your life and to spiritually make full use of it. For a higher quality of life, which can be expanded and built up further as one grows older, does not depend on years alone, but on a person’s spiritual attitude. The one who has stopped working on himself will not develop any ethical-moral values, nor will he let any good fruits grow so as to bring these into society.
Only the life that is truly lived is significant, and not taking pleasure in an earthly existence.
Old age also offers us many, many possibilities, above all, when the compulsive urge for reaching the heights of our professional life recedes.
When desiring and wanting takes a calmer course and age craves more a calm frame of mind, many a one can discover his until then slumbering capabilities and aptitudes and develop his hidden talents, in order to place these, if he wants to, at the service of his fellowman.
Life is God. The true life that is lived protects us in our old age against weakness, loneliness and being old.
Let us cast off our old age! Now the motto is: Off, to new shores! Which means: Let’s shape our life anew!
If we can manage to see this turning point in our life as a chance to change our viewpoint, possibilities will surely soon occur to us for giving our life a new and good meaning. Resolutions that have been nurtured for a long time, the actualization of which many a thing stood in the way until now, could perhaps now bear fruit. If we take this to heart and keep it in sight, hope will rise and the confidence that many a thing will get better.
We ourselves have our life and our fate in hand. Let us make use of this new chance! It is worth it, not only for now and today, not only for this life on earth! So many things can still change—not lastly we, ourselves! You will notice how much joy and happiness it brings to selflessly bring joy to others.
To take ourselves back and to selflessly be there for others is a virtue, which could be practiced and perfected particularly in later years. Once an elderly person has realized this, and it becomes his basic attitude, he has in hand the key to a fulfilled life—also in old age. And life “rewards” him in its own way: Through this, he gains—as we say—a lot, a lot of life. For to continue to serve in old age is a task that makes particularly elderly people rich in their inner being.
Let us strive to remain spiritually agile! This is possible through conscious learning, for every day confronts us with tasks. The one who says yes to these— out of an inner loyalty to life—will also be able to deal with them. For in everything, God is the help, the advice, the answer, the solution, and He knows very well how to guide His human children.
The early recognition that we are merely guests on earth will not settle for old, lazy habits, which cast their spell over many people. Whoever is aware of this constantly keeps his eyes turned to within, to the very basis of the soul, where God dwells, in the knowledge that God is love, beauty, purity, justice. He is the eternal life.
From this knowledge, this wisdom, the person draws his life’s gain, keeping the Golden Rule every day: Do not do to others what you do not want to have done to you.
God is always there for us, for every single one, for we are His children.
Whoever fills his life on earth with the rules for life of Jesus, the Christ, can say that live is immortal. In Christ, I am eternal life.
In actuality, no person is alone. God, the Spirit of our eternal Father, is in us.
The one who is aware of this is not halfhearted. He does not surrender to the weaknesses of the all-too-human. From the awareness of the eternal power, love and wisdom, he will demand the highest of himself. This enables him to serve his fellowman and God and to do the works of love for God and neighbor. God’s power, love and wisdom will support him in every situation of life.
A person who keeps the Golden Rule has the key to true life in his hands.
The rubbish that has piled up as a hindrance on our path through life is disposed of through remorse and by clearing things up and no longer doing them, so that the eternal Spirit, who is the love, can support and guide us.
Let us ask Christ to support us! He, who loves each one of us and wants so much to help each one, will very certainly strengthen our positive, God-pleasing impulses and give life to the fine sensations of our high, inner sense of Being. However, the decision to take the step and to change what is necessary is, and remains, totally with us, with the person himself. Christ will never intervene in our free will, which is an essential component of our eternal heritage.
Let us realize that fear of a possible illness is the way to illness. For this reason, we should become accustomed to filling our heart with trust in God, the Eternal, and to liberate ourselves from fear, envy and hateful thoughts.
Take courage! Turn daily—if possible, several times a day—to the infinite Spirit of love and mercy in you. He knows about your concerns. He knows your weaknesses and strengths. Pray, and entrust yourself to Him! The echo that comes from the very basis of your soul is freedom, joy, integrity and nobility. This is God’s answer. The former fear of what may come, for example, fear of loneliness, difficulties and problems, changes into a feeling of secureness, which, in turn, flows from the innermost being, from the Eternal, who holds your life in His hands. It is the Father of eternity.
If we could only speak into the hearts of young people: Make use of every phase of life to grow and mature spiritually! For in old age, spiritual maturity means happiness and the fulfillment of a meaningful life.
Each day is given to every person, so that he may figure out and recognize his purpose in life, which the day points out, in order to find, build up and develop the good. For the one who lives accordingly, this means:
Each day is filled with energy. The day brings no tiredness, on the contrary—it brings more energy for the next step toward the true life, which we should take today.
Weaknesses and a lack of physical energy are often merely an expression of a person’s resignation, his refusal to accept the arduous aspects of his living conditions as his learning task and to resolve them, instead of persistently and obstinately insisting that the circumstances, or his fellowman, should change.
No person has to become spiritually old! The one who resolves to feel that he is born anew each day, by accepting his day, will feel the energy stream of life that lies in the day.
The heart of a person who goes through his life on earth with open eyes begins to beat more strongly. With the cheerfulness of inner love, the awareness of unity awakens. As much as it is possible for him, he will help animals in their need, and he will help people in their troubles and needs. He will also grasp nature in all its beauty and rejoice in it, sensing the Creator-Spirit that is blowing and that also breathes on the person who is striving for unity in his inner being. From this, the reverence for life, which is God, develops, as does the joy in a life on earth, in order to serve.
The desire to pray awakens in many an elderly person. Here, too, we need to learn to not just prattle away! To pray means to become, to let the prayer come alive. A person who prays in this way needs no church made of stone, but a quiet chamber, of which Jesus, the Christ, spoke, in order to withdraw into his innermost being, into the holy of holies, which shines deep within the soul.
To pray strong in faith means to become still, because out of a prayer that is strong in faith awakens trust and devotion. Devotion to the great, inexhaustible source of light in us, to the holy of holies deep in the very basis of the soul, helps the one who is truly praying to go further, because then life becomes fulfillment. A purposeful life then means a fulfilled life. The gray and gloomy days of the past fade away. The light in the one praying becomes brighter, more tangible, so that in
him grows the thought: I am journeying into the higher life, into the perfect Being.
Many young people wish for wisdom from the elderly—the wisdom of age, without pressure and self-opinionatedness. True wisdom is a wealth of life experience, which is able to comprehend conditions, occurrences and human nature in its depth. True wisdom leaves every person his freedom; it meets him from the law of free will—which is not oriented to a person—with patience, forbearance and kindness. And it knows to remain benevolently silent at the right time. It does not judge and condemn.
T he alert reader of this booklet will recognize that it is not the years that count, but a person’s attitude toward life.
Become, O human being; then you will feel a lot, a lot of life!
It is, of course, a law of nature that every person grows older. The one who is aware of his task in life will, however, not grow old in old age. Every person brings his task in life with him into this world. Day after day, some of it is offered to him. Happy the person who pays attention to this; he matures!
Aperson who strives for togetherness and unity, who observes the Golden Rule during his earthly existence, will not direct himself against people. He will also not kill an animal or consume the flesh of an animal or do any violence to the Mother Earth. People who personify this consciousness will not be loners, but will taste the sweetness of the inner life right up into old age and thus fill their days, which are then truly fulfilled, with a lot, a lot of life.
Excerpts taken from the book by Gabriele: