​Dear community of Christians,

Let me begin with a little story that came along my way.
​
One day there came a journeyman to the front of the city gate. And he suddenly discovered that Death was sitting at the entrance of the gate. The journeyman asked Death: “what are you doing here, what is your purpose here at the gate”? Death answered: “I am here to collect 500 people”. Full of horror, the journeyman ran to the market place and reported the arrival of Death. Fear and horror seized the people. Then, in this city there died not only 500, but 1000, and even more. After a time, the journeyman passed the city gate again and still saw Death sitting there. Full of furious anger, the journeyman said, “you said, you would take 500 people and now there are 1000 and even many more”. Then Death answered: “I have fulfilled my task and fetched 500 people. The other, many 1000s, are on your account.”

This little story can teach us quite a lot. The fear that the journeyman has spread all over the place killed so many more people than was meant. 

In our time, the fear that is spread out by the media about the dangers of the virus, lies like a spell over the souls of men. This disease may or may not be dangerous to the extent that it is described. But we have to ask ourselves, what are we scared of? One day Death will certainly also be part of our destiny. And everybody knows this. 

What we are confronted in the last Century, and in this Century has an intensity with regard to death and evil that has never been seen before.

Do we recognize, as people of our present time, that we are confronted with these two facts: death and evil? In view of death, we might fear, that we have to look back on our lives and have to recognize where we have failed. As we look back, we are caught, thoughtlessly, and gullibly, in dark tasks and evil deeds. And this is mostly outside of our consciousness. But this means that we must face up to it.

In the time of the old mysteries: special people on the path of initiation had to go through trials and ordeals to become an initiate. One of the first, most important tasks was they were confronted with overcoming fear. In doing so, they developed the capacity to trust in, and be part of the Spiritual World. 

Could it be that in our time mankind as a whole has to go through an initiation? To bring to bear the influence of the spiritual world. And now we are tested, can we see and recognize the working of the evil forces and the shadow of death? When we do so, then we can recognise and counter this fear with trust in the Spiritual World. 

​Dear Community of Christians,
John the Evangelist, who also wrote the book of Revelations, presents a powerful picture for us:
“A woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, her head adorned with the crown of the twelve stars. And she was with child and cried out in the labour and pain of giving birth”.
What he actually describes is the human being in its divine figure, and how the hierarchies, the divine trinity have created the human being up to this moment. When Christ fulfilled his sacrifice on earth, his deed was to save the part of the divine nature of the human being for the future that was lost in the past. Now Humans can be sure of the attendance and help of Christ. But this next step to come to our-self is a very difficult and painful birth. The step the human being has to develop now is to come to his true, unique individuality, the “I am”, that was already predisposed at the creating, but must now be brought to perfection by man himself. This should then make him able to take responsibility for his thinking, his feeling and his willing. For all his doing.
We can feel great pain when we are in the middle of this difficult birth process. Because there are powers who don’t want man to regain spiritual forces. The dragon, in the picture of revelation, represents this dark force. He waits to devour the new born essential element, this pure spiritual being, the “I am”. Now the question for human beings is: who will win this battle? These forces want to bind and fix the human soul to the earthly matter unconditionally. 
We can clearly see how everything in everyday life today is aimed at binding us to money and goods, and that it is all about having a healthy physical body. The question that is currently not being asked, above all else, is, are our souls healthy? Is it not touching to know that the spiritual world has so much trust in the divine human creation? That it enables these dark powers to seduce man, to cut him off from the path, to the goal of mankind: the perfect man? This is the spiritual human, illumined and transformed through the sun, moon and stars.
As I mentioned above, we can get help for this goal, and for these difficult confrontations by Christ forces that are embedded in our soul. The precondition for this help is our very individual turning to this Christ-power within us. It must be awakened and actively included in our struggle. 

Dear Community of Christians,
The Apostle Paul points out in clear terms that we are not in a battle with earthly powers of flesh and blood, but with spiritual beings, powerful in the course of time.
Shouldn't we first ask ourselves, what kind of imagination about such spiritual beings do we really have? Is it clear, that they are not beings we can see in a shape of physical matter? 
Nevertheless, they are acting with strong power. And there is the shocking fact, we are, each of us, their instruments which they need to achieve their goals. How does this work? The influence of the adversary is part of our human being in the form of our unclear thinking, our diffused feelings, and our egoistic wishes. Those weaknesses can be perfectly used by adversarial impulses we are not conscious of. But as long as we wrestle with some of our weaknesses to overcome it, even to develop them further for the good, the adversaries cannot do too much harm towards our spiritual being. In addition, if we try to stand in our “I am” and our responsible actions through our moral qualities, we are less vulnerable. 
But in the moment when the image of the human being is brought down to the level of a machine which is operating by external forces, with numbers and figures, as some scientists want us to think, that this is the right way towards the future in which Ahriman has easily plays with us. 
Rudolf Steiner once described the last third part of the 20th century in a letter and wrote: “Ahriman sits in a grotto under the earth. He numbers, calculates and counts with the greatest intensity. Michael is standing behind him with a sword in his hand, while Ahriman is in the grotto below earth, calculating and counting and trying to solve everything in his own way through organization - with a terrifying intellectual power. 
Michael gives him time. Michael knows that in the end he will reap the rewards.”
We now live in the 21st century and part of the prophecy has found its fulfillment. We can see how numbers and statistics speak the main language, guiding the world. 
But now it is up to us, to make our contribution with real courage as Christians, morally responsible people in the best sense of the word. Then the archangel Michael will bring light, light through every single human being who follows his guidance.

Dear community of Christians,
The earth and its solid ground are the place where we as human beings feel safe. If our feet feel the solid earth, we can keep ourselves in balance. The moment the ground under our feet starts moving, for example on a stormy lake, or in an earthquake, we need all our strength to stay upright.
When a blow of destiny strikes us, the solid ground of our soul is severely shaken and often we lose our inner balance. This is understandable and quite natural, because it is so human.
When the king invites people to join the kingly wedding festival, to the wedding of the human soul with Christ the bridegroom. We can see this as the unconditional request of the spiritual world to join the spiritual path with the best intentions of the soul. And this is still valid today. But then those who are invited reject it. Actually, if we don’t follow the call, if we reject it, then - today nobody feels severely shaken, or loses their inner balance.
We are so solidly bound as human beings, that we don’t anymore have the spiritual openness to look from a divine perspective; to see what is meant by rejecting this invitation in the context of the development of humanity. The ground of our soul should be shaken. In fact, we disregard our spiritual existence and reduce it to a purely external matter.
It is mentioned that the king grew angry and sent out an invitation to people in general. In the end many accepted and came to the feast.
But how do we enter the wedding hall? Are there rules for entering?
Today, to enter consciously into the spiritual world is certainly not possible for many people. Sometimes, when we have   experienced a difficult blow and our soul was deeply shaken, we could feel how unprepared and even trembling we were through this experience. For a time we lost the solid ground of our being. Such an experience could make us aware of the need for a purification of our soul. If we once want to enter into the wedding hall, whether in life or after death, we need the right garment. Our purified soul can be accepted, when the final proof is given that we are able to keep standing and not tremble anymore.  

Dear Community of Christians,
There are two powerful images attributed to the archangel Michael. 
If we look at the one picture, we see the archangel with the raised sword in his hand; the dragon under his foot and therefor under his power. His gaze goes over the dragon into the distance, where the dragon cannot cast a spell. 
The other picture shows the archangel in an upright figure, with the scale, weighing souls. And sometimes we even find both motifs in one picture. 
Let us immerse ourselves into the two pictorial statements, then, so to speak, they can begin express themselves. We have to face the archangel and also the dragon as very high divine spirits. From the beginning it was not clear if Michael would become master about the dragon. Courage, trust and the help of the angelic choir were qualities which made Michael's victory possible.
There is probably no question that we are currently standing as human beings in the midst of the confrontation with very dark forces that have one thing in mind, the human being to dehumanize! People shall be taken into spiritual bondage and then function only as an intelligent machine. 
To battle against so strong forces, it needs a great force of incredible courage and an unambiguous certainty that our fight for the future of spiritual man is essential for survival of mankind. But if we fail the fight to bring spirituality into the world in the right terms and to lead a spiritually oriented life, then the scales of the archangel will be affected.  
After death, the souls of men are weighed. We may then be faced with the question: "How courage’s have you been and how big was your love for the development of the future of humanity"? 
A courage’s decision is like a sword. Then we will get help; however, this might look like. With our trust and the help of grace, we must not be fearful to be weighed.