Sun Myung Moon
December 11, 1966
Photo date and location unknown
Beloved Father, in the course of history, there never was a truly responsible person who affirmed that he would accomplish Your Will even if the world came against him. We are also aware of how invaluable the Christian believers were who loved You even when they were targeted by the arrows of persecution, and who shared the deep Will rooted in Your heart.
The common course of human life is to be born into this world and then, inevitably, to leave it in the end. We earnestly hope and desire, Father, that You will not allow us to become pitiful people who are born as human beings but are unable to obtain goodness by ourselves, or are only able to receive vain honors when we come seeking You.
We know that in order to possess a treasure others cannot have, we need to go through a course of trials that others do not experience. We recognize from our relationship with the world of creation or our professional life that one cannot raise one's standard without going through trials and tears. Please allow us to obtain the name of holy devoted children who have fulfilled our filial duty before You. Please allow us to hold the treasured position of persevering representatives of heavenly value who represent the whole of history centered on Your heart.
Although this task is an extremely precious and worthy one, please grant that we do not forget that in order to fulfill this task, we need to have a resolute heart, go through bloody battles and expend effort. Just as the saying "Your efforts will be crowned with success" suggests, we understand that only through our effort can we offer something of value; without effort nothing of value is produced.
When we think about this, we are truly grateful that You love the people of the Unification Church.
Once we were targeted by the arrows of the thirty million Korean people and had to endure their vilification and attacks. They pointed a finger of scorn at us, calling us a group of people who defiled this world, and they spat on us and pressed us into the margins. However, we are neither resentful nor angry at what they have done to us. This people, instead of repaying You for all Your hard work, trampled on Your hallowed name, which represents heavenly law. They made You suffer, though You were blameless. When we consider the abuses You have had to suffer, we can hardly bear the pain.
However, You have endured for many, many years, and You have commanded us today to light a new beacon before the people who betrayed us. Therefore we cannot help but offer You our gratitude for Your love in sending Your beloved messengers to those people who were wandering in the dark. Father, we know that You are looking for the true person who can soothe, with Your touch, the pain of those who were beaten and abused as well as feed, on Your behalf, the starving children of the enemy.
We thank You today that the people of the Unification Church were able to walk that way through the crises of the past, that they voluntarily set out on the path of tears unknown to anyone else and stepped into the back alleys of the cold age in accordance with Your Will. And since we are people who are moved by Your heart when You call for us, Father, and have the heart with which we can resurrect our relationship with You, please allow us to become children of the Unification Church who know how to be truly grateful for remaining in Your precious providence, a providence that cannot be exchanged for anything else.
In the center of our hearts there are no trees or grass. It is the most hollow among hollow places, the emptiest among empty places, the driest among dry places. However, in that place there is one thing we have, and that is the heart that calls out, "Father!" It is the heart that wants to meet You, and the heart that wants to attend You. This heart is so precious it cannot be exchanged even for heaven and earth. Therefore we earnestly hope and pray that You will allow us to have hearts that will assume and maintain the whole of that value until the very end.
Our Father of love, when You look upon these pitiful people, do not allow them to remain mere observers. Let the blood that flows in our veins move us so that we cannot help but embrace one another and weep bitterly. Furthermore, please have dominion over our feelings so that we can adopt an earnest attitude that compels us to watch closely over others. Since we know that You expect such things from us, Father, we sincerely ask that You will embrace us when we show ourselves to be such people.
We human beings are the ones yearning for our Owner, our Parent and our Leader, the One who can stop His hurried footsteps and embrace us as we stand on the path of ruin. Until now, the history of fallen human beings has been one of deploring their condition as they languished on the path of ruin. When we realize that this has been the path taken by fallen humanity, please grant that we may become Your children who can repent for not befriending those in the back alleys and healing the feet of the injured, thereby leaving behind satisfactory results.
When we consider how we have lived in the past and up to the present, we reflect on for what purpose we have used our hands, for what purpose our hearts have suffered, and where our faces and bodies are heading. We know that, before we can assume our true selves, who are being called by this people, we need to become true sons and daughters of Heaven who can critique the past and lament the present. Knowing this, how many times have we resolved and pledged before our Father to become such sons and daughters? Since cold winds blow in our hearts, that which You desired disappeared, and we ended up as pitiful people, condemned to live in Satan's world. That being the case, how great is the sorrow of heaven and earth, and how Your heart must ache as You fight Your way forward, embracing heaven and earth! Father, we sincerely hope and pray that You will not allow us to become ignorant people who forget this.
Whenever we realize we are walking such a path, we want to repent deep in our hearts for failing to rise above it to comfort You in Your sorrowful historical course. When the people of the Unification Church realize that we have failed to become such children before our Father, we are too ashamed to call You "Father." Therefore, Father, we earnestly hope and pray that You will forgive us.
Have You sought us because You could not find those You were looking for anywhere in the sorrowful course of history? Have You sought this people because no other people remained? How often did this lonely and scattered people fall down before our Father, people who had been called to relieve His suffering! How great was Your grief when You watched them with tears because they failed to reach the standard You hoped for! We can hardly fathom the heart of our Father, who, with a heart of love for His young ones, gazed at this people in their pitiful state and had to endure this sight hundreds and thousands of times.
We are the sons and daughters who were born inheriting the blood and sweat of our Father, and we are the people who can resolve to make Your wish come hue. That is why, when we look upon this people struggling on the brink of death, we must resolve to become Your children who can advocate the path this people should follow, even if it means staying up all night to the point of exhaustion.
Father, even though we may look shabby, please allow us to understand how precious we are because You remember us, and grant that we may not despair and grieve on this path. We earnestly hope that You will allow us to share Your determination as You look upon the various parts of South Korea and agonize over this nation in Your concern for the Will.
Please allow us to proudly speak of the love we have received from You, Father, when You raised us and complimented us. However, if we should fail to serve and attend You, even when we know of Your endeavors, then do not show us Your love, Father. Having celebrated Children's Day, we now usher in the second Sunday of December. Since only twenty days remain in this year and this is the time when we need to let go of the past and welcome the new year, please, beloved Father, let us reflect once again on our past in anguish, express greater concern for our Father, and yearn for the call of re-creation that creates the future.
We sincerely hope and pray that You will permit us to become true children who can feel by ourselves that, even though our situation today is difficult, in the past this land endured the pain of childbirth and bloodstained movements in order to secure victory one day. When we usher in that one day of victory before our Father and say, "Father, receive this glory!" You shall weep loudly. Since we know that Your heart yearns for that day, we earnestly hope and pray that You will not let our resolve to race toward that day change in any way.
Since this people has shouldered the responsibility and mission to save all the peoples of the world, whereas in the past they only received from and depended on others, they should now give to and lead others. Therefore please grant that this people may assume that responsibility and spread out across the world in all directions. Moreover, we earnestly hope and pray, Father of love, that You will not permit us to forget that we have the responsibility to lead others in establishing the heavenly environment and daily life.
Father, please remember Your children who are holding service in the countryside in commemoration of this day, and please remember the many people spread out around the world. Though they know You, Father, they have not yet met the Teacher. We truly, truly hope and pray, beloved Father, that You will not leave them where they are, but permit them to come into the place in which life can sprout and heavenly relationships surround them, a place they can stay only if their hearts are loyal to You and they love You.
Please take charge and have dominion over everything about this day. We sincerely ask that You will allow us to become people who, feeling sorry that the time has come for us to part and to head out to face the remaining battles, can make efforts to bring precious gifts before Heaven when we meet again. We hope that You will allow, through the remaining course of grace, the one day of victory to be chosen as the center of Your Will. I humbly pray all these things in the name of True Parents. Aju!