Sun Myung Moon
December 31, 1967
Photo date and location unknown
Our loving Father, You created Eden with the ideal You cherished from before the creation of the world, but the original ancestors, who were meant to become Your original object partner, fell instead and thus all beings on this earth could not live there, and we have come to realize that this became a sorrowful world that cannot form a connection to that place. This is truly sad, not only for You, our Father, but also for all created things. And we have come to know that the ringleaders who brought about this sad consequence were none other than the human beings You created, that is, the ancestors of humanity, Adam and Eve.
Though the sons and daughters born in Your direct line, Father, should have been good, they failed to fulfill their given responsibility and left nothing but bitter grief in human history. The more we contemplate this, the more we come to realize that, though great may have been the worries of human beings until now, they could in no way compare with the greatness of Your labors to save humanity. We earnestly hope and pray while we trace and measure those labors in our hearts, we will feel acutely once again what pitiful people we are before our Father.
Since the day that You lost Adam, how great have Your efforts been to find the one person in whom You could believe? And how much have You sought a person who would take responsibility and fight for You? How much have You longed for and sought one person who could inherit Your full authority? We cannot help but feel again, painfully, that it was Your anguish, Father, and the grief of human history, that there was no such person on the earth. Father, You have walked a path of constant tension and anxiety through a long six thousand years of history.
In sorrow, You endured from the position of taking responsibility for everything. You have continued doing so to this day without a moment of rest. Human beings have been struggling along a dark night path, but please let us bring to mind that You have been in anguish over the providence of human history in a darkness much deeper than that. And we are earnestly hoping and desiring that You will awaken us to the reality of our dishonorable and miserable selves. And please let us realize how frill of grief Your way has been as You wandered and searched along the back alleys of history for six thousand years.
When we come to understand the fact that Your toiling footsteps trace a path of Your being driven out by so many nations and peoples, and Your wandering and searching in this country and that, in this city and that, and that You have arrived today here in the mountains and rivers of Korea, we feel once again that we are truly ashamed of ourselves in front of You. This people did not know the fact that centered on the Korean Peninsula and its 30 million people, You were reaching out through Your providence. Even our good ancestors who lived in this land and passed on did not know.
But now we have reached the time when we can understand the fact that You have reached out through Your providence centering on this people. When we think about this, we cannot help but confess that from the past until today this people stands in shame before You, Father. Even though we are unworthy to even dare to relate to You, You reached out to us in compassion and love, and You established us in the realm of the grace of Your love. Therefore, we sincerely request that You will let us become Your children who humbly bow to You representing this people, these mountains and rivers, and all human beings. In the course of history, the era You hoped for has passed, and now we are standing at a parting of the ways where we can usher in a new day of history, so please remember Your sons and daughters who are taking part in today's gathering.
Please have dominion over the minds of each and every one of us, and if You find any shortcomings there, please let us put an end to them here and now. Please allow us to examine our past, in which we failed to make efforts to bring about a substantial victory before the new Will, as we sincerely hope and pray that You will allows us to become Your sons and daughters who can usher in a new year when we can make a fresh beginning toward the promised world.
We know that those who are unworthy cannot stand before You, Father, but we have prostrated ourselves before Your knees through the grace of Your love, so please accept us at this time. We earnestly hope and pray that You will do so. If You don't acknowledge us, Father, who on earth would be more pitiful than we are? We endured even when we were cornered and chased around in this world. Even when we were persecuted, we revered You, Father, and appealed to You, so please look upon us with compassion once again at this time. We set the seven year course, unknown to anyone else, and have undergone fierce struggles on this path. Father, there may even be some people who, during that period, could not endure the severe persecution and avoided this path, weeping tears. Such people could not but feel ashamed before You, Father, so please look upon them with compassion when they blame themselves in their heart. Even if they cannot hold up their heads high before You because they do not have a clear conscience, we sincerely hope and pray that You will remember them as they call out for You, Father, with nothing but faith harbored deep in their hearts.
Though we are so unworthy and foolish, thanks to Your protection we have been able to come this far today. Therefore, Father, guide us to persevere and go forward until we reach the day You have promised us. We earnestly hope and pray that You will allow this hour to be one in which Your children, who have worked hard until now for this Will, can pool their hearts together and offer You their gratitude. Please supervise everything we have to do on this day, and we sincerely hope and pray that You will let this hour be one in which we can resolve and pledge to begin anew on our way toward the new promised world in this coming year.
Father! In that the twenty one year course we passed through was a very long time, when we think about Your long, sad historical course of six thousand years, we come to realize once again that there is no one who is more pitiful than You or who is lonelier than You, Father. We regret our past, in which we promised loyalty to You but failed to fulfill it and we promised filial piety to You but failed to fulfill that either, and we beg for Your forgiveness. We sincerely hope and pray that, from now on, You will allow us to become Your sons and daughters who can practice our resolution to be loyal and filial to You.
Father, Your sons and daughters, who remember and celebrate this day and who pray before You with all their hearts and will, are spread out across this nation, so please embrace them deep in Your heart. We hope and pray that You will embrace them with Your heart of love. Your sons and daughters are gathered here at this time, so please look after them. We also hope with all our hearts that You will, through Your words, personally look after those of Your sons and daughters who could not come today. Please let everything become one with Your Will, so that there will not be even the smallest little thing that is not suitable to Your Will, and please let us begin only from the Will and achieve results only through the Will, so that we can reveal only the glory of our Father.
Thus, we sincerely ask that You will let the glory of Your Will be revealed on this earth and be with us forevermore. We have humbly prayed all these things in the name of the True Parents. Aju!