Prayer: Please make us into the vessels You desire

Sun Myung Moon
February 1, 1975

Photo date and location unknown

Photo date and location unknown

Beloved Father! Together with all the things of creation that You made, we hope to offer before You, who oversees heaven and earth, praise of Your glory and majesty. Father! We know well that while passing through the eventful course of history, You have come through a history of re-creation that was extremely full of suffering in order to restore the mistake of our original ancestors. We realize how much misery and suffering filled the historical indemnity You paid in order to have each of us individually return to Your original position by passing over the path of the servant of servants, the path of the servant, the path of the adopted son, the path of the child, and even the relationship of true parents.

As people who deserve punishment because we sinned, we have walked a miserable course of sorrow filled suffering, and though You had nothing to do with it, You took responsibility for everything, taking the lead and overcoming all sorts of difficulties. We offer our sincere gratitude in view of the mighty accomplishments You attained while carrying out the work of re-creation.

Father! We have come to understand that there is not a single person who has not been touched by You, and we know that there is no country whatsoever that has not been led through Your hope. And furthermore, we know well that going beyond national borders, You are guiding all people to the present point in order to lead them into the original world of Your ideal.

When we think that in the world that must remain in the end, there will be only You and Your beloved sons and daughters and the heavenly forces of angels, we see that in this world the power of Satan and the people of Satan are far too great. We know that we Unification Church members are in a position where we cannot ask You to resolve this. We realize the fact that our Unification Church has the extremely precious responsibility to uphold the name of the True Parents and the name of the True Children and praise that family, and achieve on earth and in the spirit world the original state of the angelic world that is able to attend that family. When we think about this, we also remember that we are in the position where we have to inherit the great task of sons and daughters and, at the same time, inherit the great task of becoming parents, and then inherit Your original ideal of creation.

Therefore, we have to become children who are solely born of Your flesh and blood, and who are embraced in Your bosom, and who are loved as Your sons and daughters. Now that we are in a position where we can be embraced by You once again, we have to think about the fact that we need to go forward to the position of the heart of love, which is not inferior to the love You gave to Adam and Eve when You created them and raised them with hope. How can we possibly go forward to that standard of heart as descendants of the Fall. The only thing we can do is think about the wonderful fact that, the more we stand in the position of having made efforts in our yearning for the original attitude we should have, the worthier we will be when we appear before Your toiling heart, especially since You have overcome a path of suffering for our very selves. At such times, we can imagine, however little, Your heart, as our Father who is endeavoring to establish us before His original heart.

Father! Your young children, who have become hardened, must pass through Your touch and become the material for re-creation in Your presence. We have already understood that we must become like clay, surrendering ourselves to You to be molded as You wish, just like the time You first created us by mixing soil and water. We are not in a position to have our own opinions. Since we have understood that the only kind of mind we can have is one that admires absolute faith and adores Your absolute love and a mind that seeks to become a faithful servant of Your absolute will, O Father, please accept us and take dominion over us.

Make us into the vessels You want. It is not up to us to demand that You make us into pottery or into valuable vessels or into earthenware, so we sincerely hope and pray that You will shape us so that we can become whatever objects You need. The Bible says that those who are not like children cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. We know that children are those whose lives depend on their parents. We know that a child relies on their parents for their livelihood. A child appears before You as an object partner who represents the whole, but that child does not know it. Similarly, people who live on the earth today are in a position where they do not know You. In this regard, we cannot but think that we stand in a position of ignorance even greater than that of a child.

When we look upon such a group of people, we see that the requisites of their original nature through which they can be connected to You are all defiled, and that they have become isolated beings who are in a most difficult position to communicate with the heart of Heaven. And You, Father, have the responsibility to move them with Your loving heart and thaw them, to disentangle any knots there may be, and to soften them if they have become hardened, thus guiding them to a position where they can know You. Taking this into consideration, we realize we didn't know the fact that the mistake committed in a day, the mistake of the Fall, has brought about this bottomless pit of sorrows that cannot be resolved even after passing through such a path of suffering.

As for the original position that You demanded, our limbs went on a path of opposition, and our eyes that see did the same, and our ears that hear did the same, and our mouth that talks did the same. When we realize that we have been such people, we cannot but sincerely hope that, for thousands of times, You will allow us to look in the direction You are looking in and listen to Your words, and that You will bless us to speak with a mouth through which we can whisper to You. In spite of the fact that we should follow You with our own limbs, wearing ragged clothes if need be, or crawling on our stomachs if there is no other way, we have instead become disloyal and unfilial people who are self-pitying and cannot be forgiven because we thrash and say we cannot go even when Heaven is guiding us. Since we know this, Father, please expand Your heart of mercy and Your heart of love.

The eternal ideal has been bequeathed because there still remains the originally created connection that cannot be forsaken, and since we know that the ideal desired by You cannot be forsaken as well, we cannot help but raise both our arms toward Heaven and clamor for You to save us. So, Father, we earnestly hope and pray that You will bear with us. Please hold on to our feeble hands and guide us to the originally intended world that You desire. We did not know until now that You have had to overcome hardships, whipped and scorned all the way, so please allow us to understand Your suffering, the suffering our Parent is going through. Allow us to feel it, allow us to be awakened to it, even if only in our hearts.

Please let there be many people who understand how much Heaven has had to endeavor for them, repent of such a history, struggle to take responsibility for this age and walk the suffering path of the cross instead. Since we know that all such people are members of the Unification Church, and there is no one else, and we are gathered here, Father, please look after us. You have already spread out members of the Unification Church, not only in Korea but also across the world, and we sincerely hope and pray that Your loving touch will be extended to wherever they are, as they give all their devotion and all their loyalty and all their adoration to You.

We have set the third seven year course, and it has already been a month since we declared it after passing through the second seven year course that You permitted by Your Will. When we look back on this morning of the first day of February, we see that the past month has been a busy one, and we hope that You will allow a bright victory to unfold in the land of Korea through that month, that You will allow a bright victory to unfold in Asia, and that You will let it ring out before all peoples. Not only that, but we also sincerely hope and pray, Father, that You will permit a history of joy, which has long been yearned for by the innumerable spirits in the spirit world, and through which they can be liberated, to be established as quickly as possible.

On February 8, we plan to hold a wedding ceremony of virtuous men and women from all over the world before You, Father. That historical and global day is approaching, and yet there are groups of people who oppose us with all kinds of words and actions and who are trying to block that path and destroy it However, this son of Yours has taken responsibility for this path and is guiding others with the knowledge that everything will be concluded as You see fit, so please take charge of this period of eight days and let that day be glorified. I, Your son, earnestly hope and pray that that day will be a day on which Your glory and prestige can be praised by all peoples and all nations.

Thank You for being with us during the forty or so days of my stay in Korea. Don't let anything that we do cloud Your glory in any way. We earnestly hope and pray that our work will become a foundation of victory on earth, where songs of welcome arise and sounds of joy arise on the path of Your personal coming and going that is escorted by heaven and earth and welcomed by all.

Father, when that event is concluded, the International One World Crusade, which is currently in Japan, will visit the land of Korea, and we have a huge amount of preparations to make before they come. We need to build up our international reputation, and think by ourselves how we can fulfill our mission as the homeland and the hometown and what we should bequeath to them. We have to examine ourselves. We, Your children in Korea, should show ourselves as having nothing to be ashamed of before Heaven, thereby becoming a focal point of confidence and popularity as the clan of Heaven recognized in all parts of the world, and be aware of the danger of becoming a focal point of criticism instead. Since many people do not know this, we sincerely hope and pray that You will admonish them and educate them.

We have nothing and we possess nothing, but help us show that we love Heaven as we offer devotions to Heaven, and that, even if we are dressed in rags, Heaven is embedded deep in ourselves and deep in our hearts. We know that this alone is the responsibility of Your children living in Your homeland today and the mission they should fulfill. We have nothing else to show except this, and when we think about it, we sincerely and earnestly hope and pray that You will allow us to become a group of people who are upright and tenacious, hardened through perseverance by which we can overcome paths of severe suffering in our lives, knowing the preciousness of our internal value.

On this morning, please bestow blessings on Your children spread out across the world, and we request again and again that You will be with the young ones in East Garden and the youths of America who represent the world and who are getting ready to come here. Please protect them and guide them and personally lead them on every part of their course of visit so that they can experience the beauty of victory. Father, we hope that we can live this one month together in Your name. In Japan, our members are preparing for the rally that will be held on February 13, so please be with them. We earnestly ask that You will lead us, guarded by angels and the innumerable heavenly forces of the spirit world, so that we can raise high the new banner of unification in the world and adapt our minds and bodies to the new echoes of Heaven. We have humbly prayed all these things in the name of the True Parents. Aju!