Prayer: Your Long Suffering Road Since Man's Fall

Sun Myung Moon
January 1, 1979
New York, NY
God's Day

Loving Father God. We have watched the passing of 1978 and Unification members throughout the world and the whole of mankind now welcome a new year 1979. I reflect upon once again Your long suffering road since man's fall. Numerous times our ancestors failed to fulfill Your will, thus hurting Your heart and prolonging or delaying over and over again the consummation of history. In Your deep heart You have been anxiously looking forward to seeing Your day of final victory. Countless people in history have struggled to no avail on a bloody and tear-stained battlefield and finally disappeared silently into a world unknown.

From out of a multitude of people and many nations You have chosen pitiful little Korea and from that country You woke me up with Your call when I was still young, immature and unworthy. Ever since, You have tried and tested me to refine my character. Through many incredible persecutions You helped to toughen my spirit. Finally, You have elevated me to this present state of glory All these, oh Father, were gifts of loving grace and the meritorious effects of Your sacred labors. Once again, I praise and exalt You.

Father, we realize that countless ancestors in spirit world and most especially all the saints and sages of the past who served Your providential course look down upon us at this moment anticipating some momentous announcement. Father, we need Your special blessing before all mankind as we witness the approach of an hour that can be a turning point in history.

Father, since 1976 when we tried to end our wave-tossed and frustrated history, two years have passed, and we stand at the doorway of a third year. The whole world has been shooting its arrows and concentrating an all-out attack on me and the Unification Church. Yet through the special protection of heaven, our little group has been able to hold on to a small bit of ground as the foundation for a certain victory For this I humbly offer my deepest gratitude.

Father, I feel ashamed that this is not a day when I can bring all mankind before You so that we can kneel together and with uplifted hands offer a prayer of thanksgiving. However, in the timetable of dispensational history, we have reached a turning point. Even though there might be external differences of time and space, in this world of heart You have granted us entrance into a new dimension in which we can raise Your victorious standard and proclaim Your will to the whole world. For this I am truly thankful.

This morning, as we bid farewell to 1978 and welcome the new year 1979, we gather our hearts together in the name of the True Parents and pledge anew before heaven to carry on Your work with the utmost faith and loyalty. Father, upon all who follow the name of the True Parents, grant Your blessing so that their first moments in 1979 may become a pledge of faith, loyalty and red-hot fervor.

This small Unification family has to bear the burden of raising Your standard high. Centered in New York City and extending throughout America and the whole world, our mission is to unite East and West within a victorious heavenly circle in order to relieve Your age-old frustration with mankind. When I think of our great mission, what a small and powerless group we have! Nevertheless, with Your mighty name and authority, I chose New York City as the frontline for all America and the entire free world. We pledge to reopen the battle in order to dedicate this city to You. Please rest assured that beginning today, we start marching to victory

Since we have already pledged our faith and loyalty to be Your shield until victory bless us and help us fight to the end and be Your triumphant remnant.

Father, we have now begun an historic new ministry centered on the home church. Since we are beneficiaries of living in a new age, all members of our Unification family are entitled to be Your children, inheriting the reduced condition of universal indemnity for the three stages of the Old Testament, New Testament and Completed Testament. For this I am truly grateful.

Father, how long You have been waiting for this day! How long too the whole of mankind has waited for this time! When I think about these things, even though we dedicate ourselves as eternal, living sacrifices, it is not enough to thank You for the unprecedented benefits of this age. Father, I pray that You forgive men for their ignorance.

Even though we were to unite completely with Your heart and pour out our very selves into the responsibilities given us, we would still feel most unworthy. Therefore, Father, I beseech You to inspire our members and guide them to march on with unfailing loyalty and faith.

At this hour, I pray under the motto of new love, let them embrace New York City (which has been lost) with the love which God has always wanted to express for it but was as yet unable. Help them to embrace our lost nation and our lost world with Your love. May they also embrace with that same love the entire spirit world and their descendants on earth.

I beseech You, Father, that our members can march ahead with the possibility of a great future. Centered on the realization of the four-position foundation of love, and by forming a foundation for the Messiah at a tribal level, we reassert Your absolute sovereignty of goodness. We know that You are trying to realize Your ideal of one world through the union of all tribes and nations. That is our hope for the future.

As Your beloved children in Korea, Japan and America, and all those who have gone out as missionaries in Your name to 127 countries, and Your new children in those mission lands turn toward this place for a New Year's blessing, I pray, God, that You pour Your infinite love upon then and place upon each of them, far and near, Your hands of blessing. Make 1979 a year to be proud of. Bless them and manifest anew Your reality and majesty as our loving Father, resurrecting their inner life so that they may achieve a hundred victories in a hundred battles, I beseech You.

In this moment when we are entering a new year, we start a new beginning with Your love and protection. Fill everyone with Your abundant grace and make all things work together for good. May 1979 be a time when we frustrate all the plots of our enemies and exalt this authority of heaven. This I pray.

Father, I pray that Your love and grace, peace and light may dwell abundantly in all those who reside in spirit world, all of their righteous descendants and all of mankind on this earth. All these things are offered by the True Parents to You at the dawn of a new year. Amen.

Holy Wine Ceremony for 843 Engaged Couples - Part II

Sun Myung Moon
December 31, 1980

Birthdays in True Parents' Family

The True Parents form the original four-position foundation, and your own position is grafted to this. It is all connected to the core, which is God. And then my next generation will interconnect with yours and keep on expanding. Generation after generation, this form will continue for thousands of years. In this way, your family will be an Abel family, while others will be in the Cain position. While we are being restored, Abel will sacrifice for the sake of Cain, but once the restoration is fulfilled, Cain will serve Abel.

The conclusion here is that the children fulfill the will of their parents. And the will of the family is accomplished by the clan. So what matters is the Abelistic tradition. Abel must always pass along the tradition. You should always return to the original point, which is here. Our tradition is universal; beyond country, beyond race, beyond time. The world will come into unity centering on God. But until the entire world is connected and restored, the Cain and Abel principle will always be at work. We cannot do any heavenly work without this principle.

I started my mission when I was your age, 35 years ago. But the difference is that when I started, the world was hard and cold like a wilderness. Then I had to work all alone with my own hands. But today the world has come to an enlightened springtime. Everything is prepared; everything is pioneered. What a tremendous difference from 35 years ago! At that time, I had to plant ideas one by one. Now I don't have to plant them anymore, for they are already everywhere. It is much easier for you to work.

Two days ago you gave an absolutely enthusiastic applause and welcome to me, such as we have never seen in our church. But did you do that only in expectation of your engagement? If you did, then it had no meaning. But if you were searching for what could happen to this world and to this nation, the world has hope.

Now you are getting ready to marry, and that brings back a memory of my time. Just before I got married, the lawyers and judges in the courthouse were preparing to persecute and condemn me. The very next day, I got married there, and many of the same people came to congratulate me, not knowing what was actually happening. I was fighting on the one hand and achieving my family on the other. I was fighting the very day that I got married. What about you? Does anyone come to condemn you like that? I remember it like it was just yesterday.

So as soon as you feel happiness, immediately you have to think that this happiness is not just for you but should be extended for the sake of the country. God is giving you this blessing. You have to pray that this happiness will not stop on the family level but will extend. Because of us, family disintegration and the resulting heartbreak of children should stop. We have to pray for this.

This will serve as a real beginning of the liberation of all mankind and God. Especially we have to pray when we become happy in our family. If you give birth to your own child, you must think that the reason God gave this blessing to you is that through your family all other families might be saved and restored.

We have to think that way. We have to remember that if the world has no hope, what good will it do if we have a happy family! Our family will also be washed out with the rest of the world. When we think like that we: have to pray that we can bear the cross of these perishing, declining families. You have to educate your children that their daddy and mommy will work for the sake of the nation and world.

If one person out of every hundred dies a day, that means that 40 million people are dying each day. Where do they go? Most will go to hell instead of heaven. This is very serious. If we forget that and only enjoy our blessings and happiness, we are going against God's will. If you are ever going to be a good family, you will have to sacrifice your own joy and happiness. We will work so hard to liberate others. Without exaggeration, this is what we can expect in the future.

If you are really serious about this, what does it matter if your spouse-to-be is not so handsome or fantastic as someone else? The more difficult your situation is, so much the better because you know how hard it will be to bring peace on earth. The children resulting from an international family can go between your two countries. Although you may be enemies, your offspring will be able to hold the two countries together so that one country will not perish at the hands of the other -- they will keep on surviving.

There is such tension today between black and white. If there is any hope for a solution to the racial problem, then it will be in the family of a black husband and white wife, or a white husband and black wife, praying for peace between the races and giving birth to children of both races. If two villages are fighting each other, then someone has to be determined to make them stop fighting. Even if he has to be sacrificed, he will later be honored by both sides. This is the most precious thing we have to know.

So far you have been living in one world. Now you are about to live in two worlds, two countries, and two tribes. You will go together as a bond. Never separate your two worlds. It will not be easy. When you are beaten, you may be a loser, but when you become victorious you will be a leader. If it is too huge a task for your one generation, you have to pray that your sons and daughters can continue the work. As long as we do this, there is hope for the future of the world. If we don't, then there is no hope for the world.

You must be aware that all the critical questions of your family are in your hands. Don't just sit and think: "I'm only getting married." The position you are in is far more meaningful and far deeper. This dispensation will be connected to our future generations. We say that everything works under the principle of indemnity to create bigger and bigger conditions of indemnity.

Let's take an example. A white couple is blessed and they are quite happy together. They put a lot of heart into their work, so they establish a certain indemnity condition. A black couple may be in the same situation, but because they are persecuted, they will have established a greater indemnity condition.

If a handicapped person does the same amount of work as someone who is not persecuted, he will get ten times more credit. There is: a gospel in the Unification Church. This gospel is the principle of indemnity.

Whatever happens to your family you must swallow up and digest. If you are determined to do that, raise your hands. It is up to you to set the conditions. Let's do this in the year to come. You know what mankind wanted and what God wanted, the blood we used to have and the new blood tradition. Also, I have told you how to relate to each other and about your offspring. I may not be available to teach you every day, step by step; as long as you know these things you won't need me to teach you so often. So just go ahead. Instead of missing me, go to work and become successful.

I have given you good hope. Are you going to carry all this out? Now you have just crossed the border from the old world into the new world. We cannot see that borderline with our eyes, but it is very much there. Forget about the past and have full hope for the future.

Observe each other and do your best to do your duty to God. See who shoots up stronger. ·: Take heed of everything that I said today, and you will go straightforward to the realization of your own family and the kingdom on earth.

Absolute Values and the Search for Peace for Humankind

Sun Myung Moon
November 27, 1980
Fontainebleau Hilton Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, USA
Ninth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences

Photo date and location unknown

Honorable chairman, distinguished scientists and scholars, ladies and gentlemen:

I sincerely welcome you to this ninth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences.

During past years this conference has repeatedly dealt with the theme of science and absolute values and has achieved great results. Furthermore, I feel that the conference has made many contributions to humankind's long and fervent search for peace.

The theme of this year's conference is, "Absolute Values and the Search for Peace for Humankind." In regard to this theme, I would like to share with you my view of how world peace can be achieved.

Today's world yearns for peace

As you are no doubt already aware, the more chaotic the world becomes, the more human beings thirst for peace.,

Then how can peace be achieved? In today's world, orderliness is increasingly being disrupted in many countries and cultural regions. To establish peace means to restore a true order. To restore a true order, subject partners and object partners must find their positions and establish mutual, harmonious relations.

People desire peace not only on the world level but also on the level of nations, societies and families. Even individuals yearn for peace between their mind and body.

Of these various levels of peace, which should be established first?

It is easy to think that if world peace were established first, then on that basis the peace of nations, societies, families and eventually individuals would also be established.

But this is wrong. This is actually the reverse of the sequence necessary to establish peace. It is individual peace that must first be realized. Then family peace can follow, and only on that foundation can the peace of societies, nations and the world be expected. This is because individuals are the basic unit of families, and families are the basic unit of societies, nations and the world.

Frequently leaders believe that through outstanding organization and superior policymaking they can restore the order of society and create world peace. In reality, however, the peace of humankind can never be realized through these two means alone. International organizations such as the United Nations and thought systems such as communism and democracy have all tried to realize world peace in their own ways, but peace is still far from our grasp, and the world is experiencing more confusion as the days go by.

True peace is achieved only when people unite through absolute love

Unless the quest for peace starts from the peace of the individual, it is bound to fail again and again.

Then how can the individual achieve peace? It is by becoming a person of absolute love and then practicing this love. This is true because love is the precondition for all unity. Unity can be established on the basis of love, and peace on the basis of unity.

Both relative love and absolute love exist. Relative love changes according to time and place, but absolute love is unchanging and eternal. Because the former is self-centered, it changes according to the interests of the moment. On the other hand, because absolute love always exists for the benefit of others and serves the whole, it is unchanging. Absolute love, because it is absolute, must flow from an Absolute Being. Therefore, that love must be God's love.

Through relative love, unity can never be achieved. It is only through absolute love that unity becomes possible. The mind and body of an individual can come into unity only through absolute love. Then such feelings as tranquility, joy, satisfaction and a sense of worth can be experienced. Only from such an individual can a standard for peace be drawn.

When the parents and children, husband and wife, and brothers and sisters of a family all practice absolute love in a way appropriate to their own family position, the unity of that family will be achieved. That family will be full of happiness and harmony -- and above all, peace.

Accordingly, the society formed by such families of peace will be a society of peace. If the families within a society become harmonious and help one another, the society will undoubtedly be bright and peaceful, because order will be established and unity attained. The nation formed by such societies of peace will also surely become a nation of peace.

World peace based on God's love

Moreover, a nation is not merely an assembly of many societies. It is an organic organization composed of and based on individuals and families of love. Within it, perfect order and unity must be established, and then the true peace of the nation can be realized.

In other words, even a nation needs God's love in order to realize and maintain peace. Even though the families that are the basis of the nation may be centered on absolute love, the nation as an organic body must also be able to practice absolute love as a nation, on the national level.

The government and people of the nation should attain unity internally, and the nation externally should unite with neighboring countries, thereby realizing true peace.

Needless to say, the peace of the world comes into being only on the foundation of the peace of all nations. When each nation ceases to place all its emphasis on trade and other ways to secure its own national interest, when each nation begins to serve other nations and the world with absolute love, and when each nation maintains such an international posture consistently, the eternal peace of humankind will have been secured.

The pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty leads to world peace

Thus, it becomes apparent that world peace begins with individual peace and expands through families, societies and nations to ultimately cover the world.

At this point I would like to mention the relationship between absolute love and absolute values. Love is the foundation for the values of truth, goodness and beauty. For example, when a person practices love of others, society calls it goodness. Therefore, it follows that when a person practices absolute love, which is God's love, absolute goodness results. This is to say, the actions of an individual practicing absolute love for the sake of peace are absolutely good. Likewise, the actions of a family practicing love for the sake of peace are also good. The same is true for societies, nations and the world.

In other words, in order to realize true peace, the individual, family, society, nation and world must all practice absolute love and thus realize the absolute values that are absolute truth, absolute goodness and absolute beauty. The world today most especially and urgently requires the practice of absolute goodness to deter the interference of evil that begets chaos.

Love, absolute truth, absolute goodness and absolute beauty cannot be realized without knowledge of absolute love -- God's love -- since love gives rise to the spiritual values of truth, goodness and beauty. And where these absolute values are not realized, there cannot be true peace.

Thus, for the true peace of humankind, we need to practice absolute love. But before we can practice absolute love, we first have to understand it.

I have already stated that absolute love is love that acts for the benefit of others, that serves others and that is unchanging and eternal. Then why does absolute love serve the whole and remain unchanging? And why can peace be realized only through love? These questions require answers.

To achieve true peace, we need to understand the Absolute Being

For these questions to be completely answered, the Absolute Being and His motive and purpose for creating the universe and humankind must first be fully clarified. The motive and purpose for creation particularly serve as indispensable standards for the practice of love and the establishment of peace. Before any plans can be put into action, there must first be a definite purpose. Any action without purpose is meaningless.

If the Absolute Being created humanity and meant people to practice His love, then it is certain that there is a motive and purpose for the creation of human beings. In order for that motive and purpose to be clarified, an explanation of the Absolute Being, that is, a correct concept of God, must first be established. Establishing the correct concept of God will clarify His motive and purpose of creation and, on that basis, the reason we must practice the Absolute Being's love in order to realize peace.

Thus, I submit that for the true peace of humankind, it is necessary to understand the Absolute Being correctly so we can practice His love and finally realize His absolute values.

These points conclude the ideas I wanted to share with you. In closing, I would like to wish you all great success in this conference, and I hope you will contribute greatly to the search for the peace of humankind.

Thank you very much.

Prayer: Please let us realize that daybreak is imminent

Sun Myung Moon
November 11, 1980

Photo date and location unknown

Beloved Heavenly Father, even in my dreams I was not aware that the sorrowful path of restoration was to be filled with so many trials and difficulties. You called an immature and uninformed young man, who now stands before You today reflecting on the hardships and struggles that You placed before me. I have come to understand that they all were expressions of Your love.

During this long course, Heaven was heartless and ruthless. However, I realize that in each instance an absolute condition was required for You to bequeath to me something of greater value. For this I am grateful, and as a result today, the Unification Church has achieved worldwide renown. The time has come when the name of the child sitting here can be known among all the races, in every corner of the world. That name has first manifested itself in infamy, but even to this day I have continued fighting, knowing that it will become a name of good repute. Since You have supported me and guaranteed such a day, I know that such a world will undoubtedly be realized.

Persecution has come and gone. The pitch black world of darkness has passed and daybreak is imminent. Now when I raise my head high, I see that I stand at the focal point of the era, able to see how this world will come to an end.

Heavenly Father, through the Word, I have come to understand how precious the providence of Home Church is. I understand the truth that the liberation of all creation, our liberation as human beings, Your liberation, and the liberation of the angelic world are absolutely needed in order to restore the original world. I understand that this has always been Your heart.

We wish to love the creation and other people on Your behalf, based on our heart. Should we fail to become subject partners of heart representing You, when we stand in the subject position to instruct and command the angelic world, then we will be only object partners. In that case, the future realm of hope, and our complete oneness with You, will remain unrealized. Please grant that, even if we go effortlessly straight to that realm, we will not fall in the ensuing battle, but will remain victorious to the end, not only meriting Your praise but, as Your sons and daughters, inheriting Your love.

As we realize that the days remaining in this time period are urgent, we will seek to achieve outstanding results in the sixty days that remain, and to make short work in this period of what we have been unable to do until now. We will invest both our intelligence and best effort in the hope of presenting You at least with conditional results.

I have spoken long hours this morning. May the Word not just flow superficially but rather, let it take root in these hearts. Please shine Your light of life and love at the center of our efforts. Let a harvest spring forth in our midst and let us become sons and daughters who advance from this place to revere You. We earnestly ask for all these things.

I earnestly ask that You urge us along so that, when the day and time comes, we may stand tall and unashamed as heavenly princes and princesses. I pray all these things in the name of True Parents. Aju!

Prayer: Please grant that we may be able to fight on to the end

Sun Myung Moon
November 10, 1980

Photo date and location unknown

Beloved Father, when I reminisce about the past, my twenties, the springtime of my life, come to mind. That period in my youth, when I carefully braced my heart and prayed to connect Christianity to Heaven, remains one of cherished memories from the past.

Had this people become one before Your Will in the 1950s, today's Korea would have become a great nation and would have leaped forward, with the world within Korea instead of Korea within the world. It would have become an amazing country with a strong economy, abundant resources, and a high production capacity. However, because it failed to fulfill its responsibility in the midst of crises and hardships, it had to make many sacrifices and face a destiny of grievous misfortune.

Today this is occurring not only in the outside world. If I fail to fulfill my responsibility as the leader of the Unification Church today, then such problems will recur as even greater conditions of indemnity in our age. So please grant that all of us in the Unification Church may clearly understand this fearsome truth. We have learned about our portion of responsibility. We have come to know that this includes the mission of bringing an end to sorrow through indemnity. We now realize that we are called to pay the price of sacrifice by shedding our tears, sweat and blood to pass through the one intersection that allows what was below to go above and what was on the left to go to the right.

We know that, for these things to cross over, we must offer a price for the sacrifice of Satan's world as a condition greater than that of any historical age. Father, please look upon the young children of the Unification Church in this country with compassion. We thank You for remembering these immature children. All of the regional leaders, district leaders and church leaders are now gathered here. Once they go forth with burning hearts to fulfill their duties of loyalty and filial piety, this Korean peninsula will be too small for them.

Father, I cannot forget the seriousness of my heart as I received Your command to set out for America in 1971. When I set foot upon the plains of America, which were like a wasteland and a wilderness, I felt like a grain of sand flying in the air. Nevertheless, I invested myself, rushing from one place to another, knowing that Heaven was there and believing in its commands. I rushed along without considering whether it was day or night and forgot to eat or sleep. As a result, we are able today to look upon this amazing historical realm of victory in which, together with Your glorious blessings, the world can dwell right before our eyes. When we consider this fact, we come to understand that, even though we were sad, Heaven suffered so much more pain. We now realize that, while we wept, Heaven left behind stains of blood.

With historical events now taking place in America, the young people gathered here in Korea must establish the condition of taking at least five percent responsibility for the outcome of those events, and fulfill it with their whole mind and body. Because, beginning at this hour today, we have the historical mission and command to solemnly fulfill this historic destiny and the destiny of this nation, as well as to end the global battle between the democratic and communist worlds, we have made a pledge before our Father with raised arms and bended knees. Please do not forget this.

Please allow us to become a group of people who promptly greet the morning sun as it rises in the eastern sky, who pay attention to all that moves in nature and everything in our surroundings. Let us strive to attain the position of heavenly children who have nothing to be ashamed of, who can fulfill our task without a moment's delay, focusing on the promise of Heaven. And let us become children who, even if we stumble on our way, do not fall down.

Thus, Father, we earnestly hope and pray that You will let us become a group of people who feels anxious with each and every hour that passes as, with bloodstained hearts, we endeavor to make this victory Yours and this one day of glory Yours. I know only too well how hurtful has been the betrayal of Heaven by the free world. I know how many conditions of indemnity have been fulfilled by Korea. We know that if Korea is made to stand in the fateful position of having to pay more indemnity, it can only go to ruin. Accordingly, we sincerely hope that You will let us become sons and daughters who resolve to set ourselves straight, enter the final holy of holies before Heaven, and engage in the battle of judgment.

We sincerely hope and pray that at this time You will allow us to engrave deep in our hearts the fact that we must become Your glorious embodiments who go forth, saying, "Let there be only victory, Aju!" and ready ourselves to go to war as warriors living for a bright tomorrow. Father, when we consider this nation and its people, we know that Your providence requires them to fight, in the not too distant future, against violent waves while buffeted by severe winds. Therefore I sincerely request and hope that You will let them become Your children who can remain steadfast even when their Teacher has gone away and can guard with their lives the great enterprise You have left and fight their way to the end.

And if the day comes when the nation can rejoice and praise Your glory, and we can meet again, the day when those in higher and lower positions can become one before Heaven and all heaven and earth can return glory to our Father, celebrating Your victory with tears and boasting that that nation and sovereignty belong to our Father, that day will be at the end of the path we need to walk with tears, sweat and blood. We sincerely hope and pray that You will allow us to become a group of people who do not forget that such a historical destiny awaits us.

Since we all hope that the shining, global gates of blessing will open in the direction of Korea, we pray that all spirits in the spirit world will be forevermore with the young people who have inherited the spirits' divinity and volunteered to become living sacrifices and substantial offerings. We also earnestly hope that, after passing through Korea, Your future blessings may convey the essence of Your glory and be bequeathed to all nations. Do not let the blessing You have granted leave us. In return, we have pledged to defend to the death the promise You made us. Furthermore, we beseech You to let the spirit world cooperate with us and to carefully protect and guide us so that we can become sons and daughters who do not make mistakes or fall, but rather prevail and receive Your love.

Please do not allow us to become people who hesitate in going forward toward the world of the future and before You, our Father. Bless us, that we may stand in the position in which You can say to us with pride and a loving touch, "My children, come!" We sincerely ask that You will allow us to become warriors who pledge to march forward, aware that our lifetime is the stage of our life's activities. We are grateful for this hour You have given us, and we request that You will bless the whole of the remaining time as well. I pray all this in the name of True Parents. Aju!

Prayer: Please Allow the Fallen Realm to Be Overcome By Your Heart Alone, Father

Sun Myung Moon
November 9, 1980

Photo date and location unknown

Beloved Father! Once again we long for the day which will realize the will you expressed after creating all the things of the universe. When we think about the existence of our sublime, precious Father, we, who know how low and inadequate humankind is, cannot help but pursue all value and content which can become one with that lofty will.

And furthermore, when we think that the people on this earth are those who have fallen from the ideal world of God, we think that the responsibility to take hold of oneself and to be brought to the world of goodness does not lie with heaven, rather it lies with humankind itself.

Father! We have realized on our own that the position we are faced with is far too separated from the sublime majestic position where you stay at the center of the universe, and from you who are the lord of the ideal centered on love. Therefore, we know that in order to fill in this great distance a path of submission to the reasonable course of restoration which is so filled with grief lies before us. Our parents cannot help us with going forward on this path, nor can we receive help from anyone else. Today as we realize thinking that we can arrive there only if we have earnest hearts centered on God alone and toiling hearts of the original nature which are not concerned about life or death, we Unification Church family members are sensing our awesome mission of having to expand that purpose from our own individual selves to the family, tribe, people, nation and world. When we think about the fact that from a position of being incomplete ourselves, we cannot pursue the completion of the family, and from the position of an incomplete family, we cannot pursue the completion of the nation or the world, we realize well that the situation humankind is in today is very pitiful.

We know the fact that the realm of the fall covers the whole like that and dominates all the realms of life. We also know that we need our own efforts and our own insights which can overcome and go beyond this. We need a new truth with is able to discover this, and we need the strength to overcome it, but we know that such strength does not arise from loving for the sake of oneself, but rather only by loving for the sake of God.

Father! We earnestly hope and desire that you will allow us to become children who can rush towards you from this place on our own with minds of love and with a life force that is strong and of good courage. Please remain with us forever through love and ages of blessings. We have prayed in the name of the True Parents. Amen.

Prayer: Let us be sons and daughters who are not ashamed

Sun Myung Moon
November 8, 1980

Photo date and location unknown

I know that so few people have ever traced Your footsteps through the flow of history. No one ever knew that, for You, when night came it was a night of sadness, when morning came it was a morning of sadness, when the shining rays of the bright sun reached Your heart they were a light of sadness, and when the full moon rose in the eastern sky at night, that round moon was the scar revealing the wounds in Your heart.

We are aware that countless people have remained at a standstill in the history of struggle and have tumbled into the valley of death. Many have disappeared without trace while crying out for justice at the crossroads of life and death, and have faded away into the back alleys of history, lamenting after failing to build the bridge to the world of Your heart.

It is an amazing fact that, from this place, like the valley of dry bones, the Unification Church today has thankfully taken hold of the historical connection to You after undergoing indescribable hardships to find the new way. Through this connection we have been able to resolve the origins of the bitter sorrow of the world throughout history, find the truth of Your heart, and build the bridge of heart from the bottommost pit of hell to the highest throne in heaven. We know that this hour is an hour of joy for You, and that this hour is also the basis of hope for all people.

Long ago, when I was still immature, You called me. Ever since, while I have run around as if I were crazy, arrows from my enemies have flown at me from all directions, mercilessly. Yet I have realized only now that those arrows hit You before they reached me, and You have been covered with wounds.

After returning to Korea this time, reflecting upon the sixty years of my life which have been filled with many bitter pains and sorrows, I feel grateful for the fact that I can be remembered as Your son. When I had occasion to shed tears, You made me shed tears for Your beloved sons and daughters, and when I had occasion to receive blows, You saved me through Your many children. I am grateful for Your grace.

Members of the Unification Church, spread around the world in 127 nations connected to Korea, Japan and America, are thinking of this place with reverence and waiting for the day of my return as their teacher, longing with tears for that hour to quickly come. I know that, not only in this free world but even behind the iron curtain, pitiful groups of Your children are hovering on the brink between life and death for the sake of Your Will, being trampled upon in their underground existence, unable to live for even one day with ease in their hearts.

Since You know that I cannot forget them when I am comfortable and I cannot help but remember them even when I am resting, I hope that You will remember them on my behalf and protect their environment, Father, so they will be able to go to the kingdom of heaven as they desire. That is, by resurrecting their enemies, they can leave behind names they can be proud of, and You can pin glorious nametags on them as Your sons and daughters. Sometimes they came to visit me but circumstances did not allow them to meet me; and even when they were able to meet me, they said that the next time they would meet me, it would not be on earth but in the spirit world. I saw them vividly as they were leaving.

I have made many appeals to You, suppressing my gasping heart. I am not dead yet and I still have energy left, so I hope You will not worry about the path I need to go. Instead, You will watch over their paths, both before and behind them, so that someday the day of glory will come in the communist world, and all peoples' shouts of liberation will spread, beginning from North Korea and overflowing across this entire planet. I pray that You will remember all those who have faded away as flowers of this long cherished hope of bringing about that day.

Father, thus far, people who have knelt down or stood in Your presence did not know that You are the one who is in the most pitiful situation. Yet, as Your son, I learned that You are the Father of such great sorrow, who cannot stop weeping even after having shed tears for tens of thousands of years. You know that I wanted to forget all the personal matters I could have complained about, and even my entire suffering path.

That being the case, I am grateful for Your grace in that, even when I could have perished, I did not perish; and even when I was ridiculed, I did not collapse but remained steadfast. Now that I have returned here to Korea, Father, please love Korea and protect these people as they walk this path in the future.

I know only too well that the holy quest of realizing the unification of South and North Korea still remains to be achieved in Korea, through the Unification Church. Father, please encourage this entire nation. I know that You are wishing for the day when not only the Korean Peninsula and Asia but the entire world will open wide the gates of blessing and will serve and attend You, our Father, and Heaven, with cheers of gratitude.

We, the Unificationists who have gathered here today, are clean and well dressed, and have come to offer full bows before You. Because we know that the call from Heaven, Your summons, is still with us, Father, we sincerely hope and pray that You will push and spur us along that path, even if we end up being pitiful and miserable people who will have to resolve, again and again, to go forward. I know that if we do so, we will not perish. So please allow these people to become young men and women who can endure that path.

Even if all our flesh rots on that path, and even if our faces become wrinkled along the way, our rotted flesh and wrinkled faces do not represent sorrow. We know that blessings will remain with our future descendants, and that the right of inheritance to the global culture, which will be able to sing of the shining happiness of youth, will remain among our descendants. Hence, I earnestly hope that You will guide us to become people who can show reverence and gratitude while walking that path.

We have now come to know clearly what it is to be reborn, through Children's Day, Father, and I sincerely and earnestly request and pray that the more we understand how hard You have been toiling, the more You will allow us to realize how insufficient we are. Let us push ourselves to dream of becoming sons and daughters with hope for tomorrow, pressing ourselves again and again to march forward so that we can influence our environment and become children whom You can bless as those who are worthy to be loved by You. Please bless us again and again so that we can be sons and daughters who are unashamed before the days to come, and before the world. I pray all this in the name of True Parents. Aju!

Prayer: Let us realize the victorious day of Home Church

Sun Myung Moon
October 19, 1980

Photo date and location unknown

Not even one person knew of Your sorrow, Father, as You looked upon the circumstances of the history that had ended in failure. Father, long ago You called the family of Jacob and began the providence. You kept in mind the now ancient nation of Israel, and subsequently You persevered through the time of Moses to the time of Jesus, and then through the bloody history of countless Christian martyrs and the miserable course of the Unification Church. Yet, You have allowed us to come to the point where we stand today, and to remain here without collapsing or going to ruin. Again we thank You. Our relationship with You remains intact and makes it still possible for us to prevail.

I remember the time thirty years ago, when I struggled during my twenties to help Heaven. Memories of the smell of tears, blood and sweat from the ups and downs I experienced after having resolutely set out to establish the Will, in the face of ruthless winds and waves, appear in a panorama today. At that time I set the final conditions to establish this people and nation before Your Will, and I endured those who opposed Heaven, and who even trampled me underfoot as the lowliest person. Even when I was treated as the enemy of both the state and of the people alike, I endured, and preserved those experiences deep in my heart. Because You are alive, Father, whenever I was in a position where it was inevitable that I would perish, You extended Your hand to me, and saved me from ruin. For this, I can only be grateful.

I am walking this path of crisis after crisis, resolved in my heart to follow the course of unfailing victory. This is so that I can realize Your Will without fail, and dedicate that victory to You before evening comes. Father, when I think about such unforgettable historical situations, I know very well that You fully understand the true intention of Satan, who wishes in his heart to be rid of me. I also know only too well that I have to follow the path You are walking, that the path I am walking is the path True Parents have to walk. Humanity will perish unless I walk this path.

Father, even though people are taking steps towards Home Church in challenging personal circumstances, they are walking paths destined to intersect with crossroads of tears. There remain paths of tears on which they have to advance to link the home churches so that all homes can share the same heart. We know that Your helping hand will continue to be with us as it has been until now. We are also aware that You will enable us to overcome whatever difficulties we encounter in our environment. Our Father of love, please be with us.

This morning, I gave an address entitled, "The Unification Church and I." We and the Unification Church are on a path of destiny that will never be severed even if we wish it to be. We know very well that we will need to walk that path with sorrow in our hearts. No one knows the destiny of the fallen descendants, who need to go around by the long road, going through the course of indemnity to resolve over and over again the circumstances of restoration that remain from the sorrowful history of having lost the Parents. Therefore, Father, we earnestly hope and pray that You will give us Your blessings.

Thank You for allowing us to stay here for the past few days. Even today, there is a direction of heart that Your Will desires once again. Please let us and our future generations go forward on the path of the Unification Church, the path of the Father, marching forward to the very end with mind and body filled with gratitude, giving all our heart, all our energy and all our devotion. We sincerely hope and pray that You will allow us to become Your deep hearted partners and Your proud sons and daughters who can receive Your love. Since we know that the Unification Church will manifest as the glorious victor of heaven and earth, do not let us die or collapse before that day. Take dominion over us, so that we will become the children who can fight and prevail.

Beloved Father, at this hour of the day all the sons and daughters of the Unification Church around the world are offering devotions for the sake of this place. Moreover, they also are praying for the situation of Korea and the situation of America. We hope and pray once again that You will find a way to accelerate our pace and shorten the path of those sons and daughters. Please let the glory of this day be with You, with the Teacher and with all of us, and bless us so that we can realize the victorious day of Home Church. We have prayed all this in the name of True Parents. Aju!