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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter One - Etiquette for Attending God
Section 1. Living in Attendance of God
1.1. God and human beings relate as parent and child
Among all bonds of relationships, the standard is the parent-child relationship established between God and human beings. The heart coming from this bond cannot be undermined by the authority of any being and is eternal, unchanging, and unique. The authority of this heart is also absolute. For this reason, when you come forth with this authority, all existing beings will bow their heads before you. When you move with the authority of that heart, the entire universe must follow you. This is the ironclad rule of the universe. (7-103.1959.7.26)
We must establish families in which God and humankind unite, where God relates in love and becomes one with people. God regarded such families as His ideal and desired, at the time of creation, that they be centered on a true and great love. If our ancestors had established these families, today we would all enter the Kingdom of Heaven just as we are, without having to worry about heaven or hell. (175-54, 1995.10.31)
Where is the highest place a father and son can meet? It is in the center, where their love, lives and ideals intersect. Then, love, life, and ideals are in one place. At that place, God is love, and so are we; God is life, and so are we; God is ideal, and so are we. The first bond and first place of unity that can determine this must be where the parent-child relationship is established. This is an undeniable fact. (69-78, 1973.10.2)
On what basis do you say, "One body between father and son"? Love cannot be excluded from this. Love, life, and lineage are connected to it. These three factors are essential. When we say "one body between father and son," love, life and lineage must always be connected there. (197-234.1990.1.19)
There is no need for a verbally established parent-child relationship or a parent-child relationship that was created through written agreements. When you exert your mind, express your devotion, and live for the sake of the Father's will, you can even endure pain that melts the flesh and bone. When you do this in order to win victory, you can restore the parent-child relationship with God. (2-234, 1957.6.2)
Where is the highest place that you would like to receive love from God? It is in the position of the son. It is in the position of the daughter. God has heavenly emotions. We human beings have human emotions. The place that becomes a converging point for heavenly emotions and human emotions is the one place that God, the Absolute Being longs for, and also human beings long for. in other words, it is the place where we can share love in the position of a son or daughter centering on a parent. (197-234, 1971.1.9)
Originally, amid the greatest joy, both Adam and Eve should have displayed the highest vitality, combined the greatest energy, and even demonstrated the power of the ideals of all creation. In such a place the flower of love should bloom. Thus, by blossoming like a flower, love's fragrance would have overflowed into the entire universe. God dreamt of such love in which He could gaze at that flower, smell its fragrance and be enraptured with it. (104-44, 1979.3.28)
When God and Adam become one and both are overflowing with love, Adam can become God. When Adam becomes completely one with God through love, God dwells in Adam. The Bible states, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" We are God's temple. (54-139, I972.3.22)
You should know that God exists near you and is concerned about each of you more than anyone else. People think that the love of their own family is the greatest in this world. However, you should know that God's love is greater and deeper than that love; it is deeper and greater than any human love in this world. You should be embraced in God's love and he able to call Him, "Father." You should become such true sons and daughters who deeply experience God's internal heart in a position that says, "I know the Father's sorrow." If you can become such sons and daughters, and possess the Kingdom of Heaven in which you attend God, no one would be able to take that kingdom away from you. (2-234, 1957.6.2)
According to logic, when father and son unite based on love, the father's possessions can become the son's. Likewise, the husband's belongings become the wife's possessions. Centering on love, the right of inheritance is guaranteed for eternity. If you have become a son or daughter who has established a bond of love as the object partners of God's true love, then for you, God's body will become your body, His love will become your love, and everything He created will become yours. Therefore, within each of you, you still have the desire of your original nature to have dominion over the universe. this was God's gift that He distributed equally to all humankind, the gift that lets you hold the authority to possess the universe as God's sons and daughters. (199-346, 1990.2.21)
1.2. Living a life of oneness
In all religions, they teach people not to look at, listen to, speak to, or treat people carelessly. This means that you should do everything -- look, listen, talk, feel and love -- centering on God. You should not do so centering on yourself. (66-231, 1973.5.13)
When you are happy as people who are attending God, how happy have you made God? Have you attended God with a gratitude that is greater than the feelings you have as you eat when you are hungry? You should always feel grateful to God when you eat or wear something nice, even when you are sad or facing difficulties. Hence, you should leave behind good circumstances that can be remembered in God's mind. (17-291, 1967.2.15)
My awareness, intuition, and even my sensory organs all belong to the Father. The view must be established that what you feel and perceive all belongs to the Father. You should know clearly that when this is not the case, the Father, who moves in accordance with heart, cannot belong to you. (8-294, 1960.2.14)
People are all created to become one with God in heart. God as the Father and human beings as the children are connected through the heart. (55-163, 1972.5.7)
What we speak, see, feel, and perceive through emotions must all be connected to God. (53-239, 1972.2.29)
You should live in attendance to God and True Parents. This should be evident when you are talking and when you are moving about. You should live a life of attendance whether you are asleep or awake. If you think in this way twenty-four hours a day. Satan cannot invade you. (161-231, 1987.2.15)
Offer your first words to Heaven after rising from your bed in the morning. When you step outside your home, you should step with your right foot first, dedicating your first step to Heaven. If you develop such habits, your life will become a life of attendance. From this viewpoint, you should maintain the standard of a principled attitude in daily life. (17-296, 1967.2.15)
Once we have risen in the morning, all our feelings and actions must be unified into a straight line throughout the day, centering on one goal. We cannot deny that if we lose that focus, we will not be able to connect with His will. (57-231, 1972.6.4)
Heaven is where you can take pride in your life of attendance. Then, what kind of person can enter heaven? It is not a place for those who expect to receive blessings simply because they believed in the Lord. Heaven is for those who prepare their hearts in order to attend. It is a place for those who leave behind a life of attendance and joyfully move on, even though they might die in the process. Resurrection is found in such a place. (9-304, 1960.2.14)
Now, we three -- God, True Parents and you -- must become one. We have to act in concert. Since this is a decisive question of life and death, all three must unite at the point where they come together. The realm of resurrection is at that very point. It is the connecting point where oneness comes, where True Parents and you become one and unite together. There, the unification into one heart takes place. Therefore, you must lead a life of oneness with His will. (31-321, 1970.6.7)
Why do you look and listen to all the things within the twenty-four hours of your day? It is for the sake of God. We have to look and listen for God and even feel for His sake. Even though we are living on earth, we have to be connected with life in the heavenly world and live that way. (35-284, 1970.10.25)
Those who don't yearn for God every day cannot attend Him. You should always be immersed in longing whenever you yearn for someone. But when it gets to midnight, and you say, it's already twelve midnight. let's go to bed," this causes God concern. There is no concept of day and night in the Kingdom of Heaven. Night poses no difficulty when you are living and embracing centering on heart. (17-293, 1967.215)
Originally, as a rule, we were to live, think and love centered on ourselves after we had become completely one with God. You have to know this clearly. Even though you would live, think and love centered on yourself, it would be the same as living, thinking and loving centered on God. This is the Principle. (92-166, 1977.4.3)
The extent to which you devoted yourself to meeting the Father and creating bonds with Him will become your asset. (50-288.1971.11.8)
You should become the sons and daughters who, from the valley of tears, can receive a response when calling for the Father. You should become the people who, when you call, "Father!" from a place of tears, He will reply, "Yes! I am here." When you call, "Father!" from a place of piercing pain, shedding blood and sweat, He will reply, "I have endured, so you can too." When you call for Him even at the moment when death approaches, He will reply, "I am here, be at ease." The question is how much you attend the Father, how much you consult with Him and how much you live with Him in such situations. No matter how hard you call the Father from a place of self-centered glory it does no good because the Father has still not seen His day of glory. (11-102, 1961.2.12)
For whom do you eat when you say, "Oh, I'm hungry! Oh, I'm so hungry! Food, food, food!" You should feel that you are eating for God. Why should you think that you are eating for God? If you have become the holy temple of God, you should think, as God's holy temple, "When I am hungry, God inside me is telling me to eat." If you eat in this way, that meal becomes sacred. the food becomes holy. (92-166, 1977.4.3)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 2. Our Attitude of Attendance. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter One - Etiquette for Attending God
Section 2. Our Attitude of Attendance
2.1. Establishing a heavenly life through attendance
God is not a fantasy or a conceptual God, nor is He an abstract God. With His leadership in our daily life, He is always with us as the master of our daily circumstances. He does not just receive attendance but is living together with us by sharing love. This sounds like a dream. (168-111, 1987.9.13)
Without making a beginning point where God enters our mind, and where we human beings become completely one body with God, there is no way of liquidating the devil's world. From this point of view, we can understand that this time is the age of attendance and the age of salvation by justification through attendance. We are saved through attendance. God is not a God who is way up in the sky far removed from us. We should attend God as the master in our daily life. (144-274,1986.4.25)
How many times during the day are you aware of God's existence? How many times during twenty four hours do you feel God's presence? How can people who are determined to be saved through attendance, attend God just one or two hours in a day? God is something you need more desperately than even the air. God is something you need more desperately than even water. God is more precious than your meals. Yet, do you really feel this? (33-230, 1970.8.16)
From now on you should live a life of attendance. Up until now, a life of faith brought salvation through faith, but from now on you attain salvation through attendance. Originally, if humankind had not fallen, we would be following our normal path by attending God. In attending God, you should attend Him wholeheartedly in your daily life. (150-213, 1961.4.15)
We must live a life of attendance. Although we have welcomed the Kingdom of Heaven of hope, we have not welcomed a Kingdom of Heaven of attendance and practice. In other words, we have not been aware in our daily lives that God is our subject partner. (6-226, 1959.5.17)
Why do we listen, and learn these things and live a life of attendance? What is the purpose of our suffering for six thousand years? It is for the sake of understanding God's circumstances and His heart just as the Bible showed. It is for the purpose of understanding that God related to ethnic peoples and nations, as well as to individuals, with a parental heart and that He is our Father who has been wounded, trampled upon, rejected and torn to pieces. (8-25, 1960.1.17)
The Completed Testament Age is the age of love. Thus, you are permitted to marry. In the history of religion, higher-level religions did not allow marriage because conjugal love was not sanctified until now. (96-117, 1978.1.2)
Since God is the center of the universe, when you go near Him you will want to be governed by Him for tens of thousands of years and even longer. This is the way to attend God. Thus, there is no greater happiness. We could not have imagined that human beings today could be governed in such a way. (77-328, 1975.4.30)
Why do we seek justification by faith, justification by works, and justification through attendance? Without being justified you cannot distinguish between good and evil. The evil world and the world of goodness would not be separated. What is the standard of righteousness? It is God. What God believes, how He works and attends is the standard. Why is that so? Satan cannot accuse righteous people who resemble God. If you create an environment in which God's faith, works, and standard of attendance lives through you, then Satan cannot intervene. Even if you are within the satanic realm, if a righteous standard is created that enables you to be with God in such an environment, Satan will withdraw from there. (161-118, 1987.2 15)
Attendance in the Completed Testament Age is not the only thing that remains after the Old Testament Age of works and the New Testament Age of faith have passed. Even in the Completed Testament Age, we need to do works, we need to have faith, and we also need to lead a life of attendance. There are the stages of formation, growth and completion which remain; these cannot be separated. (161-218, 1987.2.15)
The Unification Church states that salvation comes through attendance. It is justification through attendance; in other words, salvation through attendance. When men buy suits for each season, they should be doing that for Father as well. Moreover, since He does not have a body, they should combine a monetary offering with their devotion instead. During these seasons, they should make an offering in the donation box for the sake of the church, with a tearful heart of attending God, regardless of whether anyone is watching. If they can do so, that devotion will accumulate in the Ark of the Covenant. This way of living should be real and expressed; not remain only as a concept. (48-323, 1971.9.26)
Why should we live a life of attendance? It is to receive God's law. (78-30, 1975.5.1)
Up until the present time, a life of faith brought salvation through faith, but, from now on, you attain salvation through attendance. Originally, if humankind had not fallen, we would be following our normally intended path by attending God. What is the use of faith alone? You can fulfill everything by leading a life of attendance. When you attend God, you should attend Him in your daily activities and with your whole heart. (150-213, 1961.4.15)
The problem we face now is how to create a new tradition from the standard of attendance that God wants from the individual, family, church, this nation and this people. (311-12, 1971.1.1)
The age of the Unification Church is the age of the parents. We are paving the road whereby God can come and be present on earth. This is why it makes sense to say that we are saved through attending Him when He comes. This is how history is developing. (177.157.1988.5.17)
In order to join the realm of attendance, you must possess the quality of heart to comfort a sorrowful God and to experience together with Him His painful circumstances in having devoted Himself. The principles of restoration reveal this and teach us how to establish indemnity conditions before God. (17-245, 1971.29)
You should live a life of attendance. So then, why should we live a life of attendance? To receive God's love. For this reason you should serve God first. You should attend Him. (78-30, 1975.5.1)
2.2. Breaking heavenly laws displeases God
There are laws in attending God. It displeases God when these laws are broken. (17-287, 1967.2.15)
You must know how to obey the laws in your daily life. Heaven demands that you must keep Heaven's ways. It is not enough to know Heaven's ways, but you must live Heaven's ways. You must become one with Heaven's love as you understand Heaven's ways. (1-337, 1956.12.30)
One who is always able to discern whether God is happy or sad could not become an evil person even if he tried; he could not go against the law of heaven even if he tried. That man would never give in to the temptation of a beautiful woman. He would not be drawn in. (40-297, 1971.2.7)
Today, why are so many unhappy young men and women escaping their families? It is because the heavenly law of love was lost. For this reason, based on that family, the parent of heaven and earth must appear and allow God to be seated there. (21-155, 1968.11.17)
There can be no complaint from the object partner who exists for the sake of their subject partner. Complaint would be an act of rashness and lead to failure. Therefore, complaint is not allowed in the life of faith. You should only be thankful. Because Heaven will always be the subject, there cannot be any rules or ways of life that moves away from it.
Heavenly law is established when order is properly followed. Therefore, in the relationship between the subject and object partners, God must stand in the position of the absolute subject. The person who ignores that subject cannot become His object partner. If you strive to become the absolute object before the absolute subject, you become absolutely one. Thus, everything that you see, hear and feel, even the loving relationships in your family, are for the sake of God who stands as the subject partner to you as His object partner. Everything works like this. Such a family will never perish. (58-310, 1972.6.25)
What lasts until the end? It is God plus man, God and man, God and man's life, and God and man's daily outlook. Likewise, it is God and man's view of life, God and man's world view. These are not just vague understandings about God, but these represent an eternal bond with Him; there will be no separation.
Why? Since God and human beings were separated, though they should never have been separated, they must reach a higher position than that. In such a place, they should come forward demanding a global stage, a stage for daily life where God and human beings are one. (65-127, 1972.11.5)
You must live with God in order to establish the victorious realm of dominion. Consequently, you can establish a victorious foundation only by having absolute conviction, and by leading your life united with God and attending Him. This is the path of restoration. (14-247, 1965.1.1)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 3. True Father's Way of Attending God. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter One - Etiquette for Attending God
Section 3. True Father's Way of Attending God
3.1. Sincerity moves Heaven
What does it mean for you to serve with all your heart, with your entire mind, and with all your devotion? It means to offer your life. Is there anything greater than that? To devote yourself with all your heart means giving up your life. To serve with all your mind and devotion means giving up your life. Isn't there a saying, "Sincerity moves heaven?" Is there a limit to sincerity, an end to one's devotion? Put your life on the line and offer devotion. God will recognize the person who is ready to sacrifice his life and offer a life of devotion. (38-242, 1971.1.8)
I'm not saying that you should force yourself to lay down your life if you do not want to. I'm saying that you should joyfully be willing to do that. Would God want you to lay down your life if you are totally miserable doing so, or would He prefer it if, intoxicated with love and not knowing whether you would live or die, you danced with joy while laying down your life? Which would He prefer? (48-114, 1971.9.5)
When I would pray kneeling on the floor, my tears never dried. I even had calluses on my knees. In Korea there is a saying, "A tower that is made with lots of care will never collapse." We have to be devoted to God. We have to enter into the state of mind where we feel pain in our heart to such an extent that we crazily love and long for God. If God could dwell somewhere on earth, His heart would visit that place a thousand times a day. But because there is no such place, God had no choice but to send me. Since this is the situation, you cannot help but love me. Can you simply love me so easily? In my case, when I prayed shedding tears during the three months of winter, sometimes my entire clothing would be completely soaked. Think about how desperate I was. On many occasions I prayed to God so seriously to demand a response, as if burying the blade of a dagger in the table. (60-212, 1972.6.17)
Let us say that there was a diamond mine. What would you do if there were such a place that only you knew of? You might have to even sacrifice being with your family in order to acquire such a place. It would not be a sin to sacrifice being with your wife in order to save many families. It is also not a sin to sacrifice being with your children in order to save numerous children in the nation. However, you should not sacrifice them to satisfy your own self-interest. The path for saving the nation and a people is that diamond mine; it is the path of life for the people throughout the entire world. In that case, history would not view this as a sin -- the sacrifice of your wife and child. It may seem wrong to sacrifice your wife and child to save the nation and world; however, on the contrary, it is there that you will find a wealth of treasure which the whole world can praise. (21-314, 1968.12.6)
Whatever you may do, be it eating, drinking, sitting or standing or whomever you may relate with, you'll receive a perfect score if you show your loving heart before True Parents and God. It does not come about by having a lot of knowledge or scholarly attainment. Will you live in God's presence saying, "I have a Doctorate"? There is no need for that before God. Therefore, how can we entice God's love? There is only one path: "Sincerity moves heaven." There is no other way. (73-38, 1975.5.1)
The motto for my life has been "God's spokesman!' From today, I ask that all of you become heavenly spokespersons. Become God's representative and His substitute, and furthermore, I hope that you can become one who can die in place of God. (9-7, 1960.3.13)
In the face of the great, historic last Days, what more could we ask for than to become trustworthy object partners before a lonely God, whose position is one of being unable to trust. Even death will not worry us. Even if our flesh turns to water and flows away or becomes powder and disperses in the air, how can we be resentful? There have always been many lives with no value that end up like those of pigs and dogs. (62-140, 1972.9.17)
You should not complain. There is no room for complaint. You should not think of yourself. Think about God with the heart, "If I complain how much pain I will cause the True Parents! I understand their circumstances. If the moment comes when I can inherit their tradition, I will inherit it and while following them, I will comfort them." Then, if you shed tears with that kind of heart, God will share them with you. There is no doubt about that. You should shed tears for the sake of God and for the sake of the True Parents. You should know that this is the altar of the Unification Church. This is the life of attendance in the Unification Church. (114-281, 1981.10.20)
Since you said that you live with God's love, what should your life's goal be now? You must live a life of attendance with a heart of love. Even if you bow before a handkerchief with that kind of heart, it would not be considered idol worship. What can dominate the person who bows his head with a heart of love? If you offer a deep bow with a heart transcending your own glory, even Satan will not tell you to stop doing that. There is no need for idols while going forward with a heavenly heart. (91-74, 1960.5.3)
3.2. The path of a filial son
Even if I had to collapse in hunger and fatigue, I thought about how I was going to go forward on the path knowing how concerned God was, and how I was going to shoulder this cross, if needed, along the way. Yet, you are not preparing yourselves to go on this path. Even though you now know that you will be saved through attendance, you still look at me impudently. You should not continue with that kind of mind. (13-233, 1964.3.22)
You should live your life in such a way that if you do not know what I am doing, you would not be able to sleep and would run out to ask me, even in the middle of the night. That is why I said that salvation comes through attendance. I always live with this attitude towards God. This does not leave my mind for a second. (21-68, 1968.9.9)
In the age of justification by living the life of attendance, all of you must establish the correct center and go forward from there. In the place where you attend God there is law. When you break that law, God is very displeased.
With parents who love their children deeply, just one word from the child can be enough to drive a nail into the parents' heart. Likewise, since God loves humankind so much, He can also be deeply hurt by them. If you make even the slightest of mistakes, it will incur His anger. For that reason, I always have a strong desire to be a source of God's joy. (17-287, 1967.2.151
Don't you want to go to the person who thinks about you? It is the same for God. The way to capture God is to think about Him more than anyone else. God seeks out those who are thinking of dedicating themselves to Him. (128-172, 1983.6.12)
I do not know how many times I prayed to such an extent that all my clothing became wet. I don't know how many times I pledged before God with a knife in my hand, jabbing my stomach. I don't know how many thousands of times I made a firm resolution before God while crossing over the pinnacle of death. (19-19, 1967.11.5)
For humankind, loving God is the first commandment. So, should you love God your whole life or temporarily? Will you love God your entire life or not? You should love God even if a thunderbolt hits you and you die. You must love God with your life. If you love Him with your life, then, until your death, you can do anything. (37-25, 1970.12.22)
You have to long for God until your eyes feel like crumbling and your nose is full and stuffy. If a person cries excessively, his chest aches. That's how much you have to long for God. Even when crying out, "Father," you have to say it as if you were a son who is being dragged to the execution ground or as a son who is leaving for a far off country. In order to call out "Heavenly Father," we must have a higher standard than that. (50-288, 1971.11.8)
Where do you currently reside? Do you live in concert with me day and night, whenever or wherever you go? Until now, I have not managed just on my own. Can you go up to the summit of Mt. Baekdu, remove the stones, plow a field, plant potatoes, and serve God with those potatoes? You should do that.
Would you be hit by lightning if you made your wife plow that field because you did not have an ox? Would you stop if God said, "Hey, stop it!" when He saw you plowing the field, using your beloved wife as an ox? Will you still attend with all your heart, with your entire mind, and with all your devotion? You must. (37-25, 1970.12.22)
I have lived with God, and walked in the same direction with Him, and in step with Him, investing my life completely. (31-320, 1970.6.7)
I resolve the important issues in my daily life by praying to God. I do not do it casually. (43-33, 1971.4.11)
You have to be a bit stupid in order to follow this path. If you look at it in a certain way, loyal subjects were rather foolish people. They seemed to be somewhat stupid. They had the character of a bear. You have to have the kind of slow-wittedness that, if you had your arm cut off, you would simply say, "Oh, this is not cut enough. Please cut off some more." If bears or wild boars get shot and are slowed down by the wound, they will chew off the wounded limb and run away. The last thing they think of is death, and the first thing on their minds is the wound that is slowing them down. You have to have this kind of slow-wittedness. Patriots and heroes were a bit foolish. You have to be a little stupid. (26-143, 1969.10.19)
We should liberate God. With the authority of the true God, our first ancestors were to attend God in an ideal world where He could live with them while singing praises amid unlimited bliss. Yet, since we now know that God became miserable by our hands, so likewise, we should liberate Him with our own hands. This is an amazing proposal. It is extremely joyful news for God to hear such things coming from the religious realm. It is the greatest of all gospels. When we think of this, it was God who established Buddhism. He was the one who established Confucianism. He was the one who established the Islamic faith. And He was the one who established Christianity. All religions should raise both hands and welcome Him. (176-242, 1988.5.11)
I have experienced hardships to this day for the sake of God's will. Even now, I travel on this path day and night. Those who have not attended me closely do not know me well. The minute I open my eyes from sleep I kneel on the floor and pray. Why do I live in such a way? It is because, even in the middle of the night, my beloved children spread across the world depend on me as they pray to God. Even though I cannot offer devotion together with them, shouldn't I keep time with them just the same? Since I am unaware of this when I am asleep, even God forgives me. When a child falls asleep in fatigue at that hour, God prays on his behalf in the same way a father watches over his child. (26-138, 1969.10.19)
What kind of person am I? I am a person with only one talent. I am a person who just goes straight ahead no matter what. Some ask why I always do things which are spoken ill of, instead of quietly going around the other way with my mouth shut. It is because the pinnacle can only be overcome by receiving opposition from many people. But you are thinking of taking a detour, aren't you? Then, why do we have to cut off from everything in the secular world? It is because we cannot go straight if we are pulled by our love for our physical parents. Since God has been going straight towards us, we also have to go straight. (7-57, 1978.3.19)
Because I knew that God was such a lonely and isolated being, I have gone forth knowing that my mission until the day I die was to fulfill even a portion of God's will and desire; to expand a foundation in at least one field and gather together those who can live for the sake of God. It is because I was born as God's son and because I felt myself responsible for establishing His will that I have persevered until now with love. Even though I was persecuted, and even though I was beaten, I endured all this without taking revenge. Even as I fought my way forward, staggering or crawling on my belly, I always thought about how to set up this tradition and bequeath it to the world. (82-47, 1975.12.30)
People should not be proud that they stand out. If you raised yourself to such a position, you would fall down. However, even if people do not raise you to that position, if Heaven has raised you up, you will surely succeed. (155-42, 1965.10.31)
What do the True Parents do? By winning every battle, they enter the deepest place in God's heart to liberate His bitter pain and establish that realm of victory on the earth. You should all be grateful that such True Parents have appeared. (235-21, 1992.8.24)
How seriously have you been following the way of God's will? I have been following this path all throughout my life. Even my wife and children do not know this. Only God knew my situation.
It was a lonely path, which this solitary man had to follow, unknown by anyone. I accomplished such amazing achievements, thanks to God's help, and with this I have brought fundamental issues to society today. I have become a controversial person who presented a new wave of thought in this declining democratic world. I have become like this not because I did so well but because God was with me. (82-45, 1975.12.30)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Chapter 2: Section 1. True Parents are the Center of Blessed Families.
Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
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Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 2. Let Us Love and Be Proud of True Parents. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Two - Etiquette for Attending True Parents
Section 2. Let Us Love and Be Proud of True Parents
2.1. True Parents are the hope of all humankind
Who are the True Parents that the Unification Church speaks about? If Adam and Eve had not fallen, God would have become the vertical form of love, and Adam and Eve would have become God's body. It would have been as if they were the flesh of God -- God as the bones, and Adam and Eve the flesh. God would have achieved mind and body unity through Adam and Eve.
God is meant to become the internal parent in the internal position, and Adam and Eve the external parents in the external position. The internal and external parents must become one through love; and at that place, we come to have external parents and attend the internal parent in heart. With the union of love between God and Adam and Eve, the True Parents -- the perfected man and woman -- can emerge. There can be no perfected human beings without unity in love. (184-71, 1988.11.13)
What do True Parents have to do?
They must rectify the false lineage that forms the root of the satanic world, turn around life that has deviated from the ideal, and correctly reopen the path of love that has gone the wrong way. The Bible says that those who seek to die will live, and those who seek to live will die. Why is this paradox necessary? It is because the satanic world must perish. (169-37, 1987.10.4)
Are you the true sons and daughters of True Parents? When you talk about true children, what is your mind centered on? It is the true lineage. Of course, a relationship is formed through true love, but the actual connection is through the true lineage. That is why those connected through that lineage take after the mother and father. Do you resemble me?
Your eyes are blue whereas my eyes are black, and our hair is different. My hair is white. I am an Asian, and my face is flat. When taking after True Parents, you only need to resemble the most essential parts. By essential parts, I am talking about winning over Satan and loving God absolutely. That is all you need to inherit from me. Then you can dominate and control Satan. (170-237, 1987.11.21)
How much should you love me? This goes back to the fundamental problem. You should not love from a position that has traces of the satanic world, and is tainted with love from that world. You should be in a higher position. You must love Father more than you love your parents, spouse and children born in the satanic world.
That is why in the Bible, Jesus says, "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves sons or daughters more than me is not worthy of me." He reached this conclusion for everything. Later, he also says, "Take up your cross and follow me." He said to take up your own cross. Overcoming the power that pulls you in the opposite direction means taking up the cross. There you must shed tears of bitterness. (178-97, 1982.10.1)
What do True Parents signify? They are the symbol of hope for everyone. They are the symbol of absolute hope for fallen humankind. They are the fruits of history, the center of the present era, and the center of the nations of this world of five billion people living today. They are the starting point from which we can be connected to the ideal world of the future. (15-237, 1970.10.19)
What is the desire of all people today? Before they establish a nation and world, they would want to welcome True Parents. From whom would our future descendants want to be descended? Your future sons and daughters would not want to be born from your fallen lineage. They would want to be born through the bloodline of True Parents. That is why True Parents will become the starting point of a new future. (35 237, 1970.10.19)
What is God's hope today? God is hoping to make Himself visible in this time of the Last Days. Therefore, He is hoping to appear as a being of complete heart and as a vertically restored, perfected individual, in other words, as the Messiah. Therefore, a central figure who establishes the position of perfected Adam and perfected Eve must appear.
In the Completed Testament Age, God will appear before humankind in the form of True Parents. This is the reason that the Unification Church has enormous power, which cannot be controlled by any political authority.
The path of the Unification Church is one of accumulating experiences of the realm in which we directly see and deeply experience the living God. (God's Will - 279)
The desire of humankind is to meet the True Parents. Even when you are walking the path of death, you desire to meet True Parents. Even if you lost all of history, all the past eras, and all of your descendants, if you were to meet True Parents you would regain that history, those past eras and the future. You must understand that this is the value of True Parents. (35-237, 1970.10.19)
When you think of True Parents you realize that they govern history and that they establish a starting point from which we can return to an ideal world. The True Parents determine the internal relationships of position and heart through which we can dominate Satan. Through these, Satan, who controls the external world, can be subjugated and the center, with which we can liberate God from His anguish, can finally be established. Therefore, first of all, you must be thankful for the amazing blessing of being able to live with True Parents and act according to their instructions. (43-144, 1971.4.29)
When you completely unite with True Parents, then the nation, tribe and family can come to exist. True Parents are the standard in substance that integrates the value of the glory of heaven and earth.
Would you exchange True Parents for all the money in this world? Would you exchange True Parents for your life? Things are different from how they were in the past. Wherever you may go, you have to visit Korea to serve True Parents. Your sons and daughters and your descendants of a thousand or ten thousand generations all must do the same. This is why the Unification Church is unique. (30-237, 1970.3.23)
What is the culminating point of everything? It is when everything meets the True Parents. The appearance of the True Parents of humankind is the hope of history, the hope of the nation, and the hope of the providence.
The time when True Parents appear is a climactic event occurring only once in history; it never happened before and will never occur again. From the perspective of the eternal world, a human lifetime is but the span of one breath. (51-354, 1971.12.5)
2.2. Honoring True Parents' picture in each home
It is good for you to carry my picture with you from now on. It will protect you so that you can safely withstand any difficulty you may encounter.
Moses led the Israelites away from the Pharaoh of Egypt and guided them to Canaan by showing great miracles and works. At that time, all the firstborn of the Egyptians were smitten, while the Israelites avoided this calamity by smearing the blood of a lamb on their door posts. Thus, the spirit world is watching over you and will protect you. (130-290, 1994.2.7)
True Father is very famous. Everyone acknowledges that I am a patriot living for the sake of the nation. Moreover, the whole universe bows down in recognition of my achievements. So if people come to say, "Since we have put True Parents' picture up, my wife and I cannot quarrel in front of it," and tell their children, "You should not do such things in front of Rev. Moon." what is wrong with that? Because you are revering it more than the photograph of your own parents, your ancestors will come and also revere True Parents as their ancestors. It will become an altar where ancestors can come and hold a service for the household.
As a result, because the way to receive heavenly blessing will have been opened up, then even after you fall asleep, at three o'clock in the morning they will chase out all the evil spirits from your family's environment. (219-91, 1991.8.25)
When the Israelites were about to leave Egypt, they were able to avoid the calamity of the smiting of the firstborn by smearing the blood of a lamb on their door posts. In the same way, you can be protected if you carry my picture with you. Spirit world can recognize the picture even if it is in your pocket. This small condition has the same effect as the Israelites smearing the blood of the lamb on their door posts. (122.190, 1984.6.1)
Members have had the experience where my smile seemed as mysterious as that of the Mona Lisa. Most of you have had the experience that my mysterious figure, which looks different in hundreds of thousands of ways, has led the spirit world to co-operate with you. Everyone in the spirit world knows me well. Are they glad to see my picture or not? Your ancestors are connected to you through the medium of the photograph. You can understand that this is such a precious item. (132-190, 1994.6.1)
Now, my fame has gone beyond national borders. I heard that many statesmen in various places have put my picture on the wall of their study and pay their respects to it. Have you put my picture on the wall of your room, Dr. Yoon Se-won? Do you offer a bow to it everyday? Do you kiss it everyday? You should kiss it passionately. It is not impolite for you to do so. By kissing it on behalf of God's love, the spirits around you are given the right to participate with you in your work and receive benefit. God would not say no to this. He would say, "That's right!" Don't you think so, Dr. Yoon? (171-239, 1988.1.1)
When you place the picture of True Parents in your room and hang up the Unification Church flag, you come under God's dominion. I am trying to have you belong to God's dominion. There were many who were struck by lightning while they were cursing the flag. This is quite miraculous. Some people developed sickness in their hands because they were pointing their fingers at me; they were only able to recover from it after holding their hands and praying in repentance for several days. Such phenomena took place, right? Why? When heavenly fortune comes, it cannot be blocked by an individual's destiny. It is an unchangeable destiny. When Moses held his rod up high, all those who looked up at it lived. You will live as long as you look up at the Unification Church flag, bowing to it every time you come and go. Every time you set out from or arrive at home, bow before the picture. (219-91, 1991.8.2S)
When you put up the Unification Church flag it is a signal to the members passing by to enter your house and rest if they are tired or hungry, to have lunch before they go on. Therefore, you should always be prepared to receive guests. On behalf of True Parents, you should make such preparations. That is why you would need a separate room.
As True Parents may not come, you should attend your guests as if they were True Parents. This way of practicing connects the idea of equalization to the highest heavenly standard. For this reason, you should attend your guests as if they were God and True Parents. Such a person will surely receive blessings. (69-220, 1987.10.31)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 3. The Manner in Which We Attend True Parents. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Two - Etiquette for Attending True Parents
Section 3. The Manner in Which We Attend True Parents
3.1. The law in the age of justification by attendance is the highest law
Your conduct, the way you sit -- everything must conform to heavenly law. Even the manner in which you greet me should be codified. Shouldn't there be a protocol for greeting when you meet me? Shouldn't that be created? There are even such rules in society -- shouldn't we have such rules? (66-267, 1973.5.16)
Up to the present day, human ethics have meant that parents should love their children and children should love their parents, and that there should be a distinction between husband and wife. These virtues have been transmitted to the present day as the cornerstone of the three fundamental principles and the five moral disciplines in human relations. However, the situation seems to be changing. Today, traditional customs and norms are changing. Something spiritual is penetrating and undermining our daily and social environment. We call such times the Last Days. If the Messiah appears, he must solve all these problems. (11-19, 1960.12.11)
Shouldn't there he new laws to rectify our fallen habits? You must understand that there are numerous legal procedures waiting for us in the future. You must pass through these. (66-29, 1973.5.16)
According to Korean custom, whenever a person receives something from someone older, they should receive it with both hands. This means that only when their hands are completely level will they receive the love of the older person. Whatever is received should come from the vertical to the horizontal through ninety degrees. It can be said that a person's mind is Heaven's mind. All rules should be level and equalized, since they were created in relation to and according to the way of our conscience. (171-236, 1965.1.1)
According to Oriental thought, when people walk along the road, the elder person walks in front. Why? It is because the elder person was born first into the world. That is how we try to create order in the environment. The person born later should stand back. Upper and lower, front and back, above and below, these should all be in their positions. These perspectives should be changeable. These are eternal and unchanging. (168-252, 1987.9.27)
"There are morning meetings everyday between the king of a nation and his subjects. In a Korean family, the children first greet their parents when the parents rise in the morning. Isn't this part of Korean tradition? In order to indemnify fallen history, you should establish the finest set of laws among all laws, including the laws of filial duty to one's parents. Even for a nation, you should establish laws superior to the highest existing standard. (31-275, 1970.6.4)
In Korean society, during the three-year mourning period after their parents have passed away, the children otter meals to the departed spirits of their parents every morning and evening. Also, whenever they go out or return home, they give a greeting towards the altar of their parents. Aren't there such traditions in Korean society? You have to do better than that. Does what you do now precisely fulfill the formalities of hleaven from the viewpoint of God's will? It does not. Far from it. (31-275, 1979.6.4)
The quickest way to establish the heavenly tradition in a family is to do it during my lifetime. Originally you were supposed to bathe every morning to purify yourself and walk 10 ri to offer bows to me. Without establishing such a tradition, the path of your descendants will be blocked. (21-88, 1968.11.3)
Amongst the church members, some say that they can go to the movies because I often go to the movies. They don't understand. In the past, I never even went in front of a movie theater. It is not a problem now, since I went through so much training and equipped myself with such self control that no matter where I go, I am not infected or dominated by those places.
Yet, there are some silly people who say that they will just do as I do -- following me when I go down to the country or using crude language because I do... I have lived a life of attendance to God, and even served and bowed respectfully to young children until the time came that I could speak without using honorific language. After knowing God's will, people feel awkward to such an extent that when I speak to them in respectful language they cannot respond with their faces raised. Imagine how awkward it would be if I had to treat you so politely. (57-277, 1972.6.4)
3.2. Ethics and morality give value to human beings
Today, most laws in this world find their basis in Roman law. However, morality is based on conscience rather than law. The foundation of conscience is goodness. The standard of conscience is the standard of goodness. When you move away from goodness and do wrong, your conscience tries to correct your error. If people tried to create a universal social system in accordance with the conscience, they would still need laws. Where is morality rooted? It is rooted in the heavenly law. (33-44, 1970.8.2)
Ethics are formed on the basis of the emotions of love, area they? In the relationships between family members, the idea of morality, order, the social system and so forth are based upon deep emotional factors. People express their respect to the one who can show the deep emotion of a long-lasting or consistent love. You should know that. The motivation for the establishment of ethics lies in the emotion of love. Ethics begin from the point of parents loving their children. True human relationships are established when children love their parents. (64-124, 1972.10.29)
Everyone needs and loves parents. Everyone wants to see them and be with them. But why? For what reason? It is the age difference that leads to the relationship of superior and subordinate in an orderly manner. Therefore, people should show deference, respect and dutifulness to their parents. Based on all matters of ethics and morality in social life, we should each stand in the position of a subject partner or object partner within a relationship of superior-subordinate. To become a filial son in certain respects, you should display obedience and humility, and long to meet the parents. This is the relationship of parent and child. (112-251, 1951.4.19)
People are valuable because of human morals and ethics. Morality forms the basis of relationships among people. Human morality has no use in relation to just one person; it applies when there are two or more people. Social ethics derive from the family formed through the marriage of a man and a woman. Ethics provide the way and laws of human relationships. (136-208, 1985.12.29)
It must be shown that there is a system of vertical order in accordance with the heavenly way, formed from the principles of creation of the sun, moon and stars in the universe. This system of vertical order appears within the family as the grandparents, parents and children. The horizontal order of brothers and sisters is created, and a corresponding sense of values and norms simultaneously emerges. (122-304, 1982.11.25)
We must establish a new tradition that transcends races and nations. We must establish the foundation for that tradition in accordance with God's desire rather than our own. It means you should not hold yourself to your habits, previous customs, or current trends. You should know that this is totally different. When you observe the world of nature, you will see that everything exists in harmony. Everything is natural, in harmony and has no sign of awkwardness. Everything is made to become attractive and to be a stimulating force. If something is disliked, it will not draw any attention. (64-299, 1973.3.16)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Chapter 3: Section 1. Proper Understanding of the Church.
Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
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Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 2. Worship Is the Greatest Ceremony that Shows Reverence to God. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life
Section 2. Worship Is the Greatest Ceremony that Shows Reverence to God
2.1. The time of worship is a time to meet God
What is the purpose of sacredly observing the Sabbath? It is to bring salvation to humankind and to find the nation of God's desire. The reason Christianity has sacredly observed the Sabbath was in order to elevate itself and focus its efforts on magnifying the goal of salvation. The purpose of our observing the Sabbath is to promote the path to our salvation. Furthermore, it is to increase the importance of the goal of world salvation and of seeking the nation and world of God's providence. You should know that this is a higher dimension of God's desire. (69-240, 1973.12.30)
The time for worship is the time for offering. You should make atonement for your past before God. Therefore, the time for worship is a time without freedom. (11-163, 1961.6.24)
The time for worship blocks the advancement of all of Satan's authority and is a time of promising the Father that you will return the glory of victory to Him. (6-263, 1959.6.7)
The time for worship is a place more serious than when you meet your enemy in battle. (9-296, 1960.6.12)
The amount of time you come early for church service will be offered to God. Thus, its value cannot he exchanged or bought with any amount of gold. The time for worship is an offering to God. Hence, to come late to service is stealing from God.
You should be on time for service. By doing so, you can stand before God with dignity. Then you can come closer to heaven with a heart better than that of yesterday. However, if you come late, even when you pray, you will sit there blinking your eyes wondering, "What is Father going to talk about?" When I see you sitting there like that, you look pitiable beyond measure. (36-125, 1970.11.22)
When you are seeking God, can you attend church without wearing holy robes? I'm not talking about external robes. I'm talking about the holy robes of your heart. For those gathered here, if inspiration wells up inside your heart through the sermon and hymns, Heaven will work with you.
When the fallen ancestors were expelled from the Garden of Eden, they were shedding tears as they left. You should be able to shed tears of joy in such a way that you can meet God with a smile on your face. Nevertheless, those who have not first shed tears of God's sorrow cannot shed tears of joy. (9-296, 1960.6.12)
You should be preparing with an eager heart three days before worship service. You should enter the gates of the church while passionately praying for the happiness of all people, so that they may connect to the authority of resurrection and life. You should attend service with a heart that is full of emotion for God. Yet this will not be enough. Instead, you are more brazen than a traveling salesman. (20-284, 1968.7.7)
For Sunday service you should purify yourself by bathing, offer a deep bow before God, and go to the holy ground to pray. Although people may not come, you must lay the foundation of heart enabling God to look kindly upon your village and work with you. You are never lonely when you pray alone with tears in front of God. God is with you; you will never be lonely. If no one is restored from that village after you have totally devoted yourself for more than three years, that place will go to ruin. (17-293, 1967.2.15)
Even when you come to the service, instead of coming thoughtlessly, you should have invested your invisible heart and offered devotion for more than two days. The longer you do so, the more you will shine. For this reason, the greater your heart is, the more Heaven will protect and shield you.
If the wife thinks all day about her husband with her invisible mind and then smiles with her visible face, a light of glory will shine through. That smiling face has a captivating power that draws her husband near. It follows the same logic. (228-84, 1992.3.15)
In the future, the messages during service will be given in the form of reports rather than sermons. Families should report about things of which they are proud. The entire family must come and offer worship. The reports of successful families will serve as an example; less successful families, by following this example, will be guided toward success. In this way, the Family Kingdom of Heaven will be built. Without building the Kingdom of Heaven in the family, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth will not be established. (23-62, 1969.3.11)
First, you should be meticulous in your church life. For this, you should strictly observe the official hours for worship. You should be a good example by attending service at the official hour. (31-269, 1970.6.4)
You should be strict in keeping your promise to attend God. How can someone who does not keep his promise receive grace? Such a person would fall away from the path. From now on, I will guide you as you move. If you do not like it, you may quit. Let us see who will be the one to perish. (11-133, 1961.3.26)
You should be a good example by attending Sunday service and official church gatherings. In coming to service, husbands and wives should come together lovingly so their children will follow them because they envy their parents devotion. You should come to church before ten o'clock and prepare for Sunday service. (21-87, 1968.11.3)
Church service is a time for battling Satan. It is a showdown. How can you sleep at this time? If there is such a person, you should shake him awake. Just as Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!" you should strike him on the side. That is love. I will not allow anyone to sleep during service. (15-121, 1965.10.3)
Is it right for people who offer devotion to be late for service? Such people should be so ashamed that they cannot show their faces. They should feel that they are the greatest of all sinners. They must pledge to be on time and offer even greater devotion than others. How can you pray, "Oh! Heaven most high!" when you do not even come on time! Your devotion is not for others to observe. If you want to offer devotion at church, you should come to church on foot, rather than by car. You should not just come here and pray. Rather, you should pray before coming and then come here to pray even more earnestly. This is how you should offer devotion. (42-235, 1971.3.14)
Heaven relates to those who earnestly yearn for God. God does not randomly visit anyone. Therefore, you should, at least, absolutely be on time. From now on, if you are not on time. I will have you stand in the front and make you feel ashamed. (11-133, 1961.3.26)
I should lock the doors after service begins. I do not want to gather and talk to people who come late. I gather people here and talk for two or three hours in order to raise them up to a certain standard. Only then can I maintain the standard of heart that I set while praying with determination before God. (11-132, 1961.3 26)
Time is more important than anything else when coming before God. If you cannot be on time, you will fail. If you fail to connect to the right time, you will perish. God demands a sanctified environment and an utmost pure heart. But you cannot even be on time, and when late you sit in the back and sing praises. God does not want such praise. (1-132, 1961.3.26)
You should keep the official time for services. Then you will surely prosper. (31-268, 1970.6.4)
2.2. Early morning and evening services, and all-night vigils
Concentrate on evening services. (10-249, 1960.10.21)
You should hold all-night vigils at church on Saturday nights. (17-347. 1967.5.11)
From now on, many gatherings will be held at night. This is because we have to break up the realm of darkness. In order to do this, you should have a serious and sincere heart. (1-247, 1961.1.1)
Witness and bring people to the evening service. Unless you do so, the dignity of the church will not stand. You should be at service before the one who is leading the service. (10-250, 1960.10.21)
Some may say, "We should sleep as long as we want like others, eat our fill and then come here and sit comfortably to attend service. Why do we hold it so early? Why do we have early morning service?" It is because we must be different from others. You must not be the same as other religious groups or people of faith. We must be different from others. (84-194, 1976.2.29)
I will set this tradition of gathering you at three in the morning for a year or so, without letting you sleep. It is not right for people to become lazy. It is not right to become comfortable. There would be no growth in a comfortable world. Therefore, no matter what nation it is, if it goes through a new revival and yet becomes conceited and self-absorbed, it will come to ruin. (51-280, 1971.11.28)
Although you should work during the daytime, religious work should be done at night as well. It is more effective at night. It is also effective to teach in the early morning. So, you should spiritually inspire a new guest so much that he decides to escape from his home, sweeping aside all obstacles. You should become like that. How can there be results without motivation? If you have not been able to do it, from now on you should work harder and do better. You should make it possible by coming up with something creative. (97-196, 1978.3.15)
Try conveying the Word till after midnight and until you hear the crow of the first rooster. How mysterious it is! Try conveying the Word as you listen to the barking of dogs in the neighborhood in the quiet, tranquil night. You will feel as if you have broken through on a new path of life in search of the bright sunlight; you will feel like the captain of a ship who determines anew to find the lighthouse. You will experience a sense of valor, pride, and majesty as if you were alone in this world filled entirely with mysteries of all kinds.
In order to have that bond of heart, you should give guidance during the nighttime. It is necessary to conduct such activities during the night or at dawn. (29-196, 1970.2.28)
Night, the deep night, has a strong mysterious quality. Therefore, you feel more grace during a nighttime revival than you would in a daytime revival. The reason is that in the daytime all our senses are dispersed and unfocused. In other words, sight, hearing, and all other senses through which we can perceive are easily distracted.
However, at night they are not like that, but on the contrary become focused. At night, everything focuses on me by surrounding me, and in such a realm I come to stand naturally. For that reason, during the nighttime, it is easier for me to work with God when He is bestowing His grace. God, too, can work more easily. (29-196, 1970.2.21)
When you wake up in the early morning you should pray, so that your life in the coining day can become an embodiment of gratitude in front of Heavenly Father. You should make the determination to become the embodiment of God's hope in a flower-filled spring garden that Heavenly Father can raise and use for His providence.
In the afternoon, which is like summer, you should be resolved at work to develop yourself a step further as you grow to become a valuable being in whom God can dwell.
When it becomes evening, which resembles the autumn time of cultivation, you should determine and pray in front of God that you will stand in the position of an offering. And at night, which is comparable to the winter season, you should pray that by possessing the energy of life, you will establish the intrinsic father-son relationship with God, and thus become a person who realizes his or her full value. If there is a person who turns all 365 days of the year into days of victory and gratitude, then that person will feel that a give-and-take relationship with God is truly the most worthy life. (29-340, 1970.11.4)
The reason you do not notice that time is passing is because you are intoxicated in God's love. It was common in the early days of the Church for me to stay up all night talking or listening to the members. (97-307, 1975.3.26)
I am saying that you should not calculate your sleeping time and think, "Since 1 did not sleep enough yesterday, I had better make it up today." Yet that is what you do, right? It is the same when you think, "Since I am fasting on Sunday morning. I had better eat more on Saturday evening." On the contrary, it is better for you not to fast, because if you eat more for dinner the night before a fast, you will become hungrier. After your stomach has stretched from a full dinner and then is empty the next morning and you feel hungrier, well, then what? (44-161, 1971.8.6)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 3. Attitude of a Church Leader. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life
Section 3. Attitude of a Church Leader
3.1. Church leaders must practice a public life
The person who is a leader of more than a thousand people has been evaluated and approved by the spirit world. (8-223, 1967.6.9)
One does not start out as a central figure with confidence. I, too, have never thought myself as being confident. I realized that before I liked myself, I had to like God and I had to like the one whom God was seeking. How to possess this kind of heart was my endeavor. If I have that heart, there is nothing that is impossible. You must have a mind to make people happier and console the sorrowful person. (70-170, 1974.2.9)
The true shepherd does not say he is the true shepherd. He always quietly embraces God's will and the entire universe in his heart and goes out; he does not make excuses. (3-210, 1957.11.1)
After working hard for the public purpose, you might fall asleep without realizing how tired you are, and yet in the morning you would wake up totally refreshed. From this experience you realize, "Ah, this is the principled way of life!" But if you think, "Well, I slept only three and a half hours last night. Therefore, I should sleep at least six hours, " your entire body will feel as though it weighs a thousand or even ten thousand pounds and you will have pain all over. That is why I tell you not to have such thoughts. (44-160, 1971.5.6)
A leader should not be the first to lie down no matter how tired he may he. He should lie down only after everyone else has lain down. He should be the last to finish praying. Even in his life of faith, he should offer devotion without food, clothes, and shelter. Such is the position of a leader. If he can live that way, he will not perish. (33-169, 1970.8.11)
I am at a loss for words before a devoted person. As leader of the Unification Church, when I am considering which of two people is better, I do not take into account who is handsome, but rather I look at the direction of their mind. In other words, I see whether their mind is public or personal. (31-260, 1970.6.4)
Even when you take your first step in the morning, you should think whether or not it is for the public purpose. And when you go to bed after finishing your daily work, you should reflect on whether or not the day was spent for the public or personal purpose. Furthermore, looking back at the past twelve months of your life or your entire past life, you should reflect on whether or not you led a public life or a personal one. (39-76, 1971.1.9)
The person who is in a public position is pitiful. What if, even though he does his best, he makes a mistake in following God's will and a thousand years of merit goes wrong? He lives with such a serious heart. (46-55, 1971.71S)
We cannot drift along day by day as months pass. If we are not focused on preparing for the new day's advance, then we will become prey for vultures here in the wilderness. (135-279, 1985.12.15)
We are historical pioneers. The pioneer must break through difficult surroundings and advance with a prepared attitude toward a hopeful tomorrow. (The Way of a Spiritual Leader - 63)
Once you take the responsibility, the next thing is to fight and struggle. You must go through a struggle of life and death. In that battle, you should lay the foundation to bring at least three people who oppose you to natural submission during your lifetime. (14-13, 1964.4.19)
You must first have ideological knowledge and then faith that it will work. If your thoughts and faith do not come up to a certain level, then you cannot claim them and they can easily be taken away by someone else. The foundation that I have accomplished and strengthened, and the ground that has roots that are firmly planted, can never be taken away except by the application of a strength and faith that is greater than them. (9-39, 1967.12.24)
What type of heart must you have before taking on responsibility? You must have the determination to exchange your life it you cannot accomplish the responsibility. In that case, a solution will emerge that resolves the core of the problem. (9-142, 1968.1.1)
When you can say, "I have done all that I could have done as a human being. Day and night I have offered my entire heart and extreme dedication, " and God can see you are leaving after having done everything you could, even though you could not complete your mission, then God will return to you in excess of your effort. You should know these things. (56-33, 1972.5.10)
A church leader is like the high priest of that region. You must pray for the people even if you lose sleep. Since you must make offerings in order to save the people, you have to give your full devotion. In an offering, the high priest and God must become one for there to be a response. (9-110, 1960.4.12)
Who must take charge of the religious service? The high priest must. It is not right if a guest takes responsibility for the service. For this reason, you cannot prosper if you do not take a formal gathering seriously. 117-293, 1967.2.15)
It is heavenly law for participants to bow in front of offerings. God comes down to that altar and intervenes. God will help only when you offer all your passion, strength, and effort, and when you speak with more sincerity than you have ever shown in your lifetime. (60-347, 1972.8.18)
Offerings should be made with a serious mind and commitment. Can blessings be given to those who go to their grave after a life of comfort, abundant food, laughter, and dance? Only grass would grow on the graves of such people. But on the graves of those who died shedding blood for the nation, flowers will bloom as long as that nation remains. (16-347, 1971.8.17)
It is not easy to be the teacher of the Unification Church. It is extremely difficult. It feels the same as wearing a prisoner's uniform and walking toward the execution chamber, and yet I am walking that path. You probably do not understand because you have never spent time in prison.
I live in a well-appointed mansion, but I do not need it. I have been trained to live in a hut. I can just as easily live there. I have trained myself to become the best laborer; I can remove my jacket and work on a construction site. If there was someone in prison whom God loved, then I trained my heart to hold on to him, maintain complete dominion over the environment, and become a friend with whom he could shed tears. (85-43, 1976.3.2)
3.2. Devotion and sincerity must be invested to guide members
You should feel the same heart of longing for members as you fell for your first love. (The Way of a Spiritual Leader - 290)
You should stay up all night making devoted efforts to raise core members. If you can offer this effort for three days, they will bond with you and feel grace that will stay with them throughout their lives. If you witness with strong determination, feeling that time is too short, and become anxious when your guests leave because it is late, then the spirit world will cooperate with you. (23-249, 1969.5)
You must first be absolutely dedicated to God's will in order to convey it to others. (23-249, 1969.5)
You should go through indescribable hardships in raising members, just as I have done. If you have a guest at night, you should ask on bended knees for heaven's blessings for that person. For guests who come during the day, you should invite them into the living room and receive them more warmly than you would your own relatives. You should establish a family tradition such that you can say, "Our home is such a home." If you establish such a family tradition, who would those people live for?
Would people with a tradition of warmly receiving others let their church leader starve? Those who let their church leader starve and still ask for blessings should have their mouths filled with sand. (60-308, 1972.8.18)
Even when you talk through the night, you should make it interesting. When you talk past twelve midnight until two or three in the morning and you think, "I wish they would leave. I should get some sleep," they would all run away. Even when it is three or four in the morning, you should be thinking, "I hope they do not go. 1 wish that time would stop." When they return home after experiencing that situation, their spirit will realize how important it was. They will feel sorry and, immediately after eating, will want to go back. I have been working in this manner. (56-51, 1972.5.10)
Whenever we meet anyone, we must not think this is the end of things. Especially if we meet someone centering on God, we must never forget that relationship. Even if that person stops coming to the church, you should not cut him off or despise him. Even if that person falls away, you must never abandon the relationship that you have made with him. (92-162, 1971.3.4)
Therefore, never be discouraged if a member falls away. When a member falls away, a very interesting phenomenon occurs: A person who resembles that person's character, speech, and even the way he walks, will join the church. From every angle, the new person who joins amazingly resembles the person who fell away, and yet he is much better. When you see such a phenomenon, you can understand that sincere investment and prayer are never lost. This is an absolute fact. (42-162, 1971.3.4)
If there is something bad, do not get rid of it right away. Even if there is something bad, you should deal with it, having the flexibility and capacity to find some conditions that will improve it while you keep the bad aspects on hold. If a person is cut off due to a mistake he made a year ago, then he may spiritually die completely. But if he is kept for one, two, or three years in the belief that the mistake is a secondary consideration, then after that time there may be a way for him to live. (72-413, 1974.7.14)
If you love the members who have just joined, then they can quickly set the condition for indemnity. The reason the church is not able to make progress is because this is not being done. This is the reason why God said to love each other and live in harmony. (18-40, 1967.5.15)
In the early years of our church, when I was raising members in Korea, I did not sleep at night. I employed a one-on-one strategy. When I was giving a lecture to one person, I imagined that I was giving it to an audience of a hundred or even a thousand people. I thought that that particular person could determine the lives of several thousands or even tens of thousands of people. If you want to have a person follow you, whatever your directions may be, you must invest yourself totally into creating such a motivation in that person. (96-284, 1978.2.13)
How many members with longing, yearning hearts have you met? I have met numerous such people. They visit from the ends of the earth to bow before me. Why is this? It is because I have already thrown the line of love, bonded in heart to the ends of the earth, and because I have already sent an electrical current through it, they know the direction they have to go. That is how it should be. (171-30, 1987.12.5)
To become a leader, you must truly stand in the position of the doctor who cures the sick. If an ill person's spiritual situation begins to deteriorate, you will have to make an effort to cure that person's heart while you shed tears day or nigh, oblivious to time. That is a spiritual leader. How many nights have you stayed up trying to save lives? How busy have you been trying to save lives? If such deeds go up to the spirit world with you, then you will be the object of commendations and you will set an example of good character. (69-165, 1973.10.31)
3.3. Man-woman relationships and public money require strict discipline
From now on, there will be no forgiveness for problems with man-woman relationships. Don't even mention forgiveness; God does not want to deal with this. What was the Fall? Didn't it occur because people failed to control themselves sexually? The greatest problems for people are the problems of food, clothing, shelter, sexual desire, and excessive desire for material things; these are the roots of sin. Those who fail to control these things will not become a leader. (194-87, 1989.10.17)
The greatest enemy is the problem that exists in man-woman relationships. Through this, the world came to ruin and the laws of heaven and earth were violated. I am stating clearly that those who are not confident about this should not participate in the Blessing. If you receive the Blessing and bring ruin and go to the spirit world, I will have nothing to do with you. It will not be my responsibility. Once caught, there is no escape. You should clench your teeth and never deviate. (120-220, 1982.10.16)
From now on, you must take extreme caution regarding the relationship between man and woman. Those who have exchanged words with the opposite sex, saying that they like each other, can never become leaders. That should never be allowed to happen. (67-55, 1973.5.20)
You have to be clear about man-woman relationships. Leaders should strictly follow this principle. Unless they do, they will be misunderstood. They will have no way to excuse themselves. There will never be a way out for you if you are caught with this problem. (66-226, 1973.5.12)
The problems in the relationship between man and woman have always been connected to religion. Spiritual groups have always been faced with the problems of man-woman relationships. Why is that so? It is because when Eve fell, she was dealing with her husband Adam and the archangel.
Hence, in the Last Days, women are destined to discern between good and evil in their relations to two men. When a man joins a religion and disciplines himself, at the final summit, a beautiful woman will appear before him to tempt him. If he succumbs to this, he will fall off a cliff into a bottomless abyss. (38-286, 1956.1.24)
You church leaders are raising your own children. You should not do anything that goes against your conscience, nor should you use public money recklessly. It would be better just to starve. If you starve, heaven and earth will have sympathy for you. There is no one who would not sympathize to see people going hungry. When children are starving, they need to be fed.
It is human nature to feel compassion for those who are near death. For this reason, when a murderer is about to be executed, he is granted one last wish. That is why I believe we should have compassion for those in sorrow and difficulties. (60-162, 1972.8.17)
Even among the leaders of the Unification Church, there are those who might misuse public money or material things. They might be tempted to use public money to take care of their children out of sympathy for them. Misusing money tramples the hearts of others. This is the same as supplying your children with poison. There is no doubt about it. This will become a condition through which the satanic world will accuse these leaders. What shall we do about public money? How will things be decided and managed? In the future, the leaders of the Unification Church must reform. (46-95, 1971.7.25)
The most fearsome laws among the laws of the spirit world are those regarding the embezzlement of public funds and unkind treatment of a person in a public position. These are the most fearsome laws. When a leader or a person sent by God is treated unkindly, the nation and world will be judged. (96-154, 1978.1.3)
You should not be careless with material things in your daily life; you should take care in handling public money. Just because you received promotion to a higher position does not give you the right to arbitrarily change the personnel. If you misuse public money, you will be judged by the constitution of the heavenly kingdom. After your promotion, you may find the children of your enemy in the place you enter. If you send them off to a place of misery or death, you will be in trouble. (196-233, 1990.1.1)
When I use public money, I do so with consideration for the whole. (19-266, 1968.2.19)
From now on, you have to be thorough in distinguishing between public and private matters. Public money is poison let loose by Satan. You will be ruined if you misuse public money. Public money causes all kind of problems. Treacherous servants emerge from there. They bring their nation to ruin and even sell their nation. (33-172, 1970.8.11)
I cannot arbitrarily use this money that I made with my sweat and blood. The day I do, my relatives eight times removed and my ancestors will be accused. This is a fearful thing. I see it as money with God's seal on it. Civil servants are punished if they embezzle the nation's funds. However, God's wrath will be upon those who misappropriate the heavenly funds on which He has placed His seal. (85-209, 1976.3.3)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 4. Sermons Must Bestow Grace and Inspiration. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life
Section 4. Sermons Must Bestow Grace and Inspiration
4.1. The practice of giving sermons
Sermons should be given with the same intensity of feeling as a woman who is in childbirth. You must focus all your attention there. When you stand before the podium, you must feel like a pregnant woman on her way to the delivery room. If you reach that level, you need no preparation. The content of your sermon is not the issue. The issue is whether your heart has reached that level. (96-168, 1978.1.3)
During sermon time, a boundary is created that decides who enters heaven and hell. If someone conies to our church thinking, "I've always wondered about the Unification Church, let's see how it is!" but then is disappointed with the sermon, saying, "What kind of sermon is that?" it is the same as cutting that person's throat. Giving sermons should be a serious occasion, even more so than when a judge passes sentence in Court. (96-169, 1978.1.3)
The most difficult thing for a person to do is to speak in front of others. When you stand before people and speak to them, everyone pays attention to you. They all listen or criticize or judge for themselves. That is why it is very difficult for anyone to speak in front of many people. (39-150, 1971.1.10)
Church leaders must always supplement their sermons and supply whatever members need or anything that can be of assistance to them. (36-12, 1972.5.10)
Without having deep experiences, spiritual leaders cannot do their work. They may prepare their lectures by referring to books and give their sermons based on books, but is God within those books? He is not. God exists as a divine spirit, and your sermons will not be effective if you do not connect to His spirit. (76-151, 1975.2.2)
When you give a sermon, if the members know you have already given a sermon with that title before, they will not like it. It is similar to the desire of people wishing to feel the change of seasons. People are not always happy just because it is morning. There are days of depression even when there are few worries.
Even though it is such a nice and invigorating day, you can still feel depressed. Then what do you do to get over this? If there is no stimulus to help bring about this change quickly, go and find a more depressing place. By going to such a place and putting yourself into an environment that is contrary to yours, you can find new stimulus. You can also supplement your current state by creating a new stimulus through which you can directly overcome your situation. If you cannot find solutions and manage your everyday life, you will not be able to offer spiritual guidance to many others. (30-126, 1970.3.21)
You need to offer something fresh. You have to inspire them somehow. Supplement this with prayer if necessary. If that still fails, you should place your life on the line to make a difference. (30-26, 1970.3.21)
If you give an ill-prepared sermon and no one receives inspiration from it, even if you give all your strength and there is still no result, you must come back and spend some time wailing regretfully. It is a shameful thing. You must feel ashamed. That is how you develop yourself. (96-168, 1978.1.3)
When you eat rice in the morning, you eat new rice, right? There must be some fresh flavor. In the same way, you must give new things. From a spiritual aspect, you should supply something new, like a health supplement, and add flavor to it. You would have to add seasoning to give it a new taste, a sour taste, a salty taste, or even a bitter taste. (75-176, 1975.1.2)
If you gave a sermon for one hour without giving any inspiration, you have to repent for three hours. This should be clear to you. If you give a poorly delivered sermon and you do not inspire them, you have to repent in excess of three times that time period.
As for any life form, water and care must be given. But if you do not give it water, and instead take water away and overturn the planted soil, you will be responsible for that. Even after the audience has left, you must bless them and pray for them centering on that day's speech. (160-194, 1969.5.12)
You may want to say on Sunday, "Where in the Bible shall we read from? Break out the hymns! Break out the Holy Songs!" Do not do this. This is not what you should do. Center your words on your knowledge of people; use real life resources and relate them to comparable passages in the Bible. Give an interesting sermon that compares personal experiences with the content of the Bible. Then the mind of that listener will be completely blown away. When he hears about his own experiences, he will like it. Do not attempt to do it by looking at books. Books come from people as well. You must know that people themselves are the original books. (46-284, 1971.21.17)
Church leaders should undergo many hardships. They should go through a lot of life training. They need to experience the lives of a poor laborer, a beggar, a top executive, even someone with the highest authority. Then, with all those experiences in such a public position, your testimonies will be more real. (160-194, 1969.5.12)
4.2. Sermons of True Father
I spend more time praying for members than praying for the sermon itself. I pray with sincere investment: "Heavenly Father! What must I do to raise these people? Is it this or is it that?" Then I give the sermon as my mind directs. (9-81, 1960.4.12)
There has never been a time when I prepared for a sermon: preparation came through daily life. When speaking from life experiences, it is impossible for it not to touch the hearts of everyone there. (16-345, 1966.10.14)
One time I had to dig a tunnel at Hungnam. We became so hungry while we were working that I could not lift the tool that my hand was grasping. We were on the verge of collapse. When we heard "Lunch time!" you cannot imagine how wonderful that sounded to our ears or the feeling of that moment of being able to eat after laboring with pick and shovel. Oh, that rice! I have had countless such experiences that serve as raw materials of a living history. (30-152, 1970.3.2)
These miserable situations in the path of restoration are not things that destroy me, but things that will be glorified in history. So I must go on until the day comes when I can gather all of God's hidden treasures. I could speak for one hour on any subject. But if I spoke for only ten minutes on this topic, and these suffering experiences were revealed to the people of the world, everyone would break out in tears. Where can we find a sermon topic that is better than that? (30-152, 1970.3.21)
If you have an intimate relationship with God, do not worry that you did not prepare for your sermon. You need that kind of experience as well. Even when I meet famous people and must speak up to ten times a day, I must talk about different things each time.
But do I prepare for each and every one? My heart at those times is to completely have the consciousness of an offering. There is no "I." There is no concept of my existence. There is no sense of having possessions. Heaven is with us when we stand in a position of absolute dedication. (60-348, 1972.6.18)
You must always be aware of what direction I am taking. If you fall into step with me, it will be the most effective thing for your sermons. It becomes a motive for you to give inspiration.
The problem is trying to find out why I am doing a certain thing. In order to meet my level of heart, you must lift up your heart and think about how you will go in my place and represent me. If all of you move in unison as an object to me, then heavenly fortune will come. (60-349, 1972.8.18)
When you give sermons on Sunday, you must be serious. If I were you, I would not get any sleep. How could one sleep? Giving a sermon is like giving an injection in order to save other people's lives. It is the same as giving a rejuvenation shot. We need to give members one week's worth of medication and rejuvenation shots. You must lead from the serious position of a doctor who gives a shot to a patient who is on the brink of death. That is why when you go to the podium; it is like going to the place of execution. (75-476, 1975.1.2)
You should be sweating when you give a sermon. Sweat should be running down your spine. It has to be done with tears and sweat. This is an ironclad rule. (160-194, 1969.5.12)
There is no need to worry about your sermons. There are over two hundred volumes of the sermons I have given during the course of my life. When you have an interview in the spirit world, will you say. 1 never saw them or read them." I won't even translate them into English. It is a serious matter if you go to the spirit world without reading these.
It is a serious problem if leaders do not read these. (173-76, 1988.1.3)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 5. Offering Donations in Accordance with Heavenly Law. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life
Section 5. Offering Donations in Accordance with Heavenly Law
5.1. Ways of tithing
You must be strict with public funds. You should be thorough in your tithing. You should offer one-tenth of your total income to God without fail. (11-218, 1961.5.26)
By offering a tithe from your material possessions to God, you can establish a condition equal to having offered all that you have. Even if you do not offer everything to God, offering a portion of it with all of your heart and mind will enable the rest to be considered holy. The person who tithes will never perish. As days go by, his storage room will be filled with more material blessings. (31-239, 1970.6.4)
You will never starve if you can tithe with sincere devotion. As a rule, your descendants will never suffer for want of material things. Invest your devotion in offering tithes; this is the essence of faith. Just offering it in a mediocre way will not work. An offering is something that you offer on behalf of your life. That is why you should offer the thing that is most important to you. (61-338, 1972.10.22)
To make certain indemnity conditions, material things are required. The reason we are supposed to offer tithe to heaven lies here. The number nine is a number of the fallen world; the number ten is the number representing the heavenly world as well as the number shedding the number nine. (10-217, 1960.10.14)
Among the twelve tribes of Israel, eleven tribes had to offer tithes to the altar governed by the tribe of Levi. From now on, you are not a member if you do not tithe. You should offer three-tenths of your income: one-tenth for the nation, one-tenth for the world and one-tenth for the church.
It is absolutely essential to tithe in our daily lives as we go this way. You should not consider your income your own or use it as your own. The reason is that the number nine, three times three equals nine, has been governed by Satan so far.
If the number nine is returned and connected to God on the earth where Satan is the master, God can have dominion over that number. In this way, God can restore the number ten. Thus, if you believe in God and bring the number nine, all possessions within the realm of the number nine can be separated from the realm of Satan. That is how the term "tithe 10 percent" came into being. (10-218, 1961.4.18)
We who are on the course of going through the providence of restoration should be determined not only to fulfill the condition of donating one-tenth of our income but even three-tenths. One- tenth of your income should be offered to your nation, the second tenth to the people of the world. It must be offered in the course of restoration. The last third should be offered to the heavenly kingdom. People who are given responsibility from heaven should never violate the condition of tithing. At the same time, you should meet all the duties of filial piety. (150-218, 1961.4.15)
When you make a donation, you should not use money left over after purchasing something to eat. That money is defiled. Furthermore, God would not be present when a donation is made with change after purchasing things at the market. (48-86, 1971.9.5)
You should not use leftovers for sacrificial offerings. Leftovers are defiled. A person of grace would immediately recognize it. That is why I prevent you from going to impure places. (30-133, 1970.3.21)
In the future, everything should belong to the world. At the same time, everything should belong to the worldwide God, the worldwide True Parents, and the worldwide True Children. We are responsible to restore everything to such a position. This is what you should realize thoroughly. (23-336, 1969.6.15)
Making an offering for the maintenance of the church after dealing with your own expenses first sounds extremely good, but it is bad. Making an offering to God should be the first priority in life, before thinking of your own life. Thinking that you are offering a percentage of your income can easily lead to a habit of putting your life first, before God. If God is placed as a second priority, He will later end up being in the last place. Do you think it will become like that or not? (96-101, 1978.1.2)
When you make a donation on Sunday at the church, if children say: "Mommy, Daddy, money for donation, please..." would you say, handing any old bill, "Here, this is for your Sunday school." Is God a beggar? Is the church minister a beggar too? The church and the minister should not be treated that way. You should offer the core of your property for donations. You should prepare with a sincere heart and keep the donations deep in your safe until the time of offering.
In the fall, when you harvest grains, a tithe from what you reap must he separated and stored in a separate barn. Then, during the year, your children and relatives should gather together and humbly offer that tithe with sincerity and love. (166-71, 1987.5.28)
Do not ask for your money back after making an offering. It is not proper. All that matters is if the money is used for a higher purpose by the person responsible. It will not be used for a lower purpose. It does not have to be used for all of you. (125-488, 1981.3.20)
God is the Creator of the universe as the omnipotent and omniscient being. Do you think that God, as such a being would be pleased if some church members offered money as if they were giving to a beggar? Would God say, "Ah, blessed are those who made a donation to me. You are such a beloved religious group of people!"? How could I he save His face before Satan? If a donation basket is being circulated in the church as an act of a beggar holding the sign of a church, God would not be happy with it. (96-101, 1978.1.2)
You make donations to me, but I do not receive it. My policy is not to receive. What did you do to get that money before making that donation? Unless I know that, and stand in a position where I am not ashamed of it, I cannot receive it. Since I have such a mentality, God desires to give and give more. (51-276, 1971.11.28)
You should clearly understand that when you handle donations and offerings that were given with heart, you will be judged by them if you do not recognize their value. Even a king can perish if he errs in his conduct as a king, in other words, if he has mistreated someone who is dedicated to God. If he mistreats that person, he will be considered a traitor to heaven. For this reason, I do not treat lightly the person who offers with their heart. (18-143, 1967.6.4)
If you value your own personal property more than the public's, you are violating heavenly law. If you value your personal integrity more than public integrity, it is against heavenly law. (51-291, 1971.11.28)
Today, what would you call the way of collecting donations in most Christian churches? They circulate bags for the donations. In the Unification Church, do you receive donations in that fashion? Do you collect using some kind of mesh strainer? Before people leave, you should place the donation boxes at the entrance. People will donate as an act of devotion and expression of your gratitude for having received grace from God. Those who do not want to donate will avoid those boxes. Heaven does not want such trifling sums of money. It must be money offered with devotion. You should not just donate the money you find in your mother's or father's pocket. You should keep the donation money for three days as sanctification and then offer it. Why are you thinking of donating an amount that is not even worth a meal for lunch? You should be offering your entire life's assets... (166-319, 1987.6.14)
You should offer the first of anything to God. Pure things should be offered in front of God. God will not be with you unless you offer something pure. Your daily habits should be carried out in this way. (30-133, 1970.3.21)
You should offer something pure in which you have invested your utmost devotion as a tithe. That is a sacrificial offering. Sacrificial offerings should be something pure. If you are to offer your son, what kind of son should he be to you? Should he be a son you hate? A hopeless child? Such sons should not be offered as a sacrifice to God's purpose.
You must offer your most beloved son. Why is this so? It is because an offering is something that takes your place. (48-85, 1971.9.5)
What you should understand is that the things which you have owned so far, your material possessions, are not really your own; you are temporarily managing them. The things that you manage well should be offered to God through the True Parents. In other words, unless they go through the process of belonging to the True Parents and God, they cannot be yours. This you should clearly understand. (23-334, 1969.6.15)
From the principled standard of the course of restoration, we can see that the things of creation should have first belonged to the first human ancestors. They belong to God, of course, but when we consider the standard of the blessing God gave to humankind, we can see that they should have belonged to the first human ancestors. They should have belonged to parents of goodness untainted by the Fall. (23-330, 1969.6.15)
The Fall resulted from the desire for possessions, to have something of your own. Even when God and the Messiah come, if you continue with this desire, you will end up being on the side of Satan.
That is why you should follow the way of obedience. Yet, time and again, such chronic problems inherited from the fallen world have remained with us. What would you do if asked to use your possessions for God's sake? Even in my dreams, I have never said that the things I have earned belong to me. (107-207, 1980.5.1)
One of the main teachings of our philosophy is: mine is yours, and yours is the nation's, and the nation's is the world's, and the world's is God's, and God's is mine. The age of material blessings comes first, after which comes the age of blessings to humankind, which is followed by the age of blessings of the heart centered on God. (12-55, 1962.10.7)
We do not know how much the things of creation have contributed to restoring humankind. Yet, if the things of creation and humankind fail to become one, they cannot go to the Father. (23-326, 1969.6.15)
5.2. Tithing in our daily life
In terms of the life of tithing in the church, ten families in the church should support a church leader. Otherwise, you do not have the right to become a citizen of the heavenly kingdom. Ten people should support one heavenly person.
Tithing applies to every aspect of life. Even in a school, one in ten classrooms should he used for less fortunate children, to give them classes free of charge. From now on, you need to tithe not only your materials but also your time.
It is no longer only the material aspect like in the past. If you have ten family members, one family member should be offered to the public mission on behalf of your entire family. You should keep such a standard. In the future, Unification Church members must not avoid tithing. Those who do not tithe will not be considered church members. Tithing is a duty, a heavenly duty. (50-218, 1961.4.15)
Since Sunday is a tithing day, it is not our personal day. It is a day when we need to obey, according to God's command. To use this day, which belongs to God, in whatever manner you please is a sin. One of your children should be offered to God. If not, you should educate someone else's child as if he or she is your own, and offer that child to God.
Even when you are eating a bowl of noodles, you should not eat alone. If you feel ashamed for eating alone as a person attending Heavenly Father, you should establish a condition of being with the Father by saying, "I am sorry to be eating alone in the presence of God who is with me? You should live with the heart of always treating the parents first. When you buy clothes, you should not do so only for yourself. You should live in this way. (150-218, 1961.4.15)
5.3. The indemnity fund
How will fallen people indemnify their sin of killing the parents and children and losing all things of creation? The money Judas received for selling Jesus was used to buy a plot of land for the burial of vagrants. Thus, we have to use the indemnity fund to prepare a house where church members can gather and stay. Originally, we should have bought a headquarters. Since the twelve disciples deserted Jesus, you should donate 12, 000 won in four years. You should offer your most precious money for the indemnity fund. You are atoning for the sins of murdering the father and Abel by donating through this indemnity fund. For children, it is paying the price of the father's and the brother's blood. From now on, you should add to that fund and build a holy palace. (14 69, 1964.5.12)
You should make a devoted effort in offering the indemnity fund. You should offer it without assistance, by making a devoted effort and sacrificing what you like to eat and wear. This indemnity fund should become a tradition all our descendants must follow. When this is completed, the nation's fortune will turn. Although outwardly it may not be visible, a spring is boiling up within a bottomless pit and it has the power to explode whenever there is an opening. We should be able to take on the responsibility as "high priest and officiator of ceremonies" in offering this holy ritual unknown to others. (14-97, 1964.6.14)
Jesus, who came as the true father, was driven out from this world, and God's providence was blocked in all directions due to one person's deviant behavior. As a condition for indemnifying this, an amount of money pertaining to the number three should be returned to God over a course of four years, representing the actual value paid in betraying Jesus. Four years pertains to the four directions of north, south, east, and west. In Korea, members donate 12,000 won on the condition of paying three thousand won each year over a course of four years. (22.188, 1969.2.1)
We should release the bitter grief of heaven and earth and bring down the fortifications that have been built on this earth. Then we should build a headquarters for those spiritual leaders who were sacrificed as they paved the way. This indemnity fund is for indemnity on a world level. You should offer the money you gathered while shedding blood and sweat for this fund. You should not pay from the deposits you have in the bank. (14-97, 1964.6.14)
The Lord has established the indemnity conditions of history and walked this path shedding blood. That is how he released the resentment of heaven and earth. But the children have not yet released this bitter grief. Thus, the indemnity fund is a condition to accomplish this. The parents have been victorious but the children were invaded. Therefore, on the foundation of the victorious parents, you should liberate the resentment that came about when the parent was sold off There will he great leaps in development only when you offer the indemnity fund. Even though the children may have welcomed the Parents and possess heaven and earth, they must release the bitter grief drenched in the blood shed by the True Parents. (14-97, 1964.6.14)
Members should use their own initiative to make an offering to the indemnity fund. A new providence can only begin when you gain victory by establishing the conditions of indemnifying the bitter grief drenched in tears, sweat, and blood.
On the foundation of the people of this nation, you must break through the adverse circumstances on the national level. I wish for the Korean people to be the most pitiable race. Only when they are in the most miserable position can indemnity he paid without paying a price. That is why we are establishing indemnity conditions for the people. (14-73, 1964.5.21)
The indemnity fund is the most precious fund of all. There will be many untold stories in the process of preparing this fund. You should expect to face many difficult circumstances. (14-69, 1964.5.12)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 6. God Accepts Prayers for the Public Purpose. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life
Section 6. God Accepts Prayers for the Public Purpose
6.1. Greetings require protocol
A person of faith must pray for public matters and the greater good. (28-271. 1970.2.9)
Even when I spent almost three years in Hungnam prison, in the midst of great hardship, I never forgot to pray for the members each day before bedtime. I continuously prayed even for those who fell away. Then, a person like that appeared spiritually in front of me and spoke mournfully with tears. He sadly confessed that due to the weakness of the flesh he had to leave me and said farewell. In such a miserable circumstance, I could not help feeling pity for him. Even though that person left in such a way, I had to continue to pray for him. Why? Since that person left without fulfilling his responsibility, until his successor appeared I had to pray for him.
As long as such a foundation of devotion exists, even if a member falls away, God will surely send a righteous person as a replacement. (42.161,1971.3.1)
Even when I was tortured to the point where I threw up blood and collapsed, I prayed, "Dear Heavenly Father, please do not shed tears over my blood. This is going to be shameful blood, and any tears will be soaked in lamentations and resentment. I do not want heaven to sympathize." Therefore I did not pray for myself, even when I went into prison. In the light of the world of heart, this is what one must do. (26-20, 1969.10.1)
Isn't there a proper way of greeting people in this world? Even for prayer you should be aware of this. (The Way of God's Will)
If you go into a sanctified spiritual realm, you will feel that you should pray for God first. Then afterwards, you must also pray for Jesus; only after that will you understand the historical heart. Then you must pray on behalf of the multitude of people who fought for the great dispensational will in Christendom since the creation of heaven and earth. Following the footsteps of the innumerable prophets since the Fall of Adam and Eve, you must pray, "Please allow me to become an offering that can resolve all their sorrows." After that is all fulfilled, you can pray for your loving children and then pray for yourself. That is the way of heavenly law. (7-328, 1959.10.18)
You should shed tears and enter a serious state of mind that melts the bone marrow and calls for a one-to-one showdown. You should enter a state where you can have give and take with God with such an obedient mind that God cries when you cry and you cry when God cries. Whatever happens, you should be able to do that. To do so, you need to pray. You need a root and that root is prayer. (31-290, 1970.6.4)
When offering devotion, you must enter a position of absolute faith. You should enter the position where you have absolute faith in God and His will. God cooperates with you only when you are in such a position.
When you pray, you should not foolishly doubt whether your prayer will be answered or not. You should be able to pray, saying: "Father! I am the only one who remains. Without me, this nation and world will disappear. Oh Father! I alone remain in this state of commitment for the foundation, for which You have toiled for six thousand years. Am I not the only one who is close to Your will that will surely be fulfilled by You? Although my position is important as such, I have not prepared myself yet. Still, you have given me the order. Thus, I will prepare myself with the conditions and foundations enabling me to follow that order, and I will represent this entire people. Isn't this Your providence for restoration?" Prayer is needed even for fulfilling goals. (31-290, 1970.6.4)
When you pray, you should first pray for the nation, then pray for the world, and then pray for the liberation of God. Do you think God is in a comfortable situation? Yet, without knowing what they should do and how the fortune of this world is changing, many people are just asking, "O Lord, please send me to heaven." (14-65, 1964.5.3)
As a leader, you must know how to follow this essential path of the Principle. Therefore, you must pray. Pray deeply about the relationship between you and God, thinking about how much God loves you. Also, you must pray and invest in members, reflecting on how deep are the relationships you have made with them. You must pray until the relationships become smooth and round. (78-171, 1974.2.9)
Those who have faith in religion just for their own benefit will abandon God after they receive blessings. That is because receiving blessings is their goal. After a while, they will fall away. You must pray from the viewpoint that seeks to find what God desires. Then we must pray to God to bestow blessings upon the whole world. (127-27, 1983.5.1)
To allow the teacher to really be a teacher, you must fulfill your responsibility. Even when you pray in front of God, you must create the environment in which you can openly pray, "Father, Your sons and daughters have come. The children You have wanted to meet have come." (11-132, 1961.3.26)
Whether or not someone is watching, you must do your work. We must be able to truly keep the promises we make with God. Only when you pray for the sake of the whole, night and day, will it become a living prayer. Then the content and subject of that prayer changes and you develop. You must know what kind of time we are living in. You must understand that you have to possess that kind of hidden aspect in life through your prayer life. (104-111, 1979.4.15)
That is why I like nature and treasure the time of solitude. I truly like the tranquility of the night. But I do not talk about these things. Still, wouldn't I have such interests? They are not apparent because I do not show them. You must know that establishing such a background foundation of richness of life is not possible without the way of prayer. (104-111, 1979.4.15)
Blessings do not exist elsewhere. Blessings come according to the state of your heart. For what do you pray and offer devotion? If a person who has been praying and offering devotion sees a crying child and then kicks it in the backside with his foot, his household will surely go to ruin. If you had a beautiful and ardent prayer, you should deal with the environment with a fervent and beautiful heart. In a position reflecting the standard of your prayer, you should carry the mindset enabling you to bear the fruit of your prayer.
Will the Christians of today go to the heavenly kingdom by attending worship and singing praise? No way! Would they be able to go to the heavenly kingdom if they start fighting, exchanging blows, and doing all sorts of things after coming back from church? (233-210, 1992.8.1)
6.2. Praying in the name of the True Parents
When you pray, you pray in the name of the True Parents. What are the parents? Do not think of this word only with regard to myself and True Mother, rather, think of the level of the True Parents in terms of the mother and father who can embrace the world at a higher level and truly love all people as one by transcending racial or national feelings. This is why I also pray in the name of the True Parents. (33-143, 1970.23.11)
Now is not the time for us to pray in the name of Jesus." Now is not the era of name salvation. It is the era of substantial salvation. Christians pray in the name of Jesus. However, True Father does not pray in that way. We need Jesus, not his name. Even though there are some tens of thousands of words for "Father, " the substantial being is only one. Isn't that so? Therefore, should we go to the heavenly kingdom riding on the substantial being of Jesus or riding on the name only? (13-63, 1963.11.16)
The Unification Church does not pray in the name of Jesus. Those who recently joined the Unification Church would think, "Huh? What are True Parents? Why pray in the name of the True Parents?" Do you know the meaning of the True Parents? True Parents are the ancestors who did not suffer the Fall in the Garden of Eden, and of whom we can be proud for eternity in the midst of God's glory.
Because the first ancestors of humanity fell, there had to be new ancestors and because God also works His providence centering on the new ancestors, we pray in the name of these new ancestors. It is very logical.
We should not pray through one person, Jesus; we should pray through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Since Jesus is the spiritual father and the Holy Spirit is the spiritual mother, fallen humankind cannot pass to the Kingdom of Heaven without going through the relationship of parents. (20-268, 1968.7.7)
In the Unification Church, we do not pray in the name of Jesus. We go in search of parents. We call such parents the True Parents. We have to restore everything. Since people have not known that it had to be restored, you should straighten the cornerstone. If you allow this to remain slanted and live inside of it... when the hurricane comes everything will be destroyed. (8-228, 1961.9 19)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 7. Witnessing Is Searching for True Love. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life
Section 7. Witnessing Is Searching for True Love
7.1. Witnessing is multiplying myself
What is witnessing? It is showing the way. It is showing how to return to God. Thus, how great it is! If you asked the original mind, "Where are you going to go?" it would reply. "Ah! Through this world I must return to the heavenly kingdom." So how great is the task that paves the way! Receiving persecution, receiving one thing and another... You have to return to heaven by passing through this world. (117-102, 1982.2.14)
If one can subjugate evil by offering one's life, God's love will come to that person. This is the formula. It is like the weights on a scale; if one side goes down, the other side goes up. If you eliminate more evil, good will increase; if evil increases, good will be reduced. God can give love to the extent that you eliminate evil.
Therefore, God demands that you love Him more than anyone else. The reason for His demand is that the more you love Him, the more you can receive His love. In other words, since you loved God, you can be loved by Him. (40-243, 1971.2.4)
We are about to welcome spring; then what is witnessing? What are you trying to accomplish through witnessing? It is a preparation to receive the summer. We are trying to usher in better days when branches sprout outwards and leaves grow thick, so that flowers can blossom and fruits be born.
How about the Unification Church? What would happen if you said, "Since I have done witnessing for three years, now I can go home and relax"? What would it be like? Even if that effort bears fruit, if you do not have the force of life that can surpass that, when the cold wind blows strongly down from the north, you will begin to wither and shrink. (159-18, 1998.3.1)
The purpose of witnessing is to create my second self (18-186, 1967.6.6)
Although one day of life in this age may seem brief, a day of witnessing will be connected to eternity. Our every action on such a foundation of principled order will be linked to the whole purpose and to eternity; it will not disappear but remain forever. (152-219, 1961.5.15)
When you are doing witnessing, you will feel joy. On the other hand, without witnessing, happiness will not come. I am also carrying on this work, because I feel great pain if 1 don't do it. When I do witnessing, I feel great joy even when I am being cursed at. (19-22, 1967.11.5)
When you have the living experience that God is alive, then you will go out witnessing even if people tell you not to do so. Witnessing produces new things. If you have ten people in front of you, and you carry on a sincere conversation, then those ten people will become new people. After that, you should go to the church and pray and see what happens. Then, as they make progress, you will also be developing. You will be raised up. (30-454, 1970.3.21)
When you go to the spirit world, the only thing that you can be proud of is your witnessing result. In the spirit world, your earthly wealth cannot he an object of pride. Moreover, you cannot boast about how much power you possessed in this world. The only thing to be proud of is how many lives you have saved. The question is how many people or, transcending your tribe, how many races you connected to new life. This is your asset. This is your only asset. (30-148, 1970.3.21)
Since spirit world is fully equipped with everything, there is nothing that you will miss. If there was something that you would miss, it would be a true person. For this reason, those saints of merit who have made great contributions in cultivating true people can naturally become sons and daughters of honor in the heavenly world. Accordingly, witnessing is the only thing of which to be proud. (30-148, 1970.3 20
Have you ever wailed and prayed through the night for the sake of a new guest? Did you ever lament more sorrowfully than at the death of your father, mother, or even your lover? If you have not, then you must try. You should be lamenting through sleepless nights. If you can save one life, then there is nothing that you will feel reluctant to sacrifice. Money, clothes, and house are not even an issue. You must be crazy in loving people. (34-270, 1970.9.13)
When you come to the church, you must bring your parents and all of your family members with you. You should bring along your older brother, older sister, and everyone else. How much blood and tears have you shed for the sake of witnessing to your parents, your cousins, your in-laws, and your distant relatives? Have you ever struggled fiercely and prayed with tremendous devotion to guide a person's life? This is the question.
You must become the center of the environment that you find yourself in. You must understand that each of you must become the center. (41-90, 1971.2.13)
When you do witnessing, you must research people's psychology. You should be able to tell whether a person likes something just by looking at his expression and the way he walks. You should be able to figure out a method by which to judge a person's emotions. (42-174, 1971.3.4)
Do not tell me that you cannot go witnessing because you lack money. Did Jesus come with money? Did God carry on the history of restoration with money? He did it with life; he did it with blood. Therefore, the history of Christianity is the history of indemnity through blood. It was done with blood and life. It was not done with money. If you go forward with this mentality, God will help you. (154-210, 1964.1.7)
When you go out witnessing, do not take money with you, but instead go with heart. (27-267, 1969.12.19)
When you go out witnessing, you should not go unprepared. The question is how devoted your heart is when you set out. If it seems that it is going to take, say, one week, one month, one year, or two or three to bring results, then you must make a devoted effort during that time period. Regardless of rain or snow, or when you are eating, awake or asleep, coming and going, resting, or engaged in some activity, you must give everything with an unchanging heart to that person. If you give completely, then it will be returned to you completely. This is the Principle. (42-225. 1971.3.19)
The question in loving God and people is how much we have exerted ourselves. This will transform into maturity of character in the spirit world and become the foundation of glory. (42-228, 1971.5.14)
Did you ever stay up all night in order to do witnessing? I stayed up numerous nights. They will ask you in the other world how many nights you stayed up to do witnessing. You should exert yourself in doing witnessing. (10-252, 1960.10.21)
When fishing with a net, you must cast the weights a little bit further to be aisle to catch one more fish. Since we are in the position of the weights, we have to stretch our hearts a little further to try and bring one more person to Heaven's side from Satan's domain. (12-19, 1962.2.4)
You have to educate and raise people until they can witness to other people. If this is accomplished, then you will not lose even one person out of all those you have witnessed to. (29-196, 1970.2.28)
Try and see how much God will help when you invest yourself. If you do not witness to your relatives and close friends while living on earth, then you will have no way to escape their accusations in the spirit world. (18-134, 1967.5.30)
Witnessing should be done like a business. What I mean is that you should do it effectively. In the past, no matter where you went for witnessing, you did not make much preparation, but now you should go fully prepared. You should offer devotion when you go witnessing. You must be different from the past. (102-45, 1973.11.19)
You must research into the philosophy of "a living person." You should always be thinking how you can guide a person to me or yourselves. You should think of ways to draw people near to you. There is only one way for this task and I know that method. It is the spirit of serving others. It is people's basic nature to draw close to something that can provide some benefit. (52-276, 1972.1.3)
In order for you to find people, you should be prepared to go to places that are like the spring, summer, autumn, and winter seasons and shed blood, sweat, and tears. You should be saying to yourself, "I will love people who are of the spring, summer, autumn, and winter, from all four seasons. I will even love the people of the winter season, the Russian people." Only after that, can you love your spouse. This is the process of restoration. (96-152, 1978.1.3)
You should not feel lonely or sad just because someone does not pay much attention to your words, even after you poured your whole heart into that person. The principle of heavenly law is that you will never lose your investment. Those who understand that will be blessed. They will never become sorrowful or lonely. Soon, the time will come when the spring breezes will start to blow. On the other hand, to those who could not receive your heart and efforts, an autumn wind will blow. This is telling them that their time is coming. (12-174, 1971.1.4)
7.2. Course of education and seven-day fast
In the Unification Church there are 2-day, 7-day, 21-day workshops and 40-day training sessions; altogether, as a rule, within six months you should receive 70 days of training. This is the Word and the Law. By doing that, you can come to know the nature of the Unification Church. (103-218, 1979.3.1)
Those who go through 120-day training will become core members who can establish the dignity and reputation of the Unification Church. Because training is being systematized from the 2-day to the 120-day level, it is the same no matter where you are in the world. (78-188, 1975.5.8)
In the Last Days you must pass through the three stages of judgment. These are the judgment of truth, judgment of character, and judgment of heart. Here, doctrine is the truth. By passing through these three judgments, you are given the authority to be in the position to make a relationship with the True Parents. (26-2.89, 1969.11.10)
When you go to the spirit world, if you have not fasted for Heaven for at least seven days, you will be unable to register in the spirit world. Why? Because God toiled for six thousand years in the course of restoration, and therefore you should fast and be thinking about His labors. That is why there is the seven-day fast in the Unification Church. It is not to make you suffer but to allow you to set a condition of striking your body in front of heaven.
You must strike the body. You ought to say, "This body, my enemy. You lump of flesh! Evil blood is flowing through you," and then stab it with a knife. However, we can be grateful to Jesus that he was stabbed instead, for our sake. Then what did Jesus leave for us? He gave us his flesh and blood. You must become the person who can represent Jesus. (17-482, 1966.12.15)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 8. Indemnity, Service, and a Life of Dedication. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life|
Section 8. Indemnity, Service, and a Life of Dedication
8.1. The course of indemnity
Members of the Unification Church today do not like the path of indemnity. This means they do not like restoration. There is no such thing as, "I like restoration, but I don't like indemnity." So, which comes first? Does restoration come first or indemnity come first? You like restoration but not indemnity. Yet, it is the opposite for God. Which side are you on? Are you on the side of God or on the side of Satan? You have to be clear about this. You like restoration. However, God's side cannot just like restoration. Only after going through indemnity can restoration occur. (116-127, 1981.12.27)
If people understand the true meaning of the word indemnity, then they will all like it the most. Without indemnity, there can be no blessing. Indemnity is the invaluable nugget of gold in the Unification Church. It is an amazing word that can face death, sacrifice everything, and overcome all difficulties. (97-71, 1978.2.26)
When comparing the portion of responsibility and indemnity, one is on the right side and the other on the left, one is like the right leg and the other is like the left leg. They are like a pair of legs. You have to understand that advancement is impossible without the portion of responsibility and restoration through indemnity being connected. Have you thought about such things? You don't like indemnity, right? You dislike God, the providence, the whole lot, right? From now on, even if you forget about eating, even if you forget to sleep, even if you forget to think about the person that you love, you must never forget this; you have to be clear on this point. This is how serious it is.
God has to go through this, True Father must go through this, and the whole world must go through this. If this does not happen, then it will not be enough. You want to pass through them all for free, right? How can you become a professor or a doctor without doing anything? You have to go through the course to attain a doctorate degree or to become a doctor. How can you do so without paying the dues? If you do not pass through the course, then you are a fake. (124-106, 1983.1.3)
Indemnity conditions must be established by you yourself. Another person cannot substitute for you. The Fall means the loss of dominion. For the purpose of restoration, no matter who interferes, you must be confident of yourself and go with a clear proactive nature. No matter where others are going, you must be busy going your way. You do not have time to listen to what is being said by others. At night, there is no time to sleep; in the day there is no time to sit comfortably and eat a meal. Without having a heart that is this serious, you cannot go the way of restoration. (22-211, 1969.2.4)
For a sick person to be healed, he must take medicine even it is bitter. When we look at medicine, we see that the good medicine is bitter. Bitter medicine is the real medicine. Establishing conditions for indemnity is like taking bitter medicine: it is difficult to do. However, without having established indemnity conditions, you cannot be restored. (92-254, 1977.4.18)
Heaven is the place where one attends God as the absolute center and makes relationships of love through Him. In order to properly establish this heavenly origin, God has been leading the providence of restoration. Thus, if you are conceited, it can never happen. (92-255, 1977.4.18)
The path of salvation is a path of restoration through indemnity. Indemnity means taking the opposite course of the Fall; it means going in reverse. (67-98, 1987.6.30)
8.2. Service and dedication
How can the path of true love be paved? It can be paved through dedication, service, and sacrifice. This means it is the course of re-creation. You must make sacrifices on this course of re-creation. Such a path of indemnity becomes the path of service. You have to go the way of sacrifice. Only when we go along the path of indemnity can we stand on God's side. Upon the foundation of indemnity, you can stand on God's side. This is an absolute fact. Therefore, you should go the way of indemnity. (146-294, 1986.7.2)
Which side is the subject partner and which is the object partner? Who is in the position to follow and who is in the position to lead? God accurately knows the answer; it is the one on God's side. When God looks down on this world, lie sees two sides in constant struggle. He already knows the answer to the question, "Which side is God's?" and laughs, saying: "The people on my side are those who stand in a position of constant sacrifice, commitment, and service. Those on this side are those who fight for justice and I will choose such people." Those at the center always sacrifice and serve. (147-98, 1986.8.31)
The Unification Church teaches the heavenly law that dictates that we were born for the sake of others and we must follow the path of living for the sake of others. (133-16, 1984.7.1)
The formula for going to heaven is simple. All it requires is to love heaven and earth. But this requires hardship. There has not been a single person who has genuinely been working for this providence. (11-70, 1961.1.22)
People who follow the path of goodness always face sacrifice. That is why we teach the way of sacrifice. To say "live for others" means to sacrifice rather than gaining profit. It is an act of investing oneself. Investing yourself means you should invest to the fullest extent, even offering your own life. (78-61, 1975.5.4)
What is the main idea of the Unification Church? It is to live for the sake of others. God exists for the sake of His objects of love. When we live for others in the same way, we can live for the sake of the world, even if the entire race opposes us. Knowing this, the Unification Church carries on. (77-302, 1975.4.25)
Satan cannot come to the person who warmly treats guests and offers his care and support to other people. You should know this. (37-329, 1971.1.1)
I'll make you into a person who can receive God's love and the love of humankind, you will be asked to sacrifice yourself, go through difficulties, become someone who can contribute sacrificially, and bring forth the fruits of love that represent the world. You must know that we are such a movement. The goal of the Unification Church is to create people who can receive the love of God and humankind. (82-53, 1975.12.31)
If you are resolved to sacrifice yourself for the world, there is no shame in your lowly state of being, even for looking like a beggar. Even if those in the Unification Church eat bread or barley rice cakes and water, if they can smack their lips and say with gratitude, "All, the cold water this morning is more delicious than a feast;" the universe will cry for them. You stand in such a position for the sake of the universe, it will cling to you since it is in a lowlier state than you and is without a subject partner. (61-223, 1972.8.31)
In the olden days, weren't there many unpleasant times when people used an ox to till the soil? People would whip the animal's backside once in a while, yelling, "You rotten animal, why are you behaving like this? I raised you for this time of the year but you are behaving so badly!" But instead, one should tell the beast, "Hi, I am very sorry that you have to be used like this after a long winter of inactivity and poor feeding." If you are more patient than that ox, heaven will recognize you and want to keep close to you.
Instead of being clever, wringing one's hands or temporarily taking the easy way, one should be patient with a pure heart and wait for blessings. Only when you live a blessed life with a blessed mind will blessings come to you. (127-89, 1983.5.5)
The world is heading toward its ultimate goal for the sake of the greater providence through a process of indemnity. When you think about how joyful God will be, you should receive Him profoundly and feel His heart, even over the pain and wounds you sustain in your heart when you see your family starving or dying. When the day comes, no matter what kind of cross may come, you should be able to pray on that cross and pledge to be the first to go along that path of suffering. You should invest, invest again, and forget. (229-237, 1992.4.12)
In living a life of faith, do you have an explosive and stimulating power in the center of your heart that is moving unceasingly toward the world of God's will? When you have that kind of heart, then it is evident that God is with you. On the other hand, if you do not have that power, it is evident that God is separated from you. (32-21, 1970.6.14)
From the beginning of history, the many religions that have been following God's will have denied themselves exhorting: "Sacrifice and serve others!" We have not known why that was until now. It is because the original world is our original hometown where we live for others. In order to go to that world, we must have the necessary preparation and training.
Accordingly, we can see that the higher a religion is, the more it emphasizes sacrifice and service, and we can recognize the fact that God carried out His providence through a historical course in historical periods. Through this, we can understand that God exists. (77-270, 1975.4.14)
When your heart is pouring out love for humankind and you have the mind to share your life limitlessly with humanity. It is clear that you belong to heaven. If you end up as a being with self-centered love and proud self-centered values, you should know that this is evidence that God is already leaving you. Such a person is not going toward heaven. He will be limited by his self-centeredness. (32-21, 1970.6.14)
You do not know the tactics of God and Satan. The path of Abel is one of being struck first and then taking back everything. At first, it seems that Satan is winning because he is striking first. But in the end, he has to return everything, after adding to it some original goodness that is in him. The evil side, even if it conquers others, will not be triumphant. Instead, even the "original good element" within the evil side will be seized.
In other words, the way God works is as if He makes a rice cake and then hands it over, and when He takes it back there are powdered beans added on the surface. For a short period, evil flourishes and stands in the position to strike goodness, but that does not mean that Heaven will decline. (56-85, 1972.5.14)
At each and every moment, you should be making desperate resolutions. You should not meaninglessly lose the opportunity that God has been seeking. This has irreplaceable value, more than even a thousand-year history. Thus, to lose this would be terrible. You should pledge never to lose this chance, even if you were to lose the entire world and everything you had found.
You should go forth offering all manner of devotions and once again pledge resolutely to bequeath a victorious result through that opportunity, even if your life were to be sacrificed. (26-141, 1969.10.19)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 9. Rules and Etiquette among Members. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life
Section 9. Rules and Etiquette among Members
9.1. Members relate through heavenly love
We call our Unification Church members "family members." Members should have the connections of brothers and sisters and be born under the same parents' heart. Only then can we become a member. We should have the relationship of brothers under the same parents. We should directly inherit the way of life, habits, and traditions of the parents. Then, we should create a family that God can be pleased with. Only then can we become members. (155-211, 1955.10.30)
Today, we are gathered here, hand in hand. Young and old, men and women who used to be complete strangers are gathered together. We have inherited the same lineage with the same heart of God. Since we started off being holy, we should also attain results worthy of this position. (67-325, 1973.7.22)
You should know that the relationship between us has been a three-dimensional one. It is not something based on an ideology that existed in previous history. It is based on God's heart and His ideal of creation; it began based on the standard of original character. This is the core of all relationships and thus should he regarded as absolute. (49-206, 1971.10.10)
We are gathered here to form new relationships. Therefore, those gathered here are not physical siblings. People who are not siblings should come together and have stronger relationships than their physical siblings. This is different. The relationship of those who are not your siblings should govern the relationship between you and your physical siblings. Unless this happens, your home has no spiritual ties to you. Actually, you cannot directly interfere with this. Thus, we should treat our church brothers and sisters with more care. (49-209, 1971.10.10)
When you deal with members, you should be careful not to hurt them or say the kind of things that would discourage them in their life of faith. (18-43, 1967.5.17)
You should have sympathy with other members who are in difficulties and face trouble in certain circumstances as though you yourself were facing trouble. (23-291, 1969.10.5)
I cannot tolerate such a thing as someone criticizing and deliberately attacking other members. If we wish to love the world, where should we begin to love? We should begin to love by loving each other. We have gathered here from north, south, east, and west under the same connections, and therefore we should love each other. It should be unbearable to live if we cannot see or meet each other. Since we are connected by such a bond, the Unification Church is proud of having something that the evil world does not have. If we lose this bond, we are nothing at all. (49-62, 1971.10.3)
We are wonderful people. We are wonderful people who are walking on the road of a proud life that the world envies, heaven and earth envy, and all the saints and sages in the spirit world envy. We are people whom God cannot abandon, who have the background and content for which God will not just praise us but also come and tell us that He loves us. (171-29, 1987.12.5)
If there is someone who has good ancestors here, those ancestors will actively cooperate with him. You are standing in such a position. The spirit world will be eternally happy if you, who are in such a position, fight with excitement and good technique, and win all the time wherever you go. Evil spirits will fall back with surprise even before they show up. It works out like that. So these ancestors will attend you as though attending a king. You should feel this kind of feeling. (14-21, 1964.4.19)
Would it be alright for this substantial fruit of six thousand years to fall without being ripened, like a fruit that falls from the tree? Would it do to worry that the wind might blow and to say, `Oh no, it looks like I might fall. If the wind blows a bit more, I am going to fall. True Father, don't shake me. Just let me be still." There are some people here like that. On the other hand, there are those who say, "Even if True Father takes an axe and shakes the branches as he pleases, my branches will never fall until they have been cut." Which side are you on? Are you the ones who worry whether the wind will blow? Or are you the group that won't fall even if you are shaken? (46.155, 1971.8.13)
What is the purpose for which you came here? You did not come to solve some external problem. You came here to clarify the fundamental problem of humankind, to stand in front of the Absolute Being and to be recognized and confirmed by the Absolute Being. (11.224, 1961.9.20)
9.2. Cain-Abel relationships between members
When we look at the members of the Unification Church and ask the question who is Cain and who is Abel, horizontally. Those who joined earlier are Abel, while vertically, those who joined recently are Abel. In the vertical and horizontal relationships, the horizontal must be attentive to the vertical and not the other way around. This is how it will become. (49-214, 1971.10 10)
What is the secret in becoming an Abel figure? It is safeguarding the tradition. One who does not rebel even when facing death can become Abel. You have to understand this. Jesus is said to be the young lamb, right? Therefore, even if you are pierced, you must not rebel. (49-214, 1971.10.10)
Abel must love Cain. He must subjugate him naturally with love. He must stand in the position of loving him with tears and blood. He must give love that is the loftiest. Otherwise, Cain will not relent and restoration cannot be carried out. We must do this for the sake of the Christian church, the Republic of Korea, and North Korea. This is the reason that I am praying for North Korea right now. (34-283, 1970.9.13)
What does Abel have to do? He has to restore three generations. First, Cain must be restored. Then, parents must be restored. Then God must be liberated. These are the three great missions. In other words, without liberating the satanic world, parents cannot appear. Without liberating the parents, God cannot be liberated. It is Abel's mission to be responsible for the three realms of liberation. (58-68, 1972.6.6)
Within the church, you should know how to discern who is Abel and who is Cain. If there are two people, one is surely Abel and the other Cain; if there are three, one can be the Abel figure, one can be Cain, and the other can be in either Abel's or Cain's position. You should be able to clearly discern between the most central Abel and Cain. (3-206, 1957.11.1)
Cain and Abel should not be disunited and separated. One side is the right hand while the other is the left. Therefore, everyone should seek and attend their Abel figure with the belief that my God is your God and that He loves me as well as you. Each should do their best to avoid the position of Cain. If you fail to become such a person, you should clearly understand that at any time you will end up being caught by heaven's judgment. (3-206, 1957.11.1)
Where are the positions of Cain and Abel decided? Cain and Abel positions will not be decided in some nice and comfortable place. Why do we need Cain and Abel? They are needed for the sake of restoration through indemnity. What do we have to do to undertake restoration through indemnity? We have to become a sacrificial offering. (34-91, 1970.8.29)
Where does God decide upon the Abel figure? He makes the choice in a place where Satan cannot accuse. This is the position where unity with God is achieved, but this is not a position of joy, but the most sorrowful and difficult position. In other words, in the position where one is willing to die in the most miserable situation, you can become one with God. (34-51, 1970.8.29)
9.3. Definition of Cain and Abel
Among the members of the Unification Church today, there are those crazy ones who say, "Hey, I am Abel because I joined earlier and those who joined later are Cain, so you should serve me!" What kind of person is Abel? Abel is the one who lives according to God's will. The one who is more public-minded is Abel.
Who is Cain? He stands on the side of Satan. Satan starts off from selfish thoughts. Abel begins with thinking not about himself, but about God. You should understand this. (58-48, 1972.6.6)
Even among those who joined earlier, the one who is satisfying his own greed is Cain. The one who thinks about himself first is Cain. This is the principle that I use when I am dealing with people. No matter how long one has been in the church, if someone is living selfishly, I completely ignore that person. I cannot do anything about it now, but when the time comes, I will tell him to pack up and leave. You are not Abel just because you joined earlier. The one who pursues personal agendas first is Cain and the one who thinks more about public matters and Heaven than about himself is Abel. (58-68, 1972.6.6)
In deciding upon the brotherly order among the members of the Unification Church, one who joined first stands in the Abel position but is at the same time also Cain, and one who joined later is in the position of Cain but is also Abel simultaneously. (24-348, 1969.9.14)
From the perspective of the Principle, Abel is the center. God has to enter the middle of the center. However, have you become Abel? To become Abel, you must obey. You must obey God and become one with Him. In order to become one with God, you must do everything that God tells you to do. You cannot be an Abel unless you can do all that God tells you to do. Even if you did ninety-nine of one hundred tasks, if you fail to do the last one, you cannot become the Abel figure. (34-46, 1970.8.29)
Among the members of the Unification Church, what kind of person would be Cain? Those who raise their head high and order people around are all Cain. Then who is Abel? The person who strives to fulfill their responsibility is Abel.
Originally, those who joined earlier are Cain-type, but they hold their head high and try to be the Abel figure. They are digging their own graves. No matter how hard they try, I will not use them if they do not live according to the rules and principles. (49-214, 1971.10.10)
What kind of beings are Abel and Cain? In short, from the viewpoint of the Principle, Cain is someone who puts his concerns on others; Abel is one who takes on other people's concerns even while having his own. That's the difference. (62-189, 1972.9.25)
To define which person is Cain and which one is Abel, the one who is struck is Abel and one who strikes is Cain. Let's take an example and say there are two sons before their parents, and the age difference between the two is quite substantial. The older brother may act on behalf of the parents for consultation or any other purpose. However, if he hits the younger brother who is without fault, then the parents will stand on the side of the younger son rather than the older. People do not understand that this is the criterion for judging good and evil in today's society. The one who is harming others always becomes the Cain figure. (56-85, 1972.5.14)
Among the Unification members, if you mock someone who is working hard and exhibiting great devotion for the sake of the church, saying, "Why does he act so special?" then you become Cain. You must understand this. This is how Cain and Abel set themselves apart from each other. The one who is being criticized and being harmed without having committed any sin is always Abel, while the one who criticizes and strikes others always becomes Cain. (56-85, 1972.5.14)
Even when you are speaking, the one who speaks words that are beneficial is Abel, and the one who speaks words that harm others is Cain. When you benefit someone else, you are bringing benefits to him; but when you are doing something for your own sake, it is the same as harming that person. For this reason, the public position is the place whose purpose is to benefit others, and the private position is the place where one lives for the sake of one's own benefit. In this way, centering on public and private, Abel and Cain, as well as good and evil, are differentiated. You must understand this. (56-35, 1972.5.14)
The one who is more public-minded is Abel. Among the members of the Unification Church, there are those who believe they are Abel because they joined first, but even if they joined early, if they cannot be public-minded, then they are Cain. They are Cain for sure. Cain was born first, but because he was less public than Abel, he had to follow Abel.
There might be those among the members of the Unification Church who insist, "Because 1 joined early, am Abel." However, those who cannot he more public-minded than those who joined later are Cain. The Abel figure is the one who stands in a more public-minded position. (31-165, 1970.5.24)
You will naturally come to admire me because I have offered my life as a sacrifice more for the sake of the public cause than for my own benefit and invested such quality and quantity of raw materials that you are not aware of. This is the Principle and the heavenly fortune. (64-81, 1972.10.24)
The restoration of the global Kingdom of Heaven cannot come into being unless the foundations for the perfection of Abel on the levels of individual, family, tribe, people, nation, and world can be linked. We who understand this must apply this principle in our daily life, regardless of day or night, and in order to carry on the development of this fundamental principle, we have to be on the run without rest. We can say that this type of person is a person of God. Do you understand? (64-81, 1972.10.24)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 10. Social Relationships. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life
Section 10. Social Relationships
10.1. People should not be treated lightly
You should not treat people lightly. That is why until 1970, whenever someone who was hungry passed by the headquarters, I let them have a meal before they went on their way. It is our duty as human beings to give food to the hungry. Even when you are getting a meal for free, it would be right to share it with others. If someone with a plentiful supply of rice were to strike a hungry person who, passing by had asked for something to eat, that household would not last for long. (56-57, 1972.5.10)
There were times when I saw a person who was so pitiable that I wanted to help by offering him everything had. If you are generous with wanting to give and to help someone, God will praise you. It is good to be generous for the greater good rather than your own well-being, and for improving people's lives in the future, even though life is miserable at present. (42-168, 1971.3.9)
You should not just give a lot of free food. You should invest public-mindedness at the same time. That will bring blessings. No one dislikes the person who gives free food and displays a public mind at the same time. (16-37, 1972.5.10)
You should not ignore people. Don't people say that a worm will wiggle if you step on it? That is how it is for sure. When a person dies and harbors resentment and bitter feelings toward another, the person who incurred that resentment will not last long. (56-38, 1972.5.10)
When dealing with people, you must not do it unsatisfactorily. The work of resurrection does not occur in a course that is mandatory. It has to be exciting. You must stay up at night without even realizing it is night. You discover the value of heaven only when you get to the point at which you can say, "The place where I am now is heaven." Isn't that right? Even with trees, unless they are completely bonded, they don't engraft. (75-177, 1975.1.2)
I try to warmly treat those who come, even if we were to starve. If they have reached a certain level of spirituality, say one hundred, we will be struck and judged if we treat them any less. In those situations, you should treat such people two, three, five, even ten times greater than their level. You will not go to ruin by doing so. God will be deeply impressed saying, "This fellow is better than Heaven!" (56-38, 1972.5.10)
A dog will enter the yard of even the best of houses to relieve itself. If the homeowner complains, "Oh! You dirty little dog! Why are you coming round to our house to defecate in our yard?" then he is chasing away his blessings. Instead, he should say, "Come on in and relieve yourself." (60-158, 1971.8.19)
I am not saying we should not fight or argue. If both sides are going to benefit, then we should fight. We should not fight it one side would perish. We fight to educate and bring them to our side, not to make enemies. (104-31 1979.3.25)
You have to give with a parental heart. You must not give centering on your own ambitions and wishes. Since the True Father has been doing it in this way, you must also do likewise. (11-268, 1961.12.14)
When you show love to people, you should not be stingy. You should not remember what you have invested. I want to give more... Therefore, when you have something good to eat, if you are eating it hiding out somewhere alone, then you are a leader who is to going to decline immediately. If you have something to eat, then you should not eat it but save it. You should wish to give it to someone even if you cannot eat it yourself, and be thinking about the members because you cannot eat it alone. This is the type of person you should become. You have to become leaders who have nurtured this type of parental heart. (70-166, 1974.2.9)
When you give, how should you give? You should not give leftovers. If you give what is left over from your meal, then even after eating it, people will feel disgusted and spit. When you are giving rice cakes, for example, if you take a long time to select one out of the five, picking one up and then putting it down and then picking another, it is worse than not giving at all. When you give to others, if there are five, then you should have no hesitation in picking up half of them and handing them over. Then, people will thank you. Yet, if you are so hesitant and picky, then people will judge you even after they become indebted to you. For this reason, when you give, you should do so together with God and with a parental heart. (60-170, 1972.8.17)
10.2. Social relationships
Today, people do not pay enough attention to each other. In horizontal relationships, it is rare that people pay respect to each other centering on the horizontal connection. Regardless of sex or age, everyone has the attitude that dealing with people is annoying. If you view people as a nuisance, then you can never walk the heavenly way. (25-291, 1969.10.5)
I believe that the life of religious people should be one where they become united with God, stand as the representatives of God's love before creation and this world, and expand and connect the horizontal relationships to the whole environment, based on a standard of love. This should be connected and established in your lives. To do so, you should establish relationships with other people with the heart of God. (82-275, 1976.2.1)
When people meet, it is just like the balls that collide with each other on a billiard table, isn't it? This is interesting. Our encounters with people take on a similar action. You get the feeling that when you face each other, you are drawn together as one and then pushed away again. When you kick a soccer ball, don't you feel good if it goes up and down and changes direction in every way? It is the same with human relationships. (91-81, 1977.1.30)
The question of how much value we have as a human being is determined by the level of investment by all our five senses into our life and love. Therefore, we cannot help asking ourselves whether we have established relationships and led a social life with vitality and a heart of deepest love. You should know that if you do not stand in such a position, you are in a state of suspension or retreat. (32-19, 1970.6.14)
For God's providence of restoration, the Republic of Korea is not the only place that God needs. He needs all of the people in the world. For this reason, God is deeply concerned about people. So far, this has been the most important goal in God's providence. Since we are a group of people who are gathered for the sake of achieving this goal, we must stand in the same position as God and have the same degree of concern toward all people. (25-291, 1969.10.5)
You should not be greedy when relating to others. (33-143, 1970.8.11)
In order to become good, you should not think that you have nothing to do with the evils of others. You should suffer for them, and pray throughout the night with tears for them, and live with the determination to offer a sacrifice of atonement for their sins. Such a person will surely become their central figure. (34-130, 1970.8.30)
A good person should know how to love children, young people, and the elderly. If human beings are in the position of stewards in relation to nature, people should love spring, summer, autumn, and winter. (72-100, 1974.5.26)
You should love and respect the elderly more than you do the young people. It would be alright just to meet young people, but you should especially love and have sympathy for older people who cannot work and who are weak and need care. But I cannot see such a trend in society today. (25-289, 1969.10.51
When you love others, you should not only love young people; you should love the young, elderly, and all human beings. When I look at youth today, I see that they avoid dealing with the elderly, but they should not do so. They should love the elderly and also the young. (25-289, 1969.10.5)
We should love people. We have to love people, and our yearning for them should be greater than that of anyone else. We are gathered together centering on God's will rather than human will. Therefore, we will surely remain as the fruit of love throughout the entire world.
When the trees densely cover the hills, it is difficult to distinguish a pine tree from a spindle tree. However, this will be revealed when it turns to autumn and winter. If you find a green tree in the winter, amid the trees with only trunks and branches, it stirs up hope inside you. This is symbolic of a new relationship being established. (25-287, 1967.10.5)
The first commandment is, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." The second commandment is, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The first commandment says you should love God, and the second one says you should love your neighbor, meaning all humankind. You should love all humankind; they are your brothers and neighbors. (136-139, 1935.12.22)
Arrogance is your enemy. Arrogance and stubbornness are the natures and elements of Satan. Instead of being arrogant and stubborn, you should be modest and harmonious. You should be a person who can create harmony and friendship; someone who can harmonize with everyone. Everything starts to flow from here. Something greater cannot arise if people or things do not unite. This is what happens when there is no harmony. Jealousy and envy are other natures of Satan, but for us, arrogance and stubbornness are unforgivable. (37-132, 1970.12.23)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Chapter 4: Section 1. The Daily Etiquette of a Blessed Family. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Three - Worship Service and Etiquette in Church Life
Section 10. Social Relationships
10.1. People should not be treated lightly
You should not treat people lightly. That is why until 1970, whenever someone who was hungry passed by the headquarters, I let them have a meal before they went on their way. It is our duty as human beings to give food to the hungry. Even when you are getting a meal for free, it would be right to share it with others. If someone with a plentiful supply of rice were to strike a hungry person who, passing by had asked for something to eat, that household would not last for long. (56-57, 1972.5.10)
There were times when I saw a person who was so pitiable that I wanted to help by offering him everything had. If you are generous with wanting to give and to help someone, God will praise you. It is good to be generous for the greater good rather than your own well-being, and for improving people's lives in the future, even though life is miserable at present. (42-168, 1971.3.9)
You should not just give a lot of free food. You should invest public-mindedness at the same time. That will bring blessings. No one dislikes the person who gives free food and displays a public mind at the same time. (16-37, 1972.5.10)
You should not ignore people. Don't people say that a worm will wiggle if you step on it? That is how it is for sure. When a person dies and harbors resentment and bitter feelings toward another, the person who incurred that resentment will not last long. (56-38, 1972.5.10)
When dealing with people, you must not do it unsatisfactorily. The work of resurrection does not occur in a course that is mandatory. It has to be exciting. You must stay up at night without even realizing it is night. You discover the value of heaven only when you get to the point at which you can say, "The place where I am now is heaven." Isn't that right? Even with trees, unless they are completely bonded, they don't engraft. (75-177, 1975.1.2)
I try to warmly treat those who come, even if we were to starve. If they have reached a certain level of spirituality, say one hundred, we will be struck and judged if we treat them any less. In those situations, you should treat such people two, three, five, even ten times greater than their level. You will not go to ruin by doing so. God will be deeply impressed saying, "This fellow is better than Heaven!" (56-38, 1972.5.10)
A dog will enter the yard of even the best of houses to relieve itself. If the homeowner complains, "Oh! You dirty little dog! Why are you coming round to our house to defecate in our yard?" then he is chasing away his blessings. Instead, he should say, "Come on in and relieve yourself." (60-158, 1971.8.19)
I am not saying we should not fight or argue. If both sides are going to benefit, then we should fight. We should not fight it one side would perish. We fight to educate and bring them to our side, not to make enemies. (104-31 1979.3.25)
You have to give with a parental heart. You must not give centering on your own ambitions and wishes. Since the True Father has been doing it in this way, you must also do likewise. (11-268, 1961.12.14)
When you show love to people, you should not be stingy. You should not remember what you have invested. I want to give more... Therefore, when you have something good to eat, if you are eating it hiding out somewhere alone, then you are a leader who is to going to decline immediately. If you have something to eat, then you should not eat it but save it. You should wish to give it to someone even if you cannot eat it yourself, and be thinking about the members because you cannot eat it alone. This is the type of person you should become. You have to become leaders who have nurtured this type of parental heart. (70-166, 1974.2.9)
When you give, how should you give? You should not give leftovers. If you give what is left over from your meal, then even after eating it, people will feel disgusted and spit. When you are giving rice cakes, for example, if you take a long time to select one out of the five, picking one up and then putting it down and then picking another, it is worse than not giving at all. When you give to others, if there are five, then you should have no hesitation in picking up half of them and handing them over. Then, people will thank you. Yet, if you are so hesitant and picky, then people will judge you even after they become indebted to you. For this reason, when you give, you should do so together with God and with a parental heart. (60-170, 1972.8.17)
10.2. Social relationships
Today, people do not pay enough attention to each other. In horizontal relationships, it is rare that people pay respect to each other centering on the horizontal connection. Regardless of sex or age, everyone has the attitude that dealing with people is annoying. If you view people as a nuisance, then you can never walk the heavenly way. (25-291, 1969.10.5)
I believe that the life of religious people should be one where they become united with God, stand as the representatives of God's love before creation and this world, and expand and connect the horizontal relationships to the whole environment, based on a standard of love. This should be connected and established in your lives. To do so, you should establish relationships with other people with the heart of God. (82-275, 1976.2.1)
When people meet, it is just like the balls that collide with each other on a billiard table, isn't it? This is interesting. Our encounters with people take on a similar action. You get the feeling that when you face each other, you are drawn together as one and then pushed away again. When you kick a soccer ball, don't you feel good if it goes up and down and changes direction in every way? It is the same with human relationships. (91-81, 1977.1.30)
The question of how much value we have as a human being is determined by the level of investment by all our five senses into our life and love. Therefore, we cannot help asking ourselves whether we have established relationships and led a social life with vitality and a heart of deepest love. You should know that if you do not stand in such a position, you are in a state of suspension or retreat. (32-19, 1970.6.14)
For God's providence of restoration, the Republic of Korea is not the only place that God needs. He needs all of the people in the world. For this reason, God is deeply concerned about people. So far, this has been the most important goal in God's providence. Since we are a group of people who are gathered for the sake of achieving this goal, we must stand in the same position as God and have the same degree of concern toward all people. (25-291, 1969.10.5)
You should not be greedy when relating to others. (33-143, 1970.8.11)
In order to become good, you should not think that you have nothing to do with the evils of others. You should suffer for them, and pray throughout the night with tears for them, and live with the determination to offer a sacrifice of atonement for their sins. Such a person will surely become their central figure. (34-130, 1970.8.30)
A good person should know how to love children, young people, and the elderly. If human beings are in the position of stewards in relation to nature, people should love spring, summer, autumn, and winter. (72-100, 1974.5.26)
You should love and respect the elderly more than you do the young people. It would be alright just to meet young people, but you should especially love and have sympathy for older people who cannot work and who are weak and need care. But I cannot see such a trend in society today. (25-289, 1969.10.51
When you love others, you should not only love young people; you should love the young, elderly, and all human beings. When I look at youth today, I see that they avoid dealing with the elderly, but they should not do so. They should love the elderly and also the young. (25-289, 1969.10.5)
We should love people. We have to love people, and our yearning for them should be greater than that of anyone else. We are gathered together centering on God's will rather than human will. Therefore, we will surely remain as the fruit of love throughout the entire world.
When the trees densely cover the hills, it is difficult to distinguish a pine tree from a spindle tree. However, this will be revealed when it turns to autumn and winter. If you find a green tree in the winter, amid the trees with only trunks and branches, it stirs up hope inside you. This is symbolic of a new relationship being established. (25-287, 1967.10.5)
The first commandment is, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." The second commandment is, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The first commandment says you should love God, and the second one says you should love your neighbor, meaning all humankind. You should love all humankind; they are your brothers and neighbors. (136-139, 1935.12.22)
Arrogance is your enemy. Arrogance and stubbornness are the natures and elements of Satan. Instead of being arrogant and stubborn, you should be modest and harmonious. You should be a person who can create harmony and friendship; someone who can harmonize with everyone. Everything starts to flow from here. Something greater cannot arise if people or things do not unite. This is what happens when there is no harmony. Jealousy and envy are other natures of Satan, but for us, arrogance and stubbornness are unforgivable. (37-132, 1970.12.23)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Chapter 4: Section 1. The Daily Etiquette of a Blessed Family. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section I. The Daily Etiquette of a Blessed Family
1.1. Establishing proper family rules and practices
We have been living and speaking carelessly, but from now on we should establish rules in our families. Parents should not beat their children with a stick out of anger or speak secular words of condemnation to them. Now everything should be aligned. Our words, attitudes, and way of life should be aligned centering upon God. (26-252, 1970.1.22)
Your families should not become slaves to habit. The family is the starting point for establishing the four-position foundation. Here, the unity of the family is required. The family should conform to the original standard of God's desire. (21-76, 1968.10.20)
In order for the first son's family to thrive, the family members are to accept and conscientiously practice the established family rules and etiquette that come from their ancestors. People whose attitude is "Those rules have nothing to do with me" cannot be the offspring of that family. Such a person cannot be the heir of such a family, even if he is born as its eldest son. (21-252, 1968.11.24)
How are we going to maintain the pure lineage inherited from God? How can we preserve the pure lineage rather than the fallen lineage?
We must sincerely care for the second generation. It is very difficult to become pure in this fallen world. The first human beings fell even though they were in the unstained Garden of Eden. In spite of their suffering, the blessed parents born in the fallen world should make an unstained environment for their blessed children. It is my desire to prepare such an environment as quickly as possible for the second generation, no matter what sacrifices that may entail. We have to hurry. (God's Will - 550)
In order for you to be liberated from the sinful world, you should not think that you are Korean citizens. Instead of thinking that you are Korean, you should have the concept, "1 am God's person, a citizen of heaven, a heavenly person." You should live your life as if you are sharpening a dagger to ruthlessly cut out the sinful nature that permeates the customs and habits of the fallen world, including its language, clothes, shoes, and cosmetics. This kind of dedicated life can liberate you from the sinful world. There is no way to subjugate the sinful world unless we achieve victory over the secular history, habits, and bad customs that pervade the environment. You will have to be liberated from such bad environmental conditions if you want to become a true person, restore a true nation, and go to the Kingdom of Heaven. (97-327, 1978.4.1)
Your family should not become secularized or slaves of habit. You should not think, "Things will be better in the future even though it is terrible now." You are to be perfect now; the present is the problem. When the past and the present are perfected, the future will be perfect. Not having had a perfect day in the Garden of Eden still causes us to suffer the effects of the Fall.
The ideal is the place where the past, present, and future can be united into one. You should be able to offer up the present. God's desire is to set up the eternal stepping stone on earth. This is the historical point of synthesis. (21-77, 1968.10.20)
The reason for the destruction of the Israelites after they entered Canaan was that they were assimilated into the existing environment and became accustomed to its habits. They met their downfall because their mental focus settled on the life of eating and luxury. The Israelites even married gentiles as long as they came from wealthy families. They coveted power and were fond of knowledge. They perished because they assimilated the existing Canaanite culture and abandoned their spirit of being the chosen ones to the gentiles. (144-134, 1986.4.12)
Chronic habits are deep-seated evil habits. After your marriage, if you lead a habitual life while rearing your children, habits become part of your body. You no longer find time for prayer or special offerings in such an environment; there is no time for prayer when the children are making noise right beside you. (30-125, 1970.3.21)
From now on, we should cut off what needs to be cut off and divide what needs to be divided. You should not do as you please. The Unification Church must establish the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, it should restore the family rather than the individual. Those who cannot become exemplary in their family life will suffer worldwide criticism, even throughout all of heaven and earth. (30-230, 1970.3.23)
The Blessing is precious only after you fulfill your responsibility. Men should not use their fists and women should not curse. They should not swear in the secular way. There should be something different about you. The family is a micro-church. It should be the agency of heaven; it should be a family that God would want to visit. At least three families should live together.
In particular, what I want to say today is, first, your families should be the ones that many people can visit. Harmony among people is most important. Second, heavenly families should build solidarity with one another. At the very least, you should be completely united with the other families in your blessing trinity. (15-270, 1965.10.24)
We are not focused on the individual but on the family. Still, we are not trying to solve everything based only on the family. Rather, we should connect everything to the family. Hence, the endeavors made in the past while cultivating a solitary life of spirituality are not enough now. To this you should also add your own determination and resolution to exert yourself much more than you did in the past. In an instant, a life of challenging evil can easily leave one fatigued and lead one to retreat. When you have a family, you should work much harder than when you were single.
The family is in the central position. We cannot avoid reality. You should establish relationships of front and back, left and right, top and bottom in your family. It will not do to have the kind of faith that existed in the past. That kind of one-sided attitude in faith that you had in the past will not work. (27-85, 1969.11.26)
Blessed families should establish a family tradition and create a family code of conduct. You should also create a standard of education for children and rules of conduct for the family. If the parents have not done so, they will have nothing to say when they commit an error and their children press them hard. (21.67, 1968.11.3)
1.2. Family life
There must be clarification about the way of life individuals and also families should lead. (24-29, 1969.6.22)
The vague way of life that you have previously been living must change into a purposeful way of life. (18-178, 1967.6.4)
When we silently sacrifice everything for the sake of God, He will protect us. God surely will be at our side. (88-231, 1976.9.20)
Your family should be a family of love, and you should become a public-minded husband and wife, or parents, centered upon God's love. Do not be a husband and wife or parents who seek personal benefit and live only for your own sake. (111-257, 1981.2.22)
When the parents make serious efforts not to deviate from the heavenly way, the children will never be disobedient. (27-88, 1969.11.26)
The family should be restored. There is no greater act of witnessing than this. Husband and wife should get up early in the morning and pray tearfully while holding their children's hands. If they do so, their children will yearn for their parents when they have gone out and sing for them as they wait for their return. (21-88, 1966.11.3)
When you were alone, everything came to pass when you prayed. However, if there is a person opposing you in the family, you should bear the cross and persevere until you reach the original standard. Alone, you are like one car of a train and the family is like a locomotive. It is simple to restore an individual's mistake. But if there is a mistake in the family, it brings ruin. (27-86, 1969.11.26)
The family in which the children can say, "Dad, we love you! Mom, we love you! We really like it when you love each other!" becomes a place of rest for them. (30-282, 1970.4.4)
In a family there needs to be a foundation on which the son can respond enthusiastically to the father's call. Yet, even if you have children, what good is it without a nation? It is of no use to be in first place or in any other position as a family if we cannot build a nation. (29-73, 1970.2.21)
Blessed families are the manifestation of everyone's hope. However, if they fail to fulfill their given responsibility, they become a family of despair. (21-87, 1968.11.3)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 2. The Exemplary Family Life of Faith. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 2. The Exemplary Family Life of Faith
2.1. A family life of faith educates the children
Think about it. How many people come before Sunday Service and help prepare for it? Many are just arriving when the sermon is about to begin, after the singing of the holy songs. How can we call such people followers of God's will? No matter how well they make excuses, they are living a private-minded life, not a public-minded one. There is nothing we can hope for or expect from such people. Therefore, you should seek a fresh understanding of God's will and go forth with the resolution to be conscientious in public life and to be a good example in private life. (31-271, 1970.6.4)
All Blessed Families, without exception, should arrive before the church service starts and create an atmosphere of grace for the many types of people who will attend, so that they may experience grace. If you create a foundation of heart to support the minister before he comes up to give the sermon, the speaker will be stimulated by the fervent expressions on the members' faces. The number of such members determines the development of the church. (31-271, 1970.6.4)
You should consider public anniversaries and events of our church as part of your very own life and mobilize yourself. Families who do not do this are failures as Blessed Families. (31-276, 1970.6.4)
Blessed families should teach their children how to offer the Sabbath day to God by showing them an exemplary life of offering devotion from the break of day in order to prepare for the service. But in reality they do whatever they want to do, they do not pray, offer devotions, study the Principle, or witness in the name of a life of living faith. If the Sunday Service starts at 10:30, they should leave for church at 9:30 or 10:00. Instead of doing this, they leave home late and rush into their seats in the middle of the service. Such a family will be accused. As parents, no matter how much they educate their children, it will not influence them at all. (31-269, 1970.6.4)
Parents should set a good example in their life of faith. In the family, they should show their children how fervently they practice all aspects of a life of faith, including prayer life and family services. They should help the children recognize how important the time for Pledge is. They should not just hold Pledge service at that particular time, but as parents, they should also teach their children about God's Will. (31-269, 1970.6.4)
Blessed families should be exemplary in their life of attendance to Heaven. They should live a life of offering donations, doing Pledge service and witnessing. (35-312, 1970 10.30)
Sunday is the day to offer to the other members what you have planned and saved during the week that can bring them joy. On Sundays, you can share some specially prepared food and everyone should praise their spouses. (21-88, 1968.11.3)
You cannot expect your children to grow well if you do not even hold morning Pledge service or devotion time and go to Sunday service. 'Therefore, you should establish the four-position foundation centering upon True Parents. In order to raise descendants well, parents must live correctly. (21-87, 1968.1.23)
Blessed families should be an example in participating in Sunday service and in official church assemblies. (21-87, 1968.11.3)
Wherever they visit, members should first go to the holy place, in other words, the holy ground or the church. If they cannot, they should at least set up a condition of having done so. Each of you is an individual; yet you should bear in mind that you are more than this. You should each stand in the position of a first ancestor. (17-86, 1966.11.26)
Each family should prepare a white cushion. They should prepare a clean and neat place, sit on that cushion, and take time to offer sincere devotion to God. (17-47, 1966.11.2)
Whether you are awake or asleep, eating or resting, whatever you see or do, all your actions should be centered on God's will. (73-61, 1974.7.29)
You should offer all your devotion in witnessing to your parents. There is no greater happiness than receiving heaven's blessings with them, in the presence of God's will, and creating a protective fence as a Blessed Family. (16-329, 1966.7.31)
2.2. A life of prayer
You must pray. In deciding the time to pray, you should try praying at daybreak, in the morning, at lunch, in the evening, and even at eleven or twelve at night. When you lead a life of prayer like that for many years, you should know which period of time is the best time for you to pray. Knowing this, you should offer devotion to God at the time that is right for you.
If possible, you should pray with a person who has a high standard of grace. By doing so, you will receive grace through that person. If your husband has a higher standard of grace than you and if he leads an exemplary life of faith, you will come to receive grace because of him. After receiving grace in this way, you will look upon your husband as the most handsome man in the world. In reverse, if the husband receives grace through his wife, his wife will surely look most beautiful to him; she will be the most beautiful woman in the world. This is how couples should have been.
Thus, when you are awake, you want to see each other, and whisper to each other throughout the night. That is not something that brings ruin but rather prosperity. (31-288, 1970.6.4)
How many hours do you spend eating every day? Would it not be almost an hour and a half? You spend on the average one and a half hours eating. For spiritual work, you must invest much more than the amount of time you spend on eating. I have come to understand this fact through numerous years of my life of faith. (70-171, 1974.2.9)
Prayers are always fulfilled. Through prayer we receive energy and are shown the future prospects of how problems will unfold. You will be taught, "In this situation, do things like this, and in that kind of work, do things like that." You can accomplish great things by knowing this. Only through prayer can you pioneer that kind of path. You must know that praying is more essential than eating your meals. (102-111, 1979.4.15)
As we realize more and more that the path we must follow is one requiring a breakthrough, we come to feel somehow that this is impossible with our own strength alone. Therefore, we must understand that a person of faith must pray. (71-271, 1974.5.5)
Pray. Prayer is your heart's storehouse. If you do not have time, you should at least pray while doing your work. (27-89, 1969.11.26)
You should pray even while doing your laundry or walking down the road. You should constantly fill up your storehouse; it should never be empty. (27-87, 1969.11.26)
Without leading a life of constant prayer, you cannot go the way of God's will. Do not think of money in your daily life; you should first think about God's will. (27-88, 1969.11.26)
Have you become children of God who can receive His support? If you wish to maintain this, you should always be with Him and become someone who allows God to be with you. A puppy that leaves the bosom of its mother and goes around on its own cannot enjoy its mother's protection. (100-104, 1978.10.11)
2.3. Blessed families are the elders of the tribe
Just as I instructed at the time of the 1968 Blessing of 430 couples, you also should become tribal messiahs. You must fulfill this mission. For instance, the 36 couples from the Kim tribe should be organized centered on members of the Kim family who have already received the Blessing, just as the 36 Couples are organized in the church around me. If it is too difficult to establish 36 couples, you should at least become the ancestors of 12 couples. Then you should become the ancestors of your tribe and organize your tribe into twelve branch tribes. When you accomplish this, your entire tribe will be included in those twelve branch tribes, thus becoming a tribe of your direct lineage. (31-276, 1970.6.4)
Blessed families today are important because they are the ancestors of tradition. You should become a messianic family to your tribe and establish a tradition. (21-87, 1968.11.3)
From now on, tribes will emerge centering upon the Blessed Families. Therefore, you should accomplish your mission as a tribal messiah. The churches from now on will all be centered upon the elder of the tribe. All Blessed families are the elders of their tribes. (23-62, 1969.5.11)
Because the foundation for a new family and tribe has been established, you have entered the most historically wonderful realm of grace in which you can restore your tribes. So the time has come for you to witness to your parents, brothers, and sisters. The purpose of the history of restoration is to restore the family. How much faster would it be to restore your direct family rather than other families! It seems like a dream for you to be able to hear me pronounce, in my lifetime, the order to witness to your parents and your siblings. (17-53, 1973.7.1)
You can now build up a tribal foundation in your lifetime. How glorious this is! You should he grateful to know this. Yet, if you cannot fulfill that responsibility, your family will still be held accountable for it. In this respect, of course, the responsibility of the family is important, but now families should take upon themselves the mission of tribal messiah. (31-280, 1970.6.4)
Once you are caught there, hell is a place you cannot escape from. Still, you do not feel a sense of desperation that your parents and your relatives may go to hell. You are just idly thinking, "Let's let it be as it is." But imagine that your loving parents could really go to hell! If they had to go to jail in the secular world, you would make whatever effort necessary to release them. That's just human love. As sons and daughters connected to heavenly love, then what are you going to do about your parents, relatives, brothers, and sisters who have to go to jail for eternity? (34-266, 1970.9.13)
In Blessed Families, the man stands as a physical representative of Jesus and the woman stands as a physical representative of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Blessed families should dash forward to rescue the Korean people without delay, just as Jesus and the Holy Spirit did for the people of Israel. Thus Blessed families can begin their mission as tribal messiahs. (21-284, 1963.12.1)
You have the responsibility to reach the land of Israel with your family. Just as the twelve tribes of Israel had to go to their assigned areas in the land, you are to march forward to take your family and find the land of your inheritance for your tribe. (35-302, 1970.10.30)
Why did I send you out as tribal messiahs? In the past, Jesus was sent to this world through a vertical course from the spirit world. Today, True Father is in the position of God and, as a representative of Heaven, is sending out thousands of messianic families who can represent their tribes to the world. Now we cannot perish. I proclaimed tribal messiahship at 2:30 pm on January 3, 1989. (185-233, 1989.1.8)
You have to understand that the tribal messiah is in the vanguard and guides his tribe to their historical hometown within his lifetime. You are the vanguard, just as Moses was during the Exodus, it is not blind devotion. Moses did not know certain things, but I know everything in a logical and detailed way. You must return to your hometown, but you cannot return there without finding Cain. (102-264, 1979.1.14)
Why do you have to fulfill the responsibility of tribal messiah? The first reason is that you must save your parents. Your parents are in the position of the first Adam, and you are in the position of the second Adam. You must complete the mission of Adam by restoring and re-creating your parents. The second reason is that you need a hometown. By completing the responsibility of tribal messiah, you will be able to have your own hometown.
Ultimately, the reason for fulfilling your portion of responsibility as a tribal messiah is the perfection of Adam's family. In real terms, you have to educate your tribe. (244-211, 1993.2.7)
In order for an individual to achieve settlement, he needs a family. Thus, the Unification Church has been fighting to establish families. In the same way, a family cannot find settlement without a tribe. Your tribe serves as a fence to protect you and your family from the blast of the wind and all other adverse things. Without creating such a realm that can serve this purpose, you cannot exist in a peaceful family.
In order to do that, you should become the tribal elder fur your relatives. If you become their tribal elder, even if there is fighting going on, relatives from different villages will go out to the frontline and fight, and the elder just has to direct their commands. Then he can rest! Therefore, I am telling you to fulfill the mission of tribal messiah. Then, you can go on to fulfill the mission of national messiah. In the future, if you go out to the world and witness, you are doing the mission of a national messiah. (56-311, 1972.5.18)
If you are named Kim, you should fulfill the mission as a messiah of the Kim clan. You should think, "1 am the messiah," representing the Kim clan if you are a Kim, or representing the Park clan if you are a Park, and feel responsible to build the heavenly nation representing that clan. Think that you are the savior who is redeeming the Kim clan. To do that, you must fulfill the responsibility of being a high priest to the entire Kim clan. (155-265, 1965.10.31)
What is the ultimate goal? What is the method to find the solution? What do we have to do to receive the benefits of breaking down all the walls and being able to solve human problems? We have to become tribal messiahs. When this is completed, there will remain nothing that can be a condition for individuals, families, tribes, nations, or any people of the world to accuse True Parents. (89-110, 1989.3.19)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 3. A Life of Living with True Love. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 3. A Life of Living with True Love
3.1. Living for the sake of others
What kind of being is the God who created this universe and its laws? He is the one who stands in the representative position of having lived for the sake of others more than anyone else. This is God. Therefore, in order to meet Him, you have to live for the sake of others. Even though He is the great king of knowledge, He does not ask you to come to Him with knowledge. God is also the great king of power, yet He does not ask you to come with power. He is also the master and great king of authority, money, and material things, but His desire is not lily people to gather these things. If you live for the sake of others, everything can come to you. (133-16, 1984.7.1)
Concerning the process of re-creation, to give and give again for the sake of others is the same as God expending Himself in the act of creation. To invest oneself is the act of creating one's second self; it is the same as God investing Himself for the sake of Creation. The works of re-creation follow the course of restoration through indemnity; indemnity is carried out through the works of recreation. Therefore, re-creation can only come about when you invest yourself. For this reason, it is a reasonable conclusion to say that sacrifice is inevitable. (82-240, 1976.1.30)
God is not a dictator. God has also invested for the sake of humankind. God exists for the sake of humanity. For this reason, human beings have tried to follow Him for thousands upon thousands of years. Since the universe and all existing beings come under the heavenly law of living for the sake of others, then in order for human beings to maintain their existing position, they must live for the sake of others living for others goes beyond East and West or past and present. (18-89, 1989.1.6)
We should know that living for the sake of the self brings about evil, but acting for the sake of the whole brings development. When you live for the sake of the whole, every door will be opened to you. The doors of the individual, family, tribe, a people, world, and heaven will open; everything will open its door and welcome you.
Living for the sake of others is a universal truth that you need in order to establish the true way of life. It is a principle that can apply everywhere, and is unchanging for eternity. Since it transcends the past, present, and future, one should always live for the sake of others. If God appears in front of Jesus or Mohammed or saints such as Confucius and Buddha and asks what they think about this truth, would they answer that it is right or wrong? It is a universal principle and law for humankind to live their lives in this true way. (133-6, 1984.7.1)
What achievements can we leave behind in history as our tradition? Only those achievements that were attained through living an altruistic life with the spirit of sacrifice have survived in this world to this day. Such people have been remembered as saints, historical figures, and patriots. Only with such a spirit of sacrifice does our legacy survive. Hence, you should know that only by living a life of sacrifice can you leave behind a worthy legacy. (82-239, 1976.1.31)
God's love is to love not only all the things of creation and all humankind but all the people of the past, present, and future. Therefore, God is working to liberate even the spirits of people who have passed into hell. Human beings must go the way of truth, life, and love. No matter how great you may be, if you do not have a foundation of living for the sake of others, nothing will follow you. On the other hand, someone who lives for the sake of others will naturally become the subject being. He will become a person of true life. (33-30, 1984.7.1)
The reason True Parents' ideas will emerge in the twenty-first century as the mainstream thought is because they oppose the "live for myself" model in favor of the "live for others" philosophy that I have discovered. From a logical point of view, it is inevitable that the world will go in this latter direction. That is why the only hope resides with the Unification Church. Tens of thousands of years after the twenty-first century, the world will follow the ideal of living for the sake of others, rather than the live-for-myself philosophy. People will not follow or like the live-for-myself way of thinking. (169-88, 1987.10.25)
How is unification possible? How will I accomplish unification? Through physical aggression? By force? With money, power, or knowledge? Everything is solved at the point of living for others, based on true love. The conclusion is simple, isn't it? By living for others centering on true love, the satanic world will be re-created as a heavenly world. That is a logical conclusion. (182-134, 1981.10.16)
3.2. People who live for the sake of others become the center
Are you Unificationists saying that you want to eat and live well, or that you want to live in hardship? Shall we live well or in hardship? For whom? For Rev. Moon of the Unification Church? It is for God. This is the only way we can melt God's heart. (42-52, 1971.2.19)
The way to win over someone is not to try to win through conflict but to care for him first from the position of a parent. By doing so you will be successful. If you care for him for three years, then he will certainly listen to you well. This is how the human mind works. He will open all the doors in his house, including the master bedroom, and welcome you with the words. "You can come to our house anytime." You have to understand that such selfless actions, aligned with the original universal principle, will move the original minds of people. (103-139, 1979.2.18)
What kind of position do God and parents hold? It is one in which you take care of others first. God thinks about you before you do. Parents think about you before you do. This is why they are great and stand in the subject position. When two of you live together, you have to have the attitude, "I should do the things that he is supposed to do." This is the type of person that God is. That person is the center. The person who lives for the sake of others surely becomes the center. (103-139, 1979.2.18)
If my partner loved me and lived for my sake concerning themselves about small matters, then I would want to give back more than that. This would expand continuously. With this type of expansion, after some time had passed - say, if it continued for the rest of one's life - then this sacrificial way of life would extend beyond the nation to the world, the Kingdom of Heaven, and the eternal spirit world. (119-26, 1982.9.26)
Why do people like things of a higher level? They like high places because there they can connect to a variety of things. Why don't they like low places? It is because people become restricted in low places, far away from wider relationships. For human beings, the most precious person of all is the one who is trying to connect to higher ideals, perspectives and issues. From this we can realize that such a person is a precious person. (129-308, 1983.12.1)
You have to be more altruistic. What does that mean? The one who is most altruistic will become the leader. Out of ten people, the one who becomes the center is the one who lives and loves most for the sake of the others. All those people will come seeking him. In general, people think that living for others is not good. Yet, this is the real way to reach the center, achieving ownership and receiving everything. This is a universal principle. Therefore, you should understand this concept of living for others. It is not something bad that brings losses. There is no better business than this. (132-276, 1984.6.20)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 4. Parents Must Establish the Law of Love. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 4. Parents Must Establish the Law of Love
4.1. Parents are closer than friends
Parents exist for their children. If parents lived for themselves, the word parent would not exist. From now on, moral principles should be formed centering on the Principle of the Unification Church. How should parents live? Parents who give birth to children should live for those children. That is the first article of the moral principle. No explanation is needed for that. Living for the child is not an unhappy thing, but something happy and joyful. (62-214, 1972.9.25)
No parents teach their own children to do wrong. Nevertheless, it is possible for a teacher to teach his students to do wrong. If the teacher is in the position of an enemy, he may teach them ruinous things. There are two kinds of teachers and two kinds of brothers. But there is only one kind of parent. Even evil parents teach their children to do good things. (28-85, 1970.1.4)
To whom do you belong? You belong both to your parents and your child. To whom do the parents belong? They belong to both the child and to God simultaneously. Therefore, first you belong to God, and then you belong to your child. After that, you belong to yourself. When you reach that stage, you will be perfect.
That is why the moral principle of showing respect to parents still remains in human life. The phrase "respect for your parents and love for your child" is derived from this principle. A person without parents is an orphan. Only after you have the experience of receiving parental love and of loving your children can you distinguish your position in the four horizontal directions and up and down. (18-209, 1967.6.8)
Your children should be able to say, "Our parents are the best on earth." The people of the world will come and visit Korea in search of exemplary families. You should have something to show and to say to them at that time. (21-87, 1968.11.3)
A father should be the best friend of friends. When a father appears, his son should jump up to be with his father, even abandoning his friends. A father should also be the teacher of teachers. Hence, a father is to be considered even better than the president, the best and second-best only to God. Children should think of their father as their best friend and teacher, whom they would never exchange for any other friends or teachers. Sons should be able to say, "I would rather abandon my loving wife than abandon my father." (57-252, 1972.6.4)
I always caress the sleeping faces of my children when I come home. It is not easy to be a good parent. Through this, a thought is automatically implanted in the children's minds, "I will also love my sons and daughters as my father loves me." They should be able to realize that their father is the best in the whole world. (97-310, 1978.3.26)
Everyone wants to have a great son. They may ask how they should educate a child to be great. However, education continues throughout the parents' entire lifetime. They should offer sincere devotion. When the parents pass on their household to the children whom they have raised with utmost devotion or appoint them as their representatives, they have a common desire to have their children be like-minded and follow their ways. (24-257, 1969.8.24)
Parents suffer for their children so much that it could melt even their bone marrow, yet they would feel no pain. Why? Because they love their children so much. Do they record how much it costs after giving away their flesh and blood? They do not do that. Instead, they feel frustrated at not being able to give their children everything. (39-04, 1971.1.16)
Parents' love toward their children does not just come from their everyday relationships with each other. It is a love that springs up from the very marrow of their bones. Parents have a loving mind for their children that can never be forgotten or cut off. Therefore, parents love their children as long as their life endures. When parents experience that their life is connected with their children, a loving heart toward their children naturally springs up. Parents cannot help loving their children, not just because of a conscious intention to love them because they are their own, but because of the life force that connects them to their children more deeply than that kind of awareness. We vividly feel this reality in our daily family life. (32-15, 1970.6.24)
The man should take responsibility for all the disputes that arise in a family. He should maintain the central position of authority in the family. (21-87, 1968.11.3)
4.2. Tradition is passed on by parents
I am not worried about leaving behind the name of the Unification Church but about how to leave behind people who have inherited the tradition of True Parents. That is why I have been continuously educating them about the importance of tradition. (35-115, 1970.10.4)
Looking ahead, what is meant by living well in the future? Being well-off does not matter. We must take responsibility for the education of our descendants. We have to leave a good example for them. Until now all of us, including myself, have walked a miserable path. Like refugees, we did not have any place to stay as we walked through the wilderness course. However, from now on we have to settle down; in order to do so, we must be victorious. Unless we win as the Israelites did when they drove out the seven tribes of Canaan, we cannot settle down. We should gain victory in this battle by focusing on this nation. (77-251, 1975.4.13)
You should educate your children by teaching them to become like their parents. It is not shameful that you did not eat enough and that you wore terrible clothes while witnessing. That will become educational material for your descendants that cannot be exchanged for millions of dollars. (83-259, 1976.2.8)
Suffering is wonderful; therefore, you should set a tradition that will make all your descendants feel proud for many generations. (14-92, 1964.6.12)
The big problem is how the three generations of the children of our Blessed Families can live with me. If three generations together earn merit, they will be meritorious subjects in the spirit world. Have you ever thought about that? Thus, you should embrace your children and, from now on, devote yourself sincerely to educating your children with such an idea. (51-269, 1971.11.28)
You should leave behind a tradition followed by good and respectable descendants. You should leave behind strong, bold and worthy descendants. If you can do so, even though your nation may have been destined to perish, it will not. New benefactors will appear in a time of crisis, and a new victorious flag will be unfurled when that tradition is upheld. It should remain and will bring joyfulness not only to Koreans, but to all humankind. If we cannot do that, there will be no offering to bring before heaven. (99-329, 1978.10.1)
Up to the point when they die, parents should bequeath the heavenly tradition. For what does a family exist? Even though it exists for the children, first of all it should serve God and the nation. In the end, this is the path that will benefit your children. Only then can your children gain the fortune of God and the fortune of the world and nation. Accordingly, even though your precious children born after your Blessing go through suffering, you should not align yourself with them but rather with the fortune of God, the world, and nation. (21-87, 1968.11.3)
You should be the family living for the world and eternity, not just for the sake of your own generation. Your family should broaden the basis of love, gather the heart of all humanity, light a candle and burn incense to invoke God's help, and become a family that can live in partnership with heaven and earth and humankind. If you become such a family, God will protect you from trouble and misfortune. God will keep your family as the main seed. (100-306, 1978.10.22)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 5. Proper Behavior between Spouses. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 5. Proper Behavior between Spouses
5.1. Spouses are companions for life
After you marry, you cannot do whatever you like. Once you marry and have a family you must follow that family's destined path, even at the cost of your life. (120-225, 1982.10.17)
Beginning with the very first moment of love, you are one, not two anymore. Once you are a couple, you cannot behave individually but should mutually take responsibility for everything. (253-211, 1994.1.23)
If you destroy yourself that's one thing, but a family should not be destroyed. The wife is the most needed person in the world for her husband, and the husband is the most needed person in the world for his wife. You should be each other's walking stick and comrade, advising each other. (27-87.1969.11.26)
A wife should not think that she fulfills her responsibility just by preparing a meal when her husband comes home from work. The most important thing is for her to sit at the dinner table and share intimate words of love. If she comforts her husband after a hard day's work with that love and the voice she affectionately whispered at their first meeting, his fatigue will be washed away and their love will deepen. (Tongil Segye – Feb. 1982)
Ideally, a woman's voice should sound softer than the average voice of a man. Her voice should be like the whisper of love. (Sabo. 39.5)
Although I am nearly seventy years old, when I want to go out to the ocean, Mother prepares all my equipment with her whole heart. She even prepares the supplies needed in case I stay out overnight and prays for me to accomplish my purpose in going out to sea. What a wonderful and beautiful wife she is! (Tongil Segye – Nov. 1986)
When a husband goes to bed right after work, snoring loudly without eating dinner and without saying anything, his snoring should be deafened by his wife's sobs convulsing deep from within her bosom. My wish is to see that kind of family. If I cannot find such a family, my suffering will have been in vain. The six thousand years of God's sacrifice will come to naught. You should be aware of this. (35-192, 1970.10 13)
When the husband travels to his assigned area, the wife should not feel like saying, "See you later. I am so tired. I have got to sleep now." Until her husband comes back from his rounds, her heart should make the same effort he is making. Children should also wait with a conscientious heart until their parents return. (30-82, 1970 3.17)
The wife should make her husband successful. She should be his great supporter. (21-79, 1968.10.20)
If a husband tells his wife not to intervene in his business, should she not intervene at all? A wife can stand as an equal in position to her husband. If her husband is absent, the wife should be able to take his place. (31-210, 1970.5.31)
You thought it would be great once you got a husband. However, there are had times as well. You are not supposed to expect only good things. Can you bathe in the sun twenty-four hours a day? You need the night, is it not a rule that the high is followed by the low? (30-113, 1970.3.21)
A wife should not be sad because her household is poor or because she cannot wear nice clothes. It is not as though your husband does not know your heart. Deep love and priceless treasures more valuable than diamonds are hidden in his heart of feeling sorry for you. (141-26, 1986.2.16)
I want to advise wives to awaken their husbands from sleeping by chiding them, "How can you sleep so much?" (12-89, 1962.11.11)
A small dose of comfort will immediately dispel a woman's anger. (203-155, 1990.6.24)
Couples should not engage in petty fights in which they accuse each other of not loving or recognizing one another. Even when you quarrel, you should do so for God's will. (21-87, 1968.11.3)
On your wife's birthday, you should invite ladies from your neighborhood and dance and sing in front of them, showing a loving heart toward your wife. (127-95, 1983.5.5)
You can tell, just from listening to your wife or others in your household, whether they had a good day or not. So, when the wife walks in, you ask her, "Why are you upset?" Then, she is at a loss for words because the husband already knows everything without even having seen her. You should be able to gauge things in this way. When you pray for someone out of concern, you will come to know things like this. (42-174, 1971.3.4)
Even if a loving husband were to curse in his home, it can become a stimulant for love. One word from an unloving husband can cause destruction where that word cuts into the flesh. If there is love, even being chastised would be acceptable, but without love, everything would be detestable. (83-177, 1976.2.8)
5.2. Spouses are comrades in faith
When you work in an agricultural community, you are not to work alone. A husband and wife together are to report the day's schedule to God before going out to work, and they are to report to God after work and then eat dinner.
You should know how strict is the God-centered standard of life that regulates all these things. There are rules of family life for women and for men, respectively. The path you should take is one of systematizing the great heavenly rules and then following them. You must follow this path. Should you not do so, then your life will lose its meaning. (31-276, 1970.6.4)
In walking, men are to step forward with their right foot first and women are to step forward with their left foot first. Whenever they sit, it is a rule for men to sit on the East side and women on the West side. There is always a certain way to do everything, even for setting the table or for hanging up clothes. (26-241, 1969.11.4)
Men should look at women from top to bottom for the women's sake, and women should be looking bottom to top for the men's sake. Women should not look upstream at flowing water but should look downstream. A woman looking upstream is the type who will be unfaithful. Usually, women should prepare the place for men to sit. When using a dresser, men are to use the right and women the left. If men use the upper side, women should use the lower side. For example, the woman should not place her skirt or underwear on the man's upper clothes. The woman's clothes should not be placed on top of the man's clothes. (Sabo 39-5)
The wife of a leader should not nag her husband when he is about to leave for work in the morning. The feelings in his heart that arise due to his wife's nagging will be like waves; they will be very disturbing. His disturbed heart can affect the whole world. If women are going to nag, then they should nag at night, and then all the problems will be solved overnight. Men go out to battle in the morning. The wife of this kind of husband should wake up early and serve him well. (27-88, 1969.11.26)
You should offer a prayer of gratitude even if you are strongly chastised by your husband, saying, "How can I expect my husband never to reprimand me? Thank you." (27-88, 1969.11.26)
Within a couple, if one side were to waver, the other should supplement with heart and devotion. (21-417, 1965.11.3)
Women should always be beautiful, even if it requires using makeup and perfume. A wife should not be emotionally indebted to her husband, and she should always concern herself with her husband's body and clothes. When a husband looks tired after returning home, she should prepare the water to wash his face and things to brush his teeth, and be able to wash his feet and comb his hair. A woman's smile is the flower of the family. In order to establish a harmonious family, the woman should be a first-class actress of both comedy and tragedy. She should completely captivate her husband all the time, whether he is joyful or sad. (27-88, 1969.11.26)
A woman should change her clothes at least once every three days. She should also wash her hair that often. She should always smile. A smile is a flower of the mind. Always keep your flowers in bloom and give off a sweet fragrance. A woman should test her partner's response to her hairstyle and makeup. If you cannot bring joy to your partner with your facial or external appearance, you should do so through your interests even if you have to mobilize all the arts, such as music. You may research women's physiology by looking at magazines or explain to him about literature after reading several books. Make your husband live like a child who is enfolded in your skirt. (27-88, 1969.11.26)
Once a husband and wife meet, they should be together, holding each other's hands, whether they are going the way of life or death. Since you are to go together, you should do so with style. (27-89, 1969.11.26)
After marriage, you cannot act whatever way you want. In which direction should you go after marriage? You are to take charge of God's love. Human beings are born as men and women because of love. Love can bear fruit when a husband and wife become one. You are embodiments of God's love and divided into His dual characteristics. Accordingly, for these two divided embodiments to form a harmonious union, they should look for God's love. (144-132, 1986.4.12)
When Blessed Families embrace and love their babies, they should know clearly the purpose for which their children were born. They were born because of God. They were born in relationship to God. Even though you may share secrets with your precious husband or your precious wife, this relationship is not of your own design. You met along a public path, following a heavenly principle. God intervened to create your meeting. Because of such a connection, if you should feel misery, then God feels the same misery. (67-291, 1973.7.22)
In laying the family foundation, if the wife can tune her mind to her husband's mind, she will be blessed. If the husband can do likewise, he will also be blessed, if the children unite, they will also be blessed. We are now in the age of family salvation. (12-261, 1963.5.22)
Women should go the way of women in response to heavenly law. You should be able to die if your husband asks you to die with him. Even though you die, you will live together in the spirit world. There will be a way for liberation as long as you regard your husband's order as absolute and are obedient to his command. Looking from the view of morality, there will always be a path to liberation for those who remain absolutely obedient to the three fundamental principles and five moral disciplines in human relations, even though they may dwell within the evil, fallen realm. (26-265, 1969.11.9)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 6. Raising Children in Faith. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 6. Raising Children in Faith
6.1. Parents are to teach their children heavenly law
What will you teach your children? In order for your children to inherit the tradition, you must educate them and lead an exemplary public life. People were originally made to be educated by their parents; they are not to receive education just from school. Especially, education in order to inherit the tradition cannot be taught in school. (111-256, 1981.2.22)
Children discover all their values through the parents. Who do the children resemble when they grow up in a family? They resemble their parents. Who will they follow? They will follow their parents. That's how it is. (20-133, 1969.7.20)
Blessed families should establish a family tradition and create a family code of conduct. You should also create a standard of education for children and rules of conduct for the family. If the parents have not done so, they will have nothing to say when they commit an error and their children press them hard. (21-87, 1968.11.3)
In order to educate children, parents should first practice accordingly. The parents should be a model of loyalty to God's will. They should stand in the position where the children regard them with such awe so that they would not utter a word against whatever the parents say. If not, the children will not follow them.
In regard to church life, children will observe their parents and compare their actions with what they understand of God's will and the Principle. When children see that their parents neglect church responsibilities and do not live according to headquarters' directions, while at the same time expecting their children to live in a principled way, then they will surely sneer at their parents. (31-68, 1970.6.4)
Everything that parents do should encourage their children to follow the correct way of the Unification Church. This is how it should be. Parents must also follow this path. They should first go through that course and only then can they teach and educate their children. If parents try to educate their children in something they have not done, this will go against the heavenly way.
I teach you about what I have first practiced and established as a victorious foundation. If you cannot believe it, pray to God to see if I am telling the truth or not. (23-322, 1969.6.8)
When you pray, you should do so asking God to let your children follow what you do. You should first become the standard; then your children can reach such a position. If you stand in that position first, God will lead your children in the same direction. Therefore, if you do not go in the right direction, after passing into the spirit world you will be accused of being irresponsible. (13-103, 1963.11.1)
When you educate your children, you should do so by telling them to become like their parents. (38-292, 1971.1.8)
Children learn their parents' heart. (30-87, 1970.3.17)
When teaching your children how to live, you should teach them about the path they should follow in order to become great people, instead of just telling them to be a certain way. A father is responsible as a father, and an elder brother and elder sister are to be responsible as an elder brother and an elder sister. In other words, you should know how to cultivate an attitude that will enable you to follow the path of a true man or a true woman, and follow the heavenly way. Only after obediently continuing on this path can you become a citizen of God's nation. (68-331, 1973.8.5)
The word "father" is a dreadful word. Unless you are a "true" father, you cannot feed and give life to your children. Through shedding blood, you gain achievements and goodness so that you can provide for your children. When your children do something wrong, you should guide them in tears toward the right way, praying for their blessing. Only then can parents be free from being indebted to their children. (14-92, 1964.6.12)
In the future, as parents, you are to embrace your children and follow heavenly law. You should never shed tears in front of your children even if your living conditions become terribly difficult and you have to live in hardship. (23-182, 1969.5.18)
When educating children, parents have to think about how to rear their children so that they can become people who can fulfill the mission for God's will. They should think the same way when they nurse a baby. (12-134, 1961.12.5)
Children must be careful in everything they do, even if they are raised in a household with a reputable standard. In other words, even the children raised in a reputable household should be prudent in all things. Every step taken, every word uttered, every action contemplated must be prudent. Etiquette is complex. Dignified families have many useful educational resources for their children. They gather their growing children and teach them how to deal with adults, with siblings, and with parents. (42-17, 1971.2.19)
6.2. The importance of faith education
Faith education is more important than school education. My thought is focused on the heavenly will, but your thought is individualistic. Creative power develops within those who have faith and act. (Sabo, 42-12)
Children of Blessed Fatuities should be raised to become people of character through education of heart. They should be raised to become the proud chosen people through education of the norm and contribute to the advancement of God's will by fully expressing, one hundred percent their God-given talent through gifted educational programs. (133-252, 1984.11.3)
Why do you feel tired when you study? It is because you study for yourself. Instead, think that the survival of the thirty million people of Korea depends on the one page or one sentence that lies before you. Study with the mind-set that the addition of one word of vocabulary will save those thirty million people and that the loss of one word will doom the same number of people. Accordingly, with that seriousness offer even more devotion.
It is not because your memory is lacking. You never forget what happens in an extremely serious moment, do you? Study at the risk of your life. You can feel the beating of your heart when you are serious. In such serious moments, can you forget what you are determined to do? To be forgetful is just a question of degree. (35-38, 1970.9.27)
When I was a student, I supported myself. Tigers let cubs experience severe trials and harsh discipline in order to rear them to be the kings of the mountain by developing their wild nature. Iron gets stronger by being heated. This principle should be considered when educating children. (35-38, 1970.9.27)
Even if parents cannot freely give children material benefits because of their difficult circumstances, they should serve children with a loving heart that seeps from their bone marrow. Then the children will be indebted to their parents. That is why most sons of filial piety come from poor families. Because their parents bequeathed such a tradition, the children endeavor not to be indebted to their parents. When they do so, the parents feel joy. (77-38. 1975-3.30)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 7. Love between Siblings. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 7. Love between Siblings
If parents have only one son or daughter, what happens? The son needs an elder sister and an elder brother, does he not? The daughter needs an elder brother and an elder sister. They also need a younger brother and sister. If they don't have siblings of all kinds, they are unhappy. God protects the family in which the younger brother and sister and the elder brother and sister are all present and completely one. This becomes the foundation for a tribe, a people, and a nation.
The elder brother and elder sister represent the east and west; the younger brother and younger sister represent the north and south. When these become perfected, they become three-dimensional. This is the law of love. When this law of love is established, the origin of peace is created. (20-40, 1961.3.31)
The heart of parents desires that children love each other more than they love the parents. Even if you cannot take care of your parents, if you say, "Mom, please wait. I will take care of my younger brother first," your parents will say, "My boy! Oh, he'll grow up to be a good man." Isn't that right? (78-41, 1975.5.1)
The person who is willing to love his brother even more than he does his parents will live eternally in heaven. Those who cannot love their brother as they would their parents are not included in this place. The source of this principle, when understood, is simple. Members were incapable of loving one another because they did not know this until now. The question is whether our members can unite among themselves. If you stand in a position where you cannot fulfill your filial duty to True Parents, you should offer those things that you wanted to devote to them to the members instead. Then Heaven can accept this offering as something greater than your filial devotion to True Parents. Such a person will surely be blessed. (78-41, 1975.5.1)
The path to heaven is opened by loving the members in the same way that you love God. You are trying to follow me, yet, with that same heart, you should strive to go together with your siblings. In this respect, we can conclude that the one who teaches the highest, quickest, and best way to go to heaven is neither God nor me but your siblings. The one who exerts himself with love greater than parental or conjugal love becomes the supreme subject being of love who then searches for his object partner. (66-125, 1971.4.18)
Is it not wonderful when the younger sibling in a family does something wrong, and the other siblings support him and the parents love him? The mother and father would say, "He is our future God!" Why is that so? It is the same when you connect to God's love. You should know that in a family with that kind of love, where the elder siblings love the younger ones like a mother and where the mother displays love when serving the father, God will be with that family and the children will become God's representatives in the future. (184-63, 1988.11.13)
Who are siblings? They are partners in the same kind of love; they are comrades who share the same parents love. If that is the case, can they fight with one another? They cannot. When you raise your right hand it is your father's hand, and when you raise your left hand it is your mother's hand. Your right foot is your father's foot. When I asked my daughter, Sun-jin, "Whose feet are these?" she answered that the right foot was her father's and the left was her mother's. She was really right. Why is that so? It was made that way because of love. (106-80, 1979.12.9)
An elder brother may love his younger sister and the younger sister may love her older brother, but their love should involve not only them. They should always involve their parents so that they can love each other with the emphasis on the fact that they were raised within their parents' bosom. They should be siblings connected on the foundation of unity between the parent and child. Only then can they ascend together as they grow. They continue to ascend in this way through elementary school and middle school. (236-11, 1992.11.2)
No matter how often you travel around the world, you will not find love like that of siblings, the love between siblings born from the same parents. Is there anyone closer to you than your own siblings in society? Others may become close, but they fall away. (228-199, 1992.1.3)
If there are many siblings in a family, two must share one dish when they eat. They should not quarrel, saying that there is only one dish. No matter how difficult life is with many siblings, all will be well if you can have a loving heart in offering your own meal to your eldest sister or your younger brother, even if you have to skip a meal. (112-195, 1981.4.12)
A nation is citizens and all humankind emerge from brothers and sisters. Siblings represent the front and back. Then what is two-dimensional takes on flesh. From here a sphere is created. Siblings create this sphere, and as they expand they become citizens of a nation. Brotherly love leads to love toward the world. A family that raises many siblings is like a model that embraces humankind and creates the ideal heaven in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in the spirit world. Consequently, siblings expand in number. (235-268, 1992.10.1)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 8. Thrift, Diligence, and a Frugal Family Life. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 8. Thrift, Diligence, and a Frugal Family Life
8.1. A frugal life
Is not happiness all about living and working for the sake of each other based on love? The wife lives for the sake of her husband, the children live for the sake of the parents, and the parents, grandparents and grandchildren live for the sake of the family. When all members of a family strive to create something for the entire family rather than for their individual selves, when the grandfather, father, and mother and even the children are frugal in their personal spending in order to create something for the entire family, and when the entire family works hard to expand their common possessions, that household will prosper. For this reason, such a nest of love can expand from a place that refrains from spending money in order to save up and live for the whole. When these families spread out to society and the world, the ideal can be fulfilled. This does not happen centering on yourself or your own personal belongings. (167-211, 1987.7.19)
The rights of ownership must be returned to God. For this reason I do not have anything. Since I know this, I live a simple life. The age is gradually approaching in which the entire family can go anywhere with a single bag and live. There is some truth in the biblical passage, "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." (229-065, 1992.4.9)
How do you establish a firm economic foundation? You should first be frugal. That is why I tell you to be frugal. But no matter how much I emphasize this, it is still not being done. Even in an environment where we can freely give and receive material things, we may be chased out if we cannot fulfill our responsibility. In such a case the Unification Church will have to go through a second course of tribulation. (24-101, 1969.7.13)
Our missionaries are trained so that they have no need for the luxuries of Western societies. It is because we have a new culture called "the sleeping bag culture." Wherever they go, our young people do not feel disoriented. You will discover that the homes of Unification Church missionaries are without any luxurious furnishings and possess only the simplest of household goods. (130-280, 1984.2.7)
8.2. Thrift
You must be exemplary in everything. Eating good food, living the good life in affluence can never be exemplary. You should know that an exemplary life lies in moderation and spending only what is absolutely necessary.
On Sundays I am forced to wear a suit, but at other times I go without a necktie as much as possible. When I am at home I do not wear a jacket but instead wear simple things like sweaters. Think about how much neckties cost in Western society. If you include necktie pins, how much do they cost in all? Consider two men: one thinks about the world and lives his entire life without a necktie and the other lives his life wearing a necktie without thinking about the world. Which one do you think will be closer to God when they go to the spirit world?
When you fast, you realize how much time you have. You realize just how much time you spend in eating three meals a day. How much effort is wasted mentally just by thinking about what to have, if you are constantly going back and forth opening the refrigerator door in order to eat an apple or drink a Coke? It is necessary to get accustomed to eating only at mealtimes. If you do so, you will not get sick: rather, you will become healthier.
I do not support the idea of taking a bath every day, it is not good for the health. I make it a rule to take a bath once every three days. I take a bath only when I cannot help it, when I have been sweating a lot. How much water do we consume by taking a bath every day? It is bad for the health. You may say, "Oh! Father is a barbarian," but that's okay for me. In the Garden of Eden, God, Adam, and Eve were all barbarians. At that time did they have a bathroom like we have today? Did they have toilet paper? They had nothing. Therefore, you should feel grateful for all those things, and you save this world even if you have to live this way. (131-283, 1984.1.4)
When you eat, you should do so in a way that is different from the past. Even when you go to the restroom, it should be with a different attitude than before. These days, when you take a train and use the restroom, you find toilet paper hanging there. You probably use it excessively, thinking, "Well, no one is looking." You should not use it wastefully just because it belongs to someone else. You should use it sparingly and take some only one time. You must have a better attitude. (57-179, 1972.130
Even when you eat out of hunger you should not completely fill your plate with food. You should maintain the standard of finding satisfaction in eating three-fifths of your plateful after removing two-fifths of it. Only then are you a wise person. You should know how to be frugal in everything. You should save the maximum and then find out the minimum you can live with. If you invest yourself using the minimum for at least three months you will discover the real minimum you can live with. After you do so, let's see how it goes. (57-197, 1972.5.31)
You should explore ways to save even a penny for the sake of God's will and the restoration of this nation. Hence, I believe that we should pioneer a way to be even more frugal in our finances. (77-31, 1975.3.23)
I am thinking to challenge you to live on less money from now on. I may have you try to give up things like soft drinks. In the cafeteria I saw you all come in without a thought and eat whatever was there. You were eating like pigs. There is nothing extraordinary about being frugal. You should be frugal in what you wear, what you eat, and in the way you live. (96-134, 1978.1.3)
Our members should not be wearing expensive neckties. I am not saying this because I am concerned about what others will think. If possible, however, we should be frugal in these matters. If we live this way, a great revolution of resourcefulness will explode out of this. This is absolutely necessary in America. (94-198, 1977.9.1)
Some say that I am a millionaire because I have a lot of money, but I have shed blood and tears without rest twenty-four hours a day to save one more penny. I have spread the money gathered in this way across the entire world. I do not even have a piece of paper in my possession. I do not even have one registered seal. No one can use this money which I have so carefully gathered, as they please. God works with me. Do you understand? (101-161, 1978.10.29)
I do what others cannot do by living frugally -- refraining from sleep, rest, and food when others have slept, rested, and eaten. That has been my belief from the onset. (103-241, 1979.3.1)
What are we trying to do by saving, using money sparingly and suffering in this way? We are trying to create something good for the coming generation. Consequently, we are striving to acquire an ideology that can create a foundation that we can be proud of in front of the world. After ten years, a hundred years, or a thousand years of bequeathing a tradition based on such an ideology, the Republic of Korea will surely become a people that can win the support of the world. Therefore, the aim of my teachings is to guide people based on this principle. Although this way of thinking may be seen as the worst of its kind at a time when we are encountering difficulties, only this kind of thought will prevail for eternity. For this reason, I first set out by taking up this path. (109-104, 1980.10.26)
When we say, "Save money!" we should think of the more public purpose of saving for the nation rather than for the more personal purpose of gathering wealth. We are not saving to become rich. We are doing so to save the nation. The reason I say to America, "America must be frugal and should save!" is in order to save the world. America collects the most taxes in the world. If it had collected a lot of taxes for the world, then America would have been respected by the world. If this was done just for the sake of the American people, then they should oppose the government, and even the world would oppose it. I believe America shows a tendency and a culture that is ruining the world. Consequently, for the world can say, "Although I may face opposition, the way I am going is the just and right way." That is how it is with everything I hear, say, and do. (111-256, 1981.2.22)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 9. Proprieties of Daily Living. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 9. Proprieties of Daily Living
9.1. Clothes
Even your clothes must be hung in a principled way. You should put men's clothes on the right side and women's clothes on the left side of the closet. When you put your clothes in a drawer, you should put men's clothes on top and women's on the bottom. That is the principled way. You all need such training. You are hearing these things for the first time, are you not? You have to do things this way. What happens if you put men's clothes on the bottom and women's clothes on top? It is a violation of the Principle. (131-283, 1984.5.3)
When you take off your clothes, you should take off your trousers first, and then put your jacket on top of the trousers. You should not take off your jacket first. You should know how to put your surroundings in order through such principled ways of living. Men's shoes should be put on the right side, women's shoes on the left. Even if you live in a small house with only one shoe rack with two shelves, you should put the men's shoes above and the women's below. You should know how to put everything in order following the principled way. (131-283, 1989.5.3)
When women put on clothes, what do you put on first? Do you put on your upper garments or lower garments first? It is a principle for woman to put on clothes beginning with the lower garment. It is a principle to dress beginning with the lower garment. Although it is okay for men to occasionally put on their jackets first, that is also the case for men. It is the principled way. You have to know all those things and put your lifestyle in order. You have to know that the Principle is also a philosophy of life. (131-213, 1954.5.3)
9.2. Facial expression
Your face is the way it is. But what can you do with the expression on your face? You have to adjust it habitually. If your teeth are pointed inward, then you should not laugh so frequently. Why is that? If women have such teeth, they would look like a viper's teeth. For this reason, as much as possible, such women should not laugh with their mouths open. (131-253, 1984.5.3)
Women should not laugh loudly. Women are like flowers. When flowers bloom, they do so without making any noise. They do not suddenly come into bloom; they bloom quietly. Such women are beautiful, not the ones who laugh loudly. Western people laugh loudly. Men may laugh loudly, but women should not. They appear gauche. It is unattractive. Even if you are a woman from the West, you should not laugh loudly. (131-283, 1984.5.3)
People's laughter is a curious thing. Some people grin when they smile. What happens when you laugh? Everything becomes round. When an old man laughs, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" his mouth does not continue to go up, but starts to curve down into "He! He! He!" Why does it curve down? Do you not find it strange? It should curve upward when he laughs. Why does it curve down? Because it should be round, if you smile sweetly, your mouth curves only a little. But if you laugh, "Ha! Ha! Ha!" your mouth becomes very round. Therefore, there are no evil people among those who have a big smile. I am not talking about face reading. Isn't that interesting? (173-242, 1988 2 21)
When you laugh, do your eyes laugh one way and your nose another way, or do they laugh together? For people whose lips are tightly closed when their eyes and nose are laughing, it means they are poor. If your nose does not move when you laugh, you will have few children and descendants. If your eyes don't laugh when you laugh, you are lacking in heart. You must smile brightly and have a full laugh. (96-232, 1978.1.22)
9.3. Hairstyle
Men should comb their hair as carefully as women do. They should take care when deciding the best side for parting their hair, just as women do when applying cosmetics. In the West as well as the Orient, men part their hair on the left. It is Western-style to part your hair on the left. It is good to have more hair on the right half than on the left. Women should consider this as well. (131-283, 1984.5.3)
9.4. Fingernails and toenails
Since I came to Western society, what I feared most was facing women. I sense much danger just looking at their nails. My fingernails are always short. That is necessary. If they get any longer, I cut my fingernails and toenails. It is my custom to cut my fingernails and toenails. Women who keep their fingernails long are those who do not work. How do they type with those nails? So, when I see women with long nails I regard them as idle women. (131-283, 1984.5.3)
When women take off their stockings their toenails should not be long. Western women must be in pain with their long toenails. It would be painful for them to wear high heels. (131-283, 1984.5.3)
9.5. How you should walk
You should walk correctly. Your posture, when you walk, must be balanced. You should always think whether your posture is good or not. You should walk carefully. Some people walk like this and like that. When you are standing, you must be balanced. This is necessary. (131-283, 1984.5.3)
Women should not have their backs bent. It is the same with men. Women who sleep in a bed develop crooked chests, but they should not look like this. Their posture must be correct from top to bottom. Therefore, you should practice sitting up straight. It is the same for men. Women should sit with their backside tucked in neatly. If you do not, your backbone will be bent. Your posture when walking and how you walk are important. (131-283, 1984.5.3)
9.6. Sitting posture
In Asian society, when a woman goes somewhere and sits down, she is not allowed to lean her back against anything, even though men are allowed to do this. It is because women have big hips. They feel comfortable when they are seated naturally. Men, however, have smaller hips and a larger upper body. Therefore, when women sit leaning their back against something, this could bring trouble to their babies. If they are pregnant, a problem could arise. (131-283, 1984.3.3)
9.7. Sleeping
What are the sleeping habits of the West? Do you sleep on your back or on your side? You need to get a sound sleep. Sleep should be peaceful. A man with a big physical body can snore, but women should not snore. A woman should snore very softly or otherwise, it could be troublesome. If the neck is tucked in, the snoring sound is louder. Isn't that the case? Therefore, you should keep your pillow like this to keep your chin high. This is necessary. (131-20, 1984.5.3)
When a woman goes to bed while her husband is sleeping, she should lie down carefully, going around him instead of stepping over him. If the husband is already asleep, she should not make any sudden noise. She must go to bed quietly. (131-283, 1984.5.31)
9.8. Health
Health is the most important thing. Even if you are sick with a cold, you should have healthy feelings. It is important to practice having a facial expression that betrays nothing to other people. Even if you have a cold, you should not look sick or appear worried when you are facing some difficulties. When a man looks worried, you should ask what is wrong and comfort him, always with a happy expression. (131-283, 1984.5.3)
9.9. Speech
There is a saying in the East that when a woman's voice goes beyond the wall, that house will perish. Men's voices are usually loud and go over walls. But women talk quietly. That is how it usually is. If a woman's voice goes beyond the wall, it goes against this principle. That is why you would perish if you lived with such a woman.
By listening to the voice of a woman, one will immediately know how that person will live; whether she will have a happy life or be miserable or be loved. Therefore, a woman's voice is very important. You never thought about these things, did you? (131-283, 1984.5.4)
You should not speak or act with just any words and actions. You should be raised to the position of God's son and daughter and speak and act as God's son and daughter, (91-89, 1977.1.30)
You should not use words you do not have in your heart. Absolutely not or you would be accused by heavenly law. (91-97, 1977.1.30)
You may use words spontaneously, but if you make a mistake in choosing one word, its influence will last for one year, if you misuse one word for one second, you will be put in a situation where you will have to pay the price for one year. (43-111, 1971.4.25)
Words spoken out of love, even swear words or any other words, will only prosper and develop. Everything, including the universe, will rejoice over those words. (91-91, 1977.1.30)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 10. Teachings on Purity. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 10. Teachings on Purity
10.1. Strictly follow the commandment during adolescence
When you enter adolescence, your eyes are opened to the opposite sex and all your thoughts concentrate on that issue, do they not? All the actions of the cells in your body focus in on that. (108-233, 1980.10 16)
If you look at youths in adolescence, you will see girls flutter their eyelashes, wear colorful clothes, and go around tightening their bottoms. If their bottoms look big, it is a disaster. Trying to avoid being ashamed of that, they go around making their bottoms seem smaller.
The time when people can fully use all their wisdom and all of their physical attributes one hundred percent is during young adulthood. All the cells work one hundred percent. Only at that time will they be totally in action. Why do girls wear beautiful and colorful clothes? Those are like colorful love signals. (144-202, 1986.4.24)
There are many unusual winds blowing in the world nowadays. The Unification Church members must never be swayed by such trends. That kind of adolescence is not Sa Choon Gi the "time of thinking of spring" but Sa Choon Gi, the "time of the death of spring." Which one would you choose, this one with the character for Sa meaning "thinking: or that one with the character for Sa meaning "death"? (57-159, 1972.5.31)
Did Jesus go through adolescence or not? Did Jesus not also go through adolescence? What kind of adolescence did he have? The one of "thinking of spring" or the one of "the death of spring"? He did not have the kind in which he whistled at girls. He went through adolescence with the character meaning "thinking of spring." (57-159, 1972.5.31)
First of all, you should go through adolescence in the right way. If you want to live, the adolescence containing the character for thinking is for you, if you want to die, the adolescence containing the character for death is for you. If you earnestly seek to overcome adolescence containing the character for death, then, turn it upside down. if you turn it over 180 degrees, the adolescence containing the character for death) transforms into the adolescence containing the character for thinking. Therefore, by overcoming the adolescence of death, Jesus moved toward the young adulthood of the bride and bridegroom, which was like a spring day of hope and of new life. That is what the Christian history of the bride and bridegroom is all about. (57-159, 1972.5.31)
What is the Fall? It was the failure to receive springtime centered on God. When spring comes, do children who aspire to become filial sons or daughters enjoy the season by themselves? They are filial sons or daughters if they can say to their parents, "Mom and Dad, it is spring. Let's go out together and enjoy the day!" There are some, however, who say, "Mom and Dad, although it is spring, it's best to take a nap." Then, while their parents sleep, they go outside by themselves to sing and dance. Can they be considered to be filial sons? They are not only unfilial, but they also deserve to be punished. Don't you think so? (87-159, 1972.5.31)
What was the Fall? From God's point of view, it was the beginning of the time of adolescence containing the Chinese character for death. History began with the adolescence of death. Therefore, spring is coming for those who risk their lives. A new age is coming. The history of Christianity has been going through such things to this day. (57-159, 1972.5.31)
Nowadays, people say the teenage years are important. Why is that? There are pluses and minuses everywhere... They are out of control and want to go around everywhere. When they do, they bring about their own self-destruction as well as the destruction of their society.
Since adolescence is a time of change, they say, "Ehh," to anyone who says even a word to them. Since it is a time of transition, they want to aimlessly wander about. Therefore, they have to follow a principled way while being aware of that situation. You must now put all these things in order; no matter how hard it is to control them, you must do it. Comparing good and evil, what is evil? Evil is destructive. There is no protection against evil. (111-196, 1982.6.1)
Adolescence is a dangerous time, whether you are a man or a woman. (124-120, 1913.2.1)
If you choose the wrong place to sit during adolescence you may ruin your entire life. If you make a wise choice, you can live in prosperity for the rest of your life. These kinds of things can happen. (50-278, 1971.11.5)
Young people these days go against their parents and destroy the family. Since this destroys the order described with in heavenly law, it is evil. Because of this, families are being destroyed; societies, nations, and even humanity are being destroyed. Thus, you cannot deny that this is evil.
During adolescence, you may want to try to re-enact the thrilling scenes from a movie. Young people ask, what's wrong with that? It is wrong, however, because irresponsible actions lead to the destruction of the environment. So it is necessary to sanction such activities. When you have developed your intellect, have gained experience in society and can control of yourself in any circumstance, then you are free to do so, but not now. (117-184, 1982.3.1)
Do you like flower buds that are ready to bloom, or do you like flowers that have already bloomed? I like flowers that have bloomed. Are you the ones who are going to bloom? When you do, you should blossom to your fullest. Do not rely on someone else to bloom, but blossom radiantly through your own desire. This means that you should grow in a natural way, going through adolescence naturally, blossom in the natural environment, and then receive the husband whom you want to love.
Do not be crushed before you bloom. Do not be flowers whose leaves have fallen off and whose pollen has been shaken out. It is the same for men. Men should also blossom fully. (47-88, 1971.8.19)
As buds, you have not yet bloomed. Do not become wicked like those who write love letters and have illicit love relationships. You should blossom naturally. When God sees you, He should be able to exclaim, "Oh! You have blossomed purely and naturally. Since I can smell the fragrance, I can tell that you are a virgin." In this case, God feels so much hope. Does God want something pure or something damaged? What about you, then? Do you want something pure or something damaged? Even fallen men want to have something pure. Would God not value that even more?
For this reason, I hope that you can blossom fully with a pure heart and be people of value who can go beyond the fallen world of today without being trapped in the valley of sorrow. (47-88, 1971.8.19)
10.2. Children of heaven
We have to become sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. We have to truly become children who can carry on His lineage. We have to establish a relationship of unity wherein our Father's heart is firmly bound with our hearts and where the aorta of our Father's heart is firmly connected to the aorta of our own hearts. The path our Father walks has to be our path, the situation our Father is in has to be our situation, and the will of our Father has to be our will. (27-270, 1969.12.21)
Think about it. As a young person nearing your twenties, where will you take your clean, unstained, holy, and pure heart, all wrapped up? You should bring it to the altar where heaven will be most happy and it will bring joy to God. The sacred foundation on which God can bind together men and women of pure love like you is where the bride and bridegroom are to meet. Even so, you were ignorant of its value. (64-84, 1972.10.24)
Your body is precious. Do not stain your body but fulfill your filial duty. You have to be responsible to escape from Satan's realm of death with a body that is approved by God. This is the highest goal and the standard that people should have. According to the principle of creation, you cannot help but be that way. (15-202, 1965.10.9)
Because in front of God your blood is not pure, you should be totally obedient in order to change this. Therefore, if you are disobedient you have to be taught the way of obedience even if it means being chastised. That means that you are taught God's love. This is the Unification Church. This is why the Unification Church will become the center of all religions. (33-332, 1970 8.23)
Now we should make the seed of pure lineage. If you split open a seed, you will find the germ at the center of the seed. The center of the germ is God's love. Then, if you were to open up your skull, what would be at the center? It would be God's love. The center of the seed, in other words, the source that can become the root, is God's love. It begins from God's love. Yet, have you ever said, "I have God's love. Even though I look humble and though I am no more than five or six feet tall. God's love is overflowing inside the wellspring of my heart?" (33-332, 1970.11.23)
Life on earth is precious. It is especially important for young people to keep their bodies pure. A clean and obedient mind and body are what it takes to become genuinely filial to your parents. (15-201, 1965.10.9)
You have to go before God with the unchanging heart you had toward your first love. (129-149, 1985.10.9)
You should know that people who go to the next world having remained faithful to their first love can go to the highest position in the heavenly kingdom. (129-135, 1983.10.9)
The people on earth who can go to heaven are those who have lived their lives centered on their first love, giving up everything and risking their lives for the sake of their first love. Therefore, you must do well in your relationship with your first love. (128-85, 1983.6.5)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 11. A Life of Sanctification. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 11. A Life of Sanctification
11.1. Holy salt
Holy salt was first made and used on March 16, 1960 (lunar calendar) on the occasion of True Parents' Holy Wedding. From that day on, families began to use holy salt to sanctify things used in their daily life and environment.
Holy salt is like yeast. As a rule, when you purchase things, you should sanctify them with holy salt, and when you come back home, you should also holy salt yourself at the door. (9-78, 1960.4.11)
What is holy salted should not be given back to the satanic world. However, if you cannot avoid this, you should give it back with your left hand. (9-78, 1960.4.11)
When you use holy salt, you should pray, "In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, True Parents, and myself," and then sprinkle holy salt in the shape of a cross (in the order of north, south, east, and west). (9-78, 1960.4.11)
As a rule, when you have to dispose of real estate that was sanctified, you must do so in stages after receiving approval. (9-78, 1960.4.11)
Our members should gradually occupy more and more land by sanctifying the area they move into. (9-78, 1960.4.11)
When you visit a place, do you sprinkle holy salt before you sit down? If not, you should establish a condition in which you inwardly blow three times, "whew, whew, whew" before taking your seat. When you see a handsome man in the satanic world, rather than thinking, "I would like to live with this man," you should be able to blow him away from you, even if he holds your hand. You should sprinkle holy salt, that is, inwardly blow three times, "whew, whew, whew." You should sprinkle holy salt three times. (170-233, 1987.11.21)
Our church members should sanctify everything. In most cases, using holy salt to sanctify things is no problem, but when we eat rice or noodles or drink water, what shall we do with the holy salt? So, what shall we do from now on? We should do as Jesus instructed after his resurrection, which is to receive the Holy Spirit by blowing. It is the same as when God brought new life into being by blowing into the nostrils of Adam. From now on you, standing as a substantial being of life, need to blow on things before you eat or drink them.
Korean customs are amazing. When Koreans drink water, they first blow on it; before they sit, they first blow on the spot. God must have moved the natural conscience of these people so that this could be one of their customs. This did not take place by coincidence.
That is why, in our hearts, we should always sanctify our life in this way. In order to sanctify the long history of six thousand years that has been defiled as it proceeded in three stages, formation, growth, and completion, you should blow three times before you eat. Wherever you go, even when you go to a bathroom, you should do the same. You should do it wherever you go. (150-222, 1961.4.15)
11.2. Holy Candles
11.2.1. Shimjung Candle
The Shimjung Candle was created on January 5, 1961, and was given to Blessed Families. The Shimjung Candle symbolizes True Parents and is therefore used when one prays in order to comfort God's heart and to commit oneself to the fulfillment of God's will.
After Adam fell, he lost the source of his true life and love, shimjung (heart). Humankind has continued to fail You in heart. Because of this failure, You have had to engage in restoring fallen people. Keeping in mind Your hard work, each of us has lived with the hope of rising to the position of the restored Adam. Please bind us further in our determination to restore all things.
Whenever these Shimjung Candles are lit, may the flame they produce comfort Your heart and remind You of our commitment to accomplish Your will. Whenever we burn them and pray, may we further strengthen our determination in this time of restoration.
11.2.2. Birth Candles
Birth Candles originated at the time of Ye-jin nim's birth (True Parents' first daughter). After the 36 Couples started married life, True Father bequeathed one Birth Candle to each family.
Now I would like to pass on to each family the traditional Birth Candles that True Parents bequeathed to the 36 Couples. the Birth Candle that I have now will be used symbolizing the Birth Candle that True Parents originally used. Let these families receive the Birth Candle and cherish it in the same heart.
I pray in Your name and with Your glory that when this candle burns during a child's birth, it will sanctify the spiritual atmosphere and completely prevent Satan from approaching.
11.2.3. Ae Cheon Candle (Love of God Candle)
True Parents created Ae Cheon Candles on May 16, 1984, and bequeathed them to Blessed Couples on May 20. Ae Cheon Candles signify love for humankind and are used in pairs.
A candle sacrifices itself to give off light. In this way, it symbolizes the need for sacrifice in order to unite humanity centered on God. It is neither the candle nor the wick that kindles the flame. When the candle and wick are combined, the fire is lit and gives off light. In the same way, when the subject and object partners, husband and wife, sacrifice for each other, this symbolizes light being given off. Satan cannot exist in that place. (132-104, 1984.5.20)
We must be completely one with the realm of the unified heart centering on the Ae Cheon Candle. Then everything will be placed in order. (32-107, 1984.5.27)
Beloved God! The sign of victory indicating the designation of the Day of the Love of God (Ae Cheon Il) has been represented by this undying candlelight. Let the love of True Parents and the love of God be with this candle. Let peace reside where this candlelight shines and within the family that unites with this light. Let it be connected to Your domain of love to block the forces of evil and all conditions of injustice. Let it become a divine candle of victory that fends off the source of discord. Bestow your love; especially we pray that You and True Parents be with each and every place of prayer. We pray that You will come with Your sovereign power and protect the entire spirit world and the physical world.
Let Your glory be with the Ae Cheon Candle that gains life from this time forth, so that it may continue throughout history for eternity. Bless it so that it may continue until heaven is completed. This I pray and proclaim in the name of True Parents. Amen. (132-105, 1984.5.20)
11.2.4. Tongil (Unification) Candle
The Unification Candle originated from the 120-day special prayer condition that True Mother and the True Children offered from September 5, 1995 to January 2, 1996. During this time they prayed every day at midnight with the Unification Candle.
True Father will have a speaking tour in America from September 5, and I have already spoken in Japan. Before I left the house, I gathered the children who were there and discussed this with them. "Father is going out to the frontline to speak to America in order to draw humanity close to him again. Therefore, we should also offer devotion together."
They all agreed without one word of objection. All the children live separately because of their studies, but no matter what kind of environment they are placed in, they light the candle at twelve midnight to pray. We decided to offer a 120-day condition until January 2nd next year. (True Mother's speech - 1995)
I have brought a candle with me today. I will bequeath this to you. After receiving this candle, you should all become proud sons and daughters before True Parents and children who can bear fruit on the earth. By doing so, I hope to arrive in heaven with you all. Please expand the foundation of your devotions today so that it can be one of offering devotion with the children of True Parents' family. Even though you may have difficulties, I pray that you may fulfill your responsibilities with a heart of participation during this condition.
Although this candle is only one, it consists of three different candles. True Children's love resides in this candle. (Family – Nov. 1995)
Let us display our loyalty and heart of love before You after connecting to the Unification Candle, with a heart burning with a flame that will last for eternity. Let this be a time of committing ourselves and promising our unchanging heart of love until all humankind is purified by these flames. Father, please encourage us and protect us so that we may all live our life in this way. Once more we ask for Your blessings so that we may become great people who can pledge to offer our lives to fulfill our loyalty to You. We pray this in True Parents' name. Amen.
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 12. Rituals in the Life of Blessed Families. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 12. Rituals in the Life of Blessed Families
12.1. Pledge service
On the first day of each month, the husband and wife in each family should offer a full bow together at five o'clock in the morning, facing church headquarters. This should be done in a joyful atmosphere. You should also do this at five o'clock in the morning on Sundays. You should report about everything in your daily life during the week. Sunday should be a joyful day that you long to have come quickly. (13-104, 1963.11 1)
Pledge service should not be done only on Sunday mornings. Basically, we should do it every day. When you rise in the morning, you should first do Pledge service facing headquarters. It is an official ceremony. However, if we do Pledge service like that every day, there can be adverse effects. In order to avoid these side effects, as a condition, we do pledge only on Sunday mornings and on the mornings of the first day of each month. Ideally, we should be doing it every day. (31-174, 1970.6.4)
You should stand in a straight line with God at least during morning Pledge service. It is a truly serious hour. You should repent if you are even one second late. You should also prepare some candy as holy food, like you would for Holy Communion, and share it with your children. (27-85, 1969.11.26)
You cannot expect your children to grow well when you do not even strictly observe morning Pledge service, devotion, and Sunday service. You should establish a four-position foundation centering upon True Parents. In order to raise good descendants, the parents should do well. (23-87, 1968.10.27)
12.2. Family service
Parents should set a good example in their life of faith. In their family, they should show their children, in their prayer life or family worship, a life of faith that is exemplary in every way. They should help children realize the importance of Pledge time. It is not enough just to hold Pledge service during that hour. As parents, they should teach their children about God's will. (31-266, 1970.6.4)
You should continue to expand the environment that will enable your entire tribe to attend family service in any place. (236 72, 1992.11.2)
Whether or not you participate in church gatherings will become an issue; whether or not you fulfill your responsibility in church activities will become an issue; and whether or not you become a good example as a parent in front of your children in family life will become an issue. (31-268, 1970.6.4)
12.3. Hoon Dok Hae
Hoon Dok Hae should be done at least by the husband and wife of all Blessed Families. They should do it for an hour every morning. If they are unable to do it in the morning, they should do it in the evening before they sleep, even if it is twelve or one o'clock. I am doing this. When I went on the tour to South America this time, I did it after midnight even though I was exhausted. I cannot skip it for even one day. Do you understand? You should read Blessed Family and the Ideal Kingdom. This book teaches everything about the Blessed Family and about the ideal kingdom in heaven. I have laid a highway, a victorious foundation through my battles, for this content. By building a highway like this, you should all become the cars and the gasoline. You should drive that car at full speed. (288-41, 1997.10.31)
You should do Hoon Dok Hae whenever you have time; when you are alone or even when you are in the restroom. You should make a record of how many hours you read and of where you read. You should keep a book in your pocket and always do Hoon Dok Hae.
Write the word hoondok again. It has the character con meaning "word," and what is this? It is the character fur "river." What happens when the "word" stands next to the "river"? God's word meets a straight stream. When you look at this character "river," it is formation, growth, and completion.
The character Dok consists of the character eon meaning "word" and mac meaning "to sell." In other words, the word must be sold. It would be a disaster to keep it to yourself. If you are not selling it, you should give it away. If you store up goods and let them spoil, you will be punished. (289-295, 1998.2.1)
Not only should you read The Way of God's Will and Divine Principle, but you should also read other books, such as Blessed Family and the Ideal Kingdom. The important words in my speeches until this time are a record of the victories of my confrontations and battles against the satanic world. Therefore, you should read all of them. Since they contain all the details of the battles of the past and present they are True Parents historical record. So in order for the Unification family to unite with True Parents, you should unite with these records and develop a deep relationship with these words. You, your family, and your tribe to the seventh generation should unite with this; horizontally the 160 and 180 families should be completely united to make the foundation to bring these words substantially down to the earth.
The words I say are not my own. They are not my words but the words of God who has spoken through me. Wherever and whenever you hear these words, your heart will begin to move. When your heart is profoundly moved, a great revolutionary change will occur in your body. They have that kind of power. (288-16, 1997.10.31)
You should study wherever you gather and whenever you have time, night or day. You should read it a hundred or even a thousand times until it becomes your own, and you become the substantial object to that book. From now on, you should practice such things.
Unification Church members will get sick if they just sit around. In order to avoid becoming ill, you should be diligent in reading, taking exams, and working hard. (288-41, 1997.10.31)
Hoon Dok Hae is my way of passing along all the treasure boxes I accumulated in my life under the indescribable hardships undertaken for the nation. I am giving it to everyone without exception. I have even said that it should not be translated. You should not translate it, not until you proclaim it to this nation. Keep this in mind. Do you understand? (290-29, 1998.2.2)
12.4. Family Pledge
Human beings were originally born with a bond tying them to the contents of My Pledge. Therefore, they should live and die within this pledge. You should be able to read the text of this pledge without feeling any shame. (11-164, 1961.7.20)
You should all do Pledge service on Sundays with your family. It is a declaration ceremony by those who were blessed. Satan cannot invade this family. That is why we recite the pledge. The Pledge is a proclamation announcing that you have no relation to the Satan's world. It is a proclamation ceremony that lets you clear away all the things you did during the week. That is why it is a problem if you miss it. (210-280, 1990.12.25)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 13. Ancestral Rituals for Blessed Families. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 13. Ancestral Rituals for Blessed Families
13.1. Laws on ancestor worship were originally part of heavenly law.
A long time ago, when the families of loyal subjects received something good, they first offered it to the king of the nation. That was the rule of the life of loyalty in Korea. From that perspective, Korean courtesy reflects something central to heaven that cannot be fond in any other nation. Confucians follow the teachings of Confucius, and there is quite a lot of traditional conduct prescribed in Confucian teachings that is close to heavenly law. You should ask your descendants to perform a sacrificial rite for you in the future. So far, the regulations of life and the procedure for holding a funeral have not been established centering upon the Principle. but once the standard is established in the future, you should follow it.
You should develop and protect the vitality of life in order to survive and grow, no matter what kind of storm comes, overcoming your environment and taking root deeply, centered upon the belief that God is always with you in every situation. If you become like that, it will not be a problem for God to set up His laws. But if you do not develop like that, it becomes problematic. (31-292, 1970.6 4)
What will you do in your hometown? First of all, you must devotedly take care of the graves of your ancestors. Because the Korean custom is to honor them, if you have not been able to fulfill your responsibility as the eldest son of the head family in your hometown, you should erect a headstone, plant trees in this desolate land that your grandfather loved, create an ideal environment on the hillside that your grandmother enjoyed, and clean up the village so that all the mountains and streams in your hometown can praise you. If you can do this, how would you feel? After doing this, would you become the head of your hometown or not? In the past, being the head of a group meant something had, but now it means that you have to become a king and chief in doing good works. (219-148, 1991.8.29)
You are all historical reincarnations, wearing the faces of your ancestors, how long is this history? It is known to be hundreds of thousands of years old, the long course of history was intended to eventually create one person, yourself. In order to create one such person, for example, from the Kim family, countless ancestors came and went. Therefore, we are the fruits of human history. (46-154, 1971.8.13)
You have to live life in such a way that you are not ashamed in front of your ancestors. You must love the nation more than your ancestors did. Love is such that if you give one hundred percent, 120 percent returns. The more you practice true love, the more it accumulates. It has been moving history. (179 93, 1903.7.22)
If your grandparents are deceased, you should visit their graves. When you visit their graves, you should pay your respects to them as if God were buried in that grave. On that day, you should repent for not attending your grandparents during your lifetime. (220-89, 1991.10.20)
Your ancestors come on the anniversary of the day that they passed away. Prepare an offering table and hold a memorial service for them then. If you do it in a room that has True Parents' picture, bowing to your ancestors would not be a sin. It is not a sin to prepare offering food and perform memorial services for your ancestors. (212-100, 1991.1.2)
The Unification Church allows the honoring of ancestors. We should carry on that tradition. In the future, this will be done in the opposite way from the secular tradition; instead it will be centered on True Parents. This is not a secular tradition from the secular world. If we attend the heavenly Parent, kingdom, and ancestors, a royal domain can emerge, where we can eternally attend the realm of tribal messiahship as part of the mainstream lineage, which can bequeath the way of attendance to succeeding generations. It will be a nation where you can attend the King and sing praises for the eternal reign of peace and prosperity. You, your mother, father. family, and tribe can go directly to heaven only after having lived in such a nation. (220-221, 1991.10.19)
You should value the right of the chosen people and their lineage. The right of the chosen people is the right of the firstborn son. Korea is the eldest son nation. The purpose of Koreans becoming a people that love their genealogy was for the sake of carrying on the lineage. It is not wrong to honor your ancestors and perform annual memorial services on the day they departed. In the future, there will be a time when we revere our parents more than do those who belong to Confucianism. (226-477, 1992.2.9)
Is it all right for the Unification Church to offer ancestral rites? It is liberating for us! From now on, you will be allowed to perform ancestral rites. Formerly, God did not want us to hold ancestral rites. Korean laws on honoring ancestors are the heavenly law. Koreans are a unique race in the world. Only Korea is practicing this way. (240-94, 1992.12.11)
On the day of the memorial service, the firstborn son of the eldest son decides the time of the service. That is why you can hold the service at five o'clock in the morning, even if previously it was done at one o'clock. Depending on the circumstances, the time can be changed again from five to seven o'clock in the morning or even sometime during the day. The person who decides this is not your grandfather or ancestor who has passed away but the firstborn son. The offering table can be presented to the grandparents who passed away only when they come at the time designated by the firstborn son of the eldest son. If the grandparents do not like that time, they will not be served. The earth is the center. It is the same logic as Jesus said "What is unbound on earth is unbound in heaven." That is why the two must become one. (231-166, 1992.6.2)
When you perform ancestral rites, you have the firstborn son of the eldest son stand at the head even before his uncle, cousin, third-cousin, and even his great-uncle. In reverence to the ancestors in traditional Korean culture, the firstborn son is at the front. Thus, we can see that it is a race that attaches importance to the right of the eldest son. (197-440, 1990.1.20)
If you were pious toward your parents, you do not have to offer ceremonial rites for them after their death. You should just place their picture before. you and commemorate that day as if your mother and father were alive. What boundary lines are there in the spirit world? Now instead of going to the burial ground, you can attend your parents in your house, as if they were alive, and you can feast and celebrate. Even though you do not go to their graves, it will still be a celebration. You should make your parents' grave site on a hill near where you live. In the West, do you not bury your dead in a churchyard? You should not behave shamefully in front of your parents' graves; your deceased mother and father would admonish you. If you do anything that deviates from the right meaning of love, your ancestors will personally come after you and reprimand you. (206-294, 1990.10.14)
There is some element of truth in Christianity's ban on the performance of ancestral rites up until the present day. This rite should be offered to God and the True Parent of all humankind. The ancestors in the spirit world should originally have been served by us. However, due to the Fall, this has been prohibited until the present time. In the age of restoration, because you have received the Blessing, you should attend your ancestors from now on. (223-210, 1991.11.30)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 14. Blessed Family Ceremonies. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 14. Blessed Family Ceremonies
14.1. Birth
Your beloved sons and daughters are undeniably precious. They are the precious treasures of heaven and earth, treasures that you can neither buy nor exchange for the entire world. They are that precious to God and to their parents as well. Would anyone trade their children for anything else in this world? Children are God's precious gift. (165-100, 1967.5.20)
Babies are very mysterious. If you think about them, they are intriguing. We almost want to ask one, "Hey, you! How were you born?" Try to think how unfathomable it is. If you were to try to create human beings like that, could you succeed? You could not be able to do it in a thousand years. (118-289, 1982.6.20)
Do you recall how difficult it was when you were coming out of your mother's womb? Why did God make birth like this? How easy would it be if giving birth were as simple as talking, as easy as eating good food or smelling the scent of perfume or opening your mouth and laughing "Ha ha ha." Why is it that giving birth is not simple like that? Giving birth produces perspiration in situations that border on life-and-death. Why was it made like that? Why? It is in order for us to experience a brilliantly shining love. (107-43, 1980.1.20)
In such a state of near death, when your eyeballs pop out, when everything is destroyed and heaven and earth are in chaos, then if a child cries its first cry and is born, your eyes open wide. All pain disappears in an instant. Since you gave birth with such difficulty, you can love more than the difficulty you have experienced. You will say, "Aigoo!" Do you understand what that means? (107-43, 1980.1.10)
You should hold a ceremony of dedication to heaven for daughters on the seventh day alter their birth and on the eighth day for sons. (11-82, 1961.2.2)
14.2. The Blessing
You have not been able to establish a complete bond with True Parents. Consequently, the Blessing allows you to establish this bond. (23-332, 1969.6.15)
The Blessing is about becoming one with God. When you become one with God, you obtain everything. You receive everything belonging to God, the subject partner. (Tongil Segye - November 1982)
What is the occasion of the Blessing? It is the very best place in the entire world. With whom should you establish a relationship at the place of Blessing? You cannot perfect yourself on your own; you are perfected through True Parents' love. When a child is born from his parents' bosom, regardless of whether he is good-looking or not, the child takes after its parents. In the same way, Unification Church members are taught the way of the true parent. For you, that is the blessing of all blessings. (35-236, 1970.10.19)
Bestowing the Blessing signifies passing on the full authority of Heaven. (17-328, 1967.4.16)
The Blessing is the most precious thing in heaven and earth. At the same time it is the most fearsome. If blessed spouses think about others besides their spouse, they are emotionally violating each other. (l3-67, 1963.10.17)
Good ancestors, territory, and a nation will emerge from you. Therefore, you who have received the Blessing must always think about heaven and earth from the minute you open your eyes. The Blessing is for the sake of your sharing blessings with others. You need to convert the lineage that was defiled by the Fall. Without accomplishing this, you cannot remove Original Sin. Without removing Original Sin, you cannot rise to the level of receiving the Blessing as true children. That is how the Principle works. The Holy Wine Ceremony is a ceremony to convert the lineage that removes Original Sin inherited from the Fall. In other words, it is a ceremony to exchange one's flesh and blood. (35-210, 1970.10.30)
The holy wine contains elements of all the things of creation, which cannot be accused by Satan. After drinking the holy wine and becoming one with True Parents, if you commit any acts that defile your body, you will be worse off than Satan himself. Satan defiled and violated the completion stage of the growing period, but if someone who has received the Blessing commits a sin, he defiles the substantial body of God in the perfection level of the completion stage and so cannot ever be forgiven. This is a truly a terrifying thought. (God's Will - 543)
A wedding ceremony is none other than the bequeathal of love. The wedding ceremony is the bequeathal ceremony that tells you to live in such a way that you become parents in place of God's love, in the same way as your parents lived under the love of God. (96-236, 1978.1.22)
I take complete and eternal responsibility for those who have received the Blessing, even in the spirit world. I will directly guide them and lead them. The Blessing establishes an eternal relationship between the True Parents and those who receive it. (God's Will - 533)
If you deviate after having received the Blessing, there will inevitably be an indemnity condition. it will be there for sure. There is no forgiveness. Thus, the Unification Church is a fearful place. That is how the Principle works. (God's Will - 27)
I have enabled you to establish the indemnity condition to receive this new Blessing and create a new family and have tried to take responsibility for your heavy burden. But if you transgress the heavenly law even after I carried out my responsibility, that constitutes the most fearful sin -- one that will be transmitted down to dozens of generations. (22-211.1969.2.4)
What is the difference in value between a person who has passed through the course of the Blessing and the many people who have already gone to the spirit world? In terms of the standard of faith, there can be no comparison. If you abandon this heavenly grace, Satan will accuse you. The archangel became Satan at the level of the growth stage. but if you fall at the completion stage, Satan will judge you. (God's Will - 59)
14.3. The Sunghwa Ceremony
People today do not know what it means to die. It is not a sorrowful occasion. You should see it as a transition from a lower dimensional world to a higher dimensional world, through the bridge of love. That is why the Unification Church does not call it death but Sunghwa. It is ascending to a higher dimension. This is only possible through love. (137-316, 1986.15)
If human beings had not fallen, death would have been a happy occasion. That is why I have taught the Unification Church members that they should not greet death with sorrow. That is why it is called the Sunghwa (199-353, 1990.1.11)
A funeral in the Unification Church is called a Sunghwa Ceremony. The spirit of a dead person will lament if he sees people holding on to his dead body and crying. He would say, "The ignorance of these people is a rope that ties me down and prevents me from going on my way." Since we know these things, we call a funeral a Sunghwa Ceremony.
Sunghwa means a sacred ascension to heaven. You have to push the dead person to the spirit world with the power of love. Do not hold them back but push them forward. (199-130.1990.1.16)
The Sunghwa Ceremony began with Heung-jin, did it not? What is the meaning of "victory of love" in the "Day of the Victory of Love"? It means victory over death. If it had been any other person, the mother would have been writhing in sorrow, crying and wailing from deep within. Yet, True Mother should not shed even one tear. We had to hold this ceremony within three days. I had to proclaim that death had been overcome. This is the way that the Sunghwa Ceremony came to be held in the Unification Church. It is a ceremony of going beyond death and onward to joy. Those who go through the Sunghwa Ceremony can easily go beyond all the valleys in the spirit world. Of course, there will be some who fail to do so and remain in between. You have to know this. The Sunghwa Ceremony began with Heung-jin. (212-96, 1991.1.2)
Heung-jin's ascension brought down the walls of death. That is why it is called the Sunghwa Ceremony. Death should not bring dejection or despair. It is not a fall from life but a leap into a new world. It is ascending to a new world. For that reason, Unification Church members should not fear death. Death comes in accordance with the natural order of things. It is just a process of moving on to a better world. (196-270, 1996.1.1)
I did not cry even when my son Heung-jin passed away. Our departure for the spirit world is not a sad occasion. You should raise the flag of heaven amid the trumpet call for liberation. Go on boldly, unbeaten, while raising the flag that signals your glorious return to your homeland. This is the path that lets you proudly enter your hometown, where the nation and all of humanity will welcome you with cheers. It is not a sorrowful occasion. We do not shed tears in the Unification Church. What do we call this? We call it the Sunghwa Ceremony. (227-460, 1992.2.14)
Even though my mother-in-law passed away, we do not call it a funeral in the Unification Church. What do we call it? A Sunghwa Ceremony! We call it a Sunghwa It is moving on to the stage of activity in the vertical spirit world, the infinite world, after having lived in the horizontal earthly world. In the satanic world, if you cry aloud, evil spirits will come to you, but evil spirits cannot find their way to a Sunghwa Ceremony. (195-160, 1989.11.15)
What do we call funerals in the Unification Church? What is a Sunghwa Ceremony? It means to be transformed and go up to a higher stage. I did not cry when grandmother Hong passed away. I did not cry because I was busy paving the way for her to ascend. Where else can you find a greater filial son than this? (196-55, 1989.12.24)
In the Unification Church, we do not hold funerals in the usual way after a person's death. Instead, we hold a Sunghwa Ceremony. We live our lives knowing where we are heading. Is there anything to fear in this world? Is there anything to fear in the universe? From this world of sin and chaos, we should take the form of an autonomous center, aligned with the standard of heaven and earth, and thus enter into an upright position within the realm of God's love. Why do we need to enter the vertical position? It is because it creates no shadow in relation to God's love. Everything is perfected. Consequently, the entire environment will rotate around the vertical axis. When a woman unites centering on a man, the realm of happiness emerges throughout the environment, centering on that man and woman. (198-124, 1990.1.25)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Section 15. Attitude when Observing Holy Days. |
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Book Seven - Etiquette And Ceremonies
Chapter Four - Tradition and Daily Etiquette of Blessed Families
Section 15. Attitude when Observing Holy Days
15.1. The significance of Holy Days
You should have a yearning heart for holy days. Only by establishing such a tradition can you build a life of tradition for your descendants. Holy days should be spent in joy while sharing everything with one another amid the joy of heaven. This day is based on the family and is a day for establishing the heavenly law.
You should know that celebration days that occurred in this world throughout the history after the Fall were not something that brought God joy but were days that brought delight to Satan. The days for commemorating the independence of a nation or holding some international event have all been celebrated within the fallen realm. (92-250, 1977.4.18)
From a principled viewpoint, the day of celebration and hope that human beings long for the most is not the day when they were born or the day they get married, or the day you, as a citizen who lost your nation, recovered your nation, or even the day of your nation's independence. You should know that the greatest day of hope, the day that humanity truly longs for, is God's Day and Parents' Day. The establishment of such a day on the earth has become our deepest wish. Once God's Day and True Parents' Day are established, then this naturally leads to Children's Day and the Day of All Things. (92-252, 1977.4.18)
No one living on earth until this time has ever seen God's Day, True Parents' Day, True Children's Day, and Day of All True Things. There are 365 days in a year. You should clearly understand that the most important days among all 365 days are those days that I have just mentioned, which have now appeared in providential history. You should know that these days are the king of all days, and if a year like that existed it would be the king of all years. (92-252, 1977.4.18)
The holy days and anniversaries we observe in the Unification Church are providential days of victory, obtained after bloody struggles against the satanic world. Since they are days commemorating the accomplishment of absolute victory, you should commemorate these days with a heart of thanks and gratitude toward God and True Parents.
15.2. Ceremonial robes
I will be going to the highest position, to the heavenly throne, but not all of you will be able to come with me. Because you received the precious thing called the Blessing, the door is open for you, but not all of you have the proper ceremonial robes to wear. Even if you have been invited to a feast, you cannot attend unless you have the proper clothing, can you? If you have been asked to be a groomsman at a wedding, can you go dressed as if you just finished working on the farm? You have to dress appropriately before you go. Only then will you be qualified to be welcomed into that environment. If not, you will be thrown out. They will yell at you: "Get out of here, you good for nothing!" Similarly, not everyone can come here. You cannot just come here unprepared. You must come dressed in holy robes. (212-226, 1991.1.6)
A sacrificial offering represents the life and belief of the person making it. When you buy the goods for a sacrificial offering, do not try to get a discount but give a little bit more. You should do the same when you buy material to make your holy robe. (37-279, 1970.12.30)
Go Home to True Love Go to the Contents Page Go on to Book 8: Chapter 1: Section 1. The Realms of Indirect and Direct Dominion. |
