Father's Prayer

Sun Myung Moon
January 1, 1983, Midnight

Our loving Father,

The year 1982 is behind us and we are facing the year 1983. We are at the threshold of the whole new year 1983. The entire world is greeting this moment. Please guide all people who are planning this year, so that their hearts will be in alignment with Your will. Let all religious people be united, and let their lives freely develop, following Your will.

In the midst of ordeals and persecution, the Unification members throughout the world were marching towards Your final dispensational goal during 1982. Please remember those suffering children who are praying with longing hearts that the year 1983 may be a year of hope.

Guide the Unification members through this year and towards the moment when the new history will begin. Let those who represent history be loyal, on behalf of all historical figures. Also, guide them so they can dwell in the depths of Your heart. As soldiers who are establishing the kingdom of heaven, may they dwell in Your heart as unforgettable people, worthy of being called Your sons and daughters, and deserving of Your abundant love.

As our members bid farewell to 1982, a year filled with ordeals, their hearts are tearful and their hands are folded together in prayer, pointing in the direction of New York and America, where True Parents are. These places where our members are gathered together are solemn places, where longing prayers are offered. Please forgive each individual and receive the hearts of those who had given hopeful promises to bring the victory in 1982, but who were unable to fulfill them. I pray and beseech You to bless them, so that this new year will be a year of victory, one which they will be able to go through and look back on with gratitude.

At this time, all the Unification members, representing all mankind, are making a new resolution to be more deeply loyal and pious in 1983, and to be more united in one heart and one will. Let them pledge to become brave soldiers on the advancing line of the salvation of mankind. Let them determine to become victorious in securing both today and tomorrow. Let them resolve to become unforgettable people in Your heart. Please receive the resolution they are making at this time.

Ever since the day of infamy, the day in which the human ancestors fell, You have been laboring in man's place. Laden with sorrow and loneliness, You have been trying to restore the lost history, which is filled with many untold stories. In our stead, You have voluntarily taken the path of sorrow and agony, lingering ever behind the scenes, watching over mankind, and going through the historic path of indemnity with all Your strength. We think about You and all the things You have gone through, and reflect about the unrepented wrongs which our ancestors have committed throughout history. Please permit us now as Unification members to pledge to You our loyalty and piety, on behalf of all mankind. This group of people knows that to follow Your way means to take the path of sorrow, but they do not draw back. Neither do they mind enduring the path of persecution and oppression.

The historic paths of Abraham and Jacob were alike, as they followed Your way. The same with Moses, as he guided the journey of the Israelites. Jesus knew Your will, and he was supposed to have built the victorious heavenly kingdom by making the Roman Empire submit; but instead, he lost the chosen nation and had to take up the suffering path, and under the name of Christianity extend it to the whole world. We reflect deeply about these historical accounts.

Your will was prolonged for the two thousand suffering years of Christianity, whose efforts to recover the four thousand years of history have been stained with tears, sweat and blood and filled with deeds which must be repented for. We are going through this lonely journey with You and overcoming this sorrow. Sometimes You have looked upon people who even at the point of death are praying for that one victorious day to come in which Your will shall be accomplished. We are again reminded of Your painful broken heart, looking upon those people who are praying for the day in which the world will realize Your will.

Today, in this time of the last days, Christianity should have fulfilled its responsibility so that the world could stand in the realm of victory; then, instead of following a path of sorrow, Christianity's course would have been a glorious one, attending and revering Heavenly Father. Christian civilization -- not only on the individual level, but also as families, as a society, as a nation, and as a world -- should have developed and taken shape, centering on the long-desired sovereignty of heaven; then it would have returned glory and victory and praise to You. Again, we reflect on the historical fact that the Unification Church, which was chosen to carry out Your will, had heaped upon it the burden of sorrow and obstacles called the way of historical indemnity.

Persecution comes from individuals and from families, societies and nations as well. Even the world has joined in the persecution. Now, in the center of this free world, America, and even here in the heart of America, this fathering of members who revere and follow You has received rejection from all religious people, who are [supposed to be] following Your way. We know very well that behind the tear-stained sacrifices which we have made in order to pioneer and establish this foundation lies Your much more sorrowful history. Assembled here together, we are pledging to advance and progress -- and to be the kind of church that will never disappear in despair, but will bring the one victorious day to the free world. We are grateful for Your grace which infuses us with pride and confidence to take up the worldwide pioneer mission of laying the victorious foundation, upon which we can make a new settlement in this new time period.

In this building in the center of New York, we have been the object of persecution, judgment and ridicule coming at us from all sides. But from now on, from this day at the beginning of the New Year, Your children who are gathered here will be united in one heart and one body and will restore heaven's dignity and honor; as independence soldiers, we will establish the sovereignty of goodness and bring about the heavenly kingdom. As they rally together for this cause, please help them to be proud and valiant before Satan.

Father, please have hope in the Unification Church. We are not on the edge of twilight, facing the night, but rather on the verge of dawn, waiting to greet the rising sun. Heavenly Father, I pray that during 1983 You will settle on this earth and uphold all the work with dignity and authority, pursuing the welfare and prosperity of the heavenly kingdom, and protecting it with a shield of victory. Please allow us to greet this New Year with the determination to create the basis on which Your victorious power can be manifest on this earth.

Please extend Your arms in blessing upon Korea, Japan, America and Germany, upon those nations representing providential roles. I plead for You to allow this year 1983 to be the boundary mark, so that from now on, in those countries, people who oppose us will be weakened and people on the side of goodness will prosper.

I ask for the entire spirit world to help make this year 1983 one in which the Unification Church members representing all the nations on earth will be united with their ancestors and march on together to secure the worldwide victory. Let all the spirit world be mobilized to suppress the powers of evil which oppose this, so we can leap towards victory. And let this beginning hour be one in which we command the development of a new history. Countless religious figures and righteous people have been longing for the day of victory on earth; please allow them to participate in our efforts and work through their direct lineage, in order to fulfill their long-cherished desires. Let them bring their descendants to this Unification banner -- even though their descendants may be unaware of their help -- in order to realize the victorious ideal world.

Korea, Japan, America and Germany, and the other 127 nations, are stained with the tears of the ones You love, as they make indemnity conditions with pleading tears and prayers, for the sake of bringing about victory on this earth. I pray that this new year will establish the foundation for us to directly command the mobilization of tribes, nations and all mankind.

Now this year's new motto is "Home Church Is Our Land of Settlement." With this motto, we have a confident beginning point. God, please declare this year to be one in which You can take command, mobilizing the righteous and religious people, uniting all religious groups on earth.

I believe and I know that from this beginning hour of the new year, the command will be given from heaven and carried out on the earth: to march toward the one victorious day and to establish the victorious sovereignty of goodness and the victorious kingdom of heaven. Please declare this. I pray all this, grateful for Your grace in allowing us to pray these things. I offer this prayer of blessing for all these things in the name of the True Parents. Amen. Amen. Amen.