Prayers, A Lifetime Of Conversation With Our Heavenly Father - Sun Myung Moon |
Filial Piety [Part 4 of 4]
Please Let Us Be Children Who Do Not Forget Our Destined Relationship As Parent And Children
Father! Having to accomplish the mission of certain victory which you left behind is the daily life of original humankind who are living on the earth and it is their very life, but we know that by not having historical results which could be left before heaven, humankind has left behind historical grief. Please awaken us once again to the fact that you are concerned because we ourselves who are living today in this age are in a position where we could create grief.
Father! Please remember your children who are gathered here. They depend on you alone, and they are a group that is shouldering the important and great mission of having to accomplish the mission you left behind. We know very well that we appear unworthy, and when we critique ourselves and analyze ourselves, we know that we do not measure up as beings who are able to return something to you. We must not forget that because we have already formed a destined relationship as children with you which cannot be torn apart even if we tried to tear it apart, you look at our very beings and you are relating to us from the point that divides into sorrow or joy.
Just as parents love their children; it is the principle of all human morality and the duty of heavenly morality that the children must love their parents.
We know well that through our lives, humankind should have left behind a starting point of being able to give and receive that kind of love, but because humankind was not able to establish a foundation in daily life to be able to do that, and was not able to have an environment where we were able to do that, we could not establish that kind of tradition.
Please let this become a time and a place in which we reflect on the sorrowful course of history which has flowed on like this and which calls upon us to fulfill the mission left behind for us today. We earnestly hope and desire, Father, that you will allow this to be a time in which we are able to present ourselves before your holy majesty, receive new orders, and receive new commands.
We are like naked people. Please let us realize clearly the fact that we are facing the realm of boundaries where we can be invaded by Satan at any time. Now we will have to know you, father, before we die. And furthermore, we must feel that there remains before us the heavenly mission that after having come to know you it will not do unless we live and attend you before we die.
With ourselves as we are, when we stand in the presence of your solemn majesty, do we truly have eyes that are able to look straight at you, Father? Do we have faces that can relate to you without shame? And do we have limbs and bodies that can do things in your presence without shame? When we think about these things, we come to realize that we do not have any features that are not shameful before you. The more that we feel this, the more we come to truly know that the position of our father is a position in which he cannot avoid sorrow when he is relating to unworthy people who are pitiful like this and who are not able to stand properly.
Within our true minds, with minds soaring up that want to call out to you, going beyond time and the ages, our minds will have to become earnest about running towards you. We earnestly request you to allow us to realize the fact that without that kind of thing, we will not be able to continue our destined relationship as the sons and daughters of our father.
We have humbly prayed all these things in the name of the True Parents. Amen.
August 24, 1969
Please Let Us Possess The Features Of Children Who Are Able To Represent You
Oh Father! Until now you have been moving. Until now, the earth has been moving, too. But since the direction that you were moving and the direction that the earth was moving were not the same, it became your sorrow; therefore, we will have to unite the earth with you.
We know that the beings who will have to unite them are the people who are in the middle, who are neither of heaven nor of the earth. We must clearly know the fact that due to people centering on themselves and betraying God, and not being able to go beyond the foundation of the difficult way of history, today this miserable struggle has continued centered on each one's self.
Here we must know that the enemies who are more frightening than the enemies of heaven or the enemies of the earth are the people. Due to people, your sorrow and grief have piled up one on top of the other, Father, and due to people, until now a miserable history of blood has continued on the earth. When we realize that all this is because a true person could not be established, we must establish truth and find a true person. And after finding him we must become completely one with him.
We have come to understand that in order to do that, the course of restoration is having to be absolutely obedient to you.
Owing to our having offered our minds and bodies entirely and having given our full devotion, heaven will have to be able to bow its head here and earth will have to be able to bow its head here. We will have to become people who are not ridiculed by the enemy Satan and who have the features of sons and daughters who have become one with you, who are able to attend you, and who are able to represent you. Please do not let us forget the fact that you have longed greatly for those kinds of features.
If in our minds we have hot-blooded vitality, please do not let that vitality end as vitality for any one individual; please let us realize that it will not do unless this vitality becomes connected with your vitality. If there is such a thing for young people, it is the same, and if middle-aged or elderly people have hearts of that kind of vitality, please let them be able to become one with you. We must know clearly that we descendents of the fall are facing a path of destiny along which we must long for and go to the place we are looking for today and tomorrow.
Father! Now we must open the doors of our minds and attend you with much care. Before the majesty of your presence we must bow down, repent for the historical sins of the past and ask for forgiveness. Father, please come to us.
Please extend your heart of mercy to us and please do not forget us. We must become true object partners who are able to become one with your hope. And we must become people who hold you as an object of adoration and who long for you.
Father! We know that it will not do unless we establish one complete standard that is able to call you Father and that unites the mind of vitality which is able to move or stop together with heaven and the mind of vitality which is able to move or stop together with the earth. Therefore, we earnestly hope that you will allow us to become a humble group before you as those who can do that.
We have prayed all these things in the name of the True Parents. Amen.
August 3 l, 1969
Please Let Us Become Children Who Are Able To Take Over Your Great Work
Father! Please let us feel grieved that we have not been able to possess a conclusive authority of love because we have not been able to have the spark of love which is able to go crazy at least several times over the desire to love again even after having loved our object partner like crazy.
We earnestly hope and desire, Father, that you will allow us to become sons, to become daughters, and to become families who deplore ourselves for not having had a single day when we worshipped heaven through the whole night continuing into the next day, and in order to have that kind of motivation, run appealing to you to hold on to us.
We must become children who, in front of the people of the world, the families of the world, and the nations of the world, have more value than they do, and who give them the blessing with joy. And please let us realize the fact that when we become children who newly create something higher, everything turns out well.
Please allow us to understand clearly that the spirit world is mobilized at the point where we appear in the position of parents representing God. And we earnestly hope and desire that you will allow us to fulfill the mission of moving the environment, which is the object partner, with the authority of the subject partner by becoming the center of the world.
And when we call you "Father," we want to call you "Father" millions of times at least, with minds that are scores of times more earnest than those of the people of the world today who are calling you "Father" with earnest minds. Therefore, please allow us to be able to experience your innermost heart, and please make us more earnest now than before, and please make us more earnest later than we are now. Please let us enter the status of being called your sons. Prodigals are also sons, and loyal subjects are also sons, but please allow us to become sons who are able to take over your great work.
We earnestly hope and desire that you will allow all of us to struggle in order to become sons who are recognized by everyone as filial sons who are able to inherit completely all of your great works from you. And please allow us to be able to be recognized by you who say, "You are my beloved sons."
We have humbly prayed all these things in the name of the True Parents. Amen.
February 26, 1970
Please Let Us Stand As Fitting Children Before You
Father! We know the truth that no matter how much we call out to you, if you do not call out to us we cannot have a destined relationship with you. We must once again feel from the depths of our hearts that you have called out to us over and over again from a position of suffering, from a miserable position, with an earnest mind throughout the long course of history.
And having become beings who are able to adjust completely to all your commands, we must become sons and daughters who are able to say, "Oh Father! Do as you will!" And we must become sons and daughters who are not inadequate to inherit the spirit of our ancestors who shouldered the mission of indemnity for the historical age. In this age how much you must have longed for sons and daughters whom you could praise and boast about!
Father, you promised, blessed, and commanded internally, but our ancestors who came and went in the course of history always pounded nails into your heart, and when we realize that it was not just once or twice that they banished you to a lonely place, our having the destined relationship of being able to become your sons is a joyful thing, but in relation to the aspect of the mission, each time we look back on the grief-tilled path of restoration walked by our ancestors, we cannot help but think that it is accompanied by many sorrowful things.
Please allow us to realize that in order to meet such a father, we must heal the misery of that father, or we cannot meet him, and in order to have a relationship with that father, we must go beyond all our worldly relationships, or we cannot have a relationship with him. When we consider who was the cause of this kind of relationship and we realize the truth that it was not because of you but it was because of our human ancestors, humankind, we realize we must become your sons and daughters who are able to feel ashamed.
And when we tell you that we are beings who deserve to the millions of times over, we will be able to communicate with your pitiful situation up until now, and when we stand in a position similar to yours or in a position that is even more miserable, our father who has been so sorrowful will be able to comfort us. We know that if there is such a time, it is from that point that we can form a relationship with you, Father. Please allow us to realize that a destined relationship is not realized from a position of asking things from you; rather, it is formed from a position where you are able to hold on to us and share about your situation with us.
We have humbly prayed all these things in the holy name of the True Parents. Amen.
March 15, 1970
Please Let Us Become Able To Testify That We Are Your Children
Beloved Father! We know that if we search and go up and up, and up some more, the outcome will be none other than the place where we meet with you, Father.
If we consider what the final, conclusive words might be, what you might say and what we might say, they would be, "You are my son," and "I am your son." We know that those are the conclusive words, the words of hope humankind has pursued, and the words for which you have sought and met humankind.
This is not to end by meeting with you as son and daughter; rather, those sons and daughters should be able to transform into the bone of your bones, and the flesh of your flesh. Internal hope should appear to us, and the individual aspiration that appeared to us should appear to a family, and the family's aspiration should go beyond the society and nation, and beyond all the people of the world, and it should become an emotion felt through the experience of your innermost heart, and it should be able to overflow to a world level of universal validity. We know that world is the world of hope you are seeking, and it is the one world humankind is looking for.
When we look at things from this position, we will have to look and see whether there is in reality a group that is looking for this kind of path in this historical period today. We will have to check into this. We must reveal the origin of the truth taught by Jesus and all the saints, and in relation to ourselves, we must find how much priority we give the value of heaven, and we must analyze and critique in what kind of equal situation heaven and we must stand. And then we must understand at this time that it will not do unless we take a stand on a decisive position that it must be this way, and unless, having appeared before all the people and the entire world and the new trends of thought, we establish a standard of truth which can cope with them.
Father, you must be able to prove that we are your children, and we must have faith that can vividly testify that we are your sons and your daughters. Please allow us to prove, not only by faith but from a position of experience, the fact that you and I have a relationship extending front and back and a relationship extending right and left, and please allow us to discover our own selves who are able to establish on our own the origin of proof allowing us to say that from that kind of position without change we have been together eternally, we are living together eternally, and we will live together eternally.
We have humbly prayed all these things in the name of the True Parents. Amen.
February 11, 1971
Please Let Us Realize The Precious Value Of True Parents And Attend Them
We must come to know how precious the name of True Parents is. We must always keep in mind that they are the parent-body which can resolve your grief; they are the center for realizing the hope of humankind. We cannot substitute all of history for these True Parents who are the origin of the appearance of the ideal world, and we cannot substitute them even for our children.
We will have to have the thought of the Tine Parents in our bodies. The will of the True Parents is to save the world. We have come to understand that the thought of the True Parents is a thought for the foundation of the future and for leaving behind a historical tradition. We are in the present in order to bear the fruit of the past; we are in the present in order to become the center of the purpose of the present; we are in the present in order to become the center of the purpose of the future. When we consider that we are standing in a holy position which is able to influence the conclusive destiny of three ages like this, we realize that so far we didn't know that humankind was like that. But now, Father, we have realized it.
Now we will have to give our entire devotion and fulfill our moral obligation as the good ancestors of millions of generations and establish a tradition that will be adequate to be respected forever and ever. When were we filial children to our parents? When did we attend our parents in spring with flowers blooming?
Or when did we fight beside them together in summer, fall, or winter? When did we determine to die together with them? We want to sincerely thank you that you have granted us this time when we can share our destiny with our parents for three years, even though we could not yet attend our parents in spite of the fact that we should have attended them for three years.
When our living environment becomes filled with tears and our life course can be filled with earnest tears, and we can say, "I want to live and die for millions of years attending my parents," And when in the day, I think of my parents; at night, too, I think of my parents; when lonely, too, I think of my parents; and when happy, too, I think of my parents, many peoples will be moved by that.
And not just many peoples. We must realize the truth that a holy and awesome situation is present in that which will move the many human beings of the world, and we earnestly hope and desire that you will allow us to become your sons and daughters who are able to go forward powerfully, more powerfully and more powerfully.
We have humbly prayed in the holy name of the True Parents. Amen.
April 29, 1971
Please Let Us Comfort The Situation Of Heaven Which Has Suffered Unjustly
Oh Father of great mercy! Oh heaven, which has experienced losses until now having destined relationships of compassion and sympathy, please bend down and look at our inadequate selves. When we consider your original authority and position, we come to think that you are a holy being whom fallen humankind dare not relate to, and we must think deploringly of the fact that you, our father who is like that, have suffered unjustly going forward taking responsibility alone for the path of suffering.
But if there is an opportunity for us to be able to notify heaven and earth about this, we must know that before we notify them about pitiful humankind, we are the people who must notify them first about our pitiful heavenly parents.
Even if we are in a position that is able to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, more than hoping for the authority of heaven, we must feel acutely that before us on our road of life there remain many times when we will have to go the kind of road where we comfort heaven, endure and go through many things.
Please let us awaken once more to the fact that we must become dashing sons and daughters you can be proud of who today also of their own volition protect the road to the battle; who, as the pioneers of tomorrow, long for the appearance of victory; who determine to overcome, and who do not know what it means to become exhausted even in a living environment of unfavorable conditions.
Since we feel the fact that unless we move according to your innermost heart and become beings who are connected to your situation, and then, as fruits of goodness, become stepping stones on this earth, you will not be able to walk, we earnestly request that you will allow us to become sons and daughters who live comforting and attending our Father who is going a lonely way even one day more quickly.
We have humbly prayed in the name of our True Parents. Amen.
August 29, 1971
Please Let Us Become Children Who Are Concerned About Our Parent's Heart First
Our Father, who has worked hard with this group which is always inadequate and weak, our Father, who has counseled us while always enduring in a lonely position, our father, who takes responsibility alone in circumstances of sorrow and who goes forward standing in the vanguard in order to pioneer the day of comfort and rest for us, when we consider that you are such a father, we must ask you to please pardon us for having severely lacked filial piety, and for not having been able to attend you as the Lord of our hearts.
Please pardon, Father, that we have been inadequate and have not known until now that you are our father who is resurrecting as to eternal life which continues forever and forever, and even today you are continuing the work of creation.
We are longing for a time when we can straighten up our clothes and our hearts can be moved with yearning and adoration while gazing at your holy majesty. Therefore, if there is anything you would like to instruct us about, please come and instruct us so that our minds and bodies may be moved, and if we cannot go to the place that you desire through the destined relationship of the new command, we earnestly hope and desire, Father, that even if you have to take a rod to us, you will allow us to be able to go to that place.
Since in spite of the fact that we should give ourselves as offerings to you, we are not able to do that, Father, we earnestly hope that even if you have to drive us there and even if you have to drag us there, you will lead us to your altar.
On the way to the mountain in Moriah, Abraham brought his innocent son, Isaac, with him. When Isaac asked his father, "Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" his father answered that he did not have to worry about that. Each time I consider Abraham's heart, each time I consider that parent's heart, I come to feel how sorrowful your heart must be as you lead us.
When we think that before being concerned about your heart, there are many times when we are concerned about ourselves or the things around us, now we must go beyond ourselves and be concerned about your heart first, Father. This must become a time when we awaken to the fact that we must become the people of the nation and the sons and daughters whom you cannot do without, who give filial piety upon filial piety and give loyalty upon loyalty, and who can maintain the mainstream of your dispensation. And we earnestly hope and desire that you will allow this to be a time of not just our awakening, but rather of pledging with conviction.
We have humbly prayed all these things in the name of the True Parents. Amen.
September 5, 1971