Midnight Prayer

Sun Myung Moon
January 1, 1985

Dear loving Father,

We have just entered a new year, 1985, and 1984 is over. In the flow of history, last year was the one that had to absolutely determine our victory or failure in Your providence.

Father, at this moment when the entire world and the spirit world are watching, and particularly when the members of the Unification Church are watching in one heart to receive this new dawn, we offer this moment as a turning point to prepare ourselves for the future, and to remove all of our past faults through repentance. We pray that You can dwell in this place and allow this year to be the one in which all of Your desires can freely be declared.

Your son understands that You quietly prepared the Unification Church through a long period while other people took no notice; that You alone led the history of restoration on the foundation of the sacrifice of numerous saints and sages in order to indemnify the past sad history of all humankind. He understands that You were eager for time to pass quickly, carrying sorrow and misery inside without being able to reveal them to anyone else; and that You have been anxious for Your will to be substantialized in the coming new era. He also knows that You chose a man who became the ancestor of Israel, and centering upon him, guided 4,000 years of tear-filled history to establish the foundation on the individual, family, society, and national levels in order to restore the world. He understands' how anxiously You waited to send the Messiah, Jesus, on that foundation, dreaming of the realization of re-creation and the ideal, and the liquidation of all the effects of the human fall.

Nevertheless, Jesus, whom you had sent in the desire that he appear as the Messiah and historical hope before the Israelites, was rejected by his people and the Judaic religion, and the bitter heartache you harbored throughout history was left unresolved. As a result, Christianity had to undergo the path of suffering while giving birth to a new history. Christianity was colored with the blood of saints martyred while they were marching forward to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, martyred because of the separation between spirit and body that resulted from the crucifixion.

The worldwide foundation has expanded through the worldwide Tang Gam conditions of 2,000 years, all coming to center upon America, the leading nation of the Christian world. However, although Christianity and the Unification Church were destined to be united as one, due to the ignorance of the church and the state concerning God's providence and their enormous responsibility in the last days, Christianity and the Unification Church went separate ways, resulting in a tragic history of division.

Also, history had previously taken a wrong turn when, at the time of Korea's liberation from Japan, Your will was not fulfilled. At that time Heaven was eager to bring about the reorganization of Christianity and to establish the foundation upon which Your will could be accomplished, centering on a seven- year course.

The Unification Church has now groped its way in indescribable grief and pain for 40 years as a controversial, persecuted church. You know how miserable it has been to walk, gasping, up the steep paths of Tang Gam on the individual, family, society, nation, and worldwide levels. Because Your son standing here knew his heavenly mission was to restore this world, he accepted the paths of tribulation as his life-destiny -- but those sad, aching days have already passed away.

In the meantime, the world has changed. I recall how difficult it was in 1974 and 1975 to unify worldwide Christianity for the substantial restoration of the world, in order to indemnify all the persecution our church suffered from Christian churches in Korea. Nevertheless, the responsibility of the Unification movement to reorganize Christianity in America and the world still remains. When we think of how miserable and sad You must have been to watch such a powerless, small group as our church struggling but still hoping to achieve Your expectation, when we think how our shortcomings have often caused You additional suffering, but how You have striven on regardless, and still have protected us from all kinds of hardships, we are deeply grateful to You.

Father, Your son knows that all the members of the Unification Church have been walking a lonely road in America, working hard everywhere, carrying the historical mission to proclaim the worldwide restoration of Canaan. In 1985 it will be 40 years since the end of World War II. The year 1984 was the middle of the three-year emergency condition. Also, because 1984 was the last of the first three years of the Children's Course, we knew that, whatever price had to be paid, it was a crucial time for God's will to be fulfilled. All the members of the church had to be mobilized to indemnify the failures of Korea, Christianity, and the world in accomplishing their historical responsibilities.

Our beloved Heung Jin was sent to You in 1984. By sending me to prison, You desired to change the direction of American churches and their leaders. Through this Tang Gam condition the grief of Jesus can be soothed, and numerous people wandering the earth in darkness, having lost the guiding light of Christianity, can discover a new light. We have thus reached a transitional point wherein Cain and Abel can develop a new relationship of unity on the worldwide level. When we think of all this, we see that the reward of glory You have granted to us is so immense. And so we earnestly pray that You can guide us to offer 1984 to You in gratitude.

When thinking of our mission to invest all of our energy and power to bring victory for the future, we sincerely pray that this year can be erected as Your year and that all the providential days left from today will continue to be Yours and give You deep pride.

Please protect all of Your children of the Unification Church in Korea, Japan, America, and throughout the world who are praying on this day. When we reflect that their prayers are to accomplish Your will and to bring in a triumphant day for their teacher, we firmly believe that Your desire will eventually be achieved and Your flag of victory will wave powerfully in heaven and on earth. We fervently pray that this_ ear of 1985 will be the one in which You can extol your victory and glory.

We thank You for granting a new year for us to fight for Your purpose. Although last year could be regarded either as a year of sadness or of pride according to the point of view, by carrying the cross of indemnity, the time has come for Your son to regain what was lost in Jesus' time. When Jesus was going the way of the cross he lost Judaism, his nation, his disciples, his parents, his relatives, and the substance of Christianity. He walked alone towards Calvary, carrying only the spirit world with him. However, when we witness that the modern-day son in the capacity of the True Parent could find the lost children, disciples, families, and churches, and could gather together the scattered groups of humankind by carrying the modern cross of going to Danbury prison, we who had been worried about its consequences cannot help but thank You for these unexpected results.

Thus, despite our own attempts to solve problems, Heaven alone could bring success in such dark circumstances. We again come to realize that You alone are truly great and to be exalted. We earnestly pray that You allow this new year to be Your own, filled with joy, victory, and glory throughout the entire universe, and that the heartache and bitter feelings You have harbored throughout history can be washed away.

We understand that we are now in the final stage of history. We have battles to fight and tasks to fulfill. Please let us realize again the incredible fact that the result depends on Your son, the major leaders who are directly involved with him, and all the members, and let us accomplish our responsibilities with success.

Our Father, who acknowledges all hearts that request the things necessary for Your will to be done, please allow this year to be the one which restores the harmful events that have happened in America, and determines a victorious outcome on the worldwide level, by mobilizing Heung Jin, Jesus, thousands of saints and sages, kings and presidents from 120 nations, and the righteous and loyal of the spirit world, and unifying them all for the sake of the completion of our goal, "The Creation and Building of One Fatherland on Earth."

We also deeply pray that this new year be the one which can bring oneness between the hearts of Heaven, True Parents, and all the Unification Church members, and the one in which, on that foundation, we implant the flag of everlasting triumph.

Wishing again that all the remaining days in 1985 can be full of joy, pride, and praise for You throughout the world, we offer this prayer in the name of True Parents.

Amen. Amen. Amen.