Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman
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Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman |
Filial sons and daughters attend God and True Parents with a heart of joy and gratitude in the position of true sons and daughters. Filial sons and daughters feel indebtedness to God for His love and respond with a heart of gratitude. God is suffering. We have not recognized how much He has done, and continues to do for us. We have not recognized how much True Parents have done and sacrificed for us. Parents who work hard and try to provide so much for their children are saddened when their children fail recognize their efforts. We must express our gratitude to God, True Parents and to our parents.
Had Adam and Eve kept God's Commandment with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience they would have perfected the Parent and child relationship with God. They would have lived their lives with filial attendance and gratitude to their Heavenly Parent. In the course of our lives greater indemnity conditions must be offered in our course of restoration with absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience with a heart of gratitude. Suffering is for our own restoration. Complaint is not permissible in the course of restoration. It is a heart of gratitude that restores the position of true filial sons and daughters of God. Satan runs away from filial sons and daughters who express gratitude to God and True Parents. If we do not express gratitude, even during the suffering of our indemnity conditions, we cannot separate from Satan.
Filial sons and daughters, either on the altar of God or bowing before the throne of God, offer praise and gratitude to God, our vertical True Parents, and to True Parents, our horizontal True Parents. We must be grateful for being alive during the age of True Parents. We need to be grateful for having found True Parents and the way of life they teach. We need to be grateful that we have received the blessing. We need to be grateful for our spouse and our blessed children. We need to be grateful for our mission and our responsibilities. The absolute condition for restoration and receiving blessings from God is a grateful heart. We must live a life of filial attendance with a heart of gratitude. We are most fortunate. We need to be grateful to God and True Parents for the love and new life they give us. We need to shed tears of gratitude. We need to be grateful that we are alive and have not died and can continue our missions and responsibilities.
We must thank God not only for the blessings He bestows upon us but also when we experience difficult situations. Job's wife said to Job: "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God, and die." But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:9-10)
In the Bible we read: "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you." (1 Thessalonians 5:18) In Colossians 3:16 we read: "Sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." And in Revelation 11:15-17 it says: "The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.' And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: 'We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.'"
Please let us become sons and daughters who long for You, and run towards You, and who can bring all the things of creation into harmony by offering greetings of joy and gratitude to You, having arrived at the day of glory when we can live together with You.
Since our minds and bodies were created resembling the external form of our Father, we earnestly hope and desire, Father, that You will allow us to become sons and daughters who resemble You completely. (Prayers -- 200, 1959.5.24)
Who restores the Kingdom of Heaven? The door of the Kingdom of Heaven opens by means of an absolute couple with absolute faith, absolute practice and absolute heart, who are willing to bear the cross with gratitude. (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 232)
The grateful heart is the absolute condition for receiving God's blessing. We must be the ones with such heart. (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 186)
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. (58-310, 1972.6.25)
In the satanic world, every person regardless of situation is in the position to make conditions of indemnity. Making the indemnity condition is the same as making the offering in order to resurrect one's own self. Therefore, indemnity is something for which to be thankful. (Blessing Pt. 1 -- 258)
If God calls you to come out, then come out. After coming out, no matter what kind of difficulty you may face, you should never regret or resent God. If you complain then you go back to the position of fallen Adam.
Abraham had to believe God even more absolutely than Adam. In so doing he should become one with God. Then he comes to receive God's love. Because Abraham always went with a grateful heart and never with complaint no matter how much God made him wonder, God loved him and blessed him that "Your descendants will fill the earth like the stars in the sky and the sand in the land." (53-43)
You know about the famous representative of the life of poverty in the Medieval Age called Francis (Giovanni Francesco Bernardone). He advocated the life of poverty. When he lived such a lifestyle, he did not feel resentful, complaining, and sorrowful even if he faced a harsh life and was persecuted by his external environment. If he felt resentful and complained then he would not have inherited God's Will. However, because he felt gratitude in the midst of suffering, had hope in the midst of pain, sought new standards under such hardships, God was able to help him. Therefore, we can see how a new age dawned there. (66-41)
In our life of faith, we can never complain. Answer me, can you find any reason to complain, or not? [No.] Why? "Oh, I'm dying, I feel suffocated. What is it?" Can you complain like this? [No.] You have to be joyful, laughing while shedding tears. You have to go this way. You have to go shedding tears and smiling. Now, do you understand or not? [We understand.] If you understand, are you going to do it or not? [We will do it.] After I have taught this, if you don't do it, what will happen?
If you don't do it, there is no other way. God cannot help you, I cannot help you. Because of that, you have to decide whether you are going to the Kingdom of Heaven or hell. Rev. Moon does not decide. God does not decide. You yourself decide. Each of you decides. If you complain, it is hell. If you do it without complaining, and feel thankful, that is the Kingdom of Heaven if you maintain a thankful heart. (96-122)
The works of evil spirits may help an earthly person fulfill indemnity conditions to purge his sin in two different ways. First, the spirit may trouble the earthly person directly. Second, the evil spirit may descend to the spirit self of another person living on earth who is about to commit a sin comparable to the sin of the person to be punished, and work through the second person to attack him. In either case, if the works of evil spirits may help an earthly person fulfill indemnity conditions to earthly person gratefully and willingly suffers the work of the evil spirit, he will make the indemnity condition to purge his and his ancestors' sin. This sin will then be resolved, and he will enter the higher sphere of benefit which has become available in the new era. Thus, the works of the evil spirit will have cast judgment on the person for his sin on behalf of Heaven. Consequently, the spirit will receive the same benefit as the earthly person; he, too, will enter the higher sphere of benefit. (Exposition -- 129)
Then, how should we give thanks? Aren't there many others less fortunate than myself? We must look at those people, not those better off than we are. We must be thankful, saying, "I am a member of the Unification Church in a death struggle for our belief in and knowledge of God, but how many people don't know about God or the Church? I am so fortunate!" We must sing praise to Him at all times. God will shed his tears in response to our hymns of thanks in the midst of our struggles. When we cannot really go one step farther, God comes along and blesses us by saying, "You, my son, you don't need to endure any longer." As we endure our journey in hymns of thanksgiving, God tearfully says, "Where else can I find a son like you? I will now let somebody else carry on for you." Then he gives us a place of rest and heavenly rewards from his heavenly father's heart. Do you understand? That's why we must give praise and thanks.
You know the fable about old woman Jung? She said thanks for everything, even for the whipping she took, for all the bad luck of her life, for the hardship she received from her mother-in-law, even when she lost her daughter and her husband. She just kept saying thanks for everything (laughter).
All truthful thanksgiving. That's the only correct way. All truthful thanksgiving. You must give thanks and praise. Even when your wife snarls at you in the morning and you and your wife have a screaming match, you should say, "Thank you, God, for my family member's anger." (laughter) Try it that way. Try it three times. Wait for ten minutes and say to the other person, "Do it your way, I don't understand it at all," then it gives a new positive stimulus to the relationship.
So everyone in town called the old woman Jung "the thanks-giver." She became quite famous as a great educational institution in Korea. Don't you think? We must be thankful that we have such an institution amid all the hardships we endured after liberation. It means we are getting closer to God's blessings. That shows that Koreans are destined to survive. For this we should give thanks and praise. Then, should we just keep thanking and praising? No, that's not it. What should we do next? Mutual aid is what we do next, giving aid to others and receiving help from others. Together we live and work. This is when unification will occur. Do you understand? Unification comes when we depend on one another and help one another. The kingdom of God comes this way. (44-29)
Like old woman Jung, thanksgiving is the right thing to do. One who gives thanks cannot be destroyed. Satan has to run away from that person. Even if Satan tries to invade, we must thank God, saying, "This is the indemnity that he wants me to remit." Satan will have to give up with this type of thanks-giver. But if we don't give thanks, Satan will never leave us alone. (34-138)
We must thank God for everything he has done for us and also for the 95 percent of the mission that is yet to be accomplished for the world. What is the basic purpose of religious life? To give thanks to God. This is the basis upon which the fall of man can be overcome so that our unity with God can be re-established. Am I going to give thanks only for the favors that I've received? Of course not. God's work for us does not always show itself in favors. He is with us through thick and thin. We must thank God not only for the favors but also for the hardships in our fight for restoration. (29-338)
When you are happy as people attending God, how happy did you make God? Have you attended God with gratitude greater than that you feel as you eat when you are hungry? You should always attend God when you when you eat or wear something nice, and even when you are sad and in difficult times. Hence, you should leave behind circumstances that can be remembered in God's mind. (17-291, 1967.2.15)
For the first time since the Fall of our original ancestors, history is governed by the True Parents. The original source has emerged that allows us to return to a new world through the internal relationship with True Parents. That relationship can bring Satan to submission. It is the center through which God is to be liberated. You all should offer thanks for the amazing grace of being able to live together with the True Parents and to receive their instructions directly.
When you are completely one with True Parents, your nation, people, tribe and family can prosper. The True Parents are the embodiment and encapsulation of all glory in heaven and earth. Once you clearly understand their value, would you exchange the True Parents for all the money in the world? Their value is such that they cannot be replaced even at the price of your life. (Messages of Peace 14 -- 207, 2007.6.13)
We should all return gratitude and glory to God and True Parents for enlightening us about the incredible providential age in which we are living. We should give praise and thanks for eternity to True Parents for opening the era after the coming of heaven, which is unprecedented in history and which will never be repeated in the future, and for bringing about the era of the settlement of the realm of true liberation and complete inner freedom. Just as the sun rises with brilliant light in the eastern sky, heavenly fortune is now shining upon all people. The curtain of darkness that shrouded us for thousands and tens of thousands of years is lifting at last, as Heaven's will is taking root in your hearts. This is a path of destiny you cannot avoid. Therefore stand up with courage and shout out, "Whoever wants to die will live, and whoever wants to live will die!" (Messages of Peace 3 -- 59, 2006.4.10)
If you sacrifice yourself for the world, there is no shame in your lowly state of being, even looking like a beggar. We Unificationists must appreciate even a bread and water diet as if it were a five-course meal, and give thanks. The more you give thanks, the higher your esteem in the eyes of all that is wonderful in heaven. Do you understand this? "Yes." (61-210)
Loving Heavenly Father, I have been fighting since childhood, struggling over how shameful it would be to be ridiculed before You, and I am deeply grateful to You that You never let me, especially, forget it or fear it, and that You allowed me to continue till today. (32-37)
When you were born, how were you born? If you were born from love, raised in love, live in love, and die in love, then to give birth is something to be grateful for, to live life is something to be grateful for, and even to die is something to be grateful for. (103-258)
Should I be completely centered on God with my original mind, as a true son who is embraced fully by the True Parent of mankind who has searched for His object of love for so long? Shall I say, "Father, I have come," knowing that God created everything in the universe to be in the bosom of His love and feeling completely full of deep gratitude for all the things that God created, for their beauty and the value of His love as my True Parent? Should I shed tears in front of God with that kind of heart, or should I simply announce, "I have come out of Danbury prison"? [The first.] You are correct. (Tribal Messiah -- 108, 1988.5.11)
If you understand the relationship between subject and object, then everything must be for the sake of the subject, to the fullest. Everything such as looking, listening and eating must be done for the subject.
When you eat and just say, "Oh, how tasty it is. So delicious!" it means that you are eating for your own sake. But if you eat gratefully, you are eating for the sake of the subject. If you can realize that your circumstances are not due to you, then you are able to eat like that because you are not eating alone. You are eating for the subject. It is same with sleeping. It is not because you yourself have managed so well that you may sleep in a place like this. You must have the attitude that even though Heaven might bring you to the end of this world and ruin your life, it is because of Heaven's desperate efforts to save you from your miserable state. All of you should always say to God, "Oh, God, I'm grateful for my destiny. I'm so grateful." This is the attitude you must have.
That is why there cannot be any displeasure in the place where an object is devoted to the subject, can there? Displeasure is a rare act and a failure. Therefore, no displeasure is allowed in the life of faith.
What is not allowed? We cannot afford displeasure. There should only be thankfulness. You must understand this.
Because Heaven will always remain the subject, there cannot exist any rule or life that is separate from it. Therefore, always report. Even though you seem to be by yourself, you are never alone. You will feel the presence of heaven in front of you and in back of you wherever you are. Then whatever you come to enjoy, you'll feel it in your heart. How does the Father feel seeing all that scenery? How does He feel when He looks out over Seoul? If history and the world are so, then everything must connect and relate with it. You have to realize these points clearly and never forget that heaven is the subject. Otherwise, it is not possible to understand the reasoning of empirical faith.
Natural law is brought into existence by keeping the proper order. Therefore, we have to stand in the position where heaven is the absolute subject in the subject and object relationship. When I am an unconditional object to the absolute subject, we are absolutely one. Therefore, all that we are seeing, hearing, and feeling, even the loving within a family, is to be done from the position of a subject and object for the sake of heaven. That is oneness. That kind of family will never perish.
What will happen when a subject and object have a reciprocal relationship? Definitely, something will happen, and the result will come in proportion to how good their reciprocal relationship is. (58-310)
What kind of life should those of you seeking the original Eden live in the future? Modeling your lives after Jesus and searching for the elements of cosmic and heavenly happiness, you have to be a substantial body of glory before God; a true man and true woman who can introduce God's happiness, love and glory wherever you are; and at the same time be able to teach others to feel grateful to God. (2-251, 1957.6.9)
Am I driving you into suffering because I hate you or because I want to save you? You should know that it is for the sake of saving you. Understanding that your suffering is for your own salvation, you should be grateful. Then the new world of heavenly Shim Jung (heart and love) will unfold before you. This is the right order. So once you possess the Shim Jung (heart and love) ties, you can fly anywhere and day and night according to heavenly commands. If you are determined to take responsibility and lead the world like a locomotive, then the spiritual world will help you. If you think this way, the spiritual world will surely help. (96-279)
When Father heard that teachers have been sent to jail for spanking students, he knew that America is perishing. For the sake of gaining a good direction, students should willingly ask their teachers to punish them if necessary. Do you complain when you are hit by Father? Would you complain of being hit by Father, saying, "Being a Unification Church member already makes me feel pent up"? When Father heard that teachers have been sent to jail for spanking students, he knew that America is perishing. For the sake of gaining a good direction, students should willingly ask their teachers to punish them if necessary. Do you complain when you are hit by Father? Would you complain of being hit by Father, saying, "Being a Unification Church member already makes me feel pent up"?
A Korean proverb says, "Give one extra bowl of rice to the difficult person and hold a whip to the beloved one." Such is inevitable if one wishes to inherit the right tradition. You should be able to shed tears of gratitude for parental love, forgetting the pain. (Ideal Family -- 591)
True Parents are the core existence of the fruit of history. The entire surroundings will link to this one family and what had been tangled will be reunited at one starting point.
Therefore, those who love True Parents are those who can stand up, saying, "I will love the world completely." Those who try to love the True Parents are those who can love the world sincerely. And, those who know how to love the True Parents are valuable people who know how to love even the future descendants. Therefore, in order to receive the love of True Parents, you should have a heart of gratitude even at the risk of your life. Such a person never falls short in ability to inherit the love of True Parents. You should understand this clearly. (Blessing Pt. 1 -- 153)
When we think of history as containing so much hardship and sacrifice in order to prepare the victorious foundation for the True Parents, you should know that the term True Parents is indeed the blessing of blessings among the words of God. When you think of the two words, "True Parents," realize that history starts from True Parents, the origin to which we return. The new world starts from the True Parents, who possess the internal relationship with which we can dominate Satan, who controls the external world. Furthermore they possess the center with which we can liberate God from resentment Therefore, you must first be thankful for the amazing blessing of being able to live with the True Parents and to act in accordance with their instructions. (Blessing Pt. 1 -- 153-154)
Unfallen archangels were to form a protective wall for Adam's family as it grew. I went through such suffering to raise archangels who would be absolutely loyal to God and willing to sacrifice their lives for my children thousands or tens of thousands of times while shedding tears of gratitude. I invested my entire life to do this. My family and your families must be united. That is your responsibility. The 36 couples inherited this tradition from me. In return, they must educate my children and form a wall of protection. That should be clearly understood. (120-325, 1982.10.20)
Some of the blessed couples may complain about their spouses. They are the ones who do not know God's sorrowful path, which has headed toward the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven in the future. God knows the difference in standard between you and your spouse. When you keep your heart grateful to God, even though your spouse is not satisfied with you, He will bless you abundantly in the near future. The grateful heart is the absolute condition for receiving God's blessing. We must be the ones with such heart. (Ideal Family -- 499, Korean Edition)
When Jesus prayed through the nights, forgetting about sleep, he prayed with a heart of gratitude, knowing that the Father was with him…
This miserable race is searching for the heart of God to find the path to life. Even in this situation, one should be able to show gratitude to Heavenly Father. There is a world of difference between people who denounce Heavenly Father even in a free situation and people who show gratitude to Heavenly Father with tears even in a difficult situation.
Now that we have a father and son relationship with Heavenly Father, no matter how challenging and manifold the difficulties and persecutions that block our path, they are not even comparable to the course that Heavenly Father walked for six thousand years. So when you are injured while working for the will of God, do not look at your own injury and cry. Rather, comfort Heavenly Father who has had greater pain inflicted on Him. The Father is someone who will come to you with tears when you are injured, forgetting about His own pain. We are truly unworthy of this. (Sermons Vol. 7 -- 37, 44-45, 1959.7.12)
In the course for the restoration of the fallen world, Abel had to work hard in order to restore elder-sonship. Just like that, you have to work hard, many more times, and even if you have restored the elder, sonship, there still remains the step-by-step process of restoration: individual restoration, familial restoration and tribal restoration. With what can we make comparisons! Can you have pride and glory in having restored the eldest-sonship? You have to say "God, we are grateful." (True Child -- 99)
Why do we need to look for our tribe? This is because our tribe is to serve our victorious True Parents, free from any accusations from Satan. Upon a national foundation we should serve them as a virtuous representative of heaven and earth and all mankind. So far we have served the True Parents with sorrow and sufferings, but in the future we should serve them with joy and a sense of freedom. God can share our joy only if our mind is one with Him. You have to establish the foundation upon which all human beings can proclaim, "Your gratitude is our gratitude." (13-294)
Nowadays many members of the Unification Church participate in international marriage, transcending national boundaries. There are many Couples who cannot communicate with each other because of the language barrier; they are willing to invest all of their lives and youth. For whom do they invest their precious youth? The world is blocked up by the national barriers, so they want to break down those walls. By walking such a suffering course earlier than others, we are to establish God's foundation, on which all the races and nations can be united. If a person accepts such a course with gratitude, he or she will be considered a victorious one, historically and universally. (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 150)
You need a heart which desires to establish the heavenly tradition. As you take a step you should feel your ancestors' blood burning; when a thorn grazes your skin you must feel that the thorn that was scratching your ancestor's skin, that the thorn was scratching my body. Someone who goes this way is an individual of a period, but he isn't a person who ends in one era. He becomes a person who has gone with Father for six thousand years.
So everyone, even if you are imprisoned while you are going this way, I hope you will be a person who sheds awestruck tears. You should pray, "The fact that I, this person, who is a descendent of sinners, unworthy and who was on the way to destruction, can be in such a place of glory like this, on this way that you have been seeking, I thank you and am awe struck. I am in grateful awe that my dirty self can even put a foot on this foundation where many martyrs have shed holy blood." (10-210)
You must be grateful for Father. What do you have to be grateful for? You must be grateful for liberation from Satan. You were liberated from Satan by the True Parents, weren't you? What were you liberated from next? You were liberated from the satanic life. What was next? You were liberated from Satan's blood lineage. Life is lived within a cultural background and customs.
What were you liberated from? (From Satan.) What's next? (Satanic life.) Life is different depending on cultural background. The British live centering on the British culture, and Americans live centering on American culture. They differ. Living environments are different. You must be liberated from your living environment.
What is next? Blood lineage. When three generations have been liberated, the Unification culture will occur automatically, won't it?
What are you going to do after liberation? Where do you go after the liberation from Satan? You go to God. If you are liberated from Satan, you are liberated from all the relationships, which linked you to the false parents, and you go to the free heart of the Parents. When you do, do not carry the customs and life realm of the satanic world. You must clearly clean them up.
In the concept of "True Parents," there is God who is the vertical True Parent and the True Parents who are the horizontal True Parents. You must be created by the love, which is the unification of these two. The subjectivity begins with the position of zero, where there is no other love origin. If you want to find love, you must start with zero. You must ignore the origin of existence. In the Bible, you can find such a paradoxical logic. Those who try to die will live, and those who try to live will die. Do you understand? You must know it clearly.
Thus, you must be grateful for liberation from Satan. The next is life… You must be liberated from the three great satanic realms. The first is what? (Liberation from Satan!) You must be liberated from Satan who is the representative of the vertical elements. Next is the cultural realm and the traditional lifestyle which you inherited from your physical parents. (202-274)
If you ask God, "What is your wish?," He will probably answer. "My wish is to save the world and humankind." And when you ask, "When you have saved them, what will you do?" Will he say, "To make them work like horses and collect taxes"? "No, I am saving them in order to make them live a life of gratitude for thousands of years centering on infinite love; that is my wish." The more sons and daughters parents have, the more the heart of love will expand in them. (82-319)
What will happen after we die? Does everything end at the time of your death? A new world starts once you die. You will be grateful to me at the time of your death. You will remember, "Father taught us exactly the way it is here!" If you live your life on earth the way I told you, then in the spirit world you will immediately be able to harmonize with all your ancestors from many thousands of years ago. (129-100)
My God is a God of love. The Unification Church members should not be an ungrateful group of people who persecute such a God. (137-202, 1986.1.1)
Throughout history, the all-knowing and almighty God wins over His enemy not by utilizing His strength and power, but by bringing him into submission through the principles of love. God's desire is to bring His enemy to voluntarily and completely submit before God and gratefully receive humanity's judgment in the position of the servant. Unless this happens, his sins cannot be indemnified. (42-279, 1971.3.27)
I fully understand what it is like to determine to fulfill God's will. I know what God's love is like, and I know that I must both kneel in gratitude and walk the path to offer forgiveness. No one has known that God is filled with bitter grief that compels Him to walk the path of liberation even though His blood might be shed.
I did not pray to God asking Him to save me even when I collapsed under torture; and though I was pursued, I did not pray to God asking Him to protect me on my path or to save me. As a man of character, I have my own reserve of strength. I have the spirit and the inner strength to fight. I say to myself, "God will probably save me if I collapse unconscious due to lack of strength. But before that, with my own power…" I know that God is waiting, preparing things in advance before I go. (138-358, 1986.1.24)
God would offer a hundred thanks to the brave man who would confess that he has not fought enough, that he lacks the qualifications to shed tears, or that he is concerned that the Father would shed tears if He saw him in sorrow. God would offer those thanks to the brave man who, in the unbearably bitter position of being whipped, would worry that God would be in a miserable position or who would be concerned that God would shed tears when he cries through clenched teeth, "My grief is nothing, my pain is nothing, my sorrow is nothing." God would offer those thanks to the brave man who would cry out and raise the flag of victory as the vanguard on the path to take vengeance upon the enemy. God would express His gratitude one hundred times, saying, "Should I call you a patriot, should I call you a son of filial piety, or should I call you a virtuous person? In all the history of the world there has been no person more precious than you." (153-269, 1964.3.26)
You should be grateful for the appearance of the words True Parents. You can be thankful for them even after hearing them tens of thousands of times. (129-193, 1983.11.5)
How can we offer gratitude to God? How can we offer gratitude to our True Parents? How can we offer gratitude to our church? How can you show gratitude for being re-created? After the process I have been through, a true family will appear. At the next stage, a true tribe will appear, and at the next stage, a true nation, then a true world, a true universe, and a true cosmos; at the next stage up, God appears. This is our final goal...
So, what should you be grateful for? Do not offer thanks for living a comfortable life. You must feel grateful for bearing a cross. If the remains of a defeated army are bleeding and rotting with a bad smell, who will make the funeral arrangements? Who will train them and turn them into a regular army? Also, if there is nothing to eat, what should be done? Should they just be killed off? No. You thought that by winning everything would become nice and smooth, but actually you will have to bear a bigger cross. Your time will come after you have resolved all that, after you have rebuilt it. You can live happily only after you have established a new family, a new nation and a new world. (215-171, 1991.2.17)
The universe is a mysterious world. God did not create the universe as something to fool around with or play with. With the most devoted effort He created it for the sake of His beloved people, and indeed how beautiful it is! So when we look at this universe, we should have an extremely grateful heart, saying that the Father has created it for us. If you walk around the gardens, behold the trees, plants, flowers, and birds, watch the streams flow, and feel the winds blow with this kind of heart, you cannot but be overwhelmed with wonder. (87-319, 1976.6.27)
It is the same with people; there is a certain rhythm when we eat. These all express something musically. If we think in this way -- that someone made this universe for me to last for eternity and put it in place for me -- we should feel grateful to Him. We should not think as an onlooker, as if this were something to do with someone in a neighboring village. There are high mountains and low mountains. Do you like there being high mountains with low-lying land, or do you like only plain and flat land? Having high and low is better. Why is this so? It is because these shapes assume a certain form that looks as if it would dance. It is good when these are in forms of all kinds and colors, going up and going down, forming all kinds of curves. Then, this creation is like a dance. In nature, there are splendid dances and beautiful music; there is wonderful artwork. So many such things exist in nature. (87-321, 1976.6.27)
"Beloved Father, when we think of how You exist and have toiled unremittingly to usher in a new spring, we must become Your infinitely grateful and joyous sons and daughters who lament the fact that we have yet to offer our entire life and love to You. In our predestined relationship with You, our lives are meant to be harmonized, and completely absorbed in and by You so that we too, may greet the new spring. (32-36, 1970.6.14)
If you thought that you would die two years later, how serious would you be? You would start visiting cemeteries and attending funeral services. It is absolutely necessary to do this in a life of faith. That is why those who seek to gain their life will lose it and those who seek to lose their life will gain it. The Principle applies here. If you think of dying for God's will and for heaven during the short time of your life, you will live eternally.
Within the same principle, consider how grateful a man would be who, thinking he would die single and unmarried, received a loving wife before his death? How happy would a man, who died without being married to anyone, be if he were suddenly resurrected and able to marry? (102-122, 1978.11.27)
In the spirit world, you will see that martyrs who died for the purpose of entering heaven did not actually get there. On the other hand, there were martyrs who were able to think, "Heavenly Father walked the path of suffering and shed blood to find me. I will follow any path in order to return His grace," and then died saying, "I am grateful for this moment of glory enabling me to participate in returning this grace;" only they could enter heaven. Such people did not die for their own sakes but for heaven and earth. If you think, "I will die like this in order to enter heaven," it is dying for your own sake. Fallen people can never enter heaven through self-assertion. (41-353, 1971.2.18)
In our life of faith, we should not complain. There is nothing to complain about. You should be joyful. You should go joyfully even when shedding tears. You are to go laughing while shedding tears. If, after being taught this, you do not do it, what will happen? If you do not do it, there is no other way. God cannot help you, and I cannot help you.
Thus, you decide whether you go to heaven or hell. Rev. Moon doesn't decide, God doesn't decide, you yourselves decide. The decision is yours. If you complain, that is hell. If you go with gratitude even when you have something to complain about, that is heaven. (96-122, 1978.1.2)
I make your life hard and make you suffer not because I hate you, but to save you. You should realize that all this is for the sake of saving you. You must understand and be grateful that your suffering is for your own salvation. Then the world of heavenly heart, the new world of heart, will unfold before you. This is the order of things. So once you possess the bonds of the heart, you can fly anywhere, day or night, according to the heavenly command. If you are determined to take responsibility and lead the world like a locomotive, the spirit world will help you. If you think like this, it will surely help you. (96-278, 1978.2.13)
If the parents infinitely invest and sacrifice for the sake of their children, as long as true love is behind this, the child will be infinitely grateful for that true love; and the parents compensate for their sacrifice by experiencing great joy. By developing the action of giving and receiving the power of sacrificial true love in this manner, we come into a relationship of eternal joy and peace from within the true family and the true world. The ideal world of eternal life manifests itself in these places. (288-199, 1997.11.28)
Have you ever felt very keenly, yet with gratitude, about how amazing it is that God governs all the laws that move the universe while guiding the providence to re-create human beings and raise them as beings of value who can govern the universe in His stead? (5-344, 1959.3.8)
You will know the true nature of the founder of the Unification Church if you go to the spirit world. Didn't I bless all the religious founders? I blessed them. That is why, according to the letters from Lee Sang-hun in the spirit world, they all send their gratitude to me. (304-50, 1999.9.5)
These days, many couples marry under a legal contract. Are you aware of that? They do not want to have babies. They do not want to have a family.
It is like that in the age of archangels. Can people without a baby know parental love? Would they know how to love children? They can never learn to love through making contracts. They are a group of wanderers, and in the spirit world they will just drift around. They have no basis that enables them to settle down. How grateful such people would be if they could be married through me! (301-63, 1999.4.16)
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)
When you wake up in the early morning you should pray, so that your life in the coming 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…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, 1970.3.14)
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, "Ah, the cold water this morning is more delicious than a feast," the universe will cry for them. If 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)
You can now build up a tribal foundation in your lifetime. How glorious this is! You should be 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)
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)
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. (138-120, 1986.1.19)
You must live within the framework of love with the determination in your heart to love more than Satan does, with the desire to love God and the universe; you must be able to say, "For the sake of God's will and the liberation of humanity, I will go down to the abyss." How do you go down? Try being trampled upon. Let all the four billion people of the world walk over you. I do not complain, even when I am trampled on. I digest everything with gratitude and love. That is what you must do. (138-288, 1986.1.24)
How grateful were you to accept the fact that you are going the way of restoration through indemnity, the predestined way of the portion of responsibility? You must consider it once again. You cannot say, "Oh, I like the words of the Principle of the Unification Church, but I don't like restoration through indemnity!"
In order to be admitted to a university, in order to walk though its gates, you must take an exam. The path opposite to what you desire lies ahead of you. You cannot enter school unless you solve the task. It is the same with us. The way of the Unification Church is not easy. (138-120, 1986.1.19)
Everyone, you must change completely after you go through the ceremony of converting the lineage. Would this be possible if True Parents were not here? Think about the path of hardships previous generations had to persevere through ever since the time of the creation of the world. Having True Parents here right now is something for which you should all be truly grateful. It is even more amazing that you have received the Blessing from them in person. Through the Blessing, the tradition of the lineage, that is, the tradition embedded with true love, life and lineage can be established. You must always keep this in mind. (216-36, 1991.3.3)
I am truly deeply grateful to God for everything. Since I have to travel by airplane so much, there is every chance that accidents might happen in the air or I might get involved in a car collision and so on, but up until now, God has protected me. I am really grateful for that. (130-64, 1983.12.11)
For this great occasion of the Blessing, we are truly, truly, truly grateful. (299-109, 1999.2.7)
You need to become tribal messiahs. You have no idea how grateful the already married couples are to be called tribal messiahs. Nothing can be done without them. (31-282, 1970.6.4)
People living in this present age have inherited the lineage of Satan. For this reason, they need to repent. It is a disgrace, for which they cannot show their faces before the Great Owner of the universe. They are shameful children who cannot call out to God, and instead need to hide behind rocks lest He sees even their backsides. They inherited the blood of the enemy of love. They must crawl on their stomachs, shed tears with runny noses, and be able to admit, "I deserve to be punished," even at the risk of their lives. They must find their true selves and be able to give out a cry of gratitude from the bottom of their hearts, even if they face certain death. They are piteous beings who are ignorant of the fact that they have fallen into a pit of eternal resentment where there is no love. (209-292, 1990.11.30)
I am truly, truly, truly grateful to You for watching over us, anxious that we might not fulfill, protecting us, and standing together with us at the front to give assistance, as we persevered with our endeavors. (309-199, 1999.5.30)
If you live with a heart of gratitude for the life you are leading at present, even after giving everything you have over many years, yet always keeping His thoughts in your mind, then God Himself will praise you. (215-243, 1991.2.20)
In what way can you become someone to whom the entire universe is indebted, instead of its debtor? It will depend on your state of mind: you need to possess the mind of an owner who can say, "I'm sorry" and "Thank you," who can gaze on the waters, the fields and mountains, the plains and rivers of Korea, and, furthermore, of the whole earth, and say "Thank you!" You must be people who can cherish gratitude toward God and nature, and live in service to them without complaint. Only people with such a mind can become true owners. (198-150, 1990.1.28)
You would certainly be grateful to the Creator if you consider that the ocean, land, and everything was created for educating humankind alone. (128-259, 1983.8.28)
Let us consider the name True Parents. We find that history is guided by them. They are the starting point of a new world. Through the True Parents, an internal relationship is formed by which Satan can be subjugated and God can be liberated from Satan who possesses the external world. Therefore, you should be grateful first and foremost for this amazing grace of being able to live together with True Parents and move according to True Parents' directions. (43-144, 1971.4.29)
You have been given the victorious authority to restore your hometowns -- the places to which you had been unable to return -- a place where the true nation has now been established through the True Parents. You should know that this is something to be truly grateful for, which cannot be exchanged even for heaven and earth. You should follow that path back to your hometowns with tears in your eyes. If you complain, you will be cursed. Your ancestors would strike you, and your sons and daughters would know no moment of peace. The time is coming when it is up to you whether you will be afflicted or cured. (219-220, 1991.8.29)
Since the True Parents are going through hardships to live together with you, you should resolve to work harder than anyone, to gladly endure hardships thousands of times more severe and to give everything you have to set up a reciprocal standard within that living environment, in order to enthrone the True Parents on the liberated seat of greatest joy. Only when you have become people who can persevere through suffering in the most extreme conditions, and yet be grateful and can praise and return the glory of service before God, to be handed down as a source of pride to your descendants forevermore, can you become the owners of Cheon Il Guk. (400-155, 2002.11.5)
Centering on the settlement age of True Parents, you must establish the family completion age without shame before God. So, we needed the Family Pledge. We need it. We will need it. Which one is it? We need it! That's the way it is. It will be the motto for thousands or tens of thousands of years. It's amazing! You must be grateful for the fact that you can recite the pledge due to your liberation by the removal of the mask of false religions. I have gone through such bitter sorrow and shed countless tears through the years to bring you to this point. I have offered my own blood to lead the Unification Church until now. If you cannot go beyond the sacrificial altar, you can never go to the heavenly kingdom. You must make this altar. (261-98, 1994.5.22)
Having the Family Pledge is something to be grateful for. It is telling religious people who have been wandering around on foreign soil to return home, to go back to their hometown. How wonderful it is to be able to return home! These are unforgettable words. (283-77, 1997.4.8)
Adam was to become a son of filial piety and patriot of the heavenly kingdom; he should have become a loyal citizen and fulfilled the way of the divine son in the nation, but he could not fulfill his role. My regret is that I could not fulfill the way of a filial son while I was in my youth, in full vigor; I missed the chance. I could not walk the path of a patriot who stands in the front line to face any risk if it could save the nation, and who, though bleeding, remains grateful to God. (264-187, 1994.10.9)
The original relationship between God and humankind is based on true love. There are many instances of co-ownership between God and the individual, between the whole and the individual, and between the neighborhood and the individual, but we are supposed to have a co-ownership with a grateful heart arising out of God's true love. (271-76, 1995.8.22)
If you want to ride on heavenly fortune, you first have to know what kind of place the way of heavenly fortune is. It is not a place everybody likes and where they enjoy themselves eating and drinking. It is a place everyone dislikes. It should be a place where you are always grateful for everything and give glory to God while carrying out your responsibilities. Those who stand in such a place can ride on heavenly fortune. (19-145, 1968.1.1)
Consider the three Chinese characters that make up the term True Parents (???). It is through True Parents that history is governed, through True Parents that the foundation for returning to the new, original world emerges, through True Parents that the internal connection to subjugate Satan is established, and it is through True Parents that the center is determined that will occupy the external world, conquer Satan, and finally liberate God and resolve His sorrow. Thus, you should first be grateful for this amazing grace with which you can live together with True Parents and act by honoring True Parents' commands. (43-144, 1971.4.29)
You should be grateful that you have not been blown off by the wind and not struck by the lightening and lie dead. (81-312)
Our mission is not yet complete. You will receive blessings through expressing gratitude to heaven. You should be appreciative not only on the individual level but also on the tribal level. You should not forget the real value of blessings, which you have received as a representative of your tribe. (13-293)
How, then, are we to give thanks for this glory by which the bond of the True Parents has been given to us unconditionally? How much gratitude have you returned to God? In response to the grace by which you are now able to receive salvation, how much have you considered that you have been given the opportunity to be jubilant and take a vow of victory before heaven and earth? How much have you realized that you are making a new start with unlimited hope and eternal values? This is the problem. (31-74)
Please pledge that you will live your life with gratitude. (World Peace -- 66, 1996.8.1)
Father…I do not know what to do in gratitude for Your heavenly fortune. (Unification Pt. 2 -- 7)