The Words of Sun Myung Moon's Family
|
|
The Words of Sun Myung Moon's Family |
Dearest to all those who responded to the request for the prayer condition:
I am truly grateful for the outpouring of emotions and responses all of you have shown. Thank you again from the depth of my heart.
At the same time, there are a few general questions relating to the specifics of the prayer condition that people have raised, and I would like to address it here briefly.
First, some people have asked if there were specifics of the prayer condition relating to the ceremonial requisites, be it bowing conditions, set times for the prayer(s), and/or the duration of the prayer(s). The simple answer to the question is no for the following reasons. Initially, when I invited people to join in the prayer condition, I did not wish to set rigid rules for ceremony, because I wanted the utmost aim and the priority of our prayers to be the collective offering of our unity in Heart that is not necessarily constrained with too many restrictions on the act of ceremony itself. Also, on the practical side, knowing that people have to work and manage family responsibilities, I know from experience that inflexible conditions will not create the most conducive environment for people to offer the best of their hearts, if they have to constantly worry about other concerns in their lives.
On the other hand, this does not mean there is no recommended guideline. Of course, there is, as there is the eternal Principle standard with which each of us can exercise the First Blessing or the 5%, individual free-willed responsibility to apply, for instance, the Principled numbers to select certain time(s) of the day for prayer(s), and how many minutes or hours we can genuinely open our hearts to offer prayers.
For example, the number three represents the spiritual world and the number four, represents the physical world. Adding the number three and four brings in the number seven, and the multiplication of the numbers three and four results in the number twelve. Also, the number ten is the number to ‘return back’ to Heavenly Parent by each of us realizing human perfection and realizing the purpose of the Entire Creation, which has human beings at the center.
Moreover, the number twenty-one is the result of the numbers seven (unity of spiritual world / physical world) times three (phases), which refers back to the time limit recommended for individual human perfection, and this number also happens to be the number of days for this prayer condition. So, you may wish to work within the parameters of addition / multiplication of these basic numbers of three (which is also the sum number of the numbers one and two), four (sum number of the number one and three), seven (sum number of numbers three and four), ten (sum of the numbers one and three times three), twelve (three times four), and/or twenty-one (three times seven) to set what time(s) of the day and how long you would like to offer prayer(s).
In conjunction with number-related time selection(s) for your prayers, if you wish to incorporate certain ceremony into your prayer offering, you may safely use various, acceptable ceremonial expressions we employ in the Unification Church movement, be it utilizing the holy candle, offering bows, and/or any such gestures demonstrating humility and respect before the Heavenly Parent in witness of the entire spiritual as well as the physical worlds.
In addition, since the purpose of the prayer condition is the collective, not just the individual, offering, I would highly recommend that you form even a small group of people other than your single self, be it with family members or like-minded Unificationists friends to pray together. If your group cannot coordinate time(s) to pray together in person at all times, then at least in spirit, you should decide among yourselves the agreed upon time(s) of the day with certain time duration(s) to pray together.
In all, the overarching purpose of the worldwide Unificationists offering collective prayers together is for the condition that the entire Unification Church community should all be united in Heart for the same goal of creating the True Family centering on the True Parents or Father/Mother with their direct True Children, as it is in turn the fundamental basis from which the ideals of the True Family can further multiply on to the greater Unification Church community of ‘blessed’ True Families and ultimately to the Entire Humankind both in the spiritual as well as the physical worlds as One True Family under One Heavenly Parent.
For such a lofty aim, to pray for every True Child to fulfill the Principled human ideal on the individual level, and at the same time to strive on the collective level to bring True Unity amongst the True Children is in one sense to pray for that ideal to extend on to the True Principled Unity amongst all the Unification Church family members and all people of the cosmos under One Ideal originating from the One and Only Heavenly Parent. Though I presume not to be preachy, this point is also a heartfelt, critical reminder to myself that as each individual human person or each member of the True Family is the very starting point of the full fruition of our Heavenly Parent’s Eternal Ideal, every one of our individual as well as collective endeavors, such as even this prayer condition, to Principally act upon our collective identity as the Unificationists is one such precious step toward that worthy and eternal goal.
So, please, I implore all of you. Please, let us pray, reflect and repent for the past, in order that we may gain greater wisdom to move forward from here as eternal True Children of our Heavenly Parent. May our Heavenly Parent be our Eternal Guide to nurture all of us through this process of reflection and greater growth towards that very invaluable Ideal.
Thank you very much for all of your sincere and heartfelt offering. I am truly, truly grateful.
Ye-jin Moon
P. S.: Some people have made an honest inquiry if this is indeed the first daughter writing all this. I would like to assure all those who have asked that it is indeed myself, Ye-jin Moon, offering this letter of petition. I have written the English and the Korean versions myself. For the Japanese version, since my written Japanese is weak, I had a sister translate my original letter in Korean into Japanese. However lacking my ability to communicate may be, I hope that you can at least sense my genuine heart.