Beloved members,

Just as the cars we ride in and the equipment we use in factories need to be oiled and maintained to last longer, we also need to make effort to maintain our youth in any way we can before our bodies age. Such is the era we are living in, isn’t it? Father, however, lived his life beyond all such cares. He followed a schedule of overexerting himself, speaking for more than ten hours during hoondokhae sessions and visiting Geomun Island or Yeosu by helicopter.

Overstraining himself repeatedly in such a way, in the end he caught a cold. Catching a cold at that age is a most fearful thing. Though he should have gone to the hospital and done something about it right away, some time passed before he would go. The cold worsened and developed into pneumonia. His lungs became weak, and in the end, his condition worsened and complications set in. Though he did not want it, finally he had to be admitted to the hospital, by which time he had become very weak.

In early August, after all kinds of tests had been carried out over a period of ten days or so, he wanted to leave the hospital for a while. He found it difficult to stay in the hospital, saying that it felt like a prison. We had no choice but to have him discharged. That was on August 12.

After leaving the hospital, during the one day he stayed in Cheon Jeong Gung Father told his assistants, “I want to eat with Mother today.” I usually sat next to him during meals, but on that day he said, “I want to eat sitting face to face with Mother so I can see her face.” So, we set the table accordingly. However, Father stared at my face for a long time instead of eating. I believe he was engraving my face in his heart. I felt tears welling up inside of me, but on the outside I maintained a smiling face and asked him to try this dish or that, saying to him, “This one is quite good, and that is also delicious.” After that experience, I became more serious than ever, and I really wanted to make him take a nap. He, however, pressed his staff members to attend him as he hurriedly visited various parts of Cheon Jeong Gung.

August 13 was an extremely sunny day. Despite the hot sun, and even though he had to be accompanied by an oxygen tank almost as tall as a man, he insisted on looking around the palace. Father did a tour of Cheon Jeong Gung. He visited the Cheongshim Middle and High School and the nearby small park, and drove around the Cheongshim Peace World Center and the Cheongpyeong training center.

He then came and sat in the sitting room in Cheon Jeong Gung and asked for a digital recorder. Holding the recorder in his hand, Father thought deeply for about ten minutes and then spoke while recording what he said. As you may know from having heard his recorded voice, Father gave the same message three times on that day—in the sitting room, in the master bedroom, and in Cheongshim Hospital. He said, “Everything is done! Everything is done!” He then went on to pray, struggling for breath, “I will return everything back to Heaven.” He emphasized, “I have brought things to conclusion, completion and perfection.” And he took my hand and said, “Mother, thank you! Mother, please take care of things!”

What meaning could be attributed to his uttering such words? Every now and then, he said such things as, “The time has come for me to go. I know when I will pass away.” I am sure that during this time he was making his final preparations. What I am relating to you is only a small part of what happened before Father ascended; in truth, I experienced much more with Father during those days. When we had our meals, we usually sat next to each other, and he would be aware of my presence and would hold my hand firmly in his as he ate. Whenever I think about such things, I am very sorry, and it hurts my heart to think that I let him go without making him more comfortable. When I asked him to rest, he sometimes said, “I want to lay my head in your lap, Mother” and would take a very short nap.

Of late, he did things he had never done when he was healthy. Father, who had lived his whole life more energetically than anyone else, wished to stay close to me at all times when he became less well, and needed me and depended on me like a child does his mother.

Yesterday, I was told that one member had mentioned feeling empty after Father passed away and was missing him so much, and that if she could see my face she would be strengthened; so she had communicated a sincere plea for me to come to Cheon Bok Gung. Why am I unable to go there? I am still in the middle of the forty-day period of preparing meals [for True Father], [1] today being the twenty-first day. Even while working in Heaven, Father comes at mealtimes without fail. We have set the times to offer him meals as 7 am, 12 noon, and 6 pm. While on earth, he had been unable to follow such a schedule, but after passing into the spirit world, he always comes on time. I can actually feel it.

Every day, I converse with Father. I explain to him about the soybean-paste soup and other side dishes he had enjoyed during his time on earth, and ask him to please help himself to them. Since I should offer these meals three times a day, I have no personal free time. During Father’s lifetime, I was never able to serve him his meals on time, and this is why I must at least devote myself to this task during this period.

Dear members, at the moment of Father’s ascension, I promised Father that I would work to fulfill all that he had desired to do for humanity until my last day on earth.

That is why I am busy these days. I need to reorganize Korea’s presently complicated situation, and I intend to establish the tradition of marching forward centering on the holy spirit and the truth in our Unification Church. With the goal of nurturing our church to become a spontaneous one, I am receiving reports from many of our church officials and leaders and making new plans. Therefore, I ask you to please wait just a little while longer.

Given that the Lord at his Second Coming, the Savior, the Messiah, and the True Parent who had come to us for the first time in six thousand years has now departed, do you think forty days of devotion is enough? Would a hundred days of devotion be enough? The religious devotion of attendance has no end. Henceforth, I hope you will understand that everything that is carried out in Korea from this day onward will be centered on True Mother.

Our first goal is to do our absolute best and fight at the risk of our lives to firmly establish Cheon Il Guk by Foundation Day. I hope you will not forget that the responsibility to bring this nation and all its citizens to receive the Blessing from True Parents lies with you. Only by working a hundred times or a thousand times harder than before can you repay the love and grace you have received from True Father.

Dear members,

We will now make our Unification Church a living and breathing church, as it was in the early days. We will develop it into a spontaneous, creative and dynamic church, unrestricted by numbers or systems. We will make it into a church centered on the Principle and on love, which will be like a nest with the warmth of a mother’s embrace that will make us wish to go there and always remain there. As in the beginning time, we will make it so that the sound of Divine Principle lectures is constantly heard in our churches.

I hope all of you will be grateful for the work you do day by day and that you will be blessed. Please achieve the best results of your life. Foundation Day is not far off now. Once again, I ask all of you to please become such people.

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[1] A Korean tradition in which food is offered to a loved-one after he or she has passed away

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Sincerely,

Unification Church