Peace Starts with Me

Compiled by Rev. Andrew Compton and Jinil Fleischman for the 7-day PSWM workshop to address three questions

1. What does the Blessing mean to you? How is it important in creating a world of peace?

Blessing and Ideal Family

by Reverend Sun Myung Moon

Chapter Two, Part 4
1. The Meaning of the Blessing

Through the fall, the first human ancestors Adam and Eve created the fallen blood lineage. They were to become united with God in the unfallen world, the original ideal world of God's hope, and to give birth to sons and daughters with a direct lineage to God. However, they formed a relationship with Satan and became the head of Satan's lineage giving birth to dead children. Therefore, today all humankind has met false parents. Therefore, we must deny the blood lineage of the false parent and meet the True Parents.

Chapter Three, Part 3
1. The Meaning and Value of the Blessing

What is the Unification Church's Blessing? Not like a man and woman meeting each other and just getting married, but centering on God and the True Father, they meet and receive the Blessing. Because man and woman met wrongly and were chased out, man and woman must do well and must work to restore everything. You must know that the Unification Church Blessing is making the foundation for this.

True Mother’s Words at the World Summit 2019 Opening Ceremony and Launching Plenary of the International Summit Council for World Peace

You Unification Church members must not think as you do about the Blessing. This Blessing is the condition for restoration by indemnity. The condition for restoration by indemnity means you are taking responsibility for your family's destiny. Therefore, families must be restored one by one, making the worldwide Satan surrender and pioneering the road for the world. You must think like that, not that you want to receive the Blessing selfishly. You must think you exist in order to give. If you think centered on yourself, that is self- centered and that thinking will destroy you. This is a very serious problem. Good and evil divide here. The Blessing is very valuable and if you receive it in the wrong way you will be ruined.

2. The Value of the Blessing

What is Jesus' wish after two thousand years of effort? It is for the Marriage of the Lamb. What is the Marriage of the Lamb? It is the Blessing! Jesus' wish for two thousand years has been the Blessing, that is, the Marriage of the Lamb. In order to have the marriage feast, the bride must come in front of the bridegroom. That is the consummation of Christianity. Therefore, without passing through Christianity, you cannot enter heaven.

The Blessing is not fulfilled easily. It does not happen like a memorial ceremony or an annual event. If you know the value of the Blessing, you must inherit the love and the heart of the Father.

3. The Reason for Receiving the Blessing

The fall is marriage not centering on God. Because marriage was centered on Satan, it now must be done in the name of God alone. Such marriage is the world-historical marriage. It is not marriage in one nation but it is the marriage beyond nation and beyond the satanic world. It is the ground of surpassing the satanic world

February 8, 2019 (01.04.07 on the heavenly calendar), Lotte Hotel World

If the Christian environment had been prepared, the dream of one human family that humankind has longed for and God has desired would have been accomplished already. Originally all of humankind should have been God’s sons and daughters, but due to the Fall, they could not become God’s sons and daughters. The providence that makes it possible for humankind to return to God’s lineage is the Family Federation’s Marriage Blessing that you have heard about. [The Marriage Blessing] acknowledges the change of one’s lineage from one that has a connection to Satan to one that is connected to Heavenly Parent’s original lineage. While a miraculous blessing like this has been accomplished, you must not say that you are still in the dark.

The position in which all nations can unite in one human family as true brothers and sisters in front of our Heavenly Parent is precisely the kingdom of heaven on earth which we are trying to realize and for which our Heavenly Parent is hoping. I entreat you to accomplish this. You must not become a people whose light does not shine.

Peace Message #7

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, our bondage to the lineage of Satan has caused so much suffering throughout history. Let us now boldly step forward to sever it and be grafted onto the root of the lineage of the True Parents. Why should we foolishly continue to live and die as wild olive trees? A wild olive tree, even if it lives a thousand years, will only continue producing the seeds of more wild olive trees. Where can we find the path to escape this vicious cycle? It is through the Holy Marriage Blessing. The Holy Blessing Ceremony offers the grace of being grafted onto the true olive tree. It was instituted by the True Parents, who bring God’s true lineage to humankind. Once you change your lineage to God’s lineage, your offspring will belong to God’s lineage naturally. The Holy Blessing is received in three stages: rebirth, resurrection and eternal life. Once you receive the True Parents’ Holy Blessing, you can give birth to pure, sinless offspring and build an ideal family.

2. What is the role of the family in creating world peace?

Peace Message #3

The family sets the pattern for all people to live together in harmony. The family where parents and children love and respect each other, where husband and wife are grounded in mutual trust and love, and brothers and sisters trust and rely on each other, and all live together as one, is the model and the ideal. This means that you need to establish a true family wherein the stem of true love emerges from the root of true love and bears the fruit of true love.

Blessing and Ideal Family

by Reverend Sun Myung Moon

Chapter Two, Part 4

Where is the original base from which God begins the salvation of fallen humankind? Is it a certain nation which has pride in its civilization? No, it isn't. Would God make a certain social system the center, saying it is the ideal system? No, He wouldn't. Then would God make a talented individual the center? No, He wouldn't. Then, what would be the center? You should know that the family is the base which can transcend all these things.

If God exists, God also has to find that family. Therefore, humankind has to qualify to pass through that gateway of family, raise the symbol of victory and move forward toward the world. An individual who can follow this principle and thought has to appear.

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Restoration takes place centering on families.

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In order for you to perfect yourself as an individual, you have to go through the course of restoring your family. When Adam fell, after the individual fell, the fall was completed by the fall of a family. Therefore, for you to perfect yourself, to become perfect by yourself is not enough. Your family must also become perfect.

2. The Final Goal of the Providence Of Restoration

What have all the religions throughout history been doing? Until now, religion has been searching for one man. Religions until now did not permit the concept of having a reciprocal partner. They did not permit something new. If you continue to go forward without having the concept of reciprocal partnership, you will perish. However, in the history of searching for one man, if you have reached the point of finding that man, then as the next step you must search for a woman. The movement which proposed to search for a woman was the Unification Church we have today. Therefore, what does the Unification Church do? It is a church in search of a family.

Until now, religion has been searching for an individual. Do you understand? If you find an individual and form a family, that family will became a clan. That family will become a tribe and then will form a nation. Therefore, that family, until a nation is formed, will become more and more united. The more sons and daughters, the more the family will be united. It will be united as hard as a stone of steel.

When this is realized centering on the providence of restoration, the movement in search of a nation has already begun; therefore, from that time on, everything will run a normal course toward finding a world. It must reach out to the world. A family centered on the providence of restoration must be formed first, and then a tribe must be formed. When a tribe is formed, the fortune of the world will start to change. History is now moving in that direction.

The goal of religion until now was to save the individual. However, the Unification Church's goal is to save the family rather than the individual. We say that salvation should be of the family and that you cannot go to heaven alone.

The view of salvation in the Unification Church does not feature sending the husband to heaven and wife to hell. We make them both go to heaven. Also, we are not sending mothers and fathers to hell; we are telling sons and daughters to serve the mothers and fathers and to go to heaven together. The Unification Church is a religion which teaches the way through which you can take all your loving family and tribe to heaven. Therefore, the level is different from other religions. Religions until now have emphasized remaining single; however, the Unification Church lays importance on families. We go centering on families. That family is for the world and for God. This is the way which the members of the Unification Church should go, and the way which you should live your own lives from now on.

What is the common goal which should be the final goal of all humankind? What are the common barriers through which all must go? It is not a nation or a world. It is not even the communist world or democratic world. Before the communist world, there had to be an original family. Before the democratic world, there had to be an original family which could found the democratic world. Where has there been the system, education or standard for this goal? This absolute standard has not appeared on this earth. Unless it appears, there can never be a peaceful kingdom, peaceful ideal nation or peaceful world.

Therefore, we hope that an ideal family, an original family, a family which we can meet and live with will definitely appear on this earth, and that the time will come when this family can share its fate together with human history. This way, the providential investment of God in this earth will be realized, which will be the beginning of a blessed land or a nest for settlement.

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God’s Ideal Family and the Responsibility the Citizens of Cheon Il Guk are Called to Fulfill

The speech Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon gave at the True Parents’ Birthday celebration (which was also Dr. Moon’s “Misoo”—his 88th birthday by Korean counting), at Cheon Jeong Peace Palace in Korea, on February 23, 2007.

Ladies and gentlemen, you should form families that God will miss and yearn to return to after He has been away. He should feel comfortable to visit your home like any parent coming to visit his or her children. This is what it means to live in service to God. Within such a family, God is the vertical subject partner of your conscience, and your conscience is the vertical subject partner of your body. Thus, unity with God brings your mind and body into harmony. Family members who have established that vertical axis can perfect the four realms of love and heart—parental love, conjugal love, children’s love, and siblings’ love. That family links all directions—up and down, front and rear, right and left. They revolve around each other in everlasting spherical motion. This is the eternal God’s model, ideal family, which expands to ideal model nations and a peaceful, ideal kingdom. This means we need a movement to realize a society of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values. We need to make humanity one great family, by breaking down the walls in our hearts and eliminating even the boundaries between nations. This movement begins from each family. If only the entire world were filled with such true families! It would be an orderly world where people governed themselves by the heavenly way and heavenly laws, with no need for lawyers, prosecutors or even judges.

3. In what ways has your connection to True Parents helped you understand how you can contribute to world peace?

God’s Ideal Family and the Responsibility the Citizens of Cheon Il Guk are Called to Fulfill

The speech Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon gave at the True Parents’ Birthday celebration (which was also Dr. Moon’s “Misoo”—his 88th birthday by Korean counting), at Cheon Jeong Peace Palace in Korea, on February 23, 2007.

Ladies and gentlemen, Adam and Eve were meant to establish a model ideal family of peace. God, the absolute being, created human beings as His children in order to instill in them absolute values, which spring from an absolute standard. Thus, human beings must follow the path of that unchanging standard in keeping with the demands of the heavenly way. This means we must follow our destined life course in order to attend God, our eternal parent. In other words, for us to perfect ourselves in resembling God and to obtain the stature of people of character who can be called the sons and daughters of the eternal God, we must follow the path based on the unwavering standard God has determined. The essence of this path is the standard of absolute sexual purity.

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What is true love? Its essence does not lie in receiving but in being the first to give, in living for the sake of others and for the sake of the larger whole. True love gives, forgets that it has given, and continues to give without ceasing. True love gives joyfully. We find it in the joyful and loving heart of a mother who cradles her baby in her arms and nurses it at her breast. True love is sacrificial love, as with a devoted son who finds his greatest satisfaction in dedicating his mind and body to helping his parents. When we are bound together in true love, we can be together forever, continually rejoicing in each other’s company. The attraction of true love brings all things in the universe to our feet; even God will come to dwell with us. Nothing can compare to the value of true love. It has the power to dissolve the barriers fallen human beings have created, including national boundaries, the barriers between races and even those between religions.

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True Mother’s Speech 2019 Cheon Il Guk Leaders Assembly Closing Ceremony

11th day of the 1st month in the 7th year of Cheon Il Guk (Friday, February 15, 2019), HJ Heaven and Earth CheonBo Training Center

We need to raise the 7.6 billion people of the world as children of Heavenly Parent through True Parents. We had no choice but to found the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity from the lowest position because there was no environment prepared. The providence had to begin in an environment that did not fit the Messiah, who had come on the foundation prepared by Christianity for two thousand years.

So I hope that you will be able to get substantial help from the spiritual world. When I went to Africa, righteous people helped me. Heaven has prepared many righteous people for us. Shouldn't you inform them? You have to show them. You have to help them to bear fruit, since they have been offering devotions to Heaven for so long.

Now we have to speak with one voice within our organization. We should become more efficient. In particular, I hope you will let go of self-centeredness and work while thinking of the whole. This is the guideline from True Mother. Do you understand?

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Victory Celebration for the Birthday of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, and the Sixth Anniversary of Foundation Day and the launch of the Citizens’ Federation of Heavenly Unified Korea

February 18, 2019, HJ Heaven and Earth Cheonbo Training Center

We already have entered a new providential history. The Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age and the Completed Testament Age now belong to the past. What will you gain by studying the past? There is a busy road in front of us.
We must be different. We have a lot of schools, from primary to secondary education; I stressed that we need to take education seriously from now on. If we keep teaching the same thing that is taught in traditional schools, how can we properly train talented young people who will take care of the future of their country and the world?

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While on earth we must attend God in a way that brings Him joy. So what should be our standard of attendance? By making offerings that meet with God’s desire we develop a character that matches with God’s heart. That is the meaning of Jesus’ first commandment, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength.” Once you love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength, what happens next? God then manifests His love through you to relate with all people. Since you have become one with God’s love, you are able to love all people. Hence in your family, you give your utmost love to your father and mother, and then you give your utmost love to your brothers and sisters. That family will be a happy family. God wants to dwell in the family whose members love the Lord their God with all their heart, all their soul and all their strength, and then love their brothers and sisters in the same manner, even more than they love [God] their Father. If we establish our family like that, God cannot help but dwell there. (101:153-54, October 29, 1978)

Make a habit of liking people. Tell them that you like them even if they do not like you. It is training. (118:116, May 9, 1982)
Have you ever shed tears for others? It is easy for people to weep for themselves, but have you wept for others? There are two kinds of tears. A person who sheds tears for him or herself will go to hell, but a person who sheds tears for others will go to heaven. (96:172-73, January 3, 1978)

Respect all things as holy things. Treat them as sacred objects. Respect all people as holy people, each one the sacred body of God. Respect yourself as a holy person, with the thought that your mind is God’s mind and your body is God’s body. (102:113, November 27, 1978)

Your eyes should become more benevolent. Of course they shine when you look at a good person, but even when you see wicked people you should add extra effort to look at them with a heart of compassion and love. True love has the capacity to digest even evil things. It possesses such power. (123:225, January 2, 1983)

A good person has both unwavering faith and accumulated good deeds. (73:116, August 16, 1974)

Pay attention to people and treat each one with a loving heart and with truth. Say at least three good and positive things each day. Along with your words, do three good deeds each day, no matter how small. When you greet someone, do not say words out of habit but with sincerity and genuineness. (99:142, September 10, 1978)

Do a good deed and forget about it. Although you forget, it remains in God’s memory, connected to His goodness. (Way of God’s Will 1.1.2)

Carry out the difficult tasks others avoid, while remaining detached from the things you like. Solve your parents’ most difficult problems for them and take upon yourself all their outside difficulties as well. (17:338, April 30, 1967)

While walking on the street, if you see an old man with a hump in his back you should think, “My Father might have such an appearance when He visits me.” When you see the rough and swollen hands of a laborer, you should think, “My Father who is searching for me might look worse than him.” When you meet a beggar, you should be able to bow your head, thinking, “He is not a beggar, but actually my Father.” Know that God’s heart dwells in each of these miserable and pitiful looking people. You should love them, regardless of your situation and social position, shedding tears with the heart that each of them is your own father. Only then, can you meet God. (8:345-46, February 28, 1960)