Authors
Investment and acts of devotion
After he was released from Seodaemun Prison, True Father lived at the original Cheongpa-dong Headquarters Church. The years that followed, until early 1957, were a period when he made preparations to advance to a new stage.
During this time True Father devoted all his energy to educating members. He focused on outreach activities, with Eu Hyo-won, the first church president, giving lectures and teaching the Divine Principle.
In addition, True Father often took members on recreational outings in nature to cultivate their physical discipline and their relationship to the creation.
The life of faith of the members was more intense at that time than at any other time in the history of our church. They attended church services, participated in outreach activities, and studied the Divine Principle.
True Father himself led the church services. Although he wore a humble work jacket and the church hall was small, it was always filled with members day and night. In the congregation were many women, many young people, and intellectuals, including university professors. Everyone participated in outreach activities as volunteers, each with his or her method of witnessing.
1. During the time of pioneering in 1957, I slept only two hours a day. In those days, I would pray together with the members all night. It was in the midst of a seven-year period during which I prepared and trained myself so that in the 1960s when we would move into a new world, I would not be ashamed before heaven and would be victorious in my 21-year course. (114-232, 1981/10/20)
2. After I founded the Unification Church, I offered prayers and conditions of devotion every day for seven years, staying up in my bedroom until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. My heart was determined, “I will pour out all my sincerity and devotion. No matter how tired I am, I will continue. Even when I am hungry, I will pour out my whole self. I will not let sleep overcome me. I will continue until I build a foundation that meets with heaven's official approval.”
My devotion to this kind of heart sowed seeds that were connected to God's heart. They will bring forth growth throughout the world. Even if the members of the Unification Church today cannot inherit those seeds, someday without fail their fruits will be harvested, if not in Korea then somewhere else in the world. This is what I think. (082-324, 1976/02/01)
3. In the early days of the Unification Church, I prayed so intensely that my nose bled. I thought, “Even though I am bleeding like this for the sake of human history if that blood moves people to feel indebted to me and so ashamed that they cry bitterly that they cannot repay it, that would be a glorious thing.” I also thought, “It is an honor to be whipped on behalf of the people of the world.” This is true.
Who is the patriot among all patriots?
If two people suffer a whipping for the sake of the nation, one receiving 10 lashes and the other 100 lashes, the latter is a greater patriot. A person who receives 1,000 lashes is an even greater patriot, and if someone appears who is whipped with 10,000 lashes, he will be greater still; all the nation's fortune will adhere to him.
Then, what if another man comes and is whipped with 100,000 lashes? Even if this person tries not to take it, all the nation's fortune will be given to him.
Don't seek fortune in any other way. This is the way to receive it.
(047-334, 1971/08/30)
4. You have to inherit what I prepared when I sacrificed myself in my youth. By so doing, you should advance to a victorious position where all nations praise you. If you live for the sake of all nations, loving them, you will surely attain victory.
It is my earnest desire for you to advance to a position even higher and more glorious than mine. But do you want to receive that fortune by just sitting around doing nothing? It is time for you to stand in the front line.
During the early years of the church, I trained members day and night so that they would not be swept away into the evil world. For example, one day when we climbed Mt. Gwanak, it was raining hard.
The path was very slippery, but despite the difficulties we climbed to the top. This is how I trained the members to fight on the battlefield against the nation and the world so that they would not become remnants of a defeated army. I trained them like this despite all the accusations that came against me.
(143-331, 1986/03/21)
5. In 1957, when I was educating the church members in Korea, I used what I call the one-on-one strategy.
It is a strategy that will last until the end. I gave my lecture in front of one person as if I were giving it to hundreds and thousands of people, thinking that that person would depend on hundreds and thousands of people. To raise that person as an authentic disciple, I had to pray for him and do sufficient conditions of devotion on his behalf to motivate him to become such a disciple.
In such a case, three levels of relationships are created: me, you, and the local members. First, there must be unity between you and me; then you should bring unity among the local members and yourself. Why three levels?
It is because originally God and Adam should have been united and then Adam and his sons should have been united. That is a principle. Without reaching perfection through three stages, the realm of perfection of the four-position foundation cannot appear. That is why you have to create others like yourself.
(096-285, 1978/02/13)
6. If someone says even one word that touches my heart, I might burst into tears. I have such a heart.
There is something in my heart that makes me choke up whenever I think of God. I cannot help this.
Since I have such a quality within myself, my life itself is prayer even when I do not pray formally. That is why I always feel God's sorrowful and suffering heart, and why I sometimes fall, choked with emotion, or grab hold of a tree or a telephone pole while my tears flow uncontrollably. At those times, I feel God's heart so intensely that I can no longer stand upright.
When I looked into it, I realized that something happened to God that made Him sorrowful. When I prayed about it, He let me know what happened and where.
Since I have the mission of the person with the central responsibility on earth to make a foundation of heart, and to deal with both spiritual and physical issues required to make this foundation, God always lets me know His actual situation. (060-219, 1972/08/17)
7. There was a time when even beggars told each other that they should not go to the Unification Church because the food we offered them was so meager. Yet, we moved up from the bottom step by step.
In the early days, I did not even celebrate my birthday. I thought, how many people have died never being able to celebrate their birthday while on earth? That is why I fasted on my birthday for three years, to sympathize with them and to connect with them when I meet them in the spirit world.
Furthermore, in the early days, I did not wear a suit and tie when I spoke from the pulpit on Sundays. I began my ministry wearing laborer's clothes. Whenever I spoke, whether a sermon or lecture, I invested my sweat and tears, offering my utmost sincerity, even if only one person was listening. I did not treat people as guests who were just passing by. I now miss those early days. (141-056, 1986/02/16)
8. Throughout my life, I invested everything I had to witness to people. When a patient comes to see a doctor at the hospital, the doctor has the responsibility and obligation to invest his life in that patient, even forgetting to sleep.
Likewise, in raising the church members I forgot about whether it was day or night. I often ate breakfast thinking I was eating dinner. There is such a tradition in the history of our church.
When you are witnessing, create an environment in which even nature desires to praise you, in which the water in the river wants to stop flowing to praise you, and the fish in the river want to be on your table so you can eat them. Then the people who eat those fish will start responding to you. This is the kind of foundation you should leave behind.
Go around the area you are responsible for 10 or even 100 times. Visit every single house without exception. God goes around the world 1,000 or even 10,000 times searching for His children. How can you become God's sons and daughters and inherit from Him unless you do the same?
So in every town you visit, you should want to go around to all the houses in the area 100 and even 1,000 times, and when you are unable to do so, you should repent in tears. As a leader responsible for the heart and spirit of others, you need to do that.
That is the way of a representative of the vertical True Parent and the horizontal True Parents. Continue in this way, and your members will take the proper direction without any deviation, find their position, and follow your example. (220-305, 1991/10/20)
9. In 1957, I prayed individually for about 400 members every day. These days I no longer pray like that.
However, in those days I needed to pray for them to help them transcend a certain level. When I prayed, I could understand their spiritual situations. When I prayed, God would teach me because the members were connected to me like branches.
You, too, should pray for your members, offering your utmost devotion. When you pray for them, if any of them is spiritually injured, God will show you glimpses of their spiritual situations in all kinds of forms: they might be downcast, have their face covered with a cloth, and so on.
When good things are happening to them, you will see them smiling; when they are sad, you will see them with a sad appearance. (070-181, 1974/02/09)
10. Always take the time to offer sincere devotions, prayers, and other conditions. Offer them when you get up at dawn, when you are on the borderline between the spiritual world and the physical world and your optic nerves are just starting to function after a restful night.
The spirit world will show you something spiritual. Through such experiences, you will be given foreknowledge. Then you will be able to predict, “Today this or that will happen in the church,” or Today such and such a person will come.”
A capable doctor can tell what kind of illness their patients have just by looking at their complexion, or by seeing how their patients walk. Likewise, your spiritual antenna must be long and have the sensitivity to appraise things. For this to happen, you need to offer conditions of devotion.
Prayer is truly powerful. Prayer allows you to be in complete control of your environment without having to say a single word. Before I go somewhere, I always pray for 24 hours focused on my goal. I pray even while I am eating and resting. I do not pray for my own sake; I pray for the sake of humanity and God.
Once after I offered such prayers with a single resolve, I visited all our churches throughout the nation.
By doing so, I brought the churches into a sphere of equilibrium. My prayers elevated the churches into a realm under heaven's sovereignty, where conscientious people could be pulled to them.
That is why when they met you, they were drawn to you without knowing the reason. That is why I say that you always need to offer conditions of devotion. (207-349, 1990/11/11)
A church with fervor and love
In the 1950s, True Father personally guided members with zeal and passion. He listened to them to the end, even late into the night, and then guided them.
When he stood at the pulpit, he preached with tears. Because of this, the members always longed for him and visited the church to see him. Once they came they could not tear themselves away to go back home.
In such an atmosphere filled with truth, love, and the divine spirit, the church overcame hardships and established a firm foothold for the next stage.
11. The most enjoyable time in my life was when I was personally raising members. I spent time with them until late at night. Even though some members wanted to leave after midnight, I continued speaking because I was immersed in the joy of helping them grow. I would speak to them until 1:00, 2:00, or even 3:00 a.m., even as some members dozed off.
How different it was then than it is today. The time did not matter; I was so intoxicated with giving advice and encouragement. As I spoke I was often in tears. I was thankful and I was deep in thought. Once I gave them an injection of truth, even those who were on the way to hell would turn around and come back.
How exhilarating! Since heaven was with us, a huge electric current was present. A strong power like a 100,000-volt current flowed in us, and we could feel it shaking the entire world. What a delight! After experiencing it, I could not fall asleep even if I tried. Even while sleeping, my eyes would suddenly open wide.
(167-329, 1987/08/20)
12. How much effort have you made to save people, representing God's heart and His role as Creator?
This is a serious issue. I have given so many lectures and sermons. In the 1950s in particular, there was not a single day when I did not speak while shedding tears. There was not a single day that I did not cry out in tears. Heaven consoled me and worked with me even as I kept my resolve to move forward, even though those times when I collapsed on the verge of death, shedding so much blood and sweat that I was about to lose consciousness.
Whenever you witness, pray for the people in your area. Pray for them every night before you go to bed.
If you are responsible for a district, go up to the highest mountain in the area and pray for the people there. If you cannot do so, go down to the deepest valley and pray there. Don't stop praying. Afterward, go to the holiest place, the church sanctuary, and pray there. Do not let the church sanctuary remain dry without tears. (172-196, 1988/01/21)
13. What remains in history is not ability, but results, not the preparation, but the foundation we lay. This is true; these are not simply my words. It applies at school and anywhere.
So when you speak, do not just speak words. You have to live by your words and bring your result; then your words carry weight. When you lecture, you must touch the hearts of your listeners by connecting your words to experiences that bring forth tears.
In the early days of our church, I gave sermons with my blood and tears amid harsh persecution. I invested all my heart and soul, speaking at the top of my lungs to touch the hearts of my congregation. I did this even though the persecution grew more and more each day.
We still had a long way to go, and I had to invest my whole being to keep the members on the path. It was exhausting, but I gave them all the energy I had. I led the members that way because we had to bring results. (133-232, 1984/07/19)
14. In 1957 and 1958, what kind of person was I? I was a great listener who patiently heard the stories of every member, young or old, who wanted to share with me. People recognized me as someone who would listen to their stories, perhaps better than anyone else in Korea.
When elderly ladies came to see me, they would discuss their marriage life from their wedding day, even telling me exactly how they loved their husbands. They shared everything they kept in their hearts. Anyone who came to see me said, “Father listens to all my stories.”
When they had nothing left to say, I started to speak. If you want to fill a bowl with something new, first you have to turn it upside down so that everything is emptied.
That is why I listened to them, putting myself in the position of enjoying what they had to say more than anyone else, even staying up all night to hear it. It is all about genuinely listening to others and then genuinely talking to them. That is the secret. That is how you give and receive. (096-322, 1978/02/13)
15. When I was doing my outreach work, I treated even an 80-year-old woman who visited me with the same regard as I gave to young people in the prime of life. Is there anyone in heaven or on earth who wouldn't like to be treated with such a heart?
So if such a woman comes to you, welcome her, rejoicing as if she were your ancestor come back to life.
Welcome her more than you would your grandmother. Your ancestors cannot come from the spirit world unless you make such conditions with other elderly people. Therefore, you should treat them with heart. It is heavenly law that you must treat elderly ladies well. To treat the elderly well is like building a bridge according to the order of heaven. The oldest grandfather is God.
(047-321, 1971/08/30)
16. The members who followed me in those days built a profound bond of heart with me, and many shed tears whenever they thought of me. Even though they had their children, grandchildren, and spouses, they still shed tears when thinking of me. You also have to be like that.
When I had something to eat, I kept the food and waited until I could eat it with them. I only wanted to bring them joy by helping them with their difficulties and uplifting them whenever they seemed down.
That is why, when they faced persecution from their villages, and even from the nation, they still followed me. In the early days of the church, we lived in such an atmosphere.
Once new members joined the church, they wanted to see their spiritual parents and came to the church to see them every day. That was the atmosphere then. I asked the members to create such an environment to guide their spiritual children. I also educated the new members to do the same.
So, to them, our church was better than their home, their school, l or their workplace, and they preferred to come to our church. That became a problem for society. (096-144, 1978/01/03)
17. In the early days of the church, the female members were dying to come to the church. Their hearts kept shouting, “I want to go!” I could hear their inner voices. When I began listening to them, they began speaking in the language of another world. They entered into a spiritual state of mind. If I liken God's love to electricity, it was just like they were connected to that love through an electric cable.
Once they entered that state, they could see things in spirit. Even while at home, they knew what I was doing at any given time. They knew specific things like, “Today Father is not in a good mood, so I'd better not go to the church,” and they tried to stay away from me. Yet even with that determination, they still could not help but come to the church.
The Cheongpa-dong Church is on a hillside, and that hill has the spiritual power to attract people. Who can block the magnetic needle of a compass from pointing south and north?
Even if they were determined not to come to the church, they would soon find themselves leaving their room and walking around in circles in the courtyard of their home.
Finally, they would open the gate, catch a bus, and arrive at the church, despite themselves. The Unification Church on that hill had such mysterious power. If you have never had such experiences, you do not yet know true love. (166-228, 1987/06/07)
18. Unification Church members in those days were the most miserable people. They were persecuted and chased out. I know members who were kicked out of their homes on cold, snowy winter nights.
Having nowhere to go, all they could do was keep on praying annoyingly to keep themselves warm by leaning against the wall of a neighbor's house.
My heart was filled with bitterness and sorrow over how they were mistreated, but because I knew that heaven endured such hardships again and again, I forgave their families who opposed them. I did this because the families did not know what they were doing.
Truly, I have gone through so many situations and have so many stories to tell. Yet, who knew that I lived with the indescribably bitter sorrow of heaven and earth within my heart? While walking this path, I swallowed countless tears. (157-138, 1967/04/02)
Continuous teaching
In the early days of the church, former church president Eu Hyo-won single-handedly undertook the task of giving Divine Principle lectures to the guests who witnessed,
Newcomers listened to his lectures in the evenings, and people who came to hear three days of lectures usually slept at the church during the time that they listened to the lectures. It was as if they were attending a three-day workshop. President Eu set the record, giving lectures for 18 hours in a single day.
He could not stand up due to the condition of his legs, so he gave his lectures while half-lying on the floor, propping himself up with one arm and writing on rough printing paper. After President Eu finished his lecture, True Father would speak to the guests.
He spoke with all of his heart and strength until his whole body was soaked in sweat. Those who went through this process were moved and touched by the profound truth of the Principle. From this experience alone they resolved to walk the path of the Will.
Later, President Eu gave introductory lectures in the mornings and afternoons as well.
19. For three years and eight months President Eu Hyo-won gave lectures without taking a break for even one day. This is the historical reality of our church. He gave the lectures despite his disability.
When I think of how I pushed him to lecture, I feel as though I am a merciless person. In those days, we did not have many members like we do now. When we had one new guest, he would give lectures just for that person, and when we had no guests, he gave lectures to the members. I am sure many members remember this. (172-047, 1988/01/07)
20. I did not rest while President Eu Hyo-won was giving lectures. Sitting in my upstairs room, I listened to all his lectures. I was given reports about who had come. In the evening I came down to give lectures myself. Less than a minute after I started speaking, I would see him doze off from fatigue. Then I would pray for him in tears. We experienced such a tearful history together.
The history of the Unification Church is so painful. Why did I have to do that? Why did President Eu have to do that? It was for God. Nevertheless, the spirit world supported us. If it hadn't, it would have meant that the spirit world does not exist. (107-249, 1980/05/19)
21. Even if there is no one at the church when you are giving a sermon, keep the door open and preach while wailing in tears. Then, your neighbors will come and ask what is happening. People will come to see what is going on. Then you can ask them to listen to your sermon.
You should speak with tears. For whom do you shed tears? You do it for the nation, for humankind, for the world, and God. That is the way that you must go. If you collapse while giving lectures on the Word, I will take care of you; if you die from that, I will hold the funeral for you.
You will have things to say when you go to the spirit world. You can say you were following my instructions, and while giving lectures, and speaking at the top of your lungs, you died.
How serious it is to give lectures on the Word! Do it as a matter of life and death. That was the attitude I had. As a result, God helped me, and I now have become a worldwide figure. (107-248, 1980/05/19)
22. After you come out of a seven-day workshop at the Unification Church and walk the streets of the city, you feel as if there is something different about the world. The trains look as if they are out of an ancient legend, and every bus going down the street appears to be upside-down. Even the people may seem to be walking backward.
After having such an experience, would you stop coming to the church because you were told not to? In the early days, even if our main gate was locked, members climbed over the church fence.
When I asked them not to come and chased them out through the front door, they turned around and came in through the back door. It was common for members to stay up all night praying, weeping, and crying out in tears.
We need such a spirit at the church. Then something great will erupt like a volcano. To make this happen, you have to give lectures day and night. That is why I asked President Eu to give lectures for as many as 18 hours a day, which he did for three years and eight months. (107-244, 1980/05/19)
Sun Myung Moon