Father! Today is November 20, 1968, by the lunar calendar, October 1.
Nine years ago today, this new Children's Day was proclaimed on this earth.
During that time we have seen many days go by, and several years have passed.
Along this course following the Will, each time we attend this kind of event longing for the aspect of the true children you are seeking, when we look from the viewpoint of the standard you are hoping for, we see that we are still too different from what you are hoping for. The more we think about that, we feel we do not have the dignity to meet you. Oh Father, please look on us with compassion.
Father! We know that to commemorate this day, today, facing this headquarters, many children, who are spread out in each area of South Korea, are bowing down to you respectfully with earnest hearts. And we know that not only in Korea, but your many children, who are spread out overseas as well, who are dragging their exhausted bodies along the lonely course of the pioneer, are thinking deep in their minds about the value of attending a day like this. These children are eagerly looking forward with earnest hearts to being able to greet this day themselves in the land of Korea, and they are praying, shedding tears for the sake of that day.
We earnestly hope and desire that you will resolve their grief, and that you will look upon their concerns, by being together with them personally even though all of their situations and environments are different.
Since many religious people on the earth are going the way of morality and are offering devotion, please let them have the glory of children by finding the place they are hoping for. And since the hopes of the people, who are professing a day of liberation, must, by all means, bear fruit on the earth, we earnestly hope and desire that you will let them participate in an occasion that celebrates this kind of day together with us by their meeting you substantially on the earth and by your having dealt with the minds of the people who long for that place.
We know that not only those on the earth but also our ancestors and the many saints and sages, who are in the spirit world, have walked the course of the indemnity of restoration for the sake of this earth until nowWewe also know that you have pioneered the course of restoration through indemnity by setting up the next descendent if an individual could not fulfill his responsibility.
Although our many ancestors who have gone to the spirit world worked hard, following the Will, and established the foundation of public righteousness, they were not able to have a day of the resolution of grief while on the earth. But when we think about the fact that today we can have the resolution of grief due to having Children's Day on the earth, we earnestly hope and desire that you will let us realize that our having Children's Day today has universal significance.
Each time we attend a ceremony like this, please do not allow us to think of it as a formality, as a ceremony or gathering like the ordinary ceremonies of the world.
We are sincerely grateful, and we sincerely commemorate that this kind of commemorative day has appeared for the first time since history began.
We earnestly hope that you will allow us to become your sons and daughters who, while groping for the heart of love, can be grateful that you have worked hard until now, and that you have pioneered the way of the providence of restoration.
We have humbly prayed all these things in the holy name of the True Parents.
Amen.
Dr. Sun Myung Moon
