True Love
Volume One, The Restoration of True Love
by Reverend Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 6
The Blessing

You know something of the first seven-year course after 1960, but not its full background.

Behind this course was the history of God's family and the history of a God-centered tribe. In order for you to understand this history, you should receive the Blessing. I cannot reveal this background unless you receive and inherit the victorious standard of the Blessing. When you know that course completely, you will feel how bitter the history of restoration has been. Therefore, we have to realize how precious the Blessing is.

If we desire the Blessing, we should concentrate first on how to live solely for God's will. When Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, he prayed that not his own will but God's will be done. He did not choose the path of the cross because of his own will. Unless, like Jesus, you are confident of being able to overcome the problems of life and death, you cannot welcome or walk the path of restoration. Are you confident enough to dedicate your life for God's will? If you take this course, you should know you cannot go alone; you must be able to relate to all people, and be able to console those who are going to follow you on this path.

Restoration and Blessing 2-2-69

When men and women take marriage vows, they are pledging themselves to one purpose and goal -- pure unity of love.

True Parent's Mission 4-20-80

It's no secret that our members don't marry for today: actually, today is the most painful time. We marry for the future and for our descendants; though it is not easy, our better judgment tells us to do it anyway. Imagine that the most handsome man in the world decides to marry the ugliest woman in the world, feeling that for the sake of the future she will be the most ideal mate for him. Would people be happy or uneasy at seeing that scene? Would the person who supported the idea be happy at their success, or the person who did not support it?

That husband and wife might seem to be an unbalanced couple, but the husband who pursues that future goal is the highest, and therefore the central one. Will history have to record this event for the education of other people, or should it write disapprovingly of this couple? Today is always brief, but the future is everlasting.

The Victorious Day 6-29-80

Once the media starts to report correctly about the Unification Church, people will have a chance to find out the truth -- that our young people will be matched with better mates than they could choose ourselves, their wedding expenses will be less, and they will never separate. The sons and daughters-in-law from the Unification Church are wonderful, and the husbands and wives cherish each other. When people know this then they will really be interested in the Church.

Our Duty, Our Mission 10-5-80

One of the most important characteristics of the Unification Church is that we link the word "blessing" with marriage. The Chinese word for blessing is composed of two characters. The left portion of both characters signifies clothing.

The right portion of the top character means elder brother. Analyzing it in detail, the upper part of the right portion is a square which represents the mouth. In our way of life, the mouth is always a problem; it always needs to be fed. The lower two strokes represent Cain and Abel. The stroke going straight down signifies Cain, and the other which heads down and then rises signifies Abel.

The right portion of the lower character contains a horizontal line, a square, and a square enclosing a cross. The horizontal line means "one," which signifies God. The Korean word for God, "Hananim," means "Mister One." As we said, the square signifies a mouth, which represents a person. The square enclosing a cross represents a field which produces crops, representing all things of creation. So the lower character means God, mankind and all things of creation -- all enveloped by the same clothes. Thus the Chinese character for "blessing" means to put on, or wear, God, mankind and all things of creation.

On God's Day I gave a sermon about heart, or mind. I concluded that our mind should be like clothing enveloping God; God should occupy the center of our mind. Then our body is the clothing for our mind. The next level of dual characteristics is man and woman; the woman becomes the clothing for the man. Children become the clothing surrounding the parents. The relatives or clan become the clothing for the family.

It's your Blessing that matters now. We are talking about your well being. Our way of life is 180 degrees opposite from the conventional way. We are so strict and even puritanical, in a way, because by living this way we are creating a revolution. We are turning the wheel of history around in a completely opposite direction. We are breaking past concepts which have become habits, embedded even in our cells!

Many men and women are now engaged and will participate in the Blessing. I want you to understand that this is a vertical act based on universal law -- not just a horizontal relationship God and spirit world are involved in your engagement. Whatever I do, I automatically bring God and the spirit world into it. All my actions have vertical meaning. Horizontally, I am in the position of parents but vertically I am in the position of God and the archangel.

Our motivation is different. We are not acting from self-centered love but from unselfish, true love. If you deny this principle, you repeat the fall. If you accept it and live up to it, the world will change direction and be transformed. This is the position of the Unification Church. Our mission and responsibility are great. Upon our shoulders rest God's dispensation and all of human history. We are the ones to realign human history in accordance with God's dispensation.

The Blessing From the Viewpoint of the
Dispensation of History 1-18-81

Marriage itself is for the sake of God and His providence, because spirit world centers around the family foundation. It is much better for an individual to be part of a couple in fulfilling the ideal. That is why you need marriage; it is not just for your own happiness.

Noble Dream 12-1-81

Adam and Eve were to marry primarily for the sake of God, not for themselves.

This should be the motivation for your marriage as well. Whenever you think, "I don't want to marry my fiancée," you should remember these points. Adam and Eve were completely at the mercy of God; they had no choice of a mate. In the true tradition, therefore, parents should decide whom their children ought to marry. You are marrying for the sake of your parents, in a way. Until you marry, you live in your parents' home and have no real claims of your own. From the Principle point of view, do you think that what I am saying is correct or not?

Even after Eve fell, if Adam had been stronger and had not fallen, God could have restored Eve much more easily. The great tragedy was that they defiled each other. According to the same principle, women who fall away from the truth today must not defile their fiancé. If you men cut off from such a woman, God will provide you with a better bride. God selected Mother for me; I didn't do it myself. If either fiancée commits sin and becomes defiled, there is still room for restoration as long as the other remains pure.

Fallen love is the trap which Satan has been employing for 6,000 biblical years. In a split second, you can make the gravest mistake. You are like sticks of dynamite; but for a couple's love to explode in beautiful joy, the fuses of two dynamite sticks must not be lit until the right moment. Otherwise, their explosion will shatter them. For the consummation of your love to be constructive, the order must come from God, through the True Parents, and then on to you. If it happens at the wrong time, the love will be directed by Satan. Your love should focus outward for the sake of God and True Parents, and not inward on yourselves.

You will meet some day, after each of you has been cleansed as an individual. On that promised day when you come together as husband and wife, you will become one body and one family, with the approval and blessing of God and True Parents. After that you can live happily together. If you touch your fiancée in an intimate way while you are engaged, you are defiling her. Even though she is your fiancée, you are not authorized to take her love in that way. You must first cleanse your past.

When you walk down the aisle at your wedding, you must have no thoughts of the girls you dated in the past; you must never criticize your heavenly bride according to the standards of the fallen world, wishing she were prettier, or taller, or whatever. You must regard your wife as God's gift to you; your blessed spouse is the best one possible for you, much better than a king or queen. You are a son of God marrying a daughter of God; you are marrying a princess! There is no greater position in the world than that.

Don't defile your mind and think about your past fallen sexual experiences. You should consider your previous loves your worst enemies. You must cut off from that past; you must become clean men and women when you enter the Blessing. Cut off all the strings attaching you to the satanic world and free yourself; then you can cross over into the heavenly realm.

Once you enter the family-level dispensation, a higher standard of accomplishment is required. When you receive the Blessing and start your family, it is as if you given an automobile for driving along the highway to the Heavenly Kingdom. You must be able to drive the car; if the car starts to break down, you will be in trouble. When you no longer live as just an individual but as a family, your problems will be magnified.

Restoration through indemnity is your medicine. Even though the medicine tastes bitter, you must swallow it in order to be cured. You certainly don't enjoy the taste of the medicine, but you realize it is you only means to be healed.

You must realize that behind you lies a long history of ancestral sin. To liquidate that history as an individual requires a great amount of indemnity. If you are a fine, handsome man, a good way to do it would be to marry and love an unattractive woman. By doing so you can completely liberate your sinful ancestry.

I resolved to accept as my bride an elderly, very fat woman if God so desired. Since my attitude was to accept absolutely anyone God chose, God gave me a beautiful, young woman -- Mother -- as my bride. No one can accuse that match, either, because it was not of my own initiative; it was completely from God and the spirit world. That is the law of indemnity.

True Parents and Our Responsibility 12-27-81

When you meet your fiancée, if you have the time or energy to kiss her, you should be thinking more about your nation, your world and God. Your fiancée can wait. He or she is a good person and will not be corrupted, but this nation is crumbling, society is crumbling.

You have to become the spiritual fire fighters and doctors who can save this nation, Is what we are doing right or wrong? Perhaps I will hold the next engagement ten years from now! Why? I want you to devote your youth totally to the salvation of the nation. Think about it: is my teaching wrong? You are engaged, but in the meantime, you are fighting for the salvation of this nation. You are sacrificing your- selves during this time, but God will preside at your marriage. You can have no better wedding than this.

Everyone is Headed Somewhere 3-7-82

Even if your husband or wife cannot make it, that does not give you the right to give up. Think, "You may abandon me, but I will not abandon you or this path." There is no such thing as abandonment in God's world. Our way of life requires us to be patient and persevere. If you are abandoned, that is not your responsibility. Think, "Because God exists, I have hope. I will return to Him one way or another." That is the meaning of the Blessing given on July 1, 1982.

Where is God then? In spirit world God is still invisible, but you can feel His presence perfectly. Just as your conscience guides you now, God is present in your heart, guiding you in spirit world. By then you will truly feel the value of having followed the True Parents here on earth. You will be victorious in heaven and earth and feel deeply grateful to God and True Parents. That precious thing can only be achieved through the foundation of the family. In order to achieve such a family I gave you the Blessing.

Have I given you too much tough material this morning? Did my sermon interfere with plans you had for your future family life, perhaps a cozy apartment with no interruptions and lots of love and joy? I preached the wrong sermon for that! I'm sorry, but I have to do it. Do you thank me or hate me for these words today? Within this principle of true love you have total freedom of conscience and you can truly be happy. For eternity you will not be able to praise each other enough. Was this Blessing given to you freely or was it earned by you? It is given by heaven, as God's gift. Why does God give it to you? He wants to see true love consummated within you and your home.

Some of you behaved very dishonorably in the past, with no moral standards. You are grateful to True Parents for teaching the right path. From now on, however, you cannot make a mistake because you know the truth. You shall become righteous husbands and wives. Religious people of the past made tremendous sacrifices to bring you into this position to consummate true love. They were like the fertilizer for your victory because they helped create the atmosphere for today. God has been suffering for 6,000 biblical years, persevering in incredible agony to see this one true couple, the True Parents. I am looking for American couples who can be visited any time by God and True Parents.

You are trying to create a precious treasure for God's museum. That task begins with your holy wedding. You sisters want to become true daughters, wives and mothers, don't you? Who will acknowledge your accomplishment and sign your certificate. What is the criteria we will use to decide? It all centers on whether you have true love. The center of true love is God, True Parents and your husband, and you must serve these three. Never think that you possess true love by yourself.

Only through true love can you have any relationship with God and True Parents. You brothers wan- to become true sons, husbands and fathers, don't you? Who shall sign your certificate? Your wife, God, and True Parents. It is not enough for your wife to say that you love her. True Parents and God must also recognize your true love. Thereafter, anywhere you go on earth or in heaven, you will be welcomed. Once you reach that level, no matter how poor you are, you will never starve, and your children will never desert or betray you. That is the center of the force of the entire universe, and it will protect you according to natural law. You will never be destroyed.

If you live in the world with a selfish point of view, you will not go anywhere. When you reach out to hold your wife's hand, you should first ask whether your hand has received the love of God and True Parents. If your conscience says no, you have no right to hold your wife's hand. If your eye does not deserve the love of True Parents and God, it is a thief's eye. When you embrace your wife, do you have that pure, unselfish love which represents heaven and earth?

Marriage within the Unification Church has an extraordinary meaning. A man represents the plus part of the universe; a woman represents the minus part of the universe. When God brings them together in harmony, the fulfillment of his joy can come about. The mass weddings of the Unification Church are guided by this particular philosophy and purpose.

New Family Given by God 9-5-82

You must understand clearly why you are marrying in the first place. It is not primarily for your own gratification, but for the sake of the vertical line between the parents and the children.

The Present Situation, Centering
Upon the Will of God 5-23-82

There will be over 2,000 couples blessed on July 1. Have you ever considered that once I go to spirit world, you will be the ones to give blessing to your home church people? They will say to you, "Since Rev. and Mrs. Moon are not here, will you bless us on behalf of them?"

The day of the blessing will be July 1, the first day of the seventh month. Seven plus one equals eight, which signifies a new start. Which ones of you are determined to spend your honeymoons in your home church area? Do you think Mother and I enjoyed a honeymoon? I still don't know what the word means. When you inherit my mission fully, I might consider taking a honeymoon for the first time.

When I left Korea, I left the mission there in the hands of the elder members. Will you send me off on my honeymoon, saying, "We want to go with you!" When I come back and see that your home church work is successful, I will buy a jumbo jet and take all of you to the places I visited.

Blessed Family 6-20-82

In ten more days, a historic event will take place in New York. This is an occasion of world-wide importance. You will be participants in this incredible event. Do you think it will happen again and again? Suppose I bless you in July 1 and then die on July 2. Then what would happen? Don't you see the uniqueness of this opportunity? You must grab it by any means possible, even if only by a stick or a pole! Participation in this historical event is in itself the greatest of honors.

Just being admitted into Harvard is already a great honor, whether you attend for four years, six years or whatever. If you really think of the value of the Blessing, it transcends imagination. Even if your fiancé were like the Elephant Man or the ugliest, most disabled woman, to walk down the aisle and be sprinkled with water by the True Parents is an historical marriage.

You may have traveled the world looking for a loving woman, without being able to find one. Suppose you are given a document by the King of love, certifying that you are a master of love and that you have loved all of creation and even the spirit world. Still, you would need to find someone of the opposite sex with whom to relate. Without consummating that kind of relationship, nothing is really fulfilled.

Your attitude should be, "July 1 is the day on which God will finally give me the person through whom I can consummate my love." You will be participating in an incredible, unique and holy opportunity. You should be able to declare, "Now I have found the person whom I can love for the rest of my life and throughout eternity. Therefore, I am going to devote every ounce of my energy in loving my mate."

July 1 should be your day of declaration and new beginning. On that day, tell the world and the universe that you will love your mate more than anybody you ever loved in your life. Then when you will walk through Madison Square Garden to the notes of the Wedding March you will not look at your fiancé and think, "I wish his (or her) face were a little bit better." How could you imagine such a thing? Your spouse is better than anything in nature; your spouse surpasses the birds and the trees. On that day, your love must be unconditional. Everything you see in him or her should be beautiful to your eyes. That is how you should begin as a couple.

On July 1, you should meet that ideal standard and join with your ideal mate. As we celebrate this Day of All Things in anticipation of this historical Blessing, all nature can be deeply inspired and rejoice with us. Those who want to pledge to consummate the true standard of Adam and Eve's love on July 1, to become the flag bearers of heaven and liberate the grief of all things, enabling them to rejoice under their true masters -- raise your hands!

The Day of All Things 6-21-82

Now that you are joined in marriage as husband and wife and are resolved to form an ideal family, complete with children, you must work for three and a half years to fulfill the three steps of love -- parental, fraternal and conjugal. Will you welcome this course? How can you say yes with such confidence? There is a very obvious reason for answering yes, which I will describe to you.

In the beginning many husbands are not very considerate of their wife because marriage is a new kind of relationship. If that is your situation, you need to become like a mother to your husband. If you cannot do that -- perhaps, because your mother did not show the example -- at least try to be a good elder sister. Wives usually don't consider their mate "my dear husband" in the beginning. More often than not, you begin by considering him a good brother or a good father, and after a long time he will begin to be a good husband.

The other day I explained how conjugal love is the third important type of love. How fantastic it is when you wives can regard your husband as your real father and he can regard you as his real mother! In the next stage, you will regard him as a good elder brother and he will regard you as a good elder or younger sister. Afterwards, you will become true husband and wife.

Look at couples in America today. When one gets angry with the other, he or she goes out and gives affection to someone else. The husband comes home, kisses his wife and the next moment they are fighting each other; the following day they are still arguing. That cannot be. If you ever want to kiss, you must not make war on each other!

In the early days of your marriage, you women should serve your husband as if he were your own father -- not as a husband or as an equal, but as a father. Then he will treat you like a revered mother. Later, as an elder sister your position is to take care of him as if he were your younger brother. Finally, in the third stage, you can say you are ready to be a wife and consider him your husband. This is part of the tradition you should practice.

It would be nice if there were a partition here so I could tell you women something in secret: when you baby a man, he melts and becomes like a child. It doesn't make any difference how old the man is -- he may be a grandfather 70 or 80 years old -- if you treat him like a baby he is happy! That is how men are. Who do men resemble? God. So even God is like that. God is like the King of babies! You have to know how to treat a baby. For American women, the best analogy for this kind of tender care is to treat your husband "like your fine china," but of course it encompasses more than that.

Our Fatherland 7-4-82

How typical are Unification Church marriages? Our marriages are very different in background from worldly marriages. We have God above us, caring for our lives in the minutest detail; then you have True Parents who even make the suggestion of your mates for you. Among such circumstances you are married. The simple but most serious fact of our marriages will be the path for the world to be restored. Hell originated from the wrong marriage in which God was excluded and Satan was embraced. The position of husband and wife were the first to exist under Satan's dominion; next the children, or brothers and sisters; the parental position was filled third by Satan.

At the last days most secular parents are finding themselves without power to direct their children's marriages in any way. This is the historical fruit of the fall. However we are going in a different way. As the Unification Church brings God's right order closer and closer to completion the secular world drifts farther and farther out of control. Within our marriages we follow heavenly tradition with seriousness, passing it on to all succeeding generations. In the secular world there is virtually no tradition to be inherited by the couples, therefore no tradition to be passed on to their children. This is the way the world falls further and further down into Hell. God cannot be there, so it is Hell. In our marriages we follow God and the True Parents and the original tradition of Heaven which God always intended to pass on to His children.

Now that I have given the blessing to the 2,000 couples they will be playing a very significant role in establishing the tradition of the future. Between the men and the women of those couples, I must depend upon you women for this to be successful. Hope for the world has been launched. If this prototype for the future succeeds, the entire Western world can have substantial hope. If you fail, however, so much will be washed down the drain.

I know that you may be too young to understand the historical significance of the words I am saying but in the future you will understand. If you do not practice the way of life I have been teaching you, history will judge you: "That blessed couple did not live the way Rev. Moon taught them. Shame on them." Do you understand?

In Search of Our Home 7-11-82

Recently 6,000 couples were blessed in Korea. For whom were those couples married? It was for the sake of God. That means every aspect of their marriage must be for the sake of God, not just the ceremony. Will you say, "I will dedicate my spouse and marriage to you, God, after we have had some time together?" That is not true dedication. Out of the 6,000 couples, how many do you imagine are truly willing to be entirely dedicated to God? That is a serious matter, too.

Certainly God is worthy of having the entire universe dedicated to Him, not only 6,000 couples.

Standing in the Presence of God 11-7-82

Why is marriage necessary? Is it because you need to receive love from someone? No, you marry because you want to form that unit which is responsible to God. Now you have the answer as to why men and women marry.- Why is it good to have children? The ultimate destiny of mankind is to return to God, so having children is a necessary aspect of that. Each of you is looking forward to having a spouse, but that spouse is actually the intermediate instrument for returning to God.

The plainest truth is that when the plus and minus of man and woman unite together, they create a bigger minus in front of their cause, God, who is the biggest plus. In that way plus and minus interact. That is the only way mankind can be sustained.

Your love is intense for your husband or wife. You must come to realize that you love God even more that. Then God will tell you that you passed the test.

The first cause divided Himself up -- God is divided into masculine and feminine -- so in order to return to God, the two divided parts should come together as one unit. There is no other way. Men and women move toward each other and this is entirely natural. Unless you unite with your ideal mate here on earth you shall have no way to moved vertically toward God.

The Secret of Total Success 12-19-82

Why, then do we have to get married? It is because God exists in dual essentialities and men and women must reflect those essentialities. Therefore, men and women must come together and unite in total resemblance of God's image. That is why marriage is one essential factor in your total growth; without it, you would be crippled.

Marriage is for the purpose of blending men and women into Godlike figures, to put people into the image of God so that when they are elevated into spirit world they can enjoy a relationship with God together. We come to the clear conclusion that God created all things and human beings for the purpose of consummating His love. Where can that love be consummated? It can be done while we are here on earth, in the relationship between husband and wife, in the family. Therefore, marriage is the most important event in human

Let This Be A Good Year 1-2-83

If you consider getting a divorce, you should feel shocked and faint. In the future, the word "divorce" will be erased from the dictionary. God will never compromise one inch on this. If you discuss the possibility of divorce without feeling stunned, then you know how far from God you are. This is an absolute criterion. We have to live according to that standard before we can say we have gained absolute love.

True Man, True Church, True Country 1-9-83

What is the meaning and purpose of blessed couples? What are you supposed to achieve? Actually, we have been blessed in order to eliminate God's loneliness. When this condition is met, all other problems in the universe will disappear.

Original Root and Self 5-22-83

Another way of thinking about your mission of saving the world is through your Blessing. Why were you women born? Some of you might reply that you don't know. Others might reply, "I was born to save God and mankind from the position of a woman." When you look in the mirror, if you think you are rather pretty you might ask why you were born that way. You can answer, "It is so I can do a better job of saving God and mankind." To accomplish your mission even faster, you can think, "I was born for the mission of wiping out racial discrimination. Since I am a beautiful white woman, maybe I will marry the homeliest black man." How wonderful such a woman is!

Mission and Prayer 6-12-83

You must be able to say, "I have one set of True Parents, one True Family, one group of brothers and sisters, one spouse." Anyone who has received the blessing should never look at another person as more desirable than his own spouse. No man should think, "I wish I could marry that woman instead." You must understand the true value of the blessing. The True Parents assigned your wife or husband to you; that is a treasure greater than a chunk of gold the size of the planet earth. Unless you have a true family and blessed children, you can have no connection with the True Parents when you enter spirit world. Certainly your blessed spouse is far more precious than that chunk of gold because gold cannot give you eternal life.

Parents' Day 1984 4-1-84

Within the Unification Church we have the tradition of the Blessing. Do you know what the blessing is about? Young men and women come out of the world, from the wild olive trees of the world. True Parents are stripping the branches from all the wild olive trees and grafting them to the true olive trees. You are those branches and that is the Blessing. While you are being cut away from the wild olive trees, you will naturally feel the pain of that severance. Everybody will complain and say, "Oh no! I don't want to go through this!" Your parents will oppose you, you will not like what you are going through. However, without going through that process, there can be no new grafting and no new growth.

Even after you are grafted into the new tree, you may not feel much joy. You still feel the pain from the process of grafting. Many think, "Boy, that's my husband or wife? Is that the ideal?" and your wounds have not been healed yet. But then after three years of married life, you will see all the new growth that is resulting from your union and you will find a great amount of satisfaction and joy. It takes at least three years together for your wounds to heal and for you to become new men and women.

The job of the Messiah is to do the grafting of all the men and women in the world. That is the most important job of the Messiah -- changing the roots and lineage of mankind.

Thirteenth Anniversary of the Unification Church 5-1-84

There is a certain principle of love by which mankind can be grafted together and this is what we call the Divine Principle. Since Satan was the one who first planted love -- satanic love -- the only way is can be restored is by planting true, heavenly love. Therefore the Unification Church has mass, holy weddings. These holy weddings are symbolic of the grafting process, by which you separate yourselves from the satanic world and graft yourselves into the family of the True Parents.

One Year Anniversary of the Seung Hwa
Ceremony of Heung Jin Nim 1-1-85

I want you to understand that although human history is represented in the Bible as 6,000 years, scientifically it is closer to many millions of years. All of this time, God has been seeking after His one day of fulfillment, that day of true marriage between men and women. That is the historical, critical importance of the blessing.

True Parents' Birthday 2-25-85

You blessed couples, raise your hands, please. You received the Blessing even without realizing what a valuable gift it was. You are the custodians of the greatest treasure of all. You must not misplace it. I want you to understand that the four major holidays of the Unification Church represent the most important aspects of our way of life, so any violation of love includes the violation of the meaning of those days. Don't ever imagine that God's Blessing to you is cheap. In order for you to receive that Blessing, God labored for tens of thousands of years and made multitudes of sacrifices. Therefore, you must preserve that Blessing or you will receive heavenly punishment. Do you follow?

Now you know what God's Day means. In order for the True Parents to be installed and for True Mother to be chosen, Father had to overcome incredible dispensational tasks. Only upon that foundation could the True Mother be installed. There were many occasions where even one misstep would have meant falling down into failure. Thus I have been deadly serious about the Blessing and the dispensational will. But then if you, the recipients of that Blessing, take it very lightly as if it were some cheap commodity, I cannot forgive that.

God's Day 1-1-87

What is the significance of the Blessing in the Unification Church? It is the means of cutting off the satanic lineage and transforming it into the heavenly lineage. There is no way to sever that lineage with out going through the Blessing process. In a profound sense, you and your spouse need each other's help in order to be linked with the heavenly lineage, so you become mutual benefactors through the Blessing.

Through the Blessing your lineage is changed. Do you have the power to do it by yourself? Through whom is your lineage changed? Yes, it is through the True Parents. Your lineage has to be altered before you can become true men and women. Through the Blessing, you are all headed back to the original blueprint. You are leaving the satanic realm and returning to the original realm. Fallen men become original men; fallen women become original women; your children can stand in the original position of children. Even Satan will be restored from the position of adversary to that of the original archangel, or servant. The entire spirit world is coming down to assist the Unification Church because it is in the archangel's position. You merely have to initiate the work, and the spirit world will finish it. Do you follow?

Through the Blessing, are you automatically elevated into the Kingdom of Heaven? To think so is a misconception. The Blessing opens the door to the Kingdom of Heaven, but you have to put on the robe and enter. That process still remains. Will anyone give you the robe? No, you have to make your own robe. I will not give you one; the church will not give you one. You have to accomplish your five percent responsibility. If you do not fulfill here on earth, you will be burdened with it in eternity. No matter what difficulties you may encounter, you have to resolve these eternal issues here on earth. Nothing is more important. This is more essential than eating, more vital than your daily life, more important than visiting your wife or children, more crucial than anything.

God's and Our Decision 2-1-87

Once you are married in the Unification Church, you should cherish each other. If the woman starts going in the wrong direction, then the man must stop her, even at the cost of his life, whatever sacrifice it takes. He must not be indifferent, saying, "Well, I don't care. Father might match me to someone else." That kind of thinking has no place. Once this original connection is broken, the damage cannot easily be restored. There is great damage to the mind and spirit, psychological as well as bodily, which cannot so easily be made up. That union, or Blessing, is so important.

When a woman is walking to her wedding, she should feel, "Now I have my man." Also she has to say, "From this point on, I am living for him, not for myself. I will do everything that my husband needs of me." She should not think, "I will ask my husband to do many things for me." She should ask herself, "What are my husband's needs? How can I fulfill my basic mission as a woman?" Women really have to think that way, and the same is true of men. A man must put his spouse foremost in his thinking, not himself.

In the Unification Church we have initiated mass weddings, in accordance with God's dispensation at this time. God is making history in such a way. Someone might ask, "Why shouldn't an individual woman find a husband that she likes? Why shouldn't a man find his own spouse?" If they do, in accordance with the pattern of the rest of the world, those spouses can connect only horizontally. In the dispensational view the vertical connection is eternal and therefore more important than the horizontal, which is temporal. That is why the parents must be a part of the choosing of the mate. This doesn't mean that parents should arbitrarily choose partners for their children but rather the parents should intervene, representing heaven, in order to ensure the harmony of the vertical and the horizontal relationship. This is the meaning of the Blessing.

Marriages in this world have occurred without vertical connection. Now that the True Parents have come to the earth, it is their mission to restore the marriage relationship. By matching and establishing a harmonious vertical relationship, the Parents will restore the horizontal relationship that was intended by God. That is what my mission is all about.

Our Pride 3-22-87

For you to join the Unification Church and work for three and a half years, then to be called to be matched and blessed by Father is, in a way, unspeakably easy. It is almost too cheap. Do you think you have worked enough to deserve that Blessing after three and a half years in the Church? Absolutely not. No one comes even near to deserving that Blessing from the True Parents. In order to find the formula for giving out the Blessing to humanity, God had to suffer unspeakably and the True Parents suffered to an incredible degree. Now can you come here and try to take that accomplishment freely, thinking you deserve it?

Parents Day and Our Path 3-29-87

One good example of the work I have accomplished is your Blessing. Each of you came from different places, nationalities and cultures and each person was stubborn and adamantly self-righteous. But you came to the conviction that you could leave to Reverend Moon the most central decision of your life -- the choice of your eternal spouse. That alone is the greatest, most eloquent testimony to how far you have come -- you became truly selfless and God centered.

We Shall Live In the Original Homeland 7-1-87

I gave all of you the Blessing. That means I bound two of you together so that nobody and nothing can separate you again. You are bound in a strong bond of love. I have been teaching you to sacrifice for the children and for the future. Is that a right or wrong teaching? We know that it is right, but do we really feel and act like it is right? We should. Are you at the knowing level, the feeling level, or the acting level? You should be at the level of action.

Haven't I told you over and over again that alone, individually, we can never go into heaven? There is no such a thing as an individual heaven. Only after fulfilling the four position foundation can we go into heaven.

Precious Existence 7-19-87

When you deal with a lot of people in various situations, you may develop your ability to discern types of people when you first meet. But without experience you can't have a clear ideal of what they are really like. When the time comes for you to marry, do you want to pick your own spouse or do you want me to match you? You want me to suggest your fiancée because you know that I have greater knowledge and ability to evaluate people.

Isolation and Liberation 3-20-88

Adam and Eve fell on the individual level and through that the foundation for the national Adam and Eve was lost. Through the blessing of 2,500 Korean-Japanese couples, however, Father has married Adam and Eve on the national level.

Our Church and Korea as Seen from
the Providence of God 2-19-89

Many of you have been blessed, and there are also those who are the candidates to be blessed. Why do you want to have the Blessing? The Blessing entitles you to receive and consummate true love, which is the purpose of life.

When men and women unite in true love, God becomes a super plus, and men and women together are a super minus. Then they unite and become one. Marriage is bringing the divided universe into one by the power of love. It is a horizontal oneness which becomes a total object to God.

Let us say that true love is hiding behind the bush and God is looking for it, searching desperately. When God finds that true love, He will say, "True love, you give me a pain in the neck!" God would lose His dignity for true love.

We marry so that the entire universe becomes one with us. Today we are living in a world of false love. This worldly love has nothing to do with true love. In the Unification Church we use the word true: True Parents, True Children, true husband, true wife. Those are the entities united by the true love glue.

True Parents and the Realm of Liberation 4-6-89