Blessings of married couples The first marriage Blessing ceremony for already married couples was held for 26 couples at the original Cheongpa-dong headquarters church in Seoul, on February 8,1963. And on April 7 a second Blessing ceremony was held for 27 couples. These were couples who had married and formed families before joining the Unification Church. Most of them were church elders who had contributed greatly to the church in its early years. True Parents emphasized that these already married couples needed to provide an example and be a protective fence for the younger blessed couples. A number of such Blessings have since taken place.
On April 10, 1992, the marriage Blessing ceremony of 1,267 already married couples from all over the world was held immediately before the founding rally of the Women's Federation for World Peace. This ceremony brought together couples from 33 nations, including Korea and Japan. Notably, True Parents announced that, through the participation of 45 couples from nine Middle Eastern countries, the Blessing was opened to the public at large, transcending religion and nationality. (110-124, 1980/11/10) 16 The already married couples are those who married and formed families on their own before joining the Unification Church. For them to be recognized as families of God's ideal, the husband has to become an historic, representative central figure in God's work, restoring his family based on the Principle. Also, he has to become a man who can inherit the historical tradition. A man with a family is a representative person who can inherit completely the original tradition of upholding the work of God, as practiced by our ancestors from Abel to Noah, Abraham and Moses. Then what ideology, worldview and life course must such a man, who is the head of his family, adopt? The answer is, in such a newly blessed, already married couple the husband needs to love his wife more than ever before. When he does this, this husband and wife will transcend and put aside their earlier conjugal love relationship and, as a blessed couple, dwell in a new bond of love higher than the world has ever known. (058-171, 1972/06/11) 17 The already married blessed couples need to stand as a protective fence around the blessed couples who were newly married. To put it another way, they need to become the couples who can indemnify the mistakes of Abel in past history and whom Abel can trust in the family-level providence of God. In the past, the differences between the two types of couples caused conflict between them. Now however, the already married couples need to be mentors to whom the others can come with any problems they may have. Moreover, the already married couples have to sincerely care for and protect the others.
The already married couples are like elder brother couples. Cain is the elder brother. Abel is the younger brother. You are all brothers. The already married couples are the elder brother, and they have that position regardless of whether they want it or not. Therefore, when it comes to prayer, who needs to pray more? In the past, those in the Abel position prayed more. In order to save Cain, Abel offered extensive devotions to God. However, in this age the Cain-type couples need to offer more devotions for the Abel-type couples. (058-182, 1972/06/11) 18 Since the already married couples lived together as husband and wife before the church, their present is little different from their past. Since both the man and the woman are in the same position as before, even though they must never do so, they can easily fall back into old habits. The question is, what has changed for them after receiving the Blessing? They have renewed their family through the Blessing, so it must become a historic family. In their previous married life they may have lived for the sake of each other, but now the husband has to live for his wife and the wife for her husband in a new and different way. That is, now they must not simply live for each others sake but go beyond that and live for the sake of God.
Since Adam and Eve failed to live for the sake of God, they fell and instituted a family of sorrow. When the already married couples can comfort God's innermost heart and liberate Him from His grief, they will create a foundation on which God can hope for sons and daughters who will seek Him. (058-174, 1972/06/11) 19 The children born to already married couples after the Blessing are different from the children who were born before their parents received the Blessing. The blessed children are also remarkably different from their parents. The responsibility to determine that remarkable difference lies first with the husband and then with the wife, but the couple has to fulfill this responsibility together. Then what must this couple do? The wife must not attend a fallen husband and the husband must not attend a fallen wife. When all is said and done, they will be able to boast that they have established the standard of the unfallen Adam and Eve and have attended each other virtuously.
Therefore, you need to know that as already married couples your position is now at a very different level from what it was in the past. As couples who have received the Blessing, and furthermore as already married couples who have been tied together again, you have to become one with God's Will. If you fail to become one, you will indeed lose honor in front of heaven. In the past, we continued to weave a history of sorrow because we stood in the position of not knowing God’s Will. Now that you have been newly connected based on the Will, if you repeat your past lifestyle, traditions and habits, you will evoke a second sorrow in heaven. Such a thing must never happen. Therefore, you need to become dramatically different from the way you were before. You already married couples have the responsibility to initiate a new flow of history and to establish a new tradition. (058-175, 1972/06/11) 20 The already married blessed couples need to know that the previously unwed blessed couples are closely watching them. Since the previously unwed couples have just started their families, they do not know much about spousal relations. When it comes to raising children, they can easily watch how the already married couples are doing it and follow their example. In light of this, the already married couples are in a most important position. They need to set an example that is dramatically different from their past. If they do not do this, they will not be able to stand as families of heaven's ideal.
The already married couples are in the position of Cain. As Cain-type families, they need to set an example in front of the previously unwed couples and assist them to the greatest extent possible. Unless the Unification Church's already married couples establish such a tradition, there will be no way to redeem the innumerable couples around the world who married on their own. (058-177, 1972/06/11) 21 I have granted amnesty and opened a path to the Blessing even to those who lived as they liked in their families. Through this, these mothers and fathers can be recognized as having the same value as those standing in the position of the unfallen Adam and Eve or unfallen sons and daughters of the heavenly kingdom. If the Unification Church recognizes them as such, the entire world has to do so as well. Through the founding of the Women's Federation for World Peace and the movement for women's liberation, I opened the door by which Adam and Eve, who had fallen at the family level, can return to the level of an unfallen family. I am granting amnesty to all families in the world outside the Unification Church. This is not something that happens every day. After this period passes, already married couples will have to go to a tribal messiah to receive the Blessing. Tribal messiahs are those who will bless them. (233-055, 1992/07/30) 22 In the morning, when it is time for the sun to rise, it rises naturally. In the same way, even through difficult circumstances, I created an environment where everyone in the world can receive the Blessing. This is historic. The Blessing began in 1961 and it was globalized from 1992. We waited patiently until 1992 and then started to expand it. From that point, we conducted Unification Church Blessing ceremonies for the general public. We did this in keeping with the dawn of the era of women. (325-317, 2000/07/02) 23 Christianity and Islam see each other as enemies and cannot even dream of uniting. Nonetheless, they need to become one. This is why True Father and True Mother blessed them in the International Couples Blessing Ceremony on April 10, 1992. Because Jesus was crucified, he could not find his Bride, who was to be the True Mother. But I resolved everything through the already married couples wedding. This Blessing created the realm of the resurrected Jesus on the national level. In that position I went beyond Rome and came to stand on the worldwide level. Transcending 2,000 years of history, I have built and restored a victorious domain and have thus established True Mother in the worldwide realm of Eve. This is why the era of women's liberation is coming. It is the end now. Everything will be completed when I have finished blessing everyone. The path that leads to hell will be turned around 180 degrees. (230-055, 1992/04/15) 24 Now, all blessed couples across the world have risen to the same level. Regardless of whether they are Christian or believe in another religion, I am exercising my prerogative as a True Parent to establish all couples on the same level. I blessed Abel in order to bless Cain. This is why I am establishing them in the same position. The parents of blessed couples married on their own and even opposed the Unification Church. As tribal messiahs, you need to raise your parents to the position of the unfallen Adam and Eve. By doing so, they can connect to True Parents at the center at all levels: family, tribe, people, nation and world. This is why at the time of the World Culture and Sports Festival in August 1992,1 will open the door to all married couples around the world. When they receive the Blessing, the path will open for them to enter the realm of heaven's lineage. (233-201, 1992/08/01) |