FFWPU Europe and the Middle East: Bo-guk Hwang on Making the Home a Place of Worship

A speech given by Bo-guk Hwang, President of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in South Korea, at a prayer meeting for leaders and members in Gapyeong, South Korea 15th November 2024. Translated from Korean.

I will first read the True Parents’ words,

“God instructs us to establish homes that He will long for and return to, even if He is far away. Just as parents comfortably visit their children’s homes, we are to prepare homes where God can freely come and go. This is the life of living with God. In such homes, we witness the fulfillment of the four realms of love - parental love, conjugal love, filial love, and sibling love - thus completing the four realms of heart.” (Sun Myung Moon, Collected Works, vol. 421, p 22)

Today, the True Parents convey through their main teachings that we live in an era where our Heavenly Parent visits our families. Father Moon speaking in Japan Beloved members, our Heavenly Parent has through countless ages longed to 14th Oct. 1972 visit the homes where His/Her children reside. This yearning is expressed in the Old and the New Testament - through the songs, poetry, and literature of the scriptures - revealing the heart of Heaven. Especially in the Song of Songs and the Book of Revelation, Heavenly Parent’s heart is vividly depicted.

For example, in the Old Testament, in Song of Songs 5:2, it says:

“The one I love was at the door, knocking and saying, ‘My darling, my very own, my flawless dove, open the door for me! My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.’” (Contemporary English Version Interconfessional Edition)

Similarly, in Revelation 3:20, it states:

“Look, I’m standing at the door and knocking. If any hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to be with them, and will have dinner with them, and they will have dinner with me. “ (Common English Bible)

We must listen to the knocking of our Heavenly Parent at the door of our homes. The one who knocks and seeks to visit is our Heavenly Father/Mother, our Heavenly Parent.

Our Heavenly Parent has endured through long, sleepless nights, knocking at the door of our homes. Those nights were not ordinary nights - they encompassed thousands and tens of thousands of years caused by the Fall of the first ancestors of humankind.

Through this deep darkness, our Heavenly Parent has borne unspeakable pain and sorrow and endured the cold nights while waiting for us. We must deeply feel from the depths of our hearts the pitiful and sorrowful heart of our Heavenly Parent, who has been waiting outside our door yet unable to enter.

With this anguished heart of Heaven in mind, we must prepare true families where Heavenly Parent can freely enter, embrace us, and shower us with love. Now, we live in the era where our Heavenly Parent comes to visit our families. During such visits, in His/Her presence, what kind of faith should we uphold?

I believe we must first become true worshippers before Heaven. Worship is the highest expression of reverence offered to Heaven. It is said that in the last days, Heaven seeks those who worship in spirit and truth. While there are many members, the fact remains that there are not many true Family praying together. Illustration used by Rev. worshippers. Bo-guk Hwang 15th Nov. 2024 Our Heavenly Parent has always emphasized the importance of the home as a place of worship. Heavenly Parent has said that we can encounter Him/Her by making our home a place of worship. The purpose of such homes is to bring God into our families.

To achieve this, worship must first and foremost be established at home, because worship together as a family is the starting point and foundation of such a home.

Family worship involves reading our Heavenly Parent’s words, offering prayers to comfort Him/Her, and engaging in sharing and fellowship centered on His/Her love.

The time of family worship becomes an opportunity to share the love of parents, spouses, children, and siblings centered on our Heavenly Parent, healing the four realms of heart.

The Family Federation for a Heavenly Korea aims to give each family the mandate to worship as a family. An official notice regarding this will be issued next week. Of course, public worship services centered on regional churches will also be strengthened.

Only when we are reborn as worshippers in the presence of our Heavenly Parent visiting us can we truly be called citizens of the Kingdom of English version of illustration used by Rev. Bo-guk Heaven (“Cheonilguk” in Korean). Hwang 15th Nov. 2024 I believe that worship must be restored both in church and at home.

Respected blessed families, True Parents have endured a bloody and sacrificial course, overcoming countless challenges, in order to make the day dawn when our Heavenly Parent will be able to visit humankind.

In particular, True Mother, the Only-begotten Daughter, is devoting her whole self to the completion of the final providence. She is preparing with a heart full of excitement and anticipation for the day when

our Heavenly Parent will come to earth and personally govern humanity.

On the day of the entrance ceremony at the Cheonwon Temple (Palace), the True Parents will remove the deep night that has separated our Heavenly Parent from humankind, opening a radiant era of glory and hope.

Our Heavenly Parent will open wide the door that He/She has knocked on throughout the long night of human history. He/She will open wide the way for Him/Her to come to our families. We must prepare our families so that our Heavenly Parent can say when He/She comes to our homes,

“Your family is what I have been looking for for ‘6,000 years’.”

Through family worship, let us strive together to make every relationship - between spouses, siblings, and parents and children - reflect the true families that our Heavenly Parent has longed for.

Let us all be reborn as worshippers who can truly bring joy to Heaven. Praying together before bed Thank you.

Translated from the Korean transcript. The English may not render fully the intended meaning of the Korean text, and inaccuracies may occur. The text should not be taken as an official version.

Related to inviting God: Essence of God More, related to inviting God: God and Human Beings Also related to inviting God: The Day When Heavenly Parent’s Dream Comes True

More, related to inviting God: Preparing Holy Temple for God and Becoming One More, related to inviting God: “We’re Small, But Mustn’t Forget That God Is Great” More, related to inviting God: 2025 Dedication: Sanctum to Feel Holiness of God

More, related to inviting God: Teachings Make Great Strides in New Version And more, related to inviting God: In a Nutshell Yet more, related to inviting God: Brief about the Teachings

Still more, related to inviting God: The Mission of the Only Begotten Daughter Even more, related to inviting God: Gender-Balanced Understanding of God and Christ And yet more, related to inviting God: God as Our Heavenly Parent (Father and Mother)

And still more, related to inviting God: History of God: From Yahweh to Father to Parent And even more, related to inviting God: Religious Truth as Progressive Revelation Also related to inviting God: Essential Motherly Part of Messianic Mission

Also related to inviting God: The 3 Blessings and the Process to Fulfil Them Also related to inviting God: Unchanging Truth and Its Changing Expression Also related to inviting God: The Meaning of History from Viewpoint of God

Also related to inviting God: Failure of Key Persons Related to Jesus Also related to inviting God: Amazing Parallels to Jesus and Holy Spirit Also related to inviting God: Unification Principles

Also related to inviting God: The Kingdom of Heaven Also related to inviting God: True Love

JAPAN • MEDIA • RELIGIOUS FREEDOM • COMMEMORATING • VARIOUS • REVIEWS •

4 Realms of Heart How to complete your love - 4 realms of heart This heart matures through t he experience of loving and being loved. The human heart is to grow and expand through 4 realms of heart. Namely, we learn to love first as children, developing the virtues of fil ial piety. Then, we learn t o love as sibl ings and learn the virtues of solidarity and sharing. Third, we practice t he conjuga l love, where the paramount virtue is committed fidelity. Fourth, through practicing parental love, we develop the virtues of unconditional love. [1)

The first of the 4 realms of heart is to love our parents. The baby develops a strong attachment to its mother, who nurtures her child. If the mot her is deeply connected to her husband, t hen the child will feel p roud of having its origin in t he love between these two people. This is important for self-esteem. The child should feel t hat it was not just born from genitors, but expected by a man and a woman in love. The child is the wit ness of their love story.

Later, as an adult, he will have a natural desire to create a loving couple, and live the same love story that gave birth to him/her. It requires both a father and a mother to raise a child. The first season of love is the vertical, ascendant love. We have only one father and one mother.

Based on this vertical, ascendant love, the ch ild will develop ot her bonds, by loving the siblings. It will help t he heart develop horizontally, as we learn to share, to cooperate and to develop mutualism. At a certain level of our emotional development, we grow as much t hroug h horizontal stimulation as t hrough the vertical guidance of the parents. Therefore, playful and recreational activities are important. Families should find t he right balance between educational and collective activities for t he whole household and moments of high quality spent w ith each single child.

The next season of the heart is the experience of conjugal love. It is the horizontal love shared exclusively with a person of t he opposite sex, within the bond of marriage. This is the only form of love which includes sexual relationships. Sex is given a paramount importance in our culture, but human sexuality wit hout true love has a bitter taste, and leaves people with various t raumas. The physical traumas and risks of casual sex for health are almost benign, compared to the psychologica l effects.

Unificationism says that human sexuality is central in human life and in culture, and that it should be talked about frankly. Friedrich Nietzsche emphasized t he art of saying love, and not just making love. “When marrying you should ask yourself this question: do you believe you are going to enjoy ta lking with this woman into your old age? Everything else in a marriag~ is transitory, but most of the t ime t hat you’re together will be devoted to conversation.”

Our sex education should start when we t rain our young boys and girls to speak and act respectfully with each other, and seeing the whole person in t he opposite sex, not j ust the physical appearance.

The love story of human beings is completed with the fourth of the 4 realms of heart, namely the experience of parental love. It is the deepest and most unconditional form of love. This vertical descending love can give its fu ll potential within the framework of a family, when the father and mother have already matured in the experience of being a loving son or daughter, a loving brot her or sister, a loving husband or wife.

Photo: Dominic Sansotta I Unsp_lash. Cropped Text: Laurent Ladouce

[1) For a good introduction of these topics, rea d True Family Values, Third Edition, FFWPU, 2006, ISBN 1-931166-25-0,