On January 6, the Commencement Ceremony for the Regional Group of Heavenly Japan of the Heavenly Parent’s Holy Community was held at Shoto Headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo. In his message, President Tomihiro Tanaka shared True Mother’s words she gave him at the beginning of the year, explained the future of the providence and the efforts of the Family Federation for a Heavenly Japan, and expressed his aspirations for 2025, saying, “I would like to work with all of you to support and liberate Mother in this year.”
Editorial Department
The year of the snake is “a year in which accumulated efforts will bear fruit and growth will be encouraged”
Happy New Year!
With the cooperation of everyone from each department, we were able to successfully conclude the year 2024. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you.
I welcomed the New Year in Korea with True Mother at the all-night prayer vigil held from New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day, and on the following day, I was invited to a breakfast meeting held at the Cheon Jeong Gung Museum.
Today, I would like to share what I felt from True Mother’s words she gave on that occasion and what we should be aware of.
The year 2024 was the Year of the Blue Dragon. The year started with the Noto earthquake on January 1, the plane crash at Haneda Airport on January 2, and ended with the plane crash at Muan International Airport in South Korea (December 29).
True Mother took action immediately after the Noto earthquake and the plane crash the next day. Without a moment’s delay, she sent Ki-seong Lee, the director of Cheon Shim Won to Japan so that the Cheon Shim Won prayers could begin in earnest. I was clearly aware of Mother’s strong will toward Japan through Ki-seong Lee. I also realized that unless we are completely united with Mother, we will not be able to transcend the “time” of the present moment.
Thus, a year has passed since a spiritual pillar centering on the Cheon Shim Won prayers was established in Japan.
The year 2025 is the year of the snake. In her New Year’s Message, True Mother referred to the pain experienced by the Korean people in the year of the snake 120 years ago. This was the year the Protectorate Treaty between Japan and Korea was signed in 1905, when Japan took control of Korea’s diplomatic rights.
Sixty years ago in 1965, the year of the snake, the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and Korea was signed and diplomatic relations between the two countries were normalized. There is no doubt that Korea and Japan, as the Parent Nations, have received great expectations and hopes from Heaven. We are completely united with True Mother, and we must firmly discern what kind of year 2025 will be, and move forward.
This year is also an important year as it marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 80th anniversary of Liberation Day in Korea. Furthermore, it is the 100th anniversary of the Showa period. It will be interesting to see if any major changes will be brought about in the “postwar regime,” the system and institutions of the world order established after World War II.
On the other hand, the year of the snake is also said to be a year in which “accumulated efforts bear fruit and growth is encouraged.” As such, we have already started with the theme of “change and growth.”
Become heavenly families living with God as our parent
True Mother announced the new New Year’s slogan in her New Year’s Message.
In the 13th year of Cheon Il Guk, when we attend the Creator Heavenly Parent substantially, let us, the blessed families around the world, become true sons and daughters of Cheon Il Guk who fulfill our responsibility as the chosen people in unity with True Parents!
The first of these key words is “attend substantially,” the second is “chosen people in unity with True Parents,” and the third is “fulfill our responsibility.” The word “responsibility” was mentioned again by True Mother at the breakfast meeting. This shows that the theme of “responsibility” is particularly important.
Six thousand years have passed since the fall of Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, and a great historical event is about to take place to welcome God as our Parent on earth. The gap between True Mother’s vibrations toward that day and our vibrations has been tormenting her for a long time.
It is we, the children, not the building of Cheon Il Sanctum, who will welcome God as our Parent. True Mother is concerned that we do not have enough of a sense of responsibility to welcome God as our own Parent on earth. Nothing will change as long as we stand on the sidelines and wonder, “How will things change when this major historical event occurs?” Only when we, the children, have the strong will of welcoming God as our Parent on earth will we be able to realize this great historical change.
Blessed families are required to have a strong awareness of the Principle of Creation, Heaven’s providence, and God’s original dream to be fulfilled in their own families. Without this, it will be difficult for the Heavenly Parent (God) and True Parents to exist on earth for eternity. In order for True Parents to exist on earth for hundreds of years to come, there must be children who serve the Parents as their parents.
We, the children, will decide our future. If welcoming and living together with the Heavenly Parent and True Parents in our families does not take root in our daily lives of faith, the True Parents will only remain as a biography of two great people.
As children, let us firmly accept True Mother’s thought, which she included in the New Year’s slogan, “attend substantially.” Our goal is to become heavenly families. It is not enough to just know God. Let us make 2025 a year we live to attend God.
True Mother emphasizes her awareness as the Chosen People
Last year, Japanese leaders studied the Great Epic of the Chosen Korean People. This year, I believe that all of the members and blessed families throughout Japan will learn about it. How much do we understand the importance of True Parents and the Great Epic of the Chosen Korean People? True Mother feels the gap between herself and us, and she is heartbroken.
At first, True Mother requested that we prepare educational material entitled, “The Great Epic of the Korean Nation,” to which she later added the word “chosen.” It says, “One cannot become a chosen person by one’s own will. It is God’s calling, God’s ordination, that makes the chosen people chosen.”
Behind the chosen people is heaven’s providence, the will of God. God calls the necessary peoples for the fulfillment of His will. The great mission of the Korean people was to receive the Lord of the Second Advent and the First Coming of the Holy Spirit. True Mother lamented the lack of awareness of this among the Korean people, which led to a series of articles related to the Great Epic of the Chosen Korean People in the World Times (Segye-Ilbo).
True Mother said the following during the breakfast meeting.
The people and leaders of the Republic of Korea must all know that Heaven has raised the Korean people as the chosen people in order to give birth to True Parents. Once they attend the Heavenly Parent, everything will be resolved.
January 1, 2025
She expressed her concern that the Korean people cannot become the genuine Adam nation without a strong sense of being chosen.
Furthermore, True Mother also emphasizes that since the earth has received the Second Coming of the Messiah, the First Coming of the Holy Spirit and the Only Begotten Daughter, the chosen people are not a nation limited to one region, but the “blessed families” themselves. Mother has stated that the mission of the blessed families is to be victorious in heavenly tribal messiahship, and the fulfillment of this mission will be the foundation of heavenly families.
The victory as Cheonbo families is an extension of the victory of heavenly tribal messiahship, and a heavenly nation is an extension of Cheonbo families. The restoration of the nation is accomplished through the victorious foundation of heavenly tribal messiahship.
What is necessary for the realization of God’s dream of a one human family is to have families that attend God, heavenly tribal messiahs that attend God, and nations that attend God. With this hope in mind, True Mother prefaces the family, tribal messiah, and nation with the word “heavenly” (神, God in Chinese characters).
As a blessed family, take responsibility over your life based on your own volition
True Mother spoke in the following manner about “responsibility.”
When the Creator created heaven and earth and all things, He created them in His own image. Finally, the Creator gave responsibility to our human ancestors. He waited for them to advance to the position of perfection on their own.
…they must grow and advance to the position of fulfilling their responsibilities on their own…It was at such a time that He gave up everything and said, “I will do it.”
Until now, human history has been male-centered. Therefore, there has always been unrest and strife. Peace in the family has to be well maintained by the mother. Fallen humanity needs mothers. Knowing this, I said, “I will do it.”
That is how True Parents were born in 1960. Since then, blessed families have been born.
…Foundation Day, a new era, a new history was opened by me. With no one wanting to know me or believing in me, I said in front of Christian pastors in the United States, “I am the Only Begotten Daughter.”
What I want to emphasize here is that no matter how you are born, if you cannot fulfill your responsibility, you will not be complete. And that too, must be done by becoming one with me. That is why I told you to put in the word “responsibility” because I wasn’t able to speak about it in the New Year’s Day message.
You have to grow by yourself. I taught everything and showed how to do it. If you find yourself in the position in which you failed to fulfill your responsibility, it will be very inconvenient in the eternal world, even if you don’t understand it on earth.
In order to prevent this from happening, I have told you to become blessed families that fulfill your responsibilities on earth. Only then can you become a true child attending Heavenly Parent in heaven on earth, which is the Heavenly Parent’s dream..
January 1, 2025
True Mother herself expressed her will to live out her life taking responsibility on earth, and also asked us to live our lives, taking responsibility by our own volition as blessed families for the rest of our lives.
True Mother said in response to the New Year’s slogan, “Today, the year of the snake will begin, and this message will continue from generation to generation.” That is how much of her thoughts, hopes, and expectations are contained in her New Year’s message. As blessed families, let us take responsibility and do our utmost to allow the Heavenly Parent to be firmly established on earth.
After a year of traveling around the country, I am convinced that our religious organization must move toward regionalization. We, the blessed families, no matter what our occupation or position, must be victorious in heavenly tribal messiahship. The most important theme for us is how we can allow God to settle (on earth), beginning with the vertical liberation and blessing of 430 generations of our ancestors and the building a horizontal foundation of 430 families among our tribes.
A providence we are deeply connected with that will undoubtedly unfold in the future
In preparations toward April 13, True Mother is walking according to Heaven’s time schedule, and we do not know how the providence will change in the future. Therefore, I cannot announce a definite policy for this year at this time, but I will share details of the providence that will definitely unfold in the future and that I believe we are closely connected to.
The first is the completion of the Cheon Won Gung and the Cheon Il Sanctum along with the start of a new hope.
True Mother has spoken of Cheon Won Gung as the central headquarters and that the central headquarters will play an important role in the future providence. It is not yet clear what form of governance this central office will take, but we will formulate a comprehensive strategy as soon as we have a framework in sight.
The second is the beginning of the future of the monarch butterfly.
The monarch butterfly is something True Mother often uses as an example. There will be a ceremony on April 13th with a monarch butterfly motif. A song with the motif of the monarch butterfly is also being composed for that ceremony.
Monarch butterflies undertake a great migration between Mexico and North America. When they fly north, it takes three or four generations to do so. In human terms, the butterflies pass through the lives of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. On the other hand, when they travel south from North America to Mexico, it takes only one generation to complete the journey. They cross the border by successfully riding the air currents.
True Mother deeply cares about the monarch butterflies, who are pushing toward the same goal across generations, and so, the monarch butterfly ceremony will be held. Mr. and Mrs. Shinchul-nim and Mr. and Mrs. Shinheung-nim will attend the ceremony. It will be an occasion where they will embark with Mother toward the common goal of realizing the Heavenly Parent’s dream.
I sense True Mother’s strong will to start a new era with a clear vision of her ideals and responsibilities for the next generation. We, too, must prepare our attitude toward the future and deepen our understanding of Heaven’s providence as we attend Mother.
The third is the dual system of spiritual enlightenment centering on Cheon Shim Won and the creation of network infrastructure, which is being promoted through the cooperation of the Family Federation and affiliated groups of the Unification Movement (goodwill organizations).
Based on the spiritual enlightenment, we must be firmly settled in the community and in the country as blessed families or as a movement.
I am sure that all of you are diligently devoting yourselves to the Cheon Shim Won Special Vigil Prayers. However, you must understand that devotion itself is not the goal. We need to pay attention to the change in our daily life and attitude toward God through the Cheon Shim Won Special Vigil Prayers
We must enlighten our own spirituality toward becoming heavenly families, heavenly tribal messiahs, and a heavenly nation. In addition, we must ask what kind of future we will create by becoming one with True Father and Absolute Good Spirits in the spirit world. I feel that this dual system will play a significant role in establishing a life through faith, a life through witnessing, and a life through education.
Initiatives that the Family Federation for a Heavenly Japan should be focused on
I would like to mention some of the initiatives we will be focusing on as the Family Federation for a Heavenly Japan.
First, we will actively promote regionalization. We are going to establish this strategy to make the regions into Cheon Il Guk. This measure is not on the level to prevent the dissolution order against the Family Federation.
Each of us will firmly establish our families in our communities and fulfill heavenly tribal messiahship. Then, by extension, we will move toward the restoration on the regional level, and then on the national level. The struggle to pursue the way of establishing our families in our communities will begin in earnest.
The question will be whether or not we can establish a culture of living for true love—the culture of living for the sake of others—in our relationships with other families and with our communities. Let us ensure that this grassroots movement at the family level be firmly established, and let us contribute to a bright future for the region, the nation, and the world.
Second, we will work together, the first generation and future generations, symbolized by the ritual of the monarch butterfly. Our religious organization is definitely entering a stage where it must make a generational shift. In order to establish the culture that Heaven desires, we must determine what needs to be preserved for future generations and what needs to be changed.
Third, we will seek ways of self-help, mutual aid, and public assistance within our organization. Headquarters and the field (each local church) shall work together to maintain an appropriate balance between self-help, mutual aid, and public assistance. We will make all of the possible preparations to build a church that can pass “the baton” on to the future generation.
Work with goodwill organizations to reinstate religious and family values
The Family Fed and its goodwill organizations will work together to restore religion and family values, which are essential for building a nation. This is an important theme for future generations, and we must set a firm course for it.
Communism is confronting the restoration of religion and family values. Conflicts with communist adherents are inevitable. Let us unhesitatingly develop a movement of building true families throughout the country, while setting forth a clear stance against communism in society.
I hope that the year 2025 will be a year where we can all support True Mother and liberate her together.
Thank you for your continued support.
