⁴ Protect me, Lord, from cruel
and brutal enemies,
    who want to destroy me.
⁵ Those proud people have hidden
traps and nets
    to catch me as I walk.

⁶ You, Lord, are my God!
    Please listen to my prayer.
⁷ You have the power to save me,
    and you keep me safe
    in every battle.

⁸ Don’t let the wicked succeed
    in doing what they want,
    or else they might never
    stop planning evil.
⁹ They have me surrounded,
    but make them the victims
    of their own vicious lies.^[a]
10 Dump flaming coals on them
and throw them into pits
    where they can’t climb out.
¹¹ Chase those cruel liars away!
    Let trouble hunt them down.

¹² Our Lord, I know that you
    defend the homeless
    and see that the poor
    are given justice.
¹³ Your people will praise you
and will live with you
    because they do right.

The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 25, 1959

Matthew 17: 1-8

17 Six days later Jesus took Peter and the brothers James and John with him. They went up on a very high mountain where they could be alone. ² There in front of the disciples, Jesus was completely changed. His face was shining like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

³ All at once Moses and Elijah were there talking with Jesus. ⁴ So Peter said to him, “Lord, it is good for us to be here! Let us make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

⁵ While Peter was still speaking, the shadow of a bright cloud passed over them. From the cloud a voice said, “This is my own dear Son, and I am pleased with him. Listen to what he says!” ⁶ When the disciples heard the voice, they were so afraid that they fell flat on the ground. ⁷ But Jesus came over and touched them. He said, “Get up and don’t be afraid!” ⁸ When they opened their eyes, they saw only Jesus.

Prayer

Father, please remember this day. Please guide us not to appear before You with our minds and bodies centered upon ourselves. Please allow our minds and bodies to become the most holy place where You can personally dwell. Please allow this to be a time when we can be offered to You as undefiled sacrifices You can control and admonish.

Father, we have come before You with wounded hearts and exhausted minds and bodies from the previous week of living. We sincerely hope and desire that You grant us new joy of life with Your outspread loving hands and that You create an eternal and inseparable tie between You and us.

Allow us to be able to rejoice when You rejoice, to grieve when You grieve, to act when You act, and to fight alongside You. We eagerly hope and desire that You make an eternally irrevocable and inseparable relationship with us. We know that numerous ancestors of ours have worked hard to make a relationship with You. We eagerly hope and desire that You establish us as ones in which You can take delight, embrace and love eternally, guiding us to make an eternal and inseparable relationship of love with You.

Since today is a holy day, please perform an indirect work. Through our making a relationship of oneness with Your loving heart, please let the thirty million people receive the same grace and go into Your realm of love.

We know that there are many brothers and sisters who are worrying and praying for Your sake in front of hidden altars. Please allow them to be enmeshed in an unbreakable lifeline. Please guide this gathering to be a time to form a tight bond in the loving garden of Your pleasure. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

At this time, we dedicate ourselves entirely to You. Take us as Your own. Allow us to be the people who form an eternal oneness, inseparable from Your heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow this to be a time when we can restore the true joy of the heart, emptying all of ourselves and filling our minds and bodies with what is Yours. Please grant Your hands of blessing upon all. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, as I am about to deliver the word You have granted to the children You have gathered, please be the Master of our minds and the Ruler of our bodies. Father, we have seen the word Jesus spoke 2,000 years ago in the desolate moment when, having lost the standard for hope, he had to determine to go to the cross.

Father, although that time has passed, we know that the world of Shim Jung transcends time. Allow Your anger over having lost Jesus to be expressed as our anger. Allow the thirty years of Jesus’ life to reappear in our own.

Father, none on earth know that our ancestors’ lack of fulfillment of their responsibility before Heaven has become an eternal sorrow.

Although You have gathered these unworthy people, introduced to them the heavenly Shim Jung with many words, and have taught them everything through revealing Your situation, we have nothing to offer You. We possess nothing. Allow us to realize that the only thing we can offer You is to be a living sacrifice who will die willingly.

Guide us to move hand in hand as the heavenly tribe, with our heart moving with Your heart, our Shim Jung moving with Your Shim Jung. Allow us an eager heart that can, not only deplore the betrayal of Your son, but which can also receive Your son again. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that such zealous hearts will appear in the minds and bodies of this audience.

Father, I would like to speak Your Word in this short time You have granted. Please allow the hearts of the giver and receivers of the word to become one. Father, we sincerely hope and pray, knowing that no matter how excellent the word is, it has nothing to do with us until it makes a relationship with our hearts.

Since we know that such a relationship can be created only when You come to us, we request that You take charge from the beginning to the end. We ask You to embrace the brothers and sisters scattered in the countryside with the same bosom and dominate them with the same grace. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.