Devotion means to worship God out of love. Love can be volitional, expressed in acts of dedication and sacrifice, as in the biblical commandment, “Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
In the Abrahamic faiths, devotion is primarily expressed in acts of loyalty and dedication to God’s will.
Love for God can also be an emotional experience. Devotional worship is expressed in joyful and emotional outpourings of praise and song and in the constant longing for God’s sweet presence.
This powerful mode of religious consciousness is particularly manifest in the Hindu and Sikh bhakti tradition, the dancing and song of Sufi Muslims and Hassidic Jews, and in the outpourings of the Holy Spirit in Pentecostal Christianity.
Many passages of scripture describe this mystical emotion as a transfigured, sublime love of a bride for her beloved, as in the Song of Solomon in the Bible, in the loves of Radha and Krishna or Sita and Rama in the Hindu tradition, and in the devotion of Mary Magdalene to Jesus.
Father Moon teaches that there is a fundamental link between the love of man and woman and the joining of heaven and earth. Father Moon also adds a new, minor key to this longing to experience God’s love by bringing in the element of God’s suffering heart.
If God’s real circumstances are full of suffering and pain, then the longing for emotional unity with God should also take us into the experience of divine sorrow. His prayers are full of tears, commiserating with God.
Knowing that God is in pain also motivates us to act in this world to alleviate His suffering by saving our brothers and sisters from sin, oppression, and despair. At this deep level, heart and action become one.
01Deeds of Devotion to God and His Will
Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10.31
Let all your deeds be done for the sake of Heaven. Mishnah, Avot 2.17 (Judaism)
The most excellent action is love for God’s sake and hatred for God’s sake. Hadith of Abu Dawud (Islam)
He is the Living One; there is no god but He: call upon Him, giving Him sincere devotion. Qur’an 40.65
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates. Deuteronomy 6.5-9
Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart—a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water—I partake of that love offering. Whatever you do, make it an offering to me—the food that you eat, the sacrifices that you make, the help you give, even your suffering. In this way you will be freed from the bondage of karma. Bhagavad-Gita 9.26-27 (Hinduism)
Holy is the man of devotion; Through thoughts and words and deed And through his conscience he increases Righteousness; The Wise Lord as Good Mind gives the dominion. For this good reward I pray. Avesta, Yasna 51.21 (Zoroastrianism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
The spirit of loyalty, filial piety, and integrity, which stands as straight as the pine or bamboo, will be the central thought and spirit of the Kingdom of God on earth that is to be established.
We must be loyal to heaven because heaven is God’s country. We must offer eternal filial devotion to God because He is the Father of humankind. (100:253, October 19, 1978)
You are doing things on behalf of God, so you must know God’s circumstances and what He is doing right now. To be God’s representatives, you should make sure that you represent God’s point of view, follow the path of His Will, and know where He would have you go. (70:257, February 13, 1974)
What shall we do to receive God’s love? Since God has total love for us, we should also invest totally. The saying, “Sincerity moves Heaven,” like “Faith will move mountains,” is a proverb in Korea, but truly it is also the natural order of things.
The proverb, “Act with utmost sincerity,” means act with all your efforts, inside and outside, heart and soul. The saying, “Practice everything with sincerity in your words and deeds,” means to completely unite your body and soul in a conscientious life.
This means a life of dedication. We call it “utmost sincerity” or jeongseong. The Korean word jeong deals with the spirit, and song means the fulfillment of the Word.
Thus jeongseong means fulfilling everything inwardly and outwardly and offering it . 26 If you do everything with jeongseong, you can “move heaven.” When Heaven moves, what happens? Since God has regard for such people, He makes His love dwell with them.
Love wants to be with them. Love naturally dwells with people whose thoughts are for God and all His creatures. Therefore, when you offer jeongseong, you stand in a position to receive God’s love.
As God loves all humankind, if you offer everything with jeongseong for the sake of God you will feel God’s love from the very first moment, and as a result, you can love God. Due to the Fall, we cannot truly love God.
Therefore, by offering jeongseong for God, God’s love that has been searching for us can find us, and through that love we can come to know God and to love God. (78:31-32, May 1, 1975)
Without a heart of utmost sincerity (jeongseong) and love, it is absolutely impossible to root out Satan’s lineage. How else can we completely pull out the root that was planted when Adam and Eve fell, that extends deep into God’s heart and torments God as He deals with the world’s sorrowful history?
If we are to succeed in pulling out that root, we have to dig beneath it. That means we must go to a place of suffering more intense than the pain of God. If God is sleeping, we should be awake.
We should willingly stand in a position hundreds of times more painful than what God’s heart experienced at the time of the Fall; only then can we pull out Satan’s root. Our heart of devotion should go that deep. (308:208, January 5, 1999)
02Love and Longing for God
The supreme Lord who pervades all existence, the true Self of all creatures, may be realized through undivided love. Bhagavad-Gita 8.22 (Hinduism)
Those who remember the Lord with every breath, each morsel, And in whose mind ever abides the spell of the Lord’s Name— Says Nanak, are blessed, perfect devotees. Adi Granth, Var Gauri, M.5, p. 319 (Sikhism)
The Chakora bird longs for the moonlight,27 The lotus longs for sunrise, The bee longs to drink the flower’s nectar, Even so my heart anxiously longs for Thee, O Lord. Basavanna, Vacana 364 (Hinduism)
As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night. Psalm 42.1-3
Beloved, what more shall I say to you? In life and in death, in birth after birth you are the lord of my life. A noose of love binds my heart to your feet. My mind is fixed on you alone, I have offered you everything; in truth, I have become your slave. In this family, in that house, who is really mine? Whom can I call my own? It was bitter cold, and I took refuge at your lotus feet. While my eyes blink, and I do not see you, I feel the heart within me die. A touchstone I have threaded, and wear upon my throat, says Chandidasa. Chandidasa (Hinduism)
Once, while Yasoda was holding the baby Krishna on her lap, she set him down suddenly to attend to some milk that was boiling over on the oven. At this the child was much vexed. In his anger he broke a pot containing curdled milk, went to a dark corner of the room taking some cheese with him, smeared it over his face, and began feeding a monkey with the crumbs. When his mother returned and saw him, she scolded him. As a punishment, she decided to tie him with a rope to a wooden mortar. But to her surprise the rope, although long enough, seemed too short. She took more rope, but still it was too short. Then she used all the ropes she could find, but still Krishna could not be tied. This greatly mystified Yasoda. Krishna smiled within himself, but now, seeing that his mother was completely tired out and perplexed, he gently allowed himself to be bound. He who has neither beginning, nor middle, nor end, who is all-pervading, infinite, and omnipotent, allowed higently.
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
How much do you adore and yearn for God?
What is at stake in this question is whether you are prepared to completely forget about your own situation and offer everything for God; in other words, whether or not you can become a perfect minus before the perfect Plus.
When you can stand before the absolute Plus as an absolute minus, then the perfect Plus will rush straight toward you. (36:100, November 22, 1970)
Many are the believers who grasp the doctrine, but few are the believers who know the Real Being whom the doctrine describes. Few are the believers who can say, “Lord, Thy mind is my mind and my mind is Thine.
Thy sorrow is my sorrow.” Have you ever felt God’s heart of grief, a heart in fetters, a heart so sorrowful it feels as if your bones are melting? Understand that wherever Jesus went during his thirty-odd years on the earth, he had such an intense heart that he was constantly on the verge of losing consciousness and fainting. (4:126, March 23, 1958)
Today, we have to go beyond just the word “faith” and substantiate our faith in our daily life. That is, we must become people who live our lives with Heaven…
God taught the way of faith to countless numbers of our ancestors throughout history. Nevertheless, more than just be believers, God longed that they would become people who could live together with Him.
This is what Heaven is longing for us to become. God is longing for you to become people who can willingly sacrifice, die and be resurrected for the sake of your faith.
God longs for you to relate to Him as your Father, to overcome death and rejoice in your resurrection to the realm of life, and to sing His praises in the eternal ideal world. God dearly misses each one of you. He has persevered to find you and meet you. (6:84, March 29, 1959)
Do you call out to God, “Father!” with the heart to liberate His heart, which is immersed in the sorrow that pervades the 6,000 years of history?
If you cling to the distressed heart of the Father and call on Him, with just that one word you can reunite heaven and earth. That was how Jesus clung to God when he called, “Abba.” Unless you can attain the same level, the sorrow of God will never leave you. (3:58, September 22, 1957)
My misery is not from hunger; my sorrow is not from being mistreated. Oh loving Father, I did not realize that no sorrow is worse than being apart from Thee.
No matter how lacking a place may be, if Thou art there, it has everything. Even in the center of hell, if Thou art there it becomes heaven. Father, whether I live or die, my place is only with Thee. (43:135, April 25, 1971)
03Devotion to God as a Bride for Her Bridegroom
Upon my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer. “I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves.” I sought him, but found him not.
The watchmen found me, as they went about the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” Scarcely had I passed them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.30 Song of Solomon 3.1-4
As the mirror to my hand, the flowers to my hair, kohl to my eyes, tambul to my mouth, musk to my breast, necklace to my throat, ecstasy to my flesh, heart to my home— As wing to bird, water to fish, life to the living— so you are to me. But tell me, Madhava, beloved, who are you? Who are you really? Vidyapati says, They are one another.31 Vidyapati (Hinduism)
How may I live, Mother, without the Lord? Glory to Thee, Lord of the Universe! To praise Thee I seek; Never without the Lord may I live. The Bride is athirst for the Lord; All night is she awake lying in wait for Him. The Lord has captured my heart; He alone knows my agony: Without the Lord the soul is in travail and pain— Seeking His Word and the touch of His feet. Show Thy grace, Lord; immerse me in Thyself. Adi Granth, Sarang, M.1, p. 1232 (Sikhism)
My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is comely.” Song of Solomon 2.10-14
Now, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.
But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment thus wasted? For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor.” And they reproached her.
But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you will, you can do good to them; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” Mark 14.3-9
O Rama… I wish to be with thee! I shall experience no fatigue in following thee, even if I may no longer rest near thee on a luxurious couch. The harsh grass, the reeds, the rushes and thorny briars on the way, in thy company, will seem as soft as lawns or antelope skins!
The dust raised by the tempest that covers me will resemble rare sandalwood paste, O my dear Lord. When, in the dense forest, I sleep beside thee on a grassy couch, soft as a woolen coverlet, what could be more pleasant to me? Leaves, roots, fruits, whatever it may be, little or much, that thou hast gathered with thine own hand to give to me, will taste of ambrosia!… To be with thee is heaven, to be without thee is hell; this is the truth!33 Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda 30 (Hinduism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
God is the eternal Lord of our bodies and the eternal Lord of our hearts. Consider the most loving couple in the original world: The wife will not resent the husband for loving God more than he loves her.
Likewise, the wife may love God more than she loves her husband, but the husband will not complain, “Why do you love God more than you love me?”
The Kingdom of Heaven is the world where both husband and wife rejoice to see such a thing. God is our Subject Partner, transcending any earthly love.
He is the eternal Lord of our bodies. As long as God embraces us in His bosom, as long as we dwell within His garden, we do not mind if we die right there. Since our hearts are united with their eternal Lord, what more could we ask for? (7:255, September 20, 1959)
If a woman feels about a man, “If I could be with that man, I wouldn’t care if I died,” and she is joined with that man, she wants nothing else under heaven. She doesn’t care if she eats well or poorly.
She doesn’t care if she cries. She doesn’t care if she even dies. There is nothing greater for her. In the same way, as human beings, our highest ambition is to take possession of God’s love. When we do, we become the lords of the universe and possess the authority of a king, even a king of kings.
God endowed everyone, whether handsome or unattractive, with such ambition. It is God’s original ideal that all people have this desire in common, so that everyone will naturally arrive at this destination.
The oneness of God and human beings through love: How can God and human beings, one vertical and the other horizontal, become one?
God’s love is perpendicular to human love. For this reason, God sent the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended into heaven. The Holy Spirit is the love of the mother… The Kingdom of God on Earth, the messianic ideal, is for realizing God’s vertical love on the horizontal plane.
After God sends the returning Lord to this earth and establishes him in the center, he develops God’s domain horizontally. It is accomplished in two ways. First, mind and body are no longer two, but become one. Second, man (representing mind) and woman (body) establish a mutual relationship and become the radiating center for the harmony of heaven and earth. (252:119, November 14, 1993)
The Fall was not the failure to consider God’s circumstances. It was the failure to consider His heart. As God seeks fallen humanity, He has the heart that is capable of relating with His lost sons and daughters, but He does not have people with whom to share this heart. Therefore, God has worked to find and establish such people. You need to clearly know that this has been the providence of salvation and the purpose for sending the Savior.
Before we wish for the Kingdom of Heaven, we should desire God’s heart; and before we wish for God’s heart, we should first reflect on how we should live or lives. Firstly, we should have a heart for attendance. It is the original character of human beings to long for what is exalted and precious, and on finding it, to bow our heads before it.
We human beings fell, but we were created with a heart that desires to relate with the exalted and precious heart of Heaven. We learn how to communicate at this level of the heart through a life of attendance.
Therefore, anyone who has never experienced a life of attendance does not have even the slightest connection with the Kingdom of Heaven. (8:291, February 14, 1960)
Father! Today please let our bodies move, our minds move and our thoughts move in the garden of Thy heart.
We realize Thy heart is a heart of infinite love, a heart of infinite sorrow pierced with an infinity of wounds… Exceedingly sorrowful Father; Thou hast worked exceedingly hard, and still even now Thy heart feels exceedingly anxious!…
May we become sons and daughters who offer our full devotion, giving our entire minds and bodies, until we can be recognized as having no inadequacies before Thy heart.
We do not want Heaven to give us anything material, we do not want Heaven to understand our situation, and we do not want Heaven to give us grace— only allow us to know Thine innermost heart. (8:262, February 7, 1960)
END OF BOOK CHAPTER
Sun Myung Moon
Chapter 16: Prayer and Worship
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