A Peace Loving Global Citizen – Introduction to the 13-Week Discussion Series

Introduction

For this coming semester we invite you to join us in a deeper study of As a Peace Loving Global Citizen, True Father’s autobiography.  

The autobiography is unique because True Father expresses in his own words what he felt and shares the motivation behind the life he lived. We’d like to focus on this unique aspect of the autobiography. We’ll include recommended resources for those who want to study more deeply.

The autobiography is an opportunity to recognize True Father’s greatness – that is, the greatness of his thoughts, attitude, and heart – all of which were expressed in a great life.

As we explore his love for God, humanity, and his love for peace, we come to acknowledge who he was as a person; a man of vision who didn’t give up on the mission of establishing peace on earth.  Even as he faced many difficulties, through his attitude and deep connection with God, he was able to transform any situation into a path to peace and a path to becoming a person of beautiful character we can seek to emulate and learn from.

Thus we come to recognize how blessed we are to know him and to benefit from his life work.  As we come to know him more, we’ll naturally want to share with others that same blessing.

Objectives:

• Connect to True Parents course to understand who they are and their love for Heavenly Parent in order to cultivate a deeper relationship with them.

• How can I apply the lessons of their journey in my own life so I can create a genuine relationship with God and a great life of my own

Our Attitude:

Why does our attitude matter in studying True Father’s course?

Even beginning with the first chapter, it’s important to remember who we’re reading about and why True Father wrote his autobiography. Remember at the end of his life, what he wanted was for people to know who he was, and why God called him to fulfill the role of a True Parents.  Heavenly Parent Himself is so grateful that True Father could take up such a difficult role to bring humanity back to Him.

True Parents worked and lived on a scale never touched before in all of human history. And it is our responsibility to first acknowledge and recognize who our True Parents are – and have a heart of gratitude that I can know them.

Let’s be the people with a filial mindset who catch that heart of True Father which very few could, so that we don’t take his contributions and generosity to us for granted.

Having the right attitude directs our spirit and heart to “tune in” and be receptive to the materials we’re studying – to see this great life story as more than just words, but as an expression of the deeper heart and love behind True Father’s life.  Your attitude of humility and gratitude allows God to speak to your heart as you read and draw out the potential greatness of your own life.

Empathy:

Empathy: n. the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.  Empathy is based on respect which we need in order to love someone.  Sun Jin Nim encouraged us to  read the autobiography with this heart by putting ourselves in True Father’s shoes and reading it as if it were our own biography.  (Check out video here.)

As filial children, when we come to empathize with our parents, we are moved to live a life that brings them joy.  Thus it’s important for us as children to seek to understand our parent’s heart; understand their situation, what they’ve gone through and why. This is the key and beginning to a more mature relationship.

No relationship is built without effort from both sides. True Parents have reached out to us. it’s up to us to respond. It’s a relationship each person has to discover for themselves.

The reward of our effort is an eternal relationship that brings peace to our own heart, confidence in who we are, and an overwhelming feeling of being cared for, loved, and invested into.

We’ll start off with the autobiography’s Forward.