The second step of the Holy Marriage Blessing is a formal wedding.
It is called a “mass” wedding because many couples—up to 30,000 and more—gather in one place. Yet in the midst of a multitude, it is intensely personal. It is an image of the ideal harmony within a blessed couple’s private and public life.
We gather to make a divine imprint not only on ourselves, but on world history. “It is the historical event that was at the heart of the ideal of creation,” True Father said. “You must really feel that this ceremony is happening for the first time ever since the beginning of creation.”
“In the midst of a multitude, it is intensely personal.“
The Ceremony begins with a washing, the Holy Water Ceremony. Father called it “the same as baptism.” It “establishes that the bride and groom have fulfilled the [conditions of] restoration by indemnity… [which] symbolically reenact all the details of the Fall and indemnify them.”
We then vow to God, True Parents and each other. Our texts have varied over the decades, with the same essence: we will complete the ideal of creation as an eternal husband and wife, raise our children and descendants to do the same, and build God’s kingdom on earth. This is to fulfill Adam and Eve’s three essential responsibilities: to sustain God’s Word of absolute sex, which is husband-wife oneness, to create a family of parent-child oneness, and to establish the tradition of elder-younger sibling oneness.
Now comes a laying on of hands and prayer. The laying on of hands bestows the Holy Spirit. The officiating couple lays on or outstretches their hands and dedicates the couple(s) in prayer.
In 1997, with True Parents’ hands outstretched at RFK Stadium, True Father prayed, “Please allow your endless love, heavenly tradition and blood lineage to link to all of the brides and grooms gathered here. Bless them please, so that they may become ancestors who can be truly proud for eternity. Father, I bless these couples and offer You this sacred ceremony. I ask You please to receive this offering.”
“The essence is that we will complete the ideal of creation.“
The couples then exchange rings, symbolizing personal and eternal love, and the officiators proclaim the Blessing. This proclamation declares your new life as a blessed couple in heaven and on earth.
The Holy Wedding concludes with your offering to the world as a blessed couple. We delve into the proclamation and offering on Friday.
(References: Blessing and Ideal Family 1993 p. 322; Second Cheon Seong Gyeong p. 1180, 21; Blessing and Ideal Family 1993 p. 322, Second Cheon Seong Gyeong p. 1180, 20; Acts 8:14-17; the prayer text is from the author’s personal records.)
Author’s note: True Father expressed the Blessing vow in four promises. True Mother shortened it to one, and I have two different expressions of that. But she is happy if heavenly tribal messiahs who lead the Ceremony use the four if desired. The essence is the same.
Here is a version of the four vows that I have:
- Do you promise in front of God and True Parents, as beautiful, mature men and women who will complete the original ideal of God’s creation, to become an eternal husband and wife?
- Do you promise to become a true couple that raises your children to follow God and raise them to become leaders that the whole Unification Church, humanity and God need?
- Do you promise to inherit the tradition of the Unification Church centered on True Parents, and pass down the tradition and be proud in front of Unification Church descendants and humanity to your descendants?
- Do you promise to inherit the will of God and True Parents centered on ideal of creation, which entails loving people in the world, and build the ideal family, which is the foundation to build Heaven on earth and Heaven in spirit world?
Here are two versions of the one vow:
“Do you promise, as virtuous men and women who will complete the original ideal of our Heavenly Parent’s creation, to become eternal husband and wife, to inherit the tradition established by the True Parents of heaven, earth and humankind, and to establish ideal families for Cheon Il Guk?”
“Inheriting the tradition established by True Parents, do you pledge to establish the family envisioned by the Heavenly Parent and fulfill your destiny as an eternal couple?”
-TH
