Throughout history people have struggled to find the meaning of life and to understand why there is so much suffering in the world. Only one thing of great value has prevailed through time and seemingly endless tragedy – that one thing is love. But love is invisible, so for many it is elusive.

However, the evidence of love can be seen in the actions and words of great people. These things move our hearts and renew our hope. This past Sunday we were so fortunate to be able to celebrate the Blessing rededication of marriage with a very special family. We want to share with our readers some of the meaning and value of this beautiful ceremony, along with a few photos.

“When you say ‘I love you’ you are making a promise with someone else’s heart. Try to honor it.” – Christopher Gutierrez

The Blessing of Marriage

“Why is marriage so important? It is the path to finding love. It is the path to knowing what love is. It teaches about life. Marriage joins the life of a woman and the life of a man. In time through children, it joins the lineage of the man and the lineage of the woman. It thus begins a history, a nation, the world and the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

The purpose of marriage is to synchronize the man’s heart and the woman’s heart to perfect their love. The wedding ceremony is a proclamation of the couple’s commitment and determination toward that goal. If you start with the goal to perfect your love and heart through your married life, you are on the way to fulfilling the ideal of family. If you actually fulfill it, upon your death you will certainly go to heaven, because your lives will be heaven.” – World Scriptures, Pages 946-948

What is True Love?

“What is true love? It does not refer to the selfish love that is strewn about in the secular world. It is not the counterfeit love given one moment and abandoned the next. It is not self-indulgent, profligate love driven by fleshly desire. Such false love assails and violates the conscience.

True love is mysterious. The more it is given, the more plentiful it is and the greater joy it brings. True love possesses power great enough to transform the motivation, process and outcome of human life. We were created to be born in true love, raised in true love, and pass to the next world in true love. That is the reason true love has the greatest and highest value.

Through true love we can be together eternally, see each other eternally, converse with and feel each other eternally and have nothing but affection for each other. It is one love and yet all people can enjoy it together. If we consider its detail, it is extremely small; if we consider its grandeur, it is extremely huge. Immersed in true love, the mere wink of an eye can be sufficient to bring forth a joy so great as to shake heaven and earth; a single smile can make one feel superhuman power. That power is strong enough to change one’s life. If you think you can see it, you cannot; if you think you cannot see it, you can. It is full of mystery.

What color is true love? Do you suppose that at night it is black, and in daylight it is white? The central colors of true love are harmony and unity; surrounding them are peace and happiness. An atomic weapon has no power other than to destroy life. It is not a symbol of creation but of judgment and ruin. True love, by contrast, has the power of resurrection that can bring one who has died back to life. So the power to bind the world together and bring unity does not reside in the military mindset that lies behind nuclear weapons, but in true love. Each nation has its cultural background and political boundary, and true love is the only power capable of transcending these. The difficult problems humanity faces can be solved only through the perfection of true love.

You must seek after true love. You must make true love your own. You must witness the perfection of true love within your own life. Please never forget that you are to spend the remainder of your life on earth nurturing this seed so that it will blossom and bear fruit.” – Sun Myung Moon

“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone. We find it with another.” – Thomas Merton