Gratitude brings about heavenly fortune, forgiveness opens people’s minds, and love moves people’s hearts.

Gratitude brings about heavenly fortune, forgiveness opens people’s minds, and love moves people’s hearts.

Hak Ja Han Moon

Let Us All Be Grateful

Topic: Gratitude

Gratitude brings about heavenly fortune, forgiveness opens people’s minds, and love moves people’s hearts. Let us all be grateful for everything, forgive our enemies, love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and work in oneness for peace.

Hak Ja Han Moon

Hak Ja Han Moon (born February 10, 1943, in Anju, in what is now North Korea) is a Korean religious leader, humanitarian, and co-founder of the Unification movement, often referred to by her followers as the “Mother of Peace.” Born during a turbulent period in Korea’s history, she was raised in a devout Christian household guided by her mother, Soon Ae Hong, who was active in spiritual renewal movements. From an early age, Hak Ja Han was taught that her life held a divine purpose and that she was called to play a central role in God’s providence. This sense of spiritual mission shaped her character, discipline, and understanding of her place in the world.

In 1960, at the age of seventeen, Hak Ja Han married Reverend Sun Myung Moon in what the Unificationist movement calls the “Marriage of the Lamb,” an event symbolizing the opening of a new era of spiritual restoration. Together, they were regarded by their followers as the “True Parents” of humankind, embodying the restored unity of the masculine and feminine dimensions of the divine ideal. As a partner in ministry, Hak Ja Han traveled internationally with her husband, speaking on themes of peace, family, and reconciliation. After his passing in 2012, she assumed full leadership of the movement, guiding it through a period of consolidation, renewal, and global outreach. Under her stewardship, the movement expanded its focus on education, ecological responsibility, women’s leadership, and interfaith cooperation.

Hak Ja Han Moon has emphasized the centrality of God’s maternal love and the vision of humanity living as one global family under God. Through initiatives such as the Women’s Federation for World Peace and the Universal Peace Federation, she has called for moral awakening, compassion, and collaboration across borders. Her message consistently highlights the dignity and leadership of women as co-creators in God’s providence and the essential harmony of the divine feminine and masculine in building lasting peace. Through her decades of leadership, Hak Ja Han Moon has become a symbol of steadfast faith, perseverance, and the enduring power of love to heal, uplift, and unite the human family.

Heavenly Parent's Holy Community
Cheon Il Guk and Our Mission

Moon, Hak Ja Han. Cheon Il Guk and Our Mission. First ed., vol. 3 of 4, Sunhak Institute of History, 2017 [Part 1 The Road to a World of Peace] p. 90.

Hak Ja Han Moon

Theme: Gratefulness

About This Hak Ja Han Moon Quotation [Commentary]

Hak Ja Han Moon begins with a clear promise: “Gratitude brings about heavenly fortune.” She then calls us to practice it directly—“Let us all be grateful for everything.” Gratitude is not limited to easy moments; it is a steady way of living that welcomes Heaven’s help and turns the heart toward what is given, even while life is still unfolding.

She continues in the same order: “forgiveness opens people’s minds.” In the full passage, that becomes concrete: “forgive our enemies.” Forgiveness loosens what is stuck, opens what is closed, and makes room for a changed mind. Then she adds, “love moves people’s hearts,” pointing to love that reaches beyond agreement or comfort and truly moves another person from within.

From there, Hak Ja Han Moon widens the circle: “love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and work in oneness for peace.” This love is balanced—neighbor and self—and it is meant to be lived together, not alone. Her sequence stays simple and practical: be grateful for everything, forgive our enemies, love our neighbors, and “work in oneness for peace.”

Hak Ja Han Moon, The Road to a World of Peace [Excerpts]

Yes, first we must lead a life of gratitude. Even though it is not easy to be grateful for everything at all times, but a grateful heart brings unity of mind and body. When we empty out our hearts and repent, a life of gratitude can begin. We must always train ourselves to experience and remain awake to the fact that our Heavenly Parent is constantly with us, dwelling with us and sharing our joys and sufferings. Always be joyful; pray unceasingly. By so doing, those around you will find happiness, whether in the tiniest thing or in the greatest adventure…

Second, we must live a life of forgiveness. When my husband was unjustly incarcerated at the prison at Danbury, he said not to pray for him but to pray for the United States. He invested all efforts to move the people of the United States, in order to save the world. As a result, many American leaders and Christian pastors took the lead in bringing about an end to the Cold War; later on, they also joined hands for the interreligious peace movement. When we forgive the sins of others as you would forgive yours, amazing blessings are given to us from Heaven.

Third, we should live a life of love. True love is a love by which we continuously live for others, investing in others and forgetting that we have done so. Those people that live for their own sake may fare well in the beginning, but they will face decline in the end. This is the law of nature…

Fourth, we must live a life of unity. Our original minds and conscience, and our bodies and minds, must become one centered on Heaven’s true love. When parents and children live in harmony within the family, when nations live in harmony within the world, and when the spiritual world and physical world harmonize, then and only then can an eternal ideal world of peace come about. There is no unity where there is no center. It is easy for siblings to fight when parents are not present. This happens because the siblings do not fully appreciate or understand the parents’ desire and do not understand the parents’ deep heart. Only by establishing a connection of heart-centered on true love can we understand our parents’ desire and heart. Only in this way can we become one in heart, one in body, one in mind, and one in harmony, with our parents. This occurs when our thoughts, emotions, words, and actions are one. When this takes place, we can attend God in our lives as our Parent. When this happens, you and I won’t be separated people. We will instead become one family, brothers and sisters of the same lineage. Then, we can heal and bring an end to the numerous agonies and struggles within ourselves, and, at the same time, we can bring an end to wars between nations, which are actually brothers in this one world under God…

Gratitude brings about heavenly fortune; forgiveness opens the hearts of people, and love moves people’s hearts. Let us all be grateful for everything, forgive our enemies, love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and work in oneness for peace.”

—Hak Ja Han Moon, The Path To The Future World Of Peace, Global Youth Festival, September 23, 2014 [Speech delivered by Rev. Sun Jin Moon, Director General, FFWPU International, Chiba, Makuhari, Japan].

Additional Hak Ja Han Moon Quotes

“To have true love is to love that which cannot be loved. A person living in true love cannot help but love even his worst enemy. True love is a sacrificial love that enables a person even to lay down his life for another. Thus, within true love we are able to completely transcend all dissention and conflict, not only among individuals, but also in societies and nations. These will all pass away, and we will have true peace,

—Hak Ja Han Moon

“Racism, religious intolerance, the desecration of nature, and other misfortunes of our world are the result of serious problems in the human heart. That’s where we should approach the solution of world problems. The hatred in the heat of man must be replaced with love”

—Hak Ja Han Moon

“It is very important that voices of truth and goodness are not silent. if we are to transform our world, we must teach and practice Truth.”

—Hak Ja Han Moon

“Become sparks that light up this dark world.”

—Mother Moon, July 2017

“I have but one life goal: to live in utmost gratitude. Today I will be more grateful than yesterday; tomorrow I will be yet more grateful. However, I must confess to all of you, that even though I feel I must be strong, determined, and constantly moving forward, it is sometimes inevitable that I feel rather weak and emotional, and that is the truth of the matter.”

—Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon [1984.04.31, Leaders Conference].

Let Us All Be Grateful

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