Il Shim Study Guide
IL SHIM STUDY GUIDE
Welcome to the IL Shim Preparation Program! You are entering a time in your life when you are freer to make your own decisions and determine your own destiny. So, what future will you choose? What role will God and True Parents have in your life? How will you balance your personal goals and ambitions with church and parental expectations?
As a child, you were born into the faith tradition of your parents, and you have grown up in your parent’s church. As you get older you need to define your own faith. You need to sort out what you believe and why you believe it. This means that you need to take ownership of your faith tradition. Taking ownership means building your own personal relationship with God and True Parents. The IL Shim program is designed to help you begin this process.
IL Shim is a Korean term that means “one heart” or “of one heart and mind.” This term dates back to when True Father was released from Danbury prison. On that day, Father conducted a ceremony called “IL SEUNG IL” or “Day of One Victory.” It was during that ceremony that True Parents declared the beginning of the period of responsibility for the second generation.
Four years later in 1989, True Parents also conducted an “IL Shim” ceremony to proclaim the total unity between Heavenly Father and True Parents and the inheritance of this unity by the children. It was during this ceremony that True Father said that as children who inherit the love and lineage of True Parents through the Blessing, we should all work to completely unite with God and remove ourselves from the influence of Satan. True Parents conducted the first IL Shim Ceremony to recognize and support the responsibility of the True Children to inherit True Parents’ tradition and foundation. In keeping with the spirit of this original ceremony, we have adopted the IL Shim ceremony for the purpose of supporting and educating second generation as to their unique position and responsibility.
The IL Shim preparation program is an opportunity for you to begin the process of growing into a mature life of faith. It provides you with the opportunity to study about the unique value of your lineage and birthright from God and True Parents. It also guides you to a deeper appreciation of your own parents and family by providing an opportunity for you to study together and learn about your parents’ life of faith.
Each major faith has a significant ceremony that recognizes and promotes the inheritance of their faith tradition by their children. The IL Shim Ceremony is quite similar to these ceremonies. Through our ceremony we are recognizing that you are maturing and that God seeks to relate to you in a more adult manner. This means that you are entering a stage of life in which you need to take more responsibility for your spiritual growth.
The IL Shim is also a special ritual, which signifies that you have begun to accomplish important conditions of faith and are making a commitment to ideals that are valued by God. The ceremony emphasizes your unique position as a member of the second generation and encourages you to make a commitment to protect that special inheritance. Finally, the IL Shim Ceremony allows you to make a new beginning and a new commitment to God, True Parents, and your own parents and family.
In preparation for this important ceremony, we have designed a special educational program for you. As you go through this preparation period, you will be asked to look at the Divine Principle and True Parents’ words as the foundation for your spiritual life. You will be challenged to make a commitment to practice those traditions that we value within our church and especially to make a personal commitment to an abstinent lifestyle as a precondition to receiving the matching and blessing from True Parents or True Parents’ representative.
Throughout this period, there will be certain requirements that you will be asked to fulfill as your portion of responsibility and sign of commitment to God. You will do some of these activities on your own, while others require the involvement of your family and community. You will be encouraged to pray, study, and seek out your own personal relationship with God and True Parents.
Please read through the requirements to more fully understand what you will be doing over the next several weeks. Go over it with your parents to be sure they know how to support you. We sincerely hope you will enjoy this study. Coming into a personal relationship with God is the most important and most fulfilling thing you can ever do. Remember God is seeking to establish a relationship with you. Coming to know God is the true objective of this study and the essence of the IL Shim Ceremony. We sincerely pray that as you proceed through this study, that you will discover the parental heart of God.
***Study Guide Contents
- Welcome……………………………………………………….. 1
- IL Shim Pledge ……………………………………………………….. 4
- Il Shim Ceremony Requirements ……………………………………. 5
- Il Shim Study Topics………………………………………….. 7
Topic #1:Introduction: Second Generation…………………... 7
Topic #2:Choosing to Become a Son or Daughter of God … 8
Topic #3 The Importance of Purity……………….…………. 9
Topic #4:Choose the Path of Goodness……………………...11
E. Study Questions ……………………………………………………..13
F. Sheet for Signing off Conditions/Conclusion …………………………….17
.Il Shim Pledge
1.As a child of God, True Parents, and my own parents, I dedicate my life to God and True Parents and will try to bring joy and comfort to them.
2. I promise to make sincere effort to develop my relationship with God through prayer and through my lifestyle.
3. I pledge to maintain sexual purity in preparation for my Blessing, and to keep myself free from drugs and alcohol.
- I will strive to inherit True Parents’ tradition of living for the sake of others, demonstrating this through my attitude, my words, and my actions.
These things I pledge before God, True Parents,my parents
and my community.
IL Shim Ceremony Requirements
The IL Shim Program is intended primarily for second-generation, sixth to eighth graders. However, any teenager is welcome to participate if he or she was not able to complete the program in previous years. Any teen that wishes to participate in the IL Shim Ceremony need only to submit an application and fulfill the requirements listed below.
The IL Shim requirements are as follows:
1.One Day Fast:Participants and their parents are expected to offer a one-day fast before coming to the ceremony. However, if a one-day fast is considered too demanding, you may choose to offer a skip one meal three consecutive days condition instead. This choice is up to the participant(s) and his/her parents. This fast may be completed anytime prior to the date of the ceremony. During this time, we suggest that you talk with your parents about the fasting experience and discuss why we fast and make conditions in our life of faith. Naturally, if there is a medical condition that does not allow you to fast, you are encouraged to work out an alternative action to fulfill this requirement.
2.Workshops:All participants planning to be a part of Il Shim are required to participate in the two Il Shim workshops.
3.Public Service Condition:All participants are to fulfill three, two-hour service conditions. The three conditions are:
a. Service to the church – our local BAFC (two hours)
b. Service to our community – the community where you live or go to school (two hours)
c. Service to your family – your family (two hours)
The service conditions must be completed prior to the Il Shim Ceremony. When the service is finished, complete the form included with this packet and return it to your youth leaders.
4.IL Shim Home Study: All participants are required to complete the IL Shim Home Study program. Friday night study will support the topics taught during Il Shim, and participants are encouraged, but not required to attend. We have included optional reading assignments to supplement the study topics.
5.Special Prayer Week:All participants and their families are asked to offer a 7 minute prayer condition together for one week prior to the date of the ceremony. The focus of this prayer condition should be on the four points of the IL Shim Pledge and other providential concerns (i.e. the current providence, True Parents’ Family, etc.). The 7-minute prayer service may include holy songs, bows, unison prayer. It is best that participants work out a format with their parents.
6.Purity:Participants in the Il Shim Ceremony should not be involved in a dating relationship. If you are dating, or have dated, please talk to your parents, youth leader, or church leader for guidance.
7.Il Shim Pledge: Memorize the Il Shim pledge. We will be reciting it at our Il Shim ceremony. Practice often.
Each of the above conditions is directly related to one of the Il Shim Ceremony Pledges. By fulfilling these conditions, you will be moving forward in your personal relationship with God as well as deepening your relationship with your parents, family, and community. Completing these good conditions will help you develop good habits of faith that will strengthen you as you face today’s world and its challenges and will enable you to stand proud before God, True Parents, and your future spouse. Each of these requirements should be viewed by you as habits of faith that you strive to maintain even after completing the Il Shim Ceremony.
IL Shim Study Topics
Each of the following topics are to be completed at home. Parents should set aside time each week to study the material with their children. All reflections, and questions related to each IL Shim topic should be recorded in your notebook. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions. Read and discuss the topics, then write down what you think and know to be true from your heart. The answers will not be graded. It is a condition for you to understand more about who you are and what you believe.
Topic #1:Introduction: Second Generation
We are all called sons and daughters of God and we hear that phrase a great deal throughout our life – both at home and at church. You in particular have a special designation as “second generation.” But what does this really mean? During this study, you will understand more about your value as second generation.
The essence of True Parents teachings can be summarized in one simple statement – that God loves you and seeks a personal relationship with you as His son or daughter. Being a son or daughter of God means establishing a relationship with another Person – God as our parent. God is not a concept but a real living being. God seeks a real, love relationship with you as His son or daughter. Through this love relationship, God wants to reveal His Will to you and invite you to join Him in His life and activity.
Because of the Fall of Man, the loving heart of God is restricted. God is notfree to relate to fallen mankind without the intervention of the Messiah, our True Parents. Through their sacrifice, and through our faithful attendance to them, God is able to bring us back to Him.
Through the Blessing of True Parents we can enter a realm of God’s love, life, and lineage that before this has never been accomplished. By accepting and attending True Parents in our hearts, God can accept us back as His children. God’s spirit can come to live in us and we can begin our love relationship with God as His children.
Being born as second generation means that you have already received the merit of forgiveness for the original sin by virtue of the blessing of your parents. You have already been born in the realm of God’s love, life, and lineage and God has a right to relate to you as His child. At times, God may even choose to relate directly to you as a result of this Completed Testament merit. Some of you may have had experiences with God already. On the other hand, many of you only know God as a concept and not as a living reality.But God wants to give you daily experiences of his presence and of his loving heart.
This study is intended to encourage you to respond to God’s invitation to enter into a personal relationship with Him as his child. As Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matt. 7:7)
The first statement of the IL Shim Pledge asks that we promise to love and honor God and True Parents by practicing a life of attendance. In short, this means that we make a sincere effort to become a true son or daughter of God. It means recognizing clearly “to whom” we belong. Fully recognizing this important identity is also why you are called “second generation.”
God wants you to experience life in its originally intended fullness. We sincerely hope that you will take advantage of this study to discoverwhat it means to be second generation. God Bless You!
Answer questions on page 13
Topic #2:
“Choosing to Become A Son or Daughter of God”
The beginning of deepening our personal relationship with God and True Parents is to accept them in our hearts and then ask God to guide our daily life. Once we begin to develop our relationship with God, we need to search out what God’s expectations are for us so that we can begin to follow a responsible life of faith.
Just being born as second generation and living your lives the way you want is not enough to know God. God desires more of you than a casual mention before meals and bedtime. If you never invested in your current friendships, do you think that these friendships would continue? Would these friendships become stronger automatically just because you call someone a friend? The same is true with God. We also need to actively invest in that relationship. We need to ask, study and pray to find out what we can do to strengthen that relationship – we need to find out what God needs from us and what He wants to give to us.
It is time for you to begin to think about your daily life, your attitude, your words, and your actions. Are you making choices and decisions that will help you grow spiritually in a healthy way? Or are you making some decisions and developing habits that will hurt your spirit in some way? Are you thinking, acting, and speaking as God expects you to? You are at that time in your life where you can take more direct responsibility for your decisions. You are being asked to make choices every day. You may not think that your choices are all that important to God but they are.
You have to follow the rules and directions of many different people. Your parents are the primary people who set up certain rules for you. Your teachers are another source of rules and directions. The church leader and youth minister also establish rules that they expect you to follow. This is part of God’s way of helping you learn and grow throughout your life. Right now, your parents stand in the position of God for you. As God’s representative, they can teach you about God, God’s will for your life, and how to form a personal relationship with God. God works through them to guide you and to help you grow to become fully one with God, and to eventually develop a family in which God is the center. Eventually, you will have a direct line to God. That is why this time in your life is so important.This is your preparation time. It is your time to prepare for that moment when you can relate directly to God.
Each of your really important decisions today will impact your life tomorrow. So, how do you use your time today? What do you do when no one is looking? How do you act when your parents are not around? What do you think about during the day? How we spend each minute, how we speak to our friends, and how we act when we are alone all add up and help determine the kind of person we will become in the future.
If we take this one step further, we would ask the question: Do my actions now matter when I have gone to the spiritual world? Is there really an invisible spiritual world? True Parents often speak of the eternal invisible spiritual realm. They have taught us that how we live our lives today is preparation for how we will live in that invisible spiritual realm. If that is true, then our thoughts, words, and actions today matter a great deal. This means that we need to be more aware of what we think, say and do on a daily basis.