He
arose and rebuked the roaring winds
and
the raging sea,
He,
who with His word
caused
the earth to be,
Spoke
to the Galilean tempest:
“Peace, be still”.
He
who has all things
under
His command,
Calmed
the troubled sea of dismay
in
the souls of men.
He,
who holds all humanity
in
the palm of His hand,
Caused
the waves of the sea
to
whisper His name.
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
ON CHILDREN:
And a woman
who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said:
Your
children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s
longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are
with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may
give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.
You may
house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of
tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may
strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not
backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the
bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees
the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that
His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your
bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness; for even as He loves the arrow
that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
-
Kahlil
Gibran, The Prophet – A Timeless Masterpiece
Come
to me, O ye children!
For
I hear you at your play,
And
the questions that perplexed me
Have
vanished quite away.
Ye
open the eastern windows,
That
look towards the sun,
Where
thoughts are singing swallows
And
the brooks of morning run.
In your
hearts are the birds and the sunshine,
In
your thoughts the brooklet’s flow,
But
in mine is the wind of Autumn
And
the first fall of the snow.
Ah!
What would the world be to us
If
the children were no more?
We
should dread the desert behind us
Worse
than the dark before.
What
the leaves are to the forest,
With
light and air for food,
Ere
their sweet and tender juices
Have
been hardened into wood –
That
to the world are children;
Through
them it feels the glow
Of
a brighter and sunnier climate
That
reaches the trunks below.
Come
to me, O ye children!
And
whisper in my ear
What
the birds and the winds are singing
In
your sunny atmosphere.
For
what are all our contrivings,
And
the wisdom of our books,
When
compared with your caresses,
And
the gladness of your looks?
Ye
are better than all the ballads
That
ever were sung or said;
For
ye are living poems,
And
all the rest are dead.
-
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Some days,
Father, I cannot bear,
The absence of
Your touch.
I cannot wait
for Your embrace
That I have
missed so very much.
In this abyss
of worldly darkness
I stumble but
I fall into the arms of Him
Who lifts me
higher than I can go.
I fly to You,
Father, on my wings of faith,
I sail through
stormy skies,
Seeking for
Thy face.
Look Father,
no hands!
Only trust in
these strong arms
Of my
Saviour’s loving grace.
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
For years
now I have tried to understand fully the necessity for suffering in mortality.
From time to time different insights and portions of understanding have been
given to me but recently I received what I consider an adequate and favourable
theory of the same.
What came
to me first is the reason for our lack of understanding of this subject. It is
simply this: it is easy not to understand the here and now because we cannot
see beyond this life to the rewards of the splendour of eternity and our
eternal place within it.
There are three
things I am very convinced of and the first is this. We could see the reward in
our pre-earth life and we chose which level of the splendour we wanted to live in for all eons of time. In other
words, we chose there and then where we wanted to end up.
The second
is that not everyone wanted godhood. We could see it when we made the choice
but we could also see the responsibility of such a state of being and the high
price attached to it. Some of us were more spiritually inclined than others and
as such we sought for higher spiritual levels of intelligence and power that
godhood could give us.
The third
is this. Since we are not here to choose our eternal destiny, we are here to
prove ourselves worthy of the choice we have already made. All kingdoms are
kingdoms of glory and they all have degrees of splendour of eternity.
And here is the wonder of eternity. The
telestial kingdom, being the lowest, is a kingdom of glory that passes all
understanding even though it is a kingdom where murderers, rapists, liars, adulterers
and all manner of wicked people will go (D&C 76:89). It is also worth
noticing that the inhabitants of only this kingdom will be as innumerable as
the sand of the seashore (v 109). This is the kingdom for those who sought the
ease and glory of earthly life. This is the kingdom that comes with the lowest
price. But a price has to be paid even for this kingdom…..the souls who will
inherit it will pass through hell to earn their place therein. This is outer
darkness where they suffer torments of hell until their resurrection day
following the Millenium (Alma 40:11-14; D&C 76:103-106; see also Bruce R.
McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp 349-50)
And now the
necessity for suffering. This life offers us something valuable that helps us
prove we deserve the outcome we have chosen: our moral agency. Suffering reveals
to us our true nature and refines within us the attributes needed through the
exercise of our agency to become worthy of the splendour of our eternal reward.
If we wanted godhood, our agency has to develop within us a godly character.
Water meets its own level.
For years I
have felt my life has been unjust. I have had to live through some major trials
and the suffering has been acute. This week I made a list of all the growth I
have experienced throughout my life and the qualities I have acquired through
my choices to endure, trust, overcome, forgive…..qualities like compassion,
love and tolerance. I have learnt mercy and even humility as I was brought down
to the dust of the earth. One day I will kneel at the throne of my God and present
these gifts as the greatest treasures I have come to own.
Herein is
the mercy of two Gods: God the Father who sacrificed His best child for the lowest
of His children, and God the Son who willingly submitted to that sacrifice.
Honour and glory be theirs forever for the joy that awaits us…..
"In my Father's house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2)
I pledged my life into thy hands
When by example you showed me how;
I promised my trials to endure
When I was with You and do so even
now.
You dried my tears when I barely
coped
And carried me when I could walk no
more;
You fed me truths I needed to know
And nurtured my flight into the
unknown.
As I promised to obey,
You promised we’d never part;
I remember, I remember
And carry it all
In the shadow of my heart.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
There is nothing that excites me more than
coming across someone in scripture who loved the God of Israel. One such man
was King Josiah of the Kingdom of Judah. You might have gathered by now that
there weren’t many kings of Israel like him. He stole my heart the year I
discovered him in the Old Testament.
Before we can appreciate Josiah, it’s
imperative to look at his predecessors. Josiah’s grandfather was Manasseh who
ascended the throne of Judah at the age of twelve. He reigned for fifty years
and became the most loathed and cursed king in the history of Judah.
Manasseh exceeded the idolatry of his
predecessors by adding a third form of worship: devotion to the heavenly bodies
and constellations. Remnants of this worship are seen today in astrology (The
Old Testament Student Manual Book 2 p 213). If you live by your horoscope, give
this some thought…..
Not only did Manasseh exceed the idolatry of
his forefathers, he defiled the temple and the whole country out of contempt for
God and barbarously slew all the righteous Hebrew men, ‘ till Jerusalem was
overflown with blood’ (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, bk 10, chap 3,
par 3)
This evil king repented when he was in
affliction, after the king of Assyria captured him and took him to Babylon. He
pleaded with the Lord who had mercy on him and brought him back to Jerusalem. Upon
his return Manasseh cleaned house by putting away all the idols out of the
temple and the country but it was too little too late. Idolatry was so
engrained in his people by then that they continued to worship in ‘high places’
and when his son Amon succeeded him, he returned the people to full blown idolatry
again (2 Chronicles 33:10-22). This is a
perfect example of how much damage one man can do to a whole nation.
Enter Josiah. He was only eight years old when
he began his 31 year reign. This was a man who as a child watched babies scarified
to the god of fire, Moloch. A man who in adulthood became highly troubled by
the spiritual decay of the kingdom he inherited. The truth had been lost and the covenant between
Israel and Jehovah forgotten…..until he set about repairing the temple and ‘the
book of the law’ was found (2 Kings 22:8-11). Some historians have suggested
this book was Deuteronomy and some have concluded it was the entire Pentateuch
(the first five books of the Bible written by Moses).
When the book of the law was read to Josiah, he realized how far Israel had strayed from
the one true and living God and in his grief he tore the clothes on his body (2
Kings 22:11). Josiah cleaned the land of idolatry even more scrupulously than Manasseh
but he could not bring about a thorough conversion of the people. Chapter 23 of
2 Kings outlines his detailed efforts of cleansing the insidious practice of
idol worship but he could not undo the damage his grandfather Manasseh had done.
Not even by putting his people under the covenant could he uproot the deep
inward apostasy of the people. (2 Kings 23:26)
History records there was no king like Josiah
before or after him. That he loved the Lord with all his heart, his soul and
with all his might (2 Kings 23:25).
This is the lesson we can learn from Josiah. No
matter what family we come from, what our upbringing was like and who raised
us, we still have a choice to forge our own path in the world. No habit, false
belief, addiction or immoral behaviour of those around us has to have power
over us. We are in charge of our own destiny and have the ability to say: ‘this
ends with me’.
The God of Israel saw Josiah’s grief when he
heard the book of the law and when he tore his clothing. He recognized his
sincerely and his desire for obedience and his efforts to turn the tide. He
promised him that he will be ‘gathered unto his fathers and into his grave in
peace’ so that he will not see all the evil which He would bring upon Jerusalem
to punish the people for their disobedience (2 Kings 22,19-20). Josiah died at age 39 in the Valley of
Megiddo at the hands of the king of Egypt (2 Kings 23:29). And all Judah and
Jerusalem mourned for him (2 Chronicles 35:24)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art by AI)
As Golgotha raged and tore
Your flesh without mercy
The Garden sprang anew,
As from every drop You spilt
New flowers came into bloom.
How pitiful the cross that claimed You
Not knowing it sent a God to a
Darkened tomb!
-
Cathryne
Allen
“Each of us
lives on a kind of spiritual credit. One day the account will be closed, a
settlement demanded. However casually we may view it now, when that day comes
and the foreclosure is imminent, we will look around in restless agony for
someone, anyone, to help us….
“Unless there
is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untampered,
unsympathetic, must, positively must, fall on us. The full recompense for every
transgression, however minor or however deep, will be exacted from us to the
uttermost farthing.
“But know
this: Truth, glorious trust, proclaims there is such a Mediator. ‘For there is
one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’ (1 Timothy 2:5). Through Him mercy can be
fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. This
truth is the very root of Christian doctrine.”
-
Boyd K. Packer, “The Mediator” General Conference April 1977
Like a bird in flight
My sins ascend to Thee;
Rising from the ashes of mortality,
They seek Thy love to set them free.
- Cathryne Allen
