Your
lessons, so piercing
And
so raw
Leave
me spent
As
I exhale the hurt and let it go;
Your
wisdom prevails
And
tutors me when I need it most;
You
are the healer who saves
The
broken hearted and the lost.
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
Saturday, 15 August 2026
THE HEALER OF MY SOUL
THE ART OF PRAYER 2
Christ's humility in praying to the Father has always amazed me. He who proclaimed himself to be the life of the world, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (3 Nephi 9:18), a god in his own right, knelt upon the ground with the Nephites and prayed, but not just any prayer, for the scriptures record "....The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvellous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father" (3 Nephi 17:16).
What did He say? What words could He have possibly used to express such high regard and affection toward the Father He so loved? Verse 15 states that what He prayed about cannot be written. Perhaps because there was some revelatory content of that prayer that we could not sufficiently understand on this mortal level. I also know that some heavenly manifestations and revelations cannot be put into words because our earthly language is inadequate. I mostly suspect it was the latter and that Jesus spoke words of utmost respect and devotion, of love and adoration, of submission and gratitude that there were no adequate words to describe it.
Another significant prayer of which we have a record is the one the Saviour uttered at the Last Supper which we know as the ‘intercessory prayer’, and which could only be addressed to none but the Father whom He loved and longed to be with again (John 17):
“It has been called, and not inappropriately, the Lord’s High-Priestly Prayer. In it Jesus acknowledged the Father as the source of His power and authority, which authority extends even to the giving of eternal life to all who are worthy….With unfathomable love the Lord pleaded for those whom the Father had given Him, the apostles then present, who had been called out from the world, and who had been true to their testimony of Himself as the Son of God.” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p 609)
We too can speak such sublime words of worship. We can be given those words by the power of the Holy Ghost and we can speak with the tongue of angels each time we bend our knees and come before the throne of God who yearns to gather us into his bosom and bring us home (2 Nephi 32:2)
There is another form of prayer and that is a prayer of power. At the Last Supper, Jesus directed his disciples for the first time to pray to the Father in His name with assurance of success in supplication: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it (John 14:13,14). The name of Jesus Christ was to be thenceforth the divinely established talisman by which the powers of heaven could be invoked to operate in any righteous undertaking.” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p 603)
The prayer of power is not just any simple prayer with the mention of the Saviour’s name at the end. For it to glorify the Father, the supplication needs to be a submitted in conjunction with professed faith in Jesus Christ. Just mentioning Him at the end of the prayer is not sufficient in my mind.
A story of Alma and Amulek from the Book of
Mormon is an ideal example of this: Alma, and his convert and missionary companion, Amulek, found themselves
in captivity in the most wicked city where they sat in a dungeon naked,
suffering hunger, thirst, and physical abuse by their captors (Alma 14:18-23).
In the extremity of their captivity, Alma offered the
most heart-wrenching petition to God: “How long shall we suffer these great
afflictions, O Lord? O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which
is in Christ, even unto deliverance. ” (Alma 14:26). The cords which held
Alma and Amulek bound were broken instantly, the earth shook mightily, and the
walls of the prison were rent in twain. Alma and Amulek went out of the prison,
“and they were not hurt; for the Lord had granted unto them power, according
to their faith which was in Christ.” (v 28)
There is no greater prayer than the prayer
uttered through faith in Jesus Christ. I bear witness of this because I too was
a recipient of deliverance. Through my greatest trial in life, I prayed using
these words: “through my faith in Jesus Christ and the power of His Atonement,
I ask for the healing of my heart…….”.
It was a deliverance from pain I felt would split my chest open. The
healing came within weeks of consistent pleading through my unshaken faith in
Him who has bled that I might live.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Friday, 14 August 2026
SUBMISSION
You submitted to the Father’s will
To pave the path to glories unseen;
And bowed in humility Your godly knee
That all mankind like You can be.
-
CATHRYNE
ALLEN
THE ART OF PRAYER 1
I was speaking to a friend recently who told me he is presently teaching his children to say prayers of gratitude. For a time they are not allowed to ask for anything, only express gratitude to God for everything they receive at His hand. I was so touched by this because I believe in prayers of gratitude. I believe they bring us closer to God.
Another friend taught me years ago the true order of prayer which is praying by the power of the Holy Ghost. When we ask for his presence at the start of our prayer, we are given to ask for that which the Father is willing to give us for ‘he that asketh in the Spirit asketh according to the will of God; wherefore it is done even as he asketh’ (D&C 46:30). It’s an easy way of submitting to God’s will.
Praying by the power of the Holy Ghost also ensures that we do not ask for the wrong thing because ‘anything that is not expedient for us, shall turn unto our condemnation’ therefore we should not ‘ask for that which we ought not’ (D&C 8:10; 88:65)
I have learnt one interesting truth through prayer. There is no free lunch. That’s Satan’s philosophy. You get what you pray for but it comes with a price. I have noticed I have not prayed for one attribute I wanted without getting a difficulty or trial of some sort to enable me to develop what I’ve asked for. There is no magic wand that will change us into what we want to be overnight. If you pray like this make sure you are the person who is willing to change and to grow.
I believe there is also a higher and more supernal art of prayer. It is a prayer of worship. Whenever I come across someone’s prayer recorded in the scriptures I am touched to my core to hear such beautiful words of praise uttered by man. I am saddened that our prayers today fall short somewhat of reverence and worship they used to be anciently and now tend to be mere one-way dialogues of thanks and petitions for help. Some of us do not worship God for who He is and tend to speak to Him in all too familiar and common way as if He is our friend and so godly respect gets somewhat lost.
Consider the beautiful words of King Hezekiah’s prayer: “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth….” (Isaiah 37:16-20) or of King Mannaseh who was the most loathed and cursed king in history of Judah, the most idolatrous king who sacrificed his own son to a heathen god, added devotion of heavenly bodies and constellations to idol worship, who shed innocent blood of prophets and all the righteous men among Hebrews every day until he had filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to the other (2 Kings 21).
When the Assyrians carried him off to Babylon he saw the error of his ways and went to the Lord with the most profound prayer that is today known as The Prayer of Manasseh. A reference to the prayer, but not the prayer itself, is made in 2 Chronicles 33:19). The prayer is deemed to be Apocryphal by Jews and Christians alike and is used by some Christian Churches today. These are the words that touched my heart the most because they were uttered from the very depth of Manasseh’s heart: “O Lord, God of our fathers…unending and immeasurable are your promised mercies….O Lord I am justly afflicted because I did evil things before you….And now behold I AM BENDING THE KNEES OF MY HEART…” Have you ever heard a prayer of repentance as touching as this???
Manasseh’s prayer is today considered one that pays tribute to the merciful heart of God. Praying to God acknowledging His providence, mercy, grace, kindness, love and all the perfect attributes He possesses will bring us nearer to His throne because of the humility which will grow in our hearts and endear us to the God of heaven. Therein we will find forgiveness, mercy and deliverance and most importantly we will bring joy to His heart and be a delight to Him forever. And may we remember to bend the knees of our hearts next time we pray.
I stand all amazed as I am lifted to Thy throne,
To see Thy soul and all that Thou art.
If I had the might to plant Thee in each heart
Of all that breathes,
In pursuit of such a quest I would walk the earth
With apparent ease.
I long to praise the magnitude of words I cannot find
That tell the glory that is Thine.
As I can do so little all my desires to meet,
I place my loyal love at Thy holy feet.
Thursday, 13 August 2026
ODE TO THE HOLY GHOST
When
you softly whisper to my soul
I
know the Father is there
Ever
mindful of my needful care.
When
you softly whisper to my soul
I
know the Saviour will rescue me
When
I am tempest tossed onto a troubled sea.
When
you softly whisper to my soul
I
know angels are waiting to lift my heart
In
the still of the darkest night.
When
you softly whisper to my soul
I
know You will bring me home
And
never abandon my care,
You
are the gift that will guide me there.
-
CATHRYNE
ALLEN
THE LION
One
of the most endearing titles the Saviour has is ‘the Lion of Judah’ (Revelation
5:5). It denotes strength and power that balances the picture of the meek and
sacrificial Lamb mentioned in the following verse (v 6).
Before
the patriarch Jacob died he blessed his sons and their posterity and named the
tribe of Judah a ‘lion’s whelp’ (Genesis 49:9) which shall rule in Israel until
‘Shiloh’ (Christ, the Messiah, the Lion) shall come to gather His people (v
10).
To
be a lion of a tribe, one needs to have the blood of that tribe run through his
veins. Not only did Jesus have that blood that bonded Him to His mortal roots
but He had the social and cultural bonding with His people:
“Jesus
was a Jew; he was of the tribe of Judah. David, the Jew, was his fore-father,
and Mary, the Jewess, his mother. He grew up in a Jewish home, spoke the Jewish
Aramaic of the day, Learned Jewish customs and traditions, studied in Jewish
schools, read Jewish scripture, attended Jewish synagogues, and participated in
Jewish worship. From Bethlehem to Calvary, he was a Jew of the Jews.” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah
Book 1, p 296)
The
two instances in the scriptures where the Saviour is spoken of as the lion are
relative to His protectiveness of the House of Israel (Isaiah 31:4; Hosea
11:9,10; Revelation 5:5,6).
In
Hosea, the Saviour laments over Ephraim who has forsaken Him and exclaims,
‘mine heart is turned toward thee, and my mercies are extended to gather thee’
(v 8aJST). Hosea then says ‘He shall roar like a lion and the children shall
tremble from the west’ (v 10). We Ephraim, in the western hemisphere, have
certainly trembled at the sound of His voice as we have gathered to His earthly
kingdom restored in 1830 through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
On
his final visit to the Temple, prior to His crucifixion, the Saviour once again
proclaimed His divine Sonship. For the
last time He cried out loud that He who believes Him, believes Him who sent Him
(John 12:44). I think of the Lion in Him when I picture this scene. This was
the last call to the Jewish nation to believe in Him as the Son of God and the
Lion of Judah who ‘washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of
grapes’ to atone for His people (Genesis 49:11). Instead of belief, the people
questioned, ‘who is this Son of Man’ that you say must be lifted up? (John 12:34).
Who
is this Son of Man? He is the Son of Man of Holiness, who is God the Father,
for Man of Holiness is His name (Moses 5:57); He is the light of the world and
whosoever believes in Him will not abide in darkness (John 12:46); He is the
Son of God under whose command He came to preach all righteousness and that
salvation is through Him and of Him (v 49); He is the Father’s servant who came
to offer life everlasting to all who believe on His name (v 50). He is the
bread of life (John 6:35,41,48,51); He is the light of the world (John 8:12;
9:5); He is the good shepherd (John 10:11,14); He is the resurrection and the
life (John 11:25); He is the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6); He is
the Messiah, the Lord Omnipotent, Alpha and Omega, He is Jesus the Christ, the
King of Glory.......….…….can you hear the roar???
I
remember coming to You
Long
ago through the water’s gate,
So
inviting, wide open for my soul to embrace.
You
flowed through my heart since that day
Showing
me the wonder of You;
I
have seen Your agonizing sacrifice,
And
Your spilt blood too.
I
hear You, I am Your sheep,
I
know You and Your sacrificial pains
For
the believing blood of Israel
Runs
through my veins.
Wednesday, 12 August 2026
WILLING TO GIVE
All that is unspoken
And all that is unseen
All that I feel
In the depths of my soul
I long to give to Thee.
And all that You ask of me
And all that I am
I will place
On the altar of sacrifice
for Thee.
I give You my all
As You gave Your all
Because a heart
Can give no more.
-
CATHRYNE
ALLEN
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