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
I
wondered why You were absent
When
I most needed Thee;
I
felt so alone in my suffering,
Yet
You promised You’d be with us in everything.
I
thought I was in my own Garden of Gethsemane,
Until
I saw Your footprints
And
Your drops of blood
That
eluded me.
I
looked around and I understood
You
knew every tree,
Every
shrub, even every blade
Of
grass in Your vicinity.
I
was in Your garden, not mine,
that beckoned me.
I
realised You were there still
Praying
for my weak soul to come to Thee.
I
will come, I will honour Thee;
Let
me first sit under this tree a while
To
reflect upon Your suffering.
-
Cathryne Allen
Thy
infinite mercy
Thy
limitless goodness
Thy
bountiful compassion,
A
gift to those who loveth Thee;
Trailing
from the cross of Calvary,
Sealed
with Your hour of agony.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
I bent my knee today to Thee,
And You listened very carefully.
My heart split open,
And You could see
One still worthy of her destiny.
I marvelled how quick
You wiped my slate so clean
And so gently said to me:
I understand your mortal suffering,
I met you in Gethsemane.
- Cathryne Allen
“We need mercy.
Whether it is because of our “weakness and liability to sin” or for the trials
we are called to pass through, we need the tempering mercy of God to sustain
us. Both our weaknesses and our trials bring suffering, which are ameliorated
by the compassion of God himself.
“A 1986 Guideposts magazine contains the story of a
woman who discovered what she called “the nevertheless principle”. She had been
facing a difficult experience with her husband’s having a malignant brain
tumor. She said that in the midst of the experience, at a moment of her
greatest pleading, God granted her a word in a moment of inspiration. This
single word was nevertheless:
“I knew it had to be a special word, though I didn’t
yet know it would become a life-style. I was sure only that it was a kind of
promise. It was even a powerful little phrase: never the less.
“Never the less with God, no matter what. Always the
most….Though doctors pronounced Jerry incurable, nevertheless, he would be
gloriously healed. Perhaps not here on earth as we had all prayed. If Jerry’s
physical body should die, nevertheless, he would go on living in another,
greater dimension. (Marion Bond West, “One Simple Word from God”, p 12).
“The woman began researching this word in her Bible,
finding it 90 times. Her story, simple but intriguing, has potential to lead
any of us to the scriptures to find the “nevertheless” verses…..”nevertheless”
verses in the scriptures quite often direct our attention to God’s mercy, such
as:
“For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least
degree of allowance: Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of
the Lord shall be forgiven (D&C 1:31-32)
“If the Lord could not look upon sin with the least
degree of allowance, ‘period’ or ‘exclamation point’, then all of us would be
lost. But since that scripture uses a semicolon, along with that merciful word nevertheless,
you and I have hope, born of God’s mercy.” (Jerry A. Wilson, The Great Plan of
Happiness-Insights from the lectures on Faith, p 39-40)
I had a memory from my pre-earth life some years ago.
I was sitting with the Saviour and He was saying to me: “I will save you and I
will make up for everything.”
I think what He meant by the ‘making-up process’ is
this: You will go through some tough spots and you will have to endure them but
when you are alone, I will send you people who care; when you need
understanding to help you cope, I will send you the Holy Ghost to teach you;
when you need somewhere to lay down your head, I will provide a shelter for
you. You will be hurting, you will be impoverished, you will be sick, nevertheless
I will always be there…..this is mercy.
I can testify that this has come true for me. Over the
years of my difficult life, I have lacked for nothing: I have been provided
with friends that became my family, a network of help from the Church, anything
I have lacked has come to me from different sources…..furniture, car,
utilities, homes….never the less, always the most…..
There is none like Thee,
My Saviour and my King,
Showing mercy and kindness
To someone insignificant like me.
Who can compare and who can equal Thee
In Thy merciful care of me?
Let me worship Thee
With my lips and my heart
And help me be steadfast
From Thy favour never to part.
- Cathryne Allen
Thou
art our everlasting God
Jehovah,
our King,
Who
has loved us and chosen us as Thine own;
Keep
us as the apple of Thine eye,
Hide
us under the shadow of Thy wings
That
we might never stray
And
cause Thee sorrow;
And
help us wait for Thee
In
the dawning of tomorrow.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
In the beginning,
When the worlds came to be
I created everything needful
For you to become like Me.
I planned, I considered,
I knew each of you separately,
And I hoped against hope
You would want to become like Me.
Now I hear each plea
And answer it carefully,
Leading you gently to
Your own Gethsemane,
To become like Me.
-
Cathryne
Allen
Your love, O
Your love!
Like a
soothing balm
From gilded
courts on high;
It flows, and
it calms,
It seeks and
it finds the troubled mind.
It gathers and
it lifts the sorrowing,
the lame, the
weak;
Ever and ever
Your mercy divine
Looks for
those who achingly weep.
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
