My friend, Jerilyn, made a video of all the references to Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Parents in General Conference. Enjoy! Also... the "Heavenly F.. Parents" still get me. Love it!
Likening the scriptures to include our Mother in Heaven
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Monday, August 5, 2013
Heavenly Mother Poetry and Art Contest
Martin Pulido, who coauthored the BYU Studies article, A Mother There, is hosting, along with other groups such as the Exponent, a contest.
From the contest announcement:
ABOUT: This contest celebrates the wondrous truth that we have “a mother there” in heaven overseeing our spiritual development. But while in heaven, our Heavenly Mother is present to us now. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland observed, our “heavenly parents are reaching across... streams and mountains and deserts, anxious to hold [us] close.” This art contest aims to express the nearness of our Heavenly Mother. We welcome visual and literary arts submissions that communicate this theme, as well as other submissions that focus on Heavenly Mother.
ELIGIBILITY: The contest is open to all artists and poets. All works must be original and appropriate for public display. Each person is limited to 5 submissions. Each contestant can only win 1 award in each category. There is no entry fee.
PREPARING YOUR ENTRY: Entries should be e-mailed to contest@amotherhere.com. Art entries should be sent in a high resolution (300 dpi) JPG format, but file sizes should not exceed 15 MB. Only 2-dimensional arts submissions will be accepted. Poetry entries should be in English, not exceed 800 words, and be sent in a PDF (preferred), DOCX, DOC, or RTF format. Names or other identifying information must not be on the poems. Please include inside your e-mail your name, address, phone number, the name of your entry, and a short description of your work (150 words max).
JUDGING: An initial round of judging will be conducted by a panel. After that, the art prize winners will be chosen by Herman Du Toit and poetry prize winners will be selected by
Susan Elizabeth Howe.
There will be cash prices of up to $500 for first place. Deadline is March 4, 2014.
The contest is generously being sponsored by Exponent II, Peculiar Pages (publisher of literary anthologies like Fire in the Pasture and Monsters & Mormons) and LDS WAVE. However, to fully fund the prizes and pay judges, the contest is still looking for donations. Visit www.amotherhere.com to contribute or to find out more information.
Check it out!
From the contest announcement:
ABOUT: This contest celebrates the wondrous truth that we have “a mother there” in heaven overseeing our spiritual development. But while in heaven, our Heavenly Mother is present to us now. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland observed, our “heavenly parents are reaching across... streams and mountains and deserts, anxious to hold [us] close.” This art contest aims to express the nearness of our Heavenly Mother. We welcome visual and literary arts submissions that communicate this theme, as well as other submissions that focus on Heavenly Mother.
ELIGIBILITY: The contest is open to all artists and poets. All works must be original and appropriate for public display. Each person is limited to 5 submissions. Each contestant can only win 1 award in each category. There is no entry fee.
PREPARING YOUR ENTRY: Entries should be e-mailed to contest@amotherhere.com. Art entries should be sent in a high resolution (300 dpi) JPG format, but file sizes should not exceed 15 MB. Only 2-dimensional arts submissions will be accepted. Poetry entries should be in English, not exceed 800 words, and be sent in a PDF (preferred), DOCX, DOC, or RTF format. Names or other identifying information must not be on the poems. Please include inside your e-mail your name, address, phone number, the name of your entry, and a short description of your work (150 words max).
JUDGING: An initial round of judging will be conducted by a panel. After that, the art prize winners will be chosen by Herman Du Toit and poetry prize winners will be selected by
Susan Elizabeth Howe.
There will be cash prices of up to $500 for first place. Deadline is March 4, 2014.
The contest is generously being sponsored by Exponent II, Peculiar Pages (publisher of literary anthologies like Fire in the Pasture and Monsters & Mormons) and LDS WAVE. However, to fully fund the prizes and pay judges, the contest is still looking for donations. Visit www.amotherhere.com to contribute or to find out more information.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Symbols of Heavenly Mother
Last week I blogged at the Exponent about symbols of Heavenly Mother. I had to cut off my blog post early because it was just going to keep going and going. I think I want to make a regular sort of column like that based on different goddess myths. Of course, that means I'm going to need to read some goddess myths. To the library webpage for reserving books!
This blog will get more love soon. <3 nbsp="">
This blog will get more love soon. <3 nbsp="">
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Retreat
Last month I went to a retreat with other Mormon feminists. One of the speakers was Margaret Toscano and she gave her powerpoint presentation about images of the Goddess in ancient times and today. She had some slides great artwork by modern Mormon artists- if I get the names, I'll share them here.
Ooh... powerpoint...
A couple of the other attendees of the retreat had studied some Pagan traditions and led a popular Pagan Goddess chant.
It was new to me. The first line "We all come from the Goddess," made do an inner nod, "Yes we do all come from Heavenly Mother." But the second line made me start tearing up, "And to her we shall return."
Part of it is that I don't handle death well. I don't like to think of me or the people I love dying in the future. But this stanza is right- we all die. And we all go back to our Creators. And Heavenly Mother will be there along with Heavenly Father. It's not something I think about often, but it was very powerful for me at that moment.
In the next month or so I'm going to be doing a post at the Exponent about Heavenly Mother and I'll cross post it here for you all.
Ooh... powerpoint...
A couple of the other attendees of the retreat had studied some Pagan traditions and led a popular Pagan Goddess chant.
We all come from the Goddess
And to her we shall return
Like a drop of rain
Flowing to the ocean.
It was new to me. The first line "We all come from the Goddess," made do an inner nod, "Yes we do all come from Heavenly Mother." But the second line made me start tearing up, "And to her we shall return."
Part of it is that I don't handle death well. I don't like to think of me or the people I love dying in the future. But this stanza is right- we all die. And we all go back to our Creators. And Heavenly Mother will be there along with Heavenly Father. It's not something I think about often, but it was very powerful for me at that moment.
In the next month or so I'm going to be doing a post at the Exponent about Heavenly Mother and I'll cross post it here for you all.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Mother's Day Re-cap
For the past few years with this blog, I've noticed a resurgence of Heavenly Mother in Mormon blogs during the Mother's Day season. On the Mormon Facebook groups, I saw many reports of Heavenly Mother being mentioned in talks and lessons for Mother's Day.
First, probably the most passed-around Heavenly Mother article was Peggy Fletcher Stack's Tribune article, "A Mormon mystery returns: Who is Heavenly Mother?" Great quotes in the article. Read it!
Real Intent has a post, "Truth Eternal Tells Me I've a Mother There."
As for myself, yesterday in church, I decided to change the hymn lyrics, not just from "Father" to "Parents" but to "Mother" just for the day. Our opening and closing songs were Sabbath Day and Lord, We Ask Thee Ere We Part, which I've already re-written here, but I wanted to share Sabbath Day with "Mother" here.
In sweet remembrance of thy Son,
We gather in thy house as one
To join in prayer, to sing thy praise,
To worship thee and learn thy ways.
Mother, on this the Sabbath day,
Be with us gathered here, we pray.
And may our thoughts still turn to thee,
With loved ones, friends, and family.
In all we do till day is gone,
May worship still continue on.
Mother, on this the Sabbath day,
Be with us in our homes, we pray.
Help each to seek a quiet hour
To read thy word and feel thy pow’r,
To hear thy voice, though small and still,
Renew our strength to do thy will.
Mother, on this the Sabbath day,
Be with us in our hearts, we pray.
Happy Mother's Day!
First, probably the most passed-around Heavenly Mother article was Peggy Fletcher Stack's Tribune article, "A Mormon mystery returns: Who is Heavenly Mother?" Great quotes in the article. Read it!
Real Intent has a post, "Truth Eternal Tells Me I've a Mother There."
As for myself, yesterday in church, I decided to change the hymn lyrics, not just from "Father" to "Parents" but to "Mother" just for the day. Our opening and closing songs were Sabbath Day and Lord, We Ask Thee Ere We Part, which I've already re-written here, but I wanted to share Sabbath Day with "Mother" here.
In sweet remembrance of thy Son,
We gather in thy house as one
To join in prayer, to sing thy praise,
To worship thee and learn thy ways.
Mother, on this the Sabbath day,
Be with us gathered here, we pray.
And may our thoughts still turn to thee,
With loved ones, friends, and family.
In all we do till day is gone,
May worship still continue on.
Mother, on this the Sabbath day,
Be with us in our homes, we pray.
Help each to seek a quiet hour
To read thy word and feel thy pow’r,
To hear thy voice, though small and still,
Renew our strength to do thy will.
Mother, on this the Sabbath day,
Be with us in our hearts, we pray.
Happy Mother's Day!
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Heavenly Parents, Conference Edition
Remember when I looked at how often "Heavenly Parents" was mentioned in church materials? Well, this past weekend in Conference, it seemed like there was unprecedented mention of "Heavenly Parents" in talks.
Most fun was Elder Ballard's mention of "Heavenly Parents." His talk is here, and at 10:55, you can here him start saying "Heavenly F... Parents." He changed his mind mid-word!
Here are the quotes I found:
Elder Ballard, "And the primary purpose of this priesthood power is to bless, sanctify, and purify us so we can live together with our families in the presence of our heavenly parents, bound by priesthood sealings, participating in the marvelous work of God and Jesus Christ in forever expanding Their light and glory."
Elder Christoffel Golden Jr., "Seen in its true light, the doctrine of the Father and the Son is the doctrine of the eternal family. Every human being has existed previously as a spirit child with heavenly parents, with Christ being the Firstborn of the Father in this heavenly family.
Elder Bednar quoted the "Heavenly Parents" line in the proclamation.
Elder Oaks, "Under that plan we are all heirs of our heavenly parents."
That's all could find- it seems the Church has changed their "search" feature on their website and now it's more difficult to find what I'm looking for! Alas!
Interesting to note: when speakers refer to "Heavenly Father" the words are considered proper nouns and are capitalized. "Heavenly parents" is not considered a proper noun in these talks. I'm not sure I like that.
Most fun was Elder Ballard's mention of "Heavenly Parents." His talk is here, and at 10:55, you can here him start saying "Heavenly F... Parents." He changed his mind mid-word!
Here are the quotes I found:
Elder Ballard, "And the primary purpose of this priesthood power is to bless, sanctify, and purify us so we can live together with our families in the presence of our heavenly parents, bound by priesthood sealings, participating in the marvelous work of God and Jesus Christ in forever expanding Their light and glory."
Elder Christoffel Golden Jr., "Seen in its true light, the doctrine of the Father and the Son is the doctrine of the eternal family. Every human being has existed previously as a spirit child with heavenly parents, with Christ being the Firstborn of the Father in this heavenly family.
Elder Bednar quoted the "Heavenly Parents" line in the proclamation.
Elder Oaks, "Under that plan we are all heirs of our heavenly parents."
That's all could find- it seems the Church has changed their "search" feature on their website and now it's more difficult to find what I'm looking for! Alas!
Interesting to note: when speakers refer to "Heavenly Father" the words are considered proper nouns and are capitalized. "Heavenly parents" is not considered a proper noun in these talks. I'm not sure I like that.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Behold the Great Redeemer Die
I thought about this song on Easter Sunday, but forgot to put it up. I changed "Father" to "Parents" as well as "man" to "all".
1. Behold the great Redeemer die,
A broken law to satisfy.
He dies a sacrifice for sin,
He dies a sacrifice for sin,
That all may live and glory win.
2. While guilty men his pains deride,
They pierce his hands and feet and side;
And with insulting scoffs and scorns,
And with insulting scoffs and scorns,
They crown his head with plaited thorns.
3. Although in agony he hung,
No murm'ring word escaped his tongue.
His high commission to fulfill,
His high commission to fulfill,
He magnified his Parents' will.
4. "Parents, from me remove this cup.
Yet, if thou wilt, I'll drink it up.
I've done the work thou gavest me,
I've done the work thou gavest me;
Receive my spirit unto thee."
5. He died, and at the awful sight
The sun in shame withdrew its light!
Earth trembled, and all nature sighed,
Earth trembled, and all nature sighed
In dread response, "A God has died!"
6. He lives--he lives. We humbly now
Around these sacred symbols bow
And seek, as Saints of latter days,
And seek, as Saints of latter days,
To do his will and live his praise.
1. Behold the great Redeemer die,
A broken law to satisfy.
He dies a sacrifice for sin,
He dies a sacrifice for sin,
That all may live and glory win.
2. While guilty men his pains deride,
They pierce his hands and feet and side;
And with insulting scoffs and scorns,
And with insulting scoffs and scorns,
They crown his head with plaited thorns.
3. Although in agony he hung,
No murm'ring word escaped his tongue.
His high commission to fulfill,
His high commission to fulfill,
He magnified his Parents' will.
4. "Parents, from me remove this cup.
Yet, if thou wilt, I'll drink it up.
I've done the work thou gavest me,
I've done the work thou gavest me;
Receive my spirit unto thee."
5. He died, and at the awful sight
The sun in shame withdrew its light!
Earth trembled, and all nature sighed,
Earth trembled, and all nature sighed
In dread response, "A God has died!"
6. He lives--he lives. We humbly now
Around these sacred symbols bow
And seek, as Saints of latter days,
And seek, as Saints of latter days,
To do his will and live his praise.
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