unable are the loved to die

Unable are the Loved to die

For Love is Immortality,

Nay, it is Deity —

Unable they that love — to die

For Love reforms Vitality

Into Divinity.

Emily Dickinson

Unable are the Loved to die. American Poems, © 2000–2022 Gunnar Bengtsson.

heart & death

Several years ago, my wife and I served as mission leaders in Tokyo, Japan. During a visit to our mission by then-Elder Russell M. Nelson, one of the missionaries asked him how best to respond when a person tells them that they are too busy to listen to them. With little hesitation, Elder Nelson said, “I would ask if they were too busy to eat lunch that day and then teach them that they have both a body and a spirit, and just as their body will die if not nourished, so will their spirit if not nourished by the good word of God.”

It is interesting to note that the Japanese word for “busy,” isogashii, is made up of a character with two symbols (忙). The one on the left means “heart” or “spirit,” and the one on the right means “death”—suggesting perhaps, as President Nelson taught, that being too busy to nourish our spirits can lead us to die spiritually.

L. Todd Budge

"Seek Him with All Your Heart" General Conference October 2024

mortality works

For several years I was assigned to home teach an older sister in my ward. She did not have an easy life. She had various health problems and experienced a lifetime of pain due to a childhood accident on the playground. Divorced at age 32 with four young children to raise and provide for, she remarried at age 50. Her second husband passed away when she was 66, and this sister lived an additional 26 years as a widow.

Despite her lifelong challenges, she was faithful to her covenants to the end. This sister was an avid genealogist, a temple attender, and a collector and writer of family histories. Though she had many difficult trials, and without question she felt at times sadness and loneliness, she had a cheerful countenance and a gracious and pleasant personality.

Nine months after her passing, one of her sons had a remarkable experience in the temple. He learned by the power of the Holy Ghost that his mother had a message for him. She communicated with him, but not by vision or audible words. The following unmistakable message came into the son’s mind from his mother: “I want you to know that mortality works, and I want you to know that I now understand why everything happened [in my life] the way it did—and it is all OK.”

Brook P. Hales

"Mortality Works!" General Conference October 2024

but for what the Lord knew the person needed

Holiness to the Lord in everyday life looks like a young returning missionary who learned to let God prevail in his life. Earlier, when asked to bless someone who was very sick, this missionary said, “I have faith; I will bless him to recover. Yet,” the returning missionary says, “I learned in that moment to pray not for what I wanted but for what the Lord knew the person needed. I blessed the brother with peace and comfort. He later passed away peacefully.

Gerrit W. Gong

"Holiness to the Lord in Everyday Life" General Conference October 2024

the joy of the tomb bursting open

We may have been conditioned to suppose that the purpose of the sacrament is to sit in the pew thinking only about all the ways we messed up during the week before. But let’s turn that practice on its head. In the stillness, we can ponder the many ways we have seen the Lord relentlessly pursue us with His wonderful love that week! We can reflect on what it means to “discover the joy of daily repentance.” We can give thanks for the times the Saviour entered into our struggles and our triumphs and the occasions when we felt His grace, forgiveness, and power giving us strength to overcome our hardships and bear our burdens with patience and even good cheer.

Yes, we ponder the sufferings and injustices inflicted upon our Redeemer for our sin, and that does cause sober reflection. But we sometimes get stuck there—in the garden, at the cross, inside the tomb. We fail to move upward to the joy of the tomb bursting open, the defeat of death, and Christ’s victory over all that might prevent us from gaining peace and returning to our heavenly home. Whether we shed tears of sorrow or tears of gratitude during the sacrament, let it be in awesome wonder at the good news of the Father’s gift of His Son!

Patrick Kearon

"Welcome to the Church of Joy" General Conference October 2024

with great fervency and reverence

My wife and I have personally experienced some sacred mountain moments in reverence as we have strived to apply these principles in our life, which has caused a meaningful transformation in our discipleship. I remember like it was yesterday walking through the cemetery before burying our second child, who was born prematurely and did not survive, while my wife was still recovering in the hospital. I recall praying to God with great fervency and reverence, asking for help to cope with that challenging trial. In that instant, I received a clear and powerful spiritual assurance in my heart: Everything will be fine in our lives if my wife and I endure, holding on to the joy that comes from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. What seemed like an overwhelming, sorrowful challenge at the time turned into a sacred, reverent experience, a capstone that has helped sustain our faith and has given us confidence in the covenants we have made with the Lord and in His promises for me and my family.

Ulisses Soares

"Reverence for Sacred Things", General Conference April 2025

the promises of the sacramental covenant

Last year I met an inspired bishop and his wonderful wife. On a recent Saturday morning, they were driving to their son’s baptism and suffered the tragic and sudden loss of their darling two-year-old daughter, Tess.

The next morning their ward members gathered for sacrament meeting filled with compassion, also suffering over the loss of this perfect little girl. No one expected the bishop’s family to be at church that morning, but a couple of minutes before the meeting started, they quietly entered and took their place.

The bishop went to the stand and walked past his usual seat between his counselors and sat down instead between his priests at the sacrament table.

During that anguished and sleepless night before of searching for understanding and peace, he had received a strong impression of what his family most needed—and what his ward most needed. It was to hear the voice of their bishop, their ward Aaronic Priesthood president, their grieving father, pronounce the promises of the sacramental covenant.

So, in due course, he knelt with those priests and spoke to His Father. With the pathos of that occasion, he pronounced some of the most powerful words that anyone is ever allowed to say out loud in this lifetime.

Words of eternal consequence.

Words of ordinance.

Words of covenant.

Instruction that connects us to the very purposes of this life—and to the most magnificent outcomes of Heavenly Father’s plan for us.

Can you imagine what the congregation heard in that chapel that day—what they felt in the words that we hear every Sunday in our chapels?

“O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:77).

And then: “O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this [water] to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them; that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:79).

This good father and mother testify that that promise has been fulfilled. They do, in fact, to their everlasting comfort, “have his Spirit to be with them.”

Steven J. Lund

"Divine Authority, Sublime Young Men", General Conference April 2025

the fundamental principles of our religion

The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.

Joseph Smith

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), as found in "The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told," by Gary E. Stevenson. General Conference April 2023

professor of happiness

While on a business flight several years ago, I found myself seated next to a man from the Netherlands. I was eager to visit with him since I had served in Belgium and the Netherlands as a young missionary.

As we became acquainted, he gave me his business card with the unique job title of “professor of happiness.” I commented on his amazing profession and asked him what a professor of happiness did. He said he taught people how to have a happy life by establishing meaningful relationships and goals. I replied, “That’s wonderful, but what if you could also teach how those relationships can continue beyond the grave and answer other questions of the soul, such as what is the purpose of life, how can we overcome our weaknesses, and where do we go after we die?” He admitted that it would be amazing if we had the answers to those questions, and I was pleased to share with him that we do.

Gary B. Sabin

"Hallmarks of Happiness," General Conference October 2023

but if not...

First, there were the three young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, whose response to a persecuting king was, as they were about to be thrown into a fiery furnace heated seven times its usual capacity:

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace...

And then the three words: 

But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve they gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up (Daniel 3:17-18).

But if not... There will be times in each of our lives when our faith must not be conditioned upon God's rescuing or relieving us, because in fact, He may not - at least, not as we would choose to be rescued.  

 

Neal A. Maxwell

Not My Will, but Thine by Neal A. Maxwell. 2008. Deseret Book. p. 129

Fear of death is fear of what we may experience. Nothing at all, or something quite new. But if we experience nothing, we can experience nothing bad. And if our experience changes, then our existence will change with it – change, but not cease.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Modern Library. 2003. P.113, Book 8, #58. Also see The Internet Classics Archive | The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (mit.edu)

To feel affection for people even when they make mistakes is uniquely human. You can do it, if you simply recognize that they’re human too, that they act out of ignorance, against their will, and that you’ll both be dead before long. And, above all, that they haven’t really hurt you. They haven’t diminished your ability to choose. 

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Modern Library. 2003. P.88, Book 7, #22. Also see The Internet Classics Archive | The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (mit.edu)

do the right thing

Just that you do the right thing. The rest doesn’t matter.

Cold or warm.

Tired or well-rested.

Despised or honored.

Dying… or busy with other assignments.

Because dying, too, is one of our assignments in life. There as well: “to do what needs doing.”

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Modern Library. 2003. P.69, Book 6, #2. Also see The Internet Classics Archive | The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (mit.edu)

brief and fleeting

Remember: 

Matter. How tiny your share of it.

Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment of it.

Fate. How small a role you play in it.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Modern Library. 2003. P.61, Book 5, #24. Also see The Internet Classics Archive | The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (mit.edu)

excited by posthumous fame

People who are excited by posthumous fame forget that the people who remember them will soon die too. And those after them in turn. Until their memory, passed from one to another like a candle flame, sputters and goes out.

But suppose that those who remembered you were immortal and your memory undying. What good would it do you? And I don’t just mean when you’re dead, but in your own lifetime. What use is praise, except to make your lifestyle a little more comfortable?

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Modern Library. 2003. P.41, Book 4, #19. Also see The Internet Classics Archive | The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (mit.edu)

time to disembark

Hippocrates cured many illnesses – and then fell ill and died. The Chaldaeans predicted the deaths of many others; in due course their own hour arrived. Alexander, Pompey, Caesar – who utterly destroyed so many cities, cut down so many thousand foot and horse in battle – they too departed this life. Heraclitus often told us the world would end in fire. But it was moisture that carried him off; he died smeared with cowshit. Democritus was killed by ordinary vermin, Socrates by the human kind.

And? 

You boarded, you set sail, you’ve made the passage. Time to disembark. If it’s for another life, well, there’s nowhere without gods on that side either. If to nothingness, then you no longer have to put up with pain and pleasure, or go on dancing attendance on this battered crate, your body – so much inferior to that which serves it. 

One is mind and spirit, the other earth and garbage.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Modern Library. 2003. P.28, Book 3, #3. Also see The Internet Classics Archive | The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (mit.edu)

you could leave life right now

You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Modern Library. 2003. p. 20, Book 2, #11. Also see The Internet Classics Archive | The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (mit.edu)

death is the enemy

How can any of us be cruel to one another? How are wars possible, and hate, when we must all face such things? Death is the enemy, and life itself is inimical, for all its bounty. We must hold one another close against the cosmic perils.

Majorie Kinnan Rawlings

Cross Creek. 1942. Mockingbird Books Inc. p.259

the opposite of love

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.

Elie Wiesel 

U.S. News and World Report 27 October 1986

we live to die, and we die to live again

It is true. We live to die, and we die to live again. From an eternal perspective, the only death that is truly premature is the death of one who is not prepared to meet God.

Russell M. Nelson, "Face the Future with Faith." April 2011 General Conference