These firesides generate quite a
bit of warmth. I can feel it clear down here. We’ve been delighted by that
beautiful musical number. We are honored by the presence of President and
Sister Oaks; Dr. Russell M. Nelson, one of the regional representatives; the
stake presidencies; and all of you. I am most honored to be with my beloved
wife, Ruth, who to me is the most important person in all the world.
This evening I wish to speak
about one of the most important blessings available to worthy members of the
Church. I speak of patriarchal blessings. My chief reason for speaking upon
this subject is that patriarchal blessings verify the divinity of Christ and
the truthfulness of the Church. These sacred blessings also strengthen the
personal testimonies of those worthy persons who are the recipients of such
blessings, provided those recipients live so as to merit the blessings
pronounced therein. A patriarchal blessing is a very unique and remarkable
privilege that can come to the faithful members of the Church having sufficient
maturity to understand the nature and the importance of such blessings. These
privileged blessings are a powerful witness of the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ
in bringing exaltation to each of us. Like many blessings, they must be
requested by the person or by the family of the one desiring the blessing. The
responsibility for a patriarchal blessing rests primarily upon the individual
and family.
Our testimonies can be
strengthened and fortified and our lives given greater purpose every time we
read and reread our patriarchal blessings. By their very nature, all blessings
are qualified and conditional, regardless of whether the blessing specifically
spells out the qualification or not. Each blessing is absolutely qualified and
given upon the condition of the faithfulness of the recipient of the blessing.
We now have stakes of Zion
The
Patriarchs
I wish to pay tribute to the
faithful men holding this great calling and ordination. They are often among
the most humble and faithful of our brethren. These chosen men live lives that
entitle them to the inspiration of heaven. Patriarchs are privileged to impart
blessings directly rather than just solicit blessings to the individual, for
the patriarchs are entitled to speak authoritatively for the Lord. The office
of patriarch is one of the great separate priesthood offices of the Melchizedek
Priesthood. The patriarchal office is one of blessing, not of administration,
nor of counseling. It is a sacred, spiritual calling that usually will be the
remainder of the patriarch’s life. Our patriarchs give total devotion to their
callings and do all they can to live in faith and worthiness so that each
blessing is inspired
As each patriarch receives the
spirit of his calling and devotes himself to it, his calling becomes beautiful,
sacred, spiritual, and fulfilling.
The
Blessing
When moved upon by the Holy
Spirit, the patriarch makes an inspired declaration of the lineage of the
recipient together with such blessings, spiritual gifts, promises, advice,
admonition, and warnings as the patriarch feels inspired to give. It is in
essence a prophetic utterance. Generally, one patriarchal blessing is adequate,
and second patriarchal blessings are not encouraged. If a worthy member has an important
reason for desiring a second patriarchal blessing, the member may discuss it
with his or her bishop.
The giving of additional
patriarchal blessings may have been more common in the past. My grandmother,
Maude Wetzel Faust, was challenged like most mothers with the raising of her
children. She made an offhanded remark that the children were driving her
crazy. My grandfather took her to the stake patriarch who blessed her that her “reason
would never be dethroned.” The blessing was literally fulfilled. She died at
eighty-seven years of age, and she was joking with the nurses on the way to the
operating room where she died from a ruptured appendix.
Patriarchal blessings should be
read humbly and prayerfully and frequently. A patriarchal blessing is very
personal, but may be shared with family members. A patriarchal blessing is a
sacred guideline of counsel, promises, and information from the Lord. However,
a person should not expect that the blessing will detail all that will happen
to him or her, or be an answer to all questions. The omission of the blessing
of a great event in life such as a mission or marriage does not mean it will
not happen. My own blessing is short and is limited to perhaps three quarters
of one page on one side, yet it has been completely adequate and perfect for
me.
President Heber J. Grant tells
of the length of a patriarchal blessing he received: “That patriarch put his
hands upon my head and bestowed upon me a little blessing that would perhaps be
about one third of a typewritten page. That blessing foretold my life to the
present moment” (James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5 vols. [Salt Lake City
When
Are Patriarchal Blessings Fulfilled?
Elder John A. Widtsoe had the
following to say:
It should always be kept in mind
that the realization of the promises made may come in this life or the future
life. Men have stumbled at times because promised blessings have not occurred
in this life. They have failed to remember that, in the gospel, life with all
its activities continues forever and that the labors of earth may be continued
in heaven. Besides, the giver of the blessings, the Lord, reserves the right to
have them become active in our lives as suits his divine purposes. We and our
blessings are in the hands of the Lord, but there is a general testimony that
when the gospel law has been obeyed, the promised blessings have been realized. [Evidences and Reconciliations (Salt Lake
City: Bookcraft, 1960),p. 75].
This was well illustrated in my
father’s patriarchal blessing. He was told in his blessing that he would be
blessed with “many beautiful daughters.” He and my mother became the parents of
five sons. There were no daughters born to them, but of course they treated the
wives of their sons as daughters. This last summer when we had a family
reunion, I saw my father’s granddaughters moving about tending to the food and
ministering to the young children and the elderly, and the realization came to
me that Father’s blessing had been literally fulfilled; he has, indeed, many
beautiful daughters. The patriarch who gave my father his blessing had
spiritual vision to see beyond this life. There was a disappearance of the
dividing line between time and eternity. The patriarch has no blessing of his
own to give; the blessing is the Lord’s to give. God knows our spirits; he
knows our strengths and weaknesses. He knows our capabilities and our
potential. Our patriarchal blessings indicate what the Lord expects of us and
what our potential can be. Our blessings can encourage us when we are
discouraged, strengthen us when we are fearful, comfort us when we sorrow, give
us courage when we are filled with anxiety, lift us up when we are weak in
spirit.
Father’s
Blessings
Elder John A. Widtsoe stated: “Every
father, having children born to him under the covenant, is to them a patriarch,
and he has the right to bless his posterity in the authority of the priesthood
which he holds” (Evidences and Reconciliations, p. 72).
There are those who feel that
the order of governing in families by the parents, under the influence of the
priesthood held by the father and fully shared by the mother, should be
changed. The patriarchy and the patriarchs of the Church are being attacked. We
know that the gospel always has been and always will be operated through
families.
Since early biblical times order
has been brought into the house of Israel
The same is true today for
substantially the same reasons. No other unit of society can provide an
effective substitute for the natural ties of love and affection inherent in
families.
The natural leaders of the
family unit are the parents, standing side by side as equals in their loving
guidance of their children. Each parent brings a separate enriching influence.
The patriarchal order is a righteous priesthood order in which that influence
is dominant in family affairs. Whatever diminishes the family order is
destructive to the family unity, the family life, and the family progress.
The patriarchal order does not
just involve men. It involves equally and fully the women of the family in
their joint and separate activities. It also blesses the wives and children and
their descendants as they come together in family functions and activities.
Our great work in genealogy
research and temple work centers around the ancient promise of the hearts of
the children being turned to their fathers in order that all of the blessings
of the Lord may be offered to Abraham’s seed.
Genealogical ancestry or blood
lines are of importance because our lineage is a chain or linkage through which
many of our blessings flow. This began with father Abraham: “I give unto thee a
promise that this right [meaning the right to receive the gospel and the
priesthood] shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee” (Abr. 2:11).
This teaching has been reconfirmed in our day and time through this statement
found in the Doctrine and Covenants: “Thus saith the Lord unto you, with whom
the priesthood hath continued through the lineage of your fathers--For ye are
lawful heirs, according to the flesh, . . . Your life and the priesthood have
remained, and must needs remain through you and your lineage” (D&C 86:810).
President John Taylor made the
following statement concerning a father’s privilege to give a patriarchal
blessing: “Every father, after he has received his patriarchal blessing, is a
patriarch to his own family, which blessings will be just as legal as those
conferred by any patriarch to the Church: in fact it is his right; and a
patriarch in blessing of children can only bless as his mouthpiece” (The
Gospel Kingdom, ed. G. Homer Durham [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1943], p.
146).
President Joseph Fielding Smith
affirmed the statement of President Taylor with just one qualification, namely,
that the father must hold the Melchizedek Priesthood. President Smith also
added that “a father will be better qualified to give such blessings if he has
been to the temple and had his wife and children sealed to him” (Answers to
Gospel Questions, ed. Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., 5 vols. [Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book Co., 195766], 3:199200).
The First Presidency has issued
the following policy statement:
Certainly we should give new and
additional emphasis to the role of the father in giving blessings to children
in the family. We think we should generally leave to the ordained patriarchs in
the stakes the responsibility of declaring lineage in connection with an
official patriarchal blessing, but still we could leave unlocked the door so
that any father who felt inspired to pronounce the lineage in connection with a
father’s blessing he was giving to his children should not be prevented from
doing so. We should urge and encourage fathers to give a father’s blessing to
their children on such occasions as their going into the military, or away from
home, to school, or on missions, and on other appropriate occasions. The father’s
blessing may be recorded and preserved in family records, but in contrast to a
blessing given by one of the ordained patriarchs, it is not to be preserved in
the archives of the Church. [General
Handbook of Instructions, p. 50]
Adoption
into the House of Israel
There are many coming into the
Church in this day and time who are not of the blood lineage of a specific
tribe of Jacob. Indeed, I am fully aware that there could be some within the
sound of my voice who fall into this category. No one need assume that he or
she will be denied any blessing by reason of not being of the blood lineage of Israel
Paul makes repeated references
to adoption into the house of Israel Rom. Rom.
King Benjamin refers to the
faithful as “the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters” thus being
able to be “spiritually begotten . . . through faith,” and thus coming into the
family of Christ through a spiritual birth (Mosiah 5:7).
It really makes no difference if
the blessings of the house of Israel
In Abraham we are told, “And I
will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be
called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and
bless thee, as their father” (Abr. 2:10).
Lineage
Since families are of mixed
lineage, it occasionally happens that members of the same family have blessings
declaring them to be of different lineage. There has been an intermixture of
the tribes one with another. One child may be of Ephraim, another in the same
family of Manasseh , Judah
The house of Israel
Believing Gentiles, even though
not of the blood lines or genealogical ancestry of Israel ,
become adopted into the house of Israel
Joseph Smith taught that when “the
Holy Ghost falls upon one of the literal seed of Abraham, it is calm and
serene; . . . while the effect of the Holy Ghost upon a Gentile, is to purge
out the old blood, and make him actually of the seed of Abraham. That man that
has none of the blood of Abraham (naturally) must have a new creation by the
Holy Ghost.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, ed. Joseph Fielding
Smith [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1972], pp. 149150.)
I witness that there is here in
this great hall an assemblage of thousands of future leaders of the Church who
were called out of the world, having been chosen by the Lord before the
foundations of the world under the same promise as that which came to Jeremiah
and Abraham:
Now the Lord had shown unto me,
Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among
all these there were many of the noble and great ones;
And God saw these souls that
they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will
make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that
they were good, and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast
chosen before thou wast born. [Abr.
3:22, 23]
You who are here at this great
university have come under this great promise, and you have come here to
receive secular and spiritual learning. Having become more learned in the
wisdom of the heavens and of the earth, thus enabling us to become a light unto
the world, what if we hide that light under a bushel basket? What if we do not
stay in the course the Lord wants us to be in, and to which the Lord may have
called us before the foundations of the world? As the Lord told Saul, you are
chosen vessels unto him, to bear his name “before the Gentiles, and kings, and
the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). Seek to live worthy of the blessings
pronounced upon you by the patriarchs and by your own fathers.
I received my own patriarchal
blessing when I was but a boy of twelve. From that short blessing I learned
something about my responsibilities and my labors in establishing the kingdom.
I pray that we will live
worthily and seek the blessings that are promised us by the Lord through our
family patriarchs and through our ordained patriarchs, and that we will strive
to help conditions and circumstances so that these great promises can be
realized.
I love the Lord. I love his holy
work. I have come to love this work more than life itself. I know that it is
true. I shall never know with more certainty than I do now. I have also come to
know something of the Savior, and as one of his witnesses, I invoke the
blessings of Almighty God upon each of you and pray that you will be sustained
and built up and strengthened, and that he will watch over you and wrap his
arms around you. I say this in the sacred name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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