This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Morning Session of the April 2005 Conference.
I've been thinking about stillness since Elder Bednar's recent talk, so I liked President Faust's talk from this session about Standing in Holy Places. He says:
We are bombarded on all sides by a vast number of messages we don’t want or need. More information is generated in a single day than we can absorb in a lifetime. To fully enjoy life, all of us must find our own breathing space and peace of mind.…I encourage our Saints all over the world, wherever possible, to strive to stand more often in holy places. Our most holy places are our sacred temples. Within them is a feeling of sacred comfort.
That phrase "sacred comfort" stood out to me. I know exactly what he means. I think I have only noticed it in the past year or two, and I can't describe it to someone else, but in my own mind and heart I have started to recognize a certain feeling of stillness and comfort that comes from the Spirit. It's not the only way I ever feel the Spirit—and it doesn't come every time I'm in the temple either—but it's a distinct feeling that has come when I have need of specific comfort. My best description is that it's like something unfolding or unclenching inside me—or like being wrapped in stillness and warmth—or like stepping into a warm ocean and beginning to float. As this feeling comes over me, the fear or sadness or burdens I've been carrying seem to loosen and lighten. It makes no rational sense. In every case, the circumstance for which I'm feeling the sorrow or fear remains unchanged. And though this "sacred comfort" can be accompanied by helpful revelation, it isn't always—sometimes the feeling comes unaccompanied by thoughts or words. In spite of that, it is discernible—a tangible relief. It doesn't last forever. But it lasts a while.
I've been to several temple open houses lately, and have been a little disappointed with how non-holy the temple has felt with the huge crowds of people filing through. Maybe my attitude was to blame. I have been to open houses in the past where the Holy Spirit seemed to be present even in that undedicated space. But in these last few, the loud talking and irreverent mood seems to transform the temple into just another building. I fear it won't even seem unusual or special to people who have never been to one before!
At any rate, once dedicated, and even leaving aside the most important parts of the temple—the covenants we make there and the service we do for others—I love the way it feels to simply be inside, listening, breathing the air of the temple into my lungs. I do feel God's power and holiness there, and I'm so grateful that the prophets have been so united in encouraging us to go to the temple often. It's a reminder I'm always glad to receive.
As President Gordon B. Hinckley taught us: “There is need occasionally to leave the noise and the tumult of the world and step within the walls of a sacred house of God, there to feel His Spirit in an environment of holiness and peace.” Truly, Joseph Smith’s prayer at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple has been answered: “And that all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord’s house may feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that … it is thy house, a place of thy holiness.”
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