The Rain Upon the Mountains

At church today we were discussing what love is, and I thought I'd write down some of my thoughts on the matter. So what is love? What an ambiguous word. It can mean so many disparate things, that often have little to do with one another. Granted, the English language severely limits our expression in this regard. It's not the only language that forces such a general vocabulary for endearment, but there are certainly languages that provide a richer lexicon on the subject. So many things are called love that are, in fact, far from it. But then, how do we define love? I'll use divine love as the defining standard here, which should provide some clarity. Some call it “unconditional love,” but it is never described this way in the holy scriptures. I've never liked this term because of the baggage that it tends to carry with it. It's too often distorted to accommodate personal and institutional agendas. Instead, the scriptures refer to God's love as “perfect love

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, particularly among those of other Christian faiths, is our emphasis on ritual. This certainly contributes to the sense of mistrust felt by some protestants toward Latter-day Saints (a.k.a. Mormons). Of course, the Catholic faith and the various Orthodox churches contain a great deal of ritual. However, the Latter-day Saints are probably unique in the amount of direct participation by ordinary church members in ritual worship. Before I go further, I'll clarify some terminology, as I have done previously. The name of our church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The short form of this is the Church of Jesus Christ or, less formally, the LDS Church. Members of our church are called Latter-day Saints, or sometimes “the LDS people.” Terms such as Mormons, Mormonism, or “the Mormon Church,” are incorrect. These are nicknames given to us by others because of our bel