A Study of Patricia Holland’s Words
Discussion Notes: This discussion about Patricia Holland’s writings and talks turned into a beautiful tribute to her. It is clear from her messages that she was ahead of her time and thought deeply about the reality of women’s daily lives and how she could help.
Loved her remarks on how we are being torn from ourselves and who we really are - “The Soul’s Center”
Battling perfectionism seemed to be an ongoing theme in her writings -
A general authority once told PH the way you will find happiness is by obedience
She lived what she was preaching - comparison only hurts us -
“You wear your religion as a headache, like a crown of thorns” A Future Filled with Hope
The message to simplify was reiterated in her last message
Don’t be immobilized by limitations - it is near blasphemy - “Be Renewed in the Spirit of Your Mind”
Insightful story about her husband, Jeff, writing her talk - her talk was better, but it didn’t come from her heart
Margaret Hinckley - loved Pat Holland’s talk - “I was no Pat Holland” - D&C 46:11-12 - All having the same feelings of insecurities -
Lucifer becomes more anxious - The Soul’s Center
Remarks Made about Patricia Terry Holland from her funeral:
“During his remarks, President Nelson called Sister Holland an elect lady. “She occupies a unique position in our Latter-day Saint history. Very few women in this dispensation have been married to a prophet, seer, and revelator, and served as a general officer of the church.”
“Emma Smith and Eliza R. Snow are two such women, and Sister Holland is certainly in that esteemed circle,” he said. “She also served as the First Lady of Brigham Young University while her husband … presided there. Sister Holland thus occupies a most unique position in the annals of the church’s history. Her remarkable influence upon literally millions of women and men cannot be overestimated.”
(During this service, one in our group had a thought that Pat Holland reminded her of Heavenly Mother)
I have to know that my mother would not be happy with a talk that painted her or her life in artificially romanticized colors. Partly this is due to her instinct of modesty. Partly it is due to her recognition of the fallenness of human experience. Whether she was reading the books of Job or Moroni or Soren Kierkegaard or Marilynne Robinson, or simply ministering to the troubled world around her; she knew error, and disappointment and sorrow were part of the meaning of mortality and that true gospel healing requires an awareness of endemic human brokenness. This consciousness of hers was not always an easy one to bear. Her pain receptors were oriented outward toward the sorrow of God’s children in ways that meant feeling a share of their suffering, but this, I believe, was also the source or her secret weapon: endless empathy. Every time I came home from school, grumbling about someone who had irritated me in some way, she would comfort me for a minute and then ask me a pair of sometimes unwelcome, but always illuminating questions. First, was there a possibility that the person who had irked me might be hurting in some way, and second, was there a way I might serve them?
To convey what our mother has meant in my life, I might offer one symbolic scene. Over a decade ago, in the darkest time in our life, of professional and familial and ecclesiastical pressures, coming from what seemed like every angle, my wife was not long into a fitful night’s sleep when she had a dream that was so vivid she can recall it in detail ten years later. In the dream, Jeanie sat on a beach and looked on a sea that was rapidly rising. With the waves crashed closer and closer to her and then upon her, she found herself unable to move. The water climbed higher and higher and higher, and her panic rose with each tidal inch until the unrelenting ocean had reached her neck and then in a moment of desperation and despair she turned to her right and saw my Mom, who began to offer counsel and calm her heart. “Jeanie”, she said, “Keep your head up. Don’t be afraid. These waves will pass and they will not overwhelm you.” In an instant, Jeannie’s anxieties were released. The tide began to subside and the dream ended.
The dream derived its poignancy and meaning from a number of truths about my Mom. Her assurance that the waves would not win was meaningful precisely because she was not naive about their reality or their force. She spoke with authority of experience. She knew that the sea really did rage and that the tide really could rise, but also knew of our covenant to the Christ who had control of the tempest and that battle-tested testimony of the gospel’s sure promise not only gave her the power to prevail but imparted to her words the strength to sustain those around her.
It is possible that Pat Holland had been very sick during that time around the dream her daughter-in-law had.
Her daughter-in-law had that type of relationship with her -
President Holland talks about angels here and there often —
President Holland first one to really talk about depression - Both of them talking about depression made a difference for so many
Pat Holland wrote about being depressed when one in our group was in college
Loved that we are part of the plan - tapestry - all doing something different to be part of their plan - the beautiful top of the tapestry and then look on the backside of the twisted threads, etc. - Filling the Measure of Your Creation
“I’m just like you” - she makes us feel like she is one of us - she struggled too.
Ether 12:37 - Be Renewed in the Spirit of Your Mind
Patricia Holland - “Filling the Measure of Your Creation” - BYU 1989 - Four times she talks about our “heavenly parents”
“Every living thing shall fill the measure of its creation.”
Her last message was on hope. A Future Filled with Hope.
President Holland had a second chance to come back and give his all -
Both President Holland is an example of maintaining faith even when you are an apostle and you don’t get what you want
Simplify is very meaningful -
We can make it harder than it needs to be
Shutout conflicting voices, savor your uniqueness - God wants us to be someone’s sister, brother, friend
Leah, Jacob’s first wife - Patricia Holland - hope is in Christ, not in man -
“I must admit that when I first heard this directive, I thought it meant only procreation, having issue, bearing offspring. And I’m sure that is probably the most important part of its meaning, but much of the temple ceremony is symbolic, so surely there can be multiple meanings in this statement as well. Part of the additional meaning I now see in this commandment is that every element of creation has its own purpose and performance. Every one of us has been designed with a divine role and mission in mind. I believe that if our desires and works are directed toward what our heavenly parents have intended us to be, we will come to feel our part in their plan. We will recognize the “full measure of our creation,” and nothing will give us more holy peace.
I once read a wonderful analogy of the limitations our present perspective imposes on us. The message was that in the ongoing process of creation—our creation and the creation of all that surrounds us—our heavenly parents are preparing a lovely tapestry with exquisite colors and patterns and hues. They are doing so lovingly and carefully and masterfully. And each of us is playing a part—our part—in the creation of that magnificent, eternal piece of art.
But our heavenly parents have the view from the top, and one day we will know what they know—that every part of the artistic whole is equal in importance and balance and beauty. They know our purpose and potential, and they have given us the perfect chance to make the perfect contribution in this divine design.
So what can I be? What can I be? We can be what heavenly parents designed us and intend us and help us to be
https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/patricia-t-holland/filling-measure-creation/
Patricia T. Holland, October 1987 - “One Thing Needful”: Becoming Women of Greater Faith in Christ - So much good stuff in this talk—
“If I were Satan and wanted to destroy a society, I think I would stage a full-blown blitz on women. I would keep them so distraught and distracted that they would never find the calming strength and serenity for which their sex has always been known.
“I have heard it said by some that the reason women in the Church struggle to know themselves is because they don’t have a divine female role model. But we do. We believe we have a mother in heaven…Furthermore, I believe we know much more about our eternal nature that we think we do; and it is our sacred obligation to express our knowledge, to teach it to our young sisters and daughters…”
–Sister Patricia Holland, Young Women General Presidency, 1984-86
Interesting:
“Though there is ample evidence that the Brethren are continuously attempting to rectify this both in understanding and practice. See, for example, Sister and Elder Holland’s recent interview with Sheri Dew in which Elder Holland said, “If I could have my way, every time, every time after I am through speaking [as an apostle] and the meeting is to close, I would wish that a woman was giving the prayer.” Elder Holland stressed that he was not hoping to impose a rule, but that women’s spiritual capacity and perception as expressed through prayer would enable him to know if he had adequately communicated his message through the Spirit. Church News Podcast, Episode 85: Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and Sister Patricia Holland, with guest host Sheri Dew, “Part 2 – Becoming disciples of Jesus Christ,” May 26, 2022. [Back to manuscript].”
https://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleWyneMatrimonialOrder.html
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