MACK WILBERG
Conductor
ANDREW UNSWORTH
Organist
DERRICK PORTER
The Spoken Word
IN HYMNS OF PRAISE
Music: Alfred Beirly
Text: Ada Blenkhorn
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH (ORGAN SOLO)
Music: John Rutter
Text: Folliott S. Pierpoint
MY SONG IN THE NIGHT
American folk hymn Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
ALABARÉ (I WILL PRAISE)
Music: José Pagán and Manuel José Alonso
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
THE SPOKEN WORD
“Reach Outward”
I WOULD BE TRUE
Music: Traditional Irish tune
Text: Howard Walter; additional lyrics by David Warner
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
FILL THE WORLD WITH LOVE
from Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Music and Text: Leslie Bricusse
Arrangement: Mack Wilberg
REACH OUTWARD”
The Spoken Word, June 1, 2025
June 1, 2025
“STRENGTHEN YE THE WEAK HANDS, and confirm the feeble knees.”1 This was the prophet Isaiah’s plea to the covenant people of God. Hundreds of years later, James recorded in his epistle, “Pure religion and undefiled before God … is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.”2 Today, these admonitions still apply, and we each are invited to administer relief to those who suffer.3
We all carry burdens in this world. For some, their suffering is more visible, physically apparent on the outside. For others, their suffering is less visible, carried on the inside. Regardless, the sufferings we each endure are real.
The good news is that a host of human beings fill this planet, and each has power to lift another’s burden—a smile to a stranger, a listening ear, a decision not to judge, an unexpected compliment. Simple acts of compassion become powerful expressions of God’s love to those in need. In a way, our hands become His hands, benefiting all within our reach.
As we strive to serve others, even in our own moments of need, we find that we are developing a higher and holier character—a Christlike character that will increasingly sustain us in our own challenges.
Religious leader David A. Bednar described this Christlike character when he said, “Perhaps the greatest indicator of character is the capacity to recognize and appropriately respond to other people who are experiencing the very challenge or adversity that is most immediately and forcefully pressing upon us.” He continued: “Character is revealed, for example, in the power to discern the suffering of other people when we ourselves are suffering. … Character is demonstrated by looking and reaching outward when the natural and instinctive response is to be self-absorbed and turn inward.”4
He who suffered the most, Jesus Christ, always reached outward, relieving the suffering of those around Him. His perfect character enables His perfect love to extend to each of us always.
May we commit to reaching outward to others, even though our natural tendency may be to turn inward. Jesus Himself promised: “Give, and it shall be given unto you. … For with the same measure that ye mete … it shall be measured to you again.”5
References:
1. Isaiah 35:3.
2. James 1:27.
3. See Doctrine and Covenants 44:6.
4. David A. Bednar, “The Character of Christ” (Brigham Young University–Idaho devotional, Jan. 25, 2003), byui.edu.
5. Luke 6:38