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What matters most

What matters most

Last updated on: August 9, 2026 at 10:39 pm by Dan Peterson

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What matters most 2026-08-09T22:39:03-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Since 2020, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has used this image, which is based upon Bertel Thorvaldsen’s 1833 statue of the “Christus,” as its logo.

I’m happy that this song, with lyrics by the great Isaac Watts (1674–1748), will be included in the forthcoming Latter-day Saint hymnal. And I was delighted that we sang it as the opening hymn of our ward sacrament meeting this morning. It’s a personal favorite of mine:

My Shepherd will supply my need;

Jehovah is His Name;

In pastures fresh He makes me feed

Beside the living stream.

He brings my wand’ring spirit back

When I forsake His ways,

And leads me, for His mercy’s sake,

In paths of truth and grace.

When I walk thru the shades of death,

Thy presence is my stay;

A word of Thy supporting breath

Drives all my fears away.

Thy hand, in sight of all my foes,

Doth still my table spread;

My cup with blessings overflows;

Thine oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God

Attend me all my days;

O may Thy house be mine abode,

And all my work be praise!

There would I find a settled rest

(While others go and come),

No more a stranger or a guest,

But like a child at home.

The lyrics of today’s sacrament hymn — that is, of the hymn that we sang immediately prior to partaking of “communion,” which we Latter-day Saints term “the sacrament” — run as follows:

With humble heart, I bow my head

And think of thee, O Savior, Lord.

I take the water and the bread

To show remembrance of thy word.

Help me remember, I implore,

Thou gav’st thy life on Calvary,

That I might live forevermore

And grow, dear Lord, to be like thee.

To be like thee! I lift my eyes

From earth below toward heav’n above,

That I may learn from vaulted skies

How I my worthiness can prove.

As I walk daily here on earth,

Give me thy Spirit as I seek

A change of heart, another birth,

And grow, dear Lord, to be like thee.

An unidentified Latter-day Saint sacrament meeting, perhaps in Iceland (photograph from LDS.org)

And, of course, the sacrament itself, in which we partake of bread and water in commemoration of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, is blessed by the priests with the following words — respectively referring to the bread and then to the water — which never vary from week to week or year to year or generation to generation:

O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen. (Doctrine and Covenants 20:77)

O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this [water] to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them; that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen. (Doctrine and Covenants 20:79)

These prayers were given by revelation through the Prophet Joseph Smith at or near Fayette, New York, possibly as early as the summer 1829. The complete revelation, known at the time as the Articles and Covenants, was likely recorded soon after 6 April 1830 (the day the Church was organized). But they had already appeared in the Book of Mormon, at, respectively, Moroni 4:3 and Moroni 5:2 — which tells believing Latter-day Saints that they are ancient — and their phrasing pretty obviously goes back at least to the visit of the resurrected Savior among the Nephites. (See, on this, my 20 January 2025 column in Meridian Magazine: “Exploring the Ancient Origins of Sacrament Prayers in the Book of Mormon.”)

The sacrament is at the very core of weekly Latter-day Saint worship, and the hymns that we sing in our weekly sacrament meetings are the devotional heart of our regular spiritual practice as a church. How anybody can read the sacrament prayers above, and the lyrics of the hymns that we sang today, and conclude that Latter-day Saints aren’t Christians — that, effectively, we are to be grouped among the world’s religious faiths with Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, pagans, and Hindus rather than with Protestants, Catholics, and the Orthodox — is utterly beyond me. (See my recent article in Meridian Magazine on “Who Gets to Decide Who Is a Christian?”)

In Ireland, a Celtic cross at dawn (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I didn’t know him and I didn’t follow his podcast — I was unaware of it, and I don’t really follow any podcasts — but I’m deeply saddened by news of the tragic death of Chandler Hendry this past Friday morning. He died as the result of an automobile accident in Lehi, Utah. I don’t have the details of the accident, but I suspect that he was on his way to the nearby FAIR Conference, which he had attended the previous day and where he was evidently expected that morning. I believe, from the various photographs that I’ve seen, that I saw him there; I’m not sure, but I think that he may once have briefly interviewed me following a prior FAIR Conference. (Here’s a short video of him: “Chandler Hendry’s Remarks at the Provo Vigil for Charlie Kirk.”)

I hate to hear of the deaths of young people. I assume that this death leaves behind mourning family and friends. I don’t know whether he was married or a father but, in any case, I lament the loss of what Chandler might have contributed to the Latter-day Saint community and to others. He was an ally in a great cause. He was also, and much more fundamentally, an irreplaceable human being, and we are the poorer here for his departure thence:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee. (John Donne)

In a presentation at the FAIR Conference on Friday morning, presumably not long after the accident that claimed Chandler Hendry’s life, Walker Wright distinguished importantly between the central issues — he called them “existential” questions — and the peripheral issues involved in religious truth-claims. He was correct to do so: Issues such as dislike of Latter-day Saint ecclesiastical art and architecture and even discomfort with Latter-day Saint positions on questions of gender and sexuality pale into relative insignificance alongside ultimate matters such as whether there is a God, whether life has purpose or meaning, and whether human personality survives death. Chandler Hendry’s tragic, unexpected, and sudden passing reminds us very starkly about what matters most.

Pie Jesu, pie Jesu, pie Jesu, pie Jesu,

Qui tollis peccata mundi,

Dona eis requiem, dona eis requiem.

Pie Jesu, pie Jesu, pie Jesu, pie Jesu,

Qui tollis peccata mundi,

Dona eis requiem, dona eis requiem.

Agnus Dei, agnus Dei, agnus Dei, agnus Dei,

Qui tollis peccata mundi,

Dona eis requiem, dona eis requiem.

Sempiternam. Sempternam. Requiem.

“Merciful Jesus, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest. Merciful Jesus, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest, everlasting, rest.” (Listen here to the rendition, by the incomparable Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø, of Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s setting of “Pie Jesu” from his Requiem.)

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According to Hebrews 11, what is the correct chronological order of these faith heroes?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Abraham, Noah, Enoch, Abel Noah, Abraham, Abel, Enoch Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham Enoch, Abel, Abraham, Noah