{{Infobox musical composition | name = "O My Father" {{nowrap|originally "My Father in Heaven}}" | type = Hymn | image = | alt = | caption = | text = by Eliza R. Snow | written = {{Start date|1845|10}} | melody = set to "My Redeemer" by James McGranahan | published = {{Timeline-event|date={{Start date|1845|11|15|df=y}}||location=Nauvoo, Illinois}} | publisher = ''Times and Seasons'' }}
'''"O My Father"''' (originally '''"My Father in Heaven"''',<ref name = TS>Eliza R. Snow, [http://patriot.lib.byu.edu/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/NCMP1820-1846&CISOPTR=9607&filename=4718.pdf "My Father in Heaven"], ''Times and Seasons'', vol. 5, p. 1039 (15 November 1845).</ref> also '''"Invocation, or The Eternal Father and Mother'''")<ref name = Poems>Eliza R. Snow, ''Poems, Religious, Historical, and Political'' (Liverpool: F.D. Richards, 1856) '''1''':[http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/NCMP1847-1877&CISOPTR=2277&filename=170304_150626_gp001n_Amer_Rare_BX8688_1_Sn6.pdf 1]–[http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cgi-bin/showfile.exe?CISOROOT=/NCMP1847-1877&CISOPTR=2276&filename=170304_150626_fp002_Amer_Rare_BX8688_1_Sn6.pdf 2].</ref> is a Latter-day Saint hymn written by Eliza R. Snow, who felt inspired to write the lyrics after Joseph Smith had taught her the principle of heavenly parents.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/historyofyoungla00gaterich|title=History of the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints : from November 1869 to June 1910|first=Susa Young|last=Gates|date=26 May 1911|publisher=Salt Lake City : Deseret News|access-date=26 May 2023|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
==Heavenly Mother== Although references to a Heavenly Mother by church leadership have occurred every few years<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.timesandseasons.org/harchive/2011/09/statements-on-heavenly-mother/ | title=Statements on Heavenly Mother|website=Timesandseasons.org | date=15 September 2011 }}</ref> since Smith first taught the doctrine, the hymn is significant in terms of Mormon theology in that it is perhaps the most prominent and well-known reference to a "Heavenly Mother" in materials published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
After discussing pre-mortal existence and a sense of belonging to "a more exalted sphere" in heaven, stanza three reasons that if there is an eternal Father there must also be an eternal Mother:
{{Poem quote |text= I had learn’d to call thee father Through thy spirit from on high; But until the key of knowledge Was restor’d, I knew not why. In the heav’ns are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare; Truth is reason—truth eternal Tells me I’ve a mother there. |sign= Eliza R. Snow<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/the-first-fifty-years-of-relief-society/part-1/1-14|title= Eliza R. Snow, "My Father in Heaven," October 1845|website= Church Historian's Press}}</ref>}}
==History== Snow wrote "O My Father" as a poem under the title "My Father in Heaven" in October 1845 in the home of Stephen Markham in Nauvoo, Illinois. The ''Times and Seasons'' first published the words on 15 November 1845, more than a year after Smith was killed.<ref name = TS/>
The poetry was later set to the music of another Christian hymn, "My Redeemer" by James McGranahan,<ref>See also Calon Lân.</ref> and included in Latter-day Saint hymnals, including the current one. When a collection of Snow's poems were published in 1856, this work was placed first in the double-volume set and entitled "Invocation, or The Eternal Father and Mother".<ref name = Poems/>
==See also== *Oh, What Songs of the Heart
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Wikisource|O My Father (hymn)}} *''Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20090508130219/http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Curriculum/music.htm/hymns.htm/special%20topics.htm/292%20o%20my%20father.htm#JD_Hymns.292 #292, "O My Father"] - full text of the hymn *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060509134647/http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/detailmusicPlayer/index.html?searchlanguage=1&searchcollection=1&searchseqstart=292&searchsubseqstart=%20&searchseqend=292&searchsubseqend=ZZZ Interactive music player version] with hymn typeset as a sheet music * [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/music/library?lang=eng Free MP3 download]
Category:Latter Day Saint hymns Category:1845 poems Category:Works originally published in Times and Seasons Category:1845 in Christianity Category:Songs based on poems Category:Mormonism and women