Hi C2M2C,
Just a few questions.
1- If there is no marriage in heaven then why get married in the church?
Because marriage is holy. Marriage is a sacrament. True, it is not, strictly speaking, confered upon the couple by* the priest*, but rather they confer it upon one another, and the priest blesses it (so a Mormon or Jewish marriage is not “invalid” in the Catholic Church).
Marriage is a covenant “till death do you part”, that is, it is confined to “this life”, but that doesn’t in any way make it something bad.
Perhaps someone can give a fuller explanation here… as a single person it has never been of particular interest to me
a. why get married at all?
Because marriage is good. While on the other hand, it is not good for man to be alone, and most people are called to find that special someone to share their life, struggles and joys.
Marriage is where man is fully living his life as created in the image of God… As former pope John Paul II said, “God is family” God is fellowship… God is giving and receiving. The Trinity, I believe, is best viewed as a community of love. So the Catholic family is also a witness to the world and to the Church.
Besides… we need to raise a new generation to pass on our faith and our culture. If all Christians lived a celibate life, missionary activity would lead to some sort of collective sterilization.
2- Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy; define from a Catholic perspective. Mormons keep it Holy by going to church and spending time with family. No work, and do not do things that require other people to work
I think that’s basically the same as in the Catholic Church…
3- Death bed repentance? Mormons believe this is not acceptable to God
Catholics believe it is. Of course it may be argued that a cold, rationalizing “postponing to the last moment” is very unlikely to result in a genuine conversion. Also, very few of us actually know when we will die. I could be hit by a truck tomorrow, or my heart could fail me before I even get to posting this message (if you read this, it didn’t).
And of course there’s always purgatory…
4- Intercessory prayer; have a hard time with this one. Praying to someone else besides God… “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me”
Praying
to the saints (when rightly practiced) is ultimately about praying
with the saints. Praying with someone in Heaven is not essentially different from praying with someone on Earth. It may be argued, why should we ask someone else to pray for us when we can go straight to God… but then that would have to apply to the Church on Earth (Church Militant) as well as the Church in Heaven (Church Triumphant). And if we begin using that kind of logic on prayer, we might as well ask why we should pray at all, since God knows what we need before we pray.
The bottomline is, that God wants us to pray to him, and he wants us to come to him not merely as individuals, but as His people, or family. And so we pray along with our Mother, and our bigger brothers and sisters whether they be on Earth or in Heaven - remember: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for unto Him, everyone is alive.
We rejoice with our Catholic Family, but it is only God we
worship. We could never offer the sacrifice of the Mass to Mary… that would be idolatrous and heretical (and indeed, it has been condemned as such).
We honour Mary as queen and mother, like we honour our earthly mother and (if we have such) earthly queens. Only Mary is greater, since she is our spiritual mother and the mother of God, and since she is the Queen of Heaven. We do
not honour her as godess. And if anyone do, they are most surely anathema.
5- I have been studying Eastern Orthodox a little and wonder how do we know that they aren’t correct in there assertions. They also claim to be One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.
That’s a really good question, and I believe it is one that most converts from Protestant denominations will have to wrestle with at some point of time.
I don’t consider myself qualified, since there is a lot of politics, historical reasons, different developments, misunderstandings, bad translations (for starters: how would you translate filoque into Greek
).
For me, I guess it all comes down to the Pope. His claims to authority must mean that he is either the voice of God on Earth, or the Beast from the Apocalypse (which I held for most of my life). He is the voice of Christ or anti-Christ, I see no reasonable middle ground.
But there’s so much to it, and it is not an easy question… pray and study and read the Scriptures.
And pray for reunification
Scriptural references would be helpful.
Sorry, but I don’t usually have the patience to look stuff up, so I’m just quoting from the top of my head.
P.S. Went to RCIA with wife Thursday. She cried at first, but she’ll be okay
I will pray for you both…
