Ex-Mormons - Any weird hangups now that you're Catholic?

[Stavros]

I think that’s a big part of the adjustment I’m having to make, oddly enough - looking for God and not just trying to make sure my To Do list is checked off.

I was thinking about my prayer life when I was Mormon. I remember praying more than anything else that I could have the “burning in the bosom” that the Book of Mormon was true and that the Gospel was the word of God. I never really thought much about my relationship with Christ, or with God. I always had to make sure I was the “best” Mormon I could be. I tried to fulfill my callings, and to go to the Temple, and to wear my garments with honor, and to read my scriptures. But there was never an emphasis on my relationships and communication with God. While I did pray, it was nothing like the way I pray now.

It’s hard getting to know God, when I’ve spent my life trying to please Him but never trying to get to know Him.

 

[Prince_Hal]

Weird hangups? Well I am not quite Catholic, but yes, some, perhaps not so weird.

1. I will not drink tea, coffee or alcohol.
2. Some panic attacks - usually private, well all private. A fear of being controlled. There were somethings that a couple of LDS bishops said to me when they knew I wanted to leave. Also as I realized what I had believed and how easily I had believed it. For example, I taught that abortion was okay in certain rare circumstances when I was a bishop. It pains me to think that I might have in some small way encouraged someone to have an abortion. I have cold sweats about that. Particularly since my mother was told to have an abortion with me, and almost died having me. Yet, I taught the Mormon line regards abortion. God bless us that no one took notice of me.

God bless,

Hal.

 

[Stavros]

Weird hangups? Well I am not quite Catholic, but yes, some, perhaps not so weird.

1. I will not drink tea, coffee or alcohol.
2. Some panic attacks - usually private, well all private. A fear of being controlled. There were somethings that a couple of LDS bishops said to me when they knew I wanted to leave. Also as I realized what I had believed and how easily I had believed it. For example, I taught that abortion was okay in certain rare circumstances when I was a bishop. It pains me to think that I might have in some small way encouraged someone to have an abortion. I have cold sweats about that. Particularly since my mother was told to have an abortion with me, and almost died having me. Yet, I taught the Mormon line regards abortion. God bless us that no one took notice of me.

God bless,

Hal.

I still feel guilty when I drink a Coke - not Dr. Pepper or coffee or tea, but Coke. So I feel you there.

I have constant panic attacks at Sunday mass, due to the crowds and chaos. And I worry about authority, and being lied to as well. No one said a word to me when I left, thank goodness, as I was a married woman who was married to a non-member, and had no worth to the ward.

 

[RebeccaJ]

I don’t think there is anything wrong with trying to please God, as long as it is understood that it is not something that we do on our own. Only through Jesus Christ is this possible.

Also, I don’t think there is anything wrong with continuing to abstain from tea, coffee, or tobacco. You can always turn it towards God, that is, as a Catholic understanding of sacrifice rather than under threat of God abandoning you.

Peace.

 

[TheExorcist]

I still feel guilty when I drink a Coke - not Dr. Pepper or coffee or tea, but Coke. So I feel you there.

I have constant panic attacks at Sunday mass, due to the crowds and chaos. And I worry about authority, and being lied to as well. No one said a word to me when I left, thank goodness, as I was a married woman who was married to a non-member, and had no worth to the ward.

I don’t know about little worth to the ward but we DEFINITELY as missionaries concentrated on the married MEN whose wives were non members. Higher baptism rate. Terrible now that you look at it…

 

[Marie5890]

It’s hard getting to know God, when I’ve spent my life trying to please Him but never trying to get to know Him.

One of the greatest helps I have found to develop a deeper discipleship with Our Lord and correct the Mormon distortions is the Rosary. And when I say that I mean taking time to really meditation on the Mysteries. I take each Mystery and I place myself at each moment with either Him or Our Lady and I journey with them thru it.

For me, it has helped the scales of lies and distortions fall off my soul and the light of truth shine thru.

 

[KathleenGee]

Hal, will pray for you, as well…

Rebecca…what you describe…encountering Jesus Christ in the priest is true…through the sacrament…

but so many times Catholics think the priest is in total union with Christ or is as Christ…and the unhealthy entrustment issues start…just cautious here Rebecca because we are coming out of so much ‘stuff’…

But I am so happy for all your growth in Christ and His Church…but follow Scripture…put your trust in God alone…Trust Jesus speaking in the homilies and directives of the priest…

Pray for the confessor before you go and trust his advice…usually people think the priests are too light…but many times we are too hard on ourselves, and lack perspective.

Just keep studying your Catholic faith—it is forever—

Even if we were to be without a visible pope for awhile…we would still go on…

It is Christ Himself Who sustains the Church and when a tree bears bad fruit, He prunes it…if it does not improve, He takes it down…and in its place He plants many new seeds…

Always have hope!!

 

[RebeccaJ]

Kathleen,

When I see a servant of God in a priest, or anyone else, the “servant of” part is important and not taken lightly, at least by myself. I isn’t possible for me to confuse the servant with the Master.

While I have a Mormon background, raised as, very active until I left (as a teen) and had a very odd experience with a Mormon Bishop when I was a teenager that defined my view of religious authority for many years…I didn’t believe that Mormon bishops were speaking for God, had any power over me, and certainly were anything but fallible humans. Whenever talking to my bishop way back then (decades ago), I couldn’t stop thinking he was full of it, and himself, and it only generated an anger that people would think I was so gullible, and/or open to some guy being all up in my business.

I never believed a Mormon clergy of any kind could discern anything. But then, you have to understand that Mormon clergy are 12 years old to begin with, but even if anyone wanted to go with an adult Mormon bishop having some special power of discernment? Sorry, no, my experience is they don’t…and still don’t. But then, until I was nearly a teenager, my Mormon bishop was my dad. I love him dearly, but I don’t hold any ideas that he has special, magical, powers.

My trust regarding priests is more one of understanding what Holy Orders are, and what that means. My atheism was fueled by a “don’t tread on me” sort of mantra, especially aimed towards God and religion. So, it took me a while to get past that, but I did. After that, it is just a matter of understanding things that I have no experience with. My remedial soul takes a while to catch on. A lot of Catholic stuff is very puzzling to me, in the sense that, I don’t have the experience. I’m never going to be a Catholic that has hundreds of Sacramental knick-knacks in every corner of my house. I am a simple Catholic, with my one Crucifix on my wall, Mary and a candle on my dresser.

Anyway, when it comes to priests, I lost that anxiety over religious authority before I was baptized. I stopped living my life out of fear and anger. Which, maybe JeanMichel wouldn’t agree, but then, he didn’t know me when I was an atheist. I’m really much more at peace than I have ever been in my life. I’m also made more aware with every passing day just how Mormonism skewed my outlook towards life and God. At one time, that realization generated so much more anger, but I lost that anger in the same way I lost that anxiety. I just don’t have it any more.

What I’m puzzled with usually comes from my godless nature. But, from experience, I have learned that Jesus guides me. There is no other way I can explain how it is an atheist became a Catholic.

Holy Orders, like faith itself once was to me, was truly puzzling. What is it? If I had a stick, I’d be poking at it. But, once again, something breaks open and I get it, if even only at a small level. Like my faith, I’m sure it will grow.

Former Mormons, who were true believing Mormons for many years, don’t have the experience of Catholicism either. We’re the same in this sense, that we are learning, and it is through our experiences that we encounter Jesus Christ.

The difficulty is allowing those experiences to happen in spite of past experiences. It is fear, and if there is one thing I have learned is, fear isn’t going to stop me from following where God leads me. But that doesn’t mean I throw caution to the wind. I have that boloney radar going. He ever so gently shows me the Way.

Peace.

 

[KathleenGee]

Rebecca…

Well said…

I strongly encourage you to read St. Catherine of Siena’s ‘Dialogues’ …I found it on the same level as Francis’ ‘Flowers’ that you recommended to Stavros…

But her writings take you right to the essence of the sacraments…and that the Catholic priesthood–whose authority comes from the Keys to the Blood held by the Vicar of Christ, and explains the dignity of the Ministers of the Blood, as she calls them, and their sacred dignity and calling. This is in her chapter, ‘The Church’.

She also describes why ecclesiastics can fail. And how we are to pray and do penance for them.

If only I had known about the Catholic concept of perfection when I was younger, I would have been able to endure in the Lord much better.

So for now, I ask the Lord Jesus before the throne of Judgement to have mercy on me, and to be the atonement for my own ignorance.

You are perceiving truth in the integrity of the priesthood. The clerics’ model is indeed servant of the Servant.

I prayed a decade of the rosary today, Fatima Day, for Hal…and all like him…

 

[Stavros]

I do wear a couple of sacramental medals, and I just got enrolled on Friday in the Brown Scapular, but I only have the one wall crucifix in my home. I have a little corner in my bedroom with a comfy chair, a few books, and a few small sacramentals. I don’t have any statues, but I have holy cards and little stands for different saints and Mary pictures. Other than that one corner, you’d never know I was Catholic if you walked through my house.

I have very few “So me and Father Blahblah were …” stories. Or many other Catholic life experience stories. However, I’ve got Elder stories for days thanks to the antics in my late 20’s with my ward missionaries (which, by the way, was heartily unapproved of by their leaders and mine). I actually spent quite a bit of time today talking with the ladies who help with the altar flowers at my church, and found myself telling a story about those Elders from Utah and the Texas heat. In June, where it was about 90 degrees here in North Texas, one started saying, “It’s so hot!” I said, “No, Elder, not yet.” Then in July when it was 95 degrees, he said, “It’s so hot!” And I said, “No, not yet, Elder.” In August, when it had been 100 degrees for two weeks straight, he said “It’s so hot!” And I said, “Yes, Elder, NOW it’s hot!”

Excellent progress on the Hierophobia front - I actually almost, not quite but almost, had a conversation with Father Scary. I was so proud of myself. This morning I was assisting the alter society ladies with the flowers for this weekend’s masses. I was looking for something in the kitchen when Father came in from outside and said Hello. I said hello and he asked how I was doing. I said, “Well, I’m hot, and I can’t find a tupperware container that has a bunch of gold safety pins in it. I believe on the Internet they call that a ‘first world problem.’” He laughed. At one point in the day, the late teen-ish football player sized son of one of the alter society women and I were running around trying to find Father Scary for something we needed for the May Crowning tomorrow. I said something about Father, and he said “Oh, no, I’d never say that to Father, Father scares me!” So it’s totally not just me - everyone I’ve talked to about him says that he scares them. Maybe it’s his authority? I don’t know, but I do know that at least it’s not me.

Also, standing close up to Father Scary, he’s about 2" shorter than me. And he has a dimple in his chin that reminds me of my Uncle Roger. That makes him slightly less scary. But only slightly.

Also, I now have one more “So me and Father Blahblah were …” story to tell. That makes me happy.

 

[KathleenGee]

I just found the directive here this morning…about the balance we should have between seeing the clerics as servants of God, as intercessors of Christ, and the special gift they have in making Jesus present to us.

CC 827: "Christ, ‘holy, innocent, and undefiled’, knew nothing of sin, but came only to expiate the sins of the people. The Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal’. All members of the Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are sinners. In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be mixed with the good wheat of the Gospel until the end of time. Hence, the Church gathers sinners already caught up in Christ’s salvation but still on the way to holiness:

‘The Church is therefore holy, though having sinners in her midst, because she herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her life, they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance for these offenses, of which she has the power to free her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit’.

 

[KathleenGee]

Stavros,

I think you are really on the right track. One step at a time.

Marie,

Yesterday on EWTN, they showed the promises of those who prayed the Rosary, having read them before, but in this context, I can see praying the rosary be a great help in bringing a person more deeply into the Church.

God bless you all!

 

[KathleenGee]

One more thing…the Church has ember days…where we do penance for special needs.

My diocese had sex abuse victims. Our bishop has ember days…penance and prayer for clergy abuse victims’ healing…a lay Carmelite offered up her physical sufferings for me…every early morning at 2 am, the affliction would come at me, tearing me apart…this going on for some time.

The Carmelite was waking up at 2 am and asking the Lord who to offer this suffering for, and my name came to mind.

The healing took place between Dec. 8 to Dec. 12, and I was healed of an psychic and spiritual unusual injury.

 

[Marie5890]

Stavros,

I think you are really on the right track. One step at a time.

Marie,

Yesterday on EWTN, they showed the promises of those who prayed the Rosary, having read them before, but in this context, I can see praying the rosary be a great help in bringing a person more deeply into the Church.

God bless you all!

Yes, it is a great help of unwinding all the distortions and doing so in a such a way that you don’t end up with a big chip on one’s shoulder and unbecoming attitude towards Mormons and Mormonism.

I has helped heal me and with a loving and charitable soul at the same time. So many former Mormons really have a hard time getting past the bitterness and anger. So much so, it’s like a spiritual cancer to their soul above and beyond actual Mormonism.

I find myself deeply humbled that I found the way to be both healed and able to love. No anger. No bitterness. No chip on my shoulder.

Im truly free of Mormonism…at all levels

 

[TheExorcist]

Yes, it is a great help of unwinding all the distortions and doing so in a such a way that you don’t end up with a big chip on one’s shoulder and unbecoming attitude towards Mormons and Mormonism.

I has helped heal me and with a loving and charitable soul at the same time. So many former Mormons really have a hard time getting past the bitterness and anger. So much so, it’s like a spiritual cancer to their soul above and beyond actual Mormonism.

I find myself deeply humbled that I found the way to be both healed and able to love. No anger. No bitterness. No chip on my shoulder.

Im truly free of Mormonism…at all levels

You are SO right. I lurk (occasionally post) at exmormon.org and you can really see the hurt and bitterness manifest there. And after hearing some of the stories I don’t blame them, as I’ve seen the same type of things go on in my ward(s) and stake(s). I just thank God he has shown me the way out. I’m also thankful that I still have strong faith in Jesus Christ and a desire to serve him. Years and years in the LDS church sometimes stamps that out of ExMos

 

[Marie5890]

You are SO right. I lurk (occasionally post) at exmormon.org and you can really see the hurt and bitterness manifest there. And after hearing some of the stories I don’t blame them, as I’ve seen the same type of things go on in my ward(s) and stake(s). I just thank God he has shown me the way out. I’m also thankful that I still have strong faith in Jesus Christ and a desire to serve him. Years and years in the LDS church sometimes stamps that out of ExMos

I don’t blame them either. I used to be part of that board back in the late 90’s. In some ways it was very helpful in gets facts and seeing what the LDS GA’s whitewash over the years.

On the other hand, the (understandable) anger and bitterness can be infectious. But then I am not sure how one can really transition out of Mormonism after having been TBM, and not have those feelings. It’s a common journey for anyone who has been the receipiant of fraud. Spiritual or otherwise.

And I was one of those who ended up agnostic/leaning atheistic. But thru the grace of God (and I have no doubt now my Catholic baptism as a baby and the grace given then) I healed enough for a miracle to occur. It wasn’t instintaeous but a process, but a journey.

But I healed. All anger and bitterness disapated. And I am humbled that I have the ability to be completely understanding and charitable to both former Mormons, and TBMs alike this day.

 

[KathleenGee]

God bless you, Marie!

As you probably have picked up, I have to pray some times in regards to the Mormon position by those who believe in all the claims of Joseph Smith, but reject the history of Christian faith and history.

And what brings me to the edge is the issue of truth, when Mormonism goes to such a degree in personal interpretation, its impact on members in business, etc., the great difficulty for Mormons to leave that religion, that it is something I cannot compromise because of the damage it can do to once trusting believers.

Once their eyes begin to open, they are susceptible to loosing faith in the good and loving God Himself.

I believe in the motives behind organized religion in the Catholic Church and its uncompromising and public stands. The Church has its own issues, that come with the territory. But if there is error or excess, the right way usually comes about in one’s life time…just have to be patient and trust in the Holy Spirit to enlighten and guide.

God bless you all!

 

[RebeccaJ]

One of the problems for former LDS. Having been convinced that feeling good about Joseph Smith and Mormon teachings means they felt the Holy Spirit…they have a “witness” from God.

When the cards fall, how does one discern between feeling good and God’s Will? When you look at what you believed, completely, without question or doubt…it unravels quickly from there, for a lot of people. A false god followed causes all gods to be seen as equally false. Jesus comes to be viewed as no different than Zeus.

It is the perfect setup for keeping people from the truth. First, blind them with false teachings, and then when the rug is pulled out and the teachings are realized to be false, this causes a lot of people to lose faith in God entirely. Such a setup originates from only one place.

I, and many other former Mormons, have devised tests. One man participated in as many religious and occult rites, to test if if he could “feel the spirit”. He did in every instance, so he concluded, there was no such thing as the Holy Spirit, only human emotion responding to positive stimulus.

When I was a teenager, I would do things specifically to see what would happen. Did I feel different? Was I miserable? The answer of course is, “no”. Faith reduced to emotions and/or morals is a cheap sort of grace. Any atheist can tell you, they are just as happy and doing just as well as anyone who says they believe in God. No one needs a religion to live a moral, happy, life.

I am Christian because of Jesus Christ, there is no other Truth. If one is Mormon it is because of Joseph Smith. There is no reason for the existence of “prophets”. Jesus is our Prophet, High Priest and King, and by our baptism we share in all that is His. We are all made prophets, priests and kings, through Jesus.

 

[KathleenGee]

The encyclical, ‘Veritatis Splendor’ gives a new dimension to truth.

Christ said to Pilate He is Truth. The Truth sets us free. Christ gives us His comforter, the Holy Spirit, for healing.

The authors of Scripture were inspired to document events, probably with the help of sages. True prophecy comes true. In Divine Revelation, the Lord reveals Himself through time. I was watching a program on EWTN, lately discussions on Revelations, and how every part of Scripture is connected to each other. Subsequently as the Catholic Church says, it approaches Scripture as a whole, not pulling parts out…of context.

Faith and reason go hand in hand. We have to test the spirits. We have to compare inspirations and new ideas for contemporary living with how the faith tradition was lived out – accountable to the public community of faith. We need shepherds because we are sheep.

True prophecy unites us more with God and with each other and the world around us. False prophecies are not based on truth, do not come true, separate and fracture people, and lead them farther away from the One, True God.

Spiritual discernment should always be exercised within the faith community, and in particular guided by those whose entire lives are consecrated to God and in serving Him. When you are not born with this, reason and nature work to help people find the truth. I think of Romans where St. Paul says people can discern the presence of God by just discerning His presence in creation of the world around them.

 

[Stavros]

You are SO right. I lurk (occasionally post) at exmormon.org and you can really see the hurt and bitterness manifest there. And after hearing some of the stories I don’t blame them, as I’ve seen the same type of things go on in my ward(s) and stake(s). I just thank God he has shown me the way out. I’m also thankful that I still have strong faith in Jesus Christ and a desire to serve him. Years and years in the LDS church sometimes stamps that out of ExMos

The stories on exmormon.org that completely break my heart are those who have no belief in the church at all, but go every Sunday anyway for fear of losing their families, jobs, and social support system. When I was leaving the church, I spent a ton of time there, sharing stories and listening to pain inflicted by the church.