is it Ok for a Catholic to pray with Mormons?

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I’m going to say “no”

But I do pray with my Mormon family friends at gatherings, dinners, etc. It would be bad form to just stand there with folded arms, making a big scene out of refusing to pray with them.

Just because we all pray at the same time doesn’t mean we must be united in prayer to the same diety. Mormons don’t generally pray to the same God that Catholics do. As long as we’re clear on that, and keep things in order, then I don’t see any problem with Catholics praying alongside Mormons at the same time.

This is only my opinion. I have no idea whether there is Catholic teaching on this matter.
 
Sorry, I would have to excuse myself to the other room unless they are praying a prayer of repentance to the true Jesus.

1 Corinthians 10:18-22 (King James Version)

18Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?

19What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?

20But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.

21Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.

22Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
 
Theres a Quaker joke this thread reminds me of.

A Friend went to dinner with a family from another faith tradition. The father of the family asked the Friend to say the blessing for the meal. The Friend and all present bowed their heads and silence followed…finally the Friend said “Amen”…the father looked at him and said…“I didn’t hear a word you said.” The Friend smiled and said…“I wasn’t speaking to thee.”

I dare say, so often we want to claim special privilege that “God” is ours…and our belief is the correct one…and we also want to draw a distinction that if our beliefs are not affirmed…then a “different” God is being addressed.

There is only One God…One Light Within…One Seed in each of us…that Ocean of Love and Light is over all. The Light that brings light to each of us, must wonder where so many of us get our ideas of His exclusiveness.
 
Let me add my $.02.

I am married into a Mormon family. I’ve been present for many many Mormon prayers, the vast majority at mealtimes. I’ve also attended a few Mormon sacrament meetings for special occasions (like SIL going on a mission, nieces and nephews getting blessed, FIL getting “called” to be a bishop, etc.)

Although I vehemently disagree with their theology and doctrine, I’m not going to make any sort of a “scene” by refusing to be present while they say their prayers in their homes.

I do make a point to NOT fold my arms or close my eyes or otherwise “assume the position” of particpating whatsoever. I simply stand there quietly and respectfully. That’s it.

So no, I don’t consider myself “praying” with the Mormons at any time. I pray FOR them while I’m with them.👍
 
With all due respect to the strongly held beliefs some of you have if I had come in contact with you instead of the dear Catholic friends I now have I would not be on my journey home into the Catholic Church. Perhaps they did not believe I was on the right path, but that did not stop them from praying right along beside me, eyes closed and in the attitude of prayer. They may have been praying for my conversion and that’s okay. However, I never once heard them say one thing negative or disparaging about my LDS faith or my faith community. I live in an area where most of the Catholics seem to be fairly conservative. the Latin mass is even offered in a nearby parish and altar girls were only permitted in our parish within the last year.

My wife, my children and some of my grandchildren are Mormon and I certainly don’t plan to stop praying with or for them.

Forgive me if this has seemed blunt. I no longer believe those teachings which are unique to the LDS faith, but I still believe in being respectful. in the long run i believe this will be much more fruitful in bringing the rest of my family ( and I’m already beginning to see those results) into the Church.
 
Why would a good Catholic find himself in a position where he would have to address this question?
 
Other_Eric said:
Why would a good Catholic find himself in a position where he would have to address this question?
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Ultimately, yes you’re right. Why did I NOT listen to my parents and marry a good Catholic boy? Things would have been a lot easier.

I wouldn’t have had to know anything about Joseph Smith or ever heard the term “Lamanite”. Imagine that:rolleyes: .

I took the risky road and married an inactive Mormon. At the time, it was fine because I was pretty much a lapsed twice-a-year-Catholic myself.😊

I made mistakes, but I would never consider my marriage to be one of those. This story has a happy ending. Not only did my husband convert to Catholicism after more than a decade of marriage, but I also came back fully. Now we are united for our children. Besides, his conversion is causing his Mormon family members to question. Who knows how many others will one day be led back to God’s one and only true church due to our marriage?

Of course, I will be advising the children to marry Catholics.:rolleyes:
 
Other_Eric said:
Why would a good Catholic find himself in a position where he would have to address this question?
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When mormon misionaries come to the door I often suggest that we each have our own beliefs and are not going to persuade the other; so lets just say a prayer that we will each persist and be successful in our search to find and follow truth. We pray and part friends.
 
lepanto said:
Mormons are polytheistic.

While you are praying to the One True God, which of many false gods will the Mormon be praying to?
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This is a little misleading, though I’m sure not intentional. I think it is better to describe Mormons as henotheistic–a word seemingly invented just for them. Henotheists worship one god (in the Mormon’s case, the Father) while believing in the existence of other, separate gods. Since they believe they can attain godhood of their own planet then they obviously believe in existence of other gods. However, they do not worship or pray to those other gods. Of course, henotheism is an offshoot of polytheism but I wanted to clarify that Mormons are not praying to these other gods.

Mormons claim to be monotheists as they worship only the Father. However, their belief that there are separate gods of separate planets definitely excludes them from monotheism. They also believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of this world, but that He is not “one in being with the Father”. I do not think they direct their prayers to Jesus, but am not sure about that. Maybe someone else knows. I have most often heard them start their prayers with “Heavenly Father”.

By the way, I see you are in Boise…my former home (I’m from a small town north of Boise). Is the weather still blistering? I was there over the 4th and it was scorching!
 
BKerns said:
Forgive me if this has seemed blunt. I no longer believe those teachings which are unique to the LDS faith, but I still believe in being respectful. in the long run i believe this will be much more fruitful in bringing the rest of my family ( and I’m already beginning to see those results) into the Church.
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Not blunt at all, BKerns. I think you said it very nicely. I agree.

And… Welcome Home!!!
 
Hello everyone and thanks for the interesting replies!

Why would I ask? Well because I’m Catholic and I meet Mormon missionaries and of course I want to help them find truth and grace. Sometimes at meals I asked if I can say a blessing and they’ve been ok with it, that’s one situation. At other times before discussing faith they’ve asked if we could start with a prayer and I’ve agreed, praying for them silently while they pray to their god out loud. One other time at a Mormon family’s place they wanted to end the meeting in prayer and one of them prayed and I was there but I don’t remember if I said Amen or not at the end anyway I agreed with what the guy said in the prayer so I think I could sort of direct the same words to the true God… another time we were going to play tennis and we said we could pray for a free court and I guess we both did silently both to our own God(s) …these are the different situations I had in mind, do you think all of them were fine? I would be inclined to think so. What I wouldn’t do would be to suggest a common prayer where everyone states their intentions and then together we say something similar to what is said in church at the end of general intercessions, ending with a common Amen, since that would imply praying to the same God. Agree?
 
Pray with in the sense of saying the same prayers I think is usually OK - I mean most mainstream Christian denominations pray the same Creeds, even though they may mean different things by the word ‘catholic’ for example. Or even ‘God’ or ‘he rose again from the dead’ :eek:

Just this week I visited a local Anglican Church (I think you Yanks call 'em Episcopalians) and by sheer unplanned koinkydink was there for their mass.

It was almost word for word the same prayers as the Catholic Novus Ordo. Nothing really objectionable (although of course hearing the Anglican communion called a ‘sacrament’ didn’t sit quite right with this Catholic-to-the-toenails girl).

Though I didn’t and couldn’t go up for communion with them I did make an Act of Spiritual Communion and pray very hard for unity between the Catholic and Anglican sides of the great divide :crossrc:
 
Other_Eric said:
Why would a good Catholic find himself in a position where he would have to address this question?
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When Mormons come to my door I always invite them in and we talk. I always ask them if we can pray together before they leave. Maybe if we always prayed with all the people we met things might be a whole lot better between us.
 
Publisher said:
I dare say, so often we want to claim special privilege that “God” is ours…and our belief is the correct one…and we also want to draw a distinction that if our beliefs are not affirmed…then a “different” God is being addressed.

There is only One God…One Light Within…One Seed in each of us…that Ocean of Love and Light is over all. The Light that brings light to each of us, must wonder where so many of us get our ideas of His exclusiveness.
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Beautiful. Our personal desire to be foremost in the light because of our theology, nationality etc. etc. etc. casts shadows upon everyone and everything. The sunlight falls on everyone, regardless of our name for it. Why do we have to make priority/exclusivity claims on the sun?
 
Publisher said:
I dare say, so often we want to claim special privilege that “God” is ours…and our belief is the correct one…and we also want to draw a distinction that if our beliefs are not affirmed…then a “different” God is being addressed.

There is only One God…One Light Within…One Seed in each of us…that Ocean of Love and Light is over all. The Light that brings light to each of us, must wonder where so many of us get our ideas of His exclusiveness.
Click to expand...
This won’t do at all. Any Pantheist could assent to that last paragraph. This exclusiveness comes from the revelation of God in Christ, it is not something we have projected onto Catholicism.
I have prayed with Moron missionaries when they came around, but only after asking them if we were addressing the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. They soon scooted when the True Faith was put to them.
Upon reflection I decided that I could not allow myself to pray with members of the LSD sect again, as they do not believe in the living God, but in other ‘spirits’, probably devils of some sort. It would be wrong, possibly sinful, to let them believe that we believe in the same Deity.
 
Jim_ov_Cov said:
This won’t do at all. Any Pantheist could assent to that last paragraph. This exclusiveness comes from the revelation of God in Christ, it is not something we have projected onto Catholicism.
I have prayed with Moron missionaries when they came around, but only after asking them if we were addressing the Father, through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. They soon scooted when the True Faith was put to them.
Upon reflection I decided that I could not allow myself to pray with members of the LSD sect again, as they do not believe in the living God, but in other ‘spirits’, probably devils of some sort. It would be wrong, possibly sinful, to let them believe that we believe in the same Deity.
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I guess for me…even if ‘they’ don’t believe or concieve of the Living Eternal Limitless Uncreated Light using the same words and concepts I do…“Greater is He that is in me…” and I would lift them before the Light…that they may know the height and depth of the Love of God…and not fear to “Whom” they pray to…I know Whom I am praying to…and for me that makes all the difference in the world.
 
The first part of the “Hail Mary” prayer is directly from the Bible. How about if we start with that? Surely no Mormon would object to a prayer from the Bible? Or perhaps the Lord’s prayer? Since this was a prayer given to us by Jesus surely that wouldn’t meet the Mormon definition of “vain repetition”?
 
You can do your own praying while they are doing theirs. After all, it’s one God up there, despite whatever they believe.
 
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