Thanks. I don’t think anyone would disagree that there is always a danger in someone just repeating words without giving them any thought. You get back what you put into it. However, if you truly contemplate the words of Jesus Himself as the prayer is said, the depth of this prayer is quite extraordinary and becomes your own prayer if prayed from the heart. It is, in fact, the perfect prayer and much more than just a pattern to follow.
It is a most sacred prayer of the Church. In the Early Church it was not taught to catechumens until the day of their baptism. I think LDS have a longing and appreciation for the sacred (as we all do). If they could view it in this light while praying it, they would have that kind of appreciation for it being a profound personal prayer, one taught to us by Our Lord, and much more than a pattern to follow.
Their repetitive prayers are all hymns accept for baptism, communion, and some parts of Temple worship. They consider the Lord’s prayer a pattern of how to pray rather than a prayer to be recited itself, but they do – as I’ve cited – consider hymns are prayers, and consider that as inviolable scripture.It is not recited because they think memorized and recited prayer falls under “vain repetition”. (But, they do use them, is the puzzling thing.)
Mormons value the Lord’s Prayer very highly. (To their benefit, they value prayer itself very highly.) Even though it is not encouraged to memorize as a prayer to be recited, I am not aware of any Mormon who doesn’t know it by heart. In my conversion from atheism to Catholicism, it is the only prayer I knew at Mass, and I hadn’t prayed at all for a couple of decades. Yet, I still remembered the Lord’s Prayer. The idea that you could actually pray it, anytime, was foreign to me.
Anyway, their teaching is that it is a pattern of prayer to follow, not something to be memorized and repeated.
Also, since they use the KJV Bible exclusively (for English speakers), they believe the language used is the “language of prayer”, and so switch into a quasi-KJV language when praying. Thee, thou, thine, doest, knowest, etc. (There are Catholic prayers, such as Hail Mary, that do the same thing.)
PS: To any Mormons, this is not a criticism of how you pray.
My adult daughter, who I raised atheist and has never been taught a single prayer, knows the Mormon “blessing on the food” by heart. Only because she’s heard it her entire life when we are at family gatherings.
The complete article is here:
So if I start a new church, which claims to restore the restoration, I have proven that the Mormon church has also fallen into apostasy. I get it.
That is a good example, because there is no proscribed “Blessing on the Food”. Like all other prayers, it is expected to be spontatneous. But there is only so much to say. It usually starts out, “Hevenly father, we than thee for this food…” and it may diverge from there but peole tend to say pretty much the same thing each time, so it might as well be written down. There was also the morning prayer, “Hevenly father, We Thank thee for this day …”
Actually, there are Mormons who have done that:So if I start a new church, which claims to restore the restoration, I have proven that the Mormon church has also fallen into apostasy. I get it.
By that reasoning the proof that there were UFO ships in Area 51 is that once people started talking about it they moved it someplace else.
Quite interesting. the second is actually a second generation splinter group. After the LDS Schism dsicussed vehemently and at length earlier, the second largest group in the divided congregation of the followers of Joseph Smith was the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, now called “The Community of Christ”. Around 1958 some “Reorganites” (as Mormons call them) broke from their church and formed the Remnant Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints, affirming that their splinter group had in turn apostasized, and the authority remained with them.
Yes, I have heard these many times as well. We always thought it somewhat funny that they would say “thank you for this food that nourishes our bodies” and they are serving sugar cookies and Tang! (usually at church events)
Yes, Mormons joke about this as well.Yes, I have heard these many times as well. We always thought it somewhat funny that they would say “thank you for this food that nourishes our bodies” and they are serving sugar cookies and Tang! (usually at church events)
Yes, I have heard these many times as well. We always thought it somewhat funny that they would say “thank you for this food that nourishes our bodies” and they are serving sugar cookies and Tang! (usually at church events)
I know I’ll hear about this from EVERYBODY – but wouldn’t that take a form of transsubstatiation?Yes, I have heard these many times as well. We always thought it somewhat funny that they would say “thank you for this food that nourishes our bodies” and they are serving sugar cookies and Tang! (usually at church events)
I was intending to be understood to be talking about relationships with others such as with family, friends, or even enemies. Those relationships become redefined because there is so much more love, forgiveness, empathy, compassion, gentleness, meekness, gratitude, humility, and patience that the relationships are no longer the same. This happens as people “put on Christ” and let Him be involved in their life, and as they repent, change, and grow.
Hi Parker - I am surprised you are choosing to pass on my questions.
He has not responded to the OP, so I’m not surprised. In fact he also said he was refusing to answer your OP. It demonstrates the weakness of the Mormon position in a rational discussion of the subject.
Stephen168,