Mormon church I went to... (and pics!)

[BJ_Colbert]

iwonder:

Well, actually, B.J. I AM one of those other poor misguided Catholics who pray to saints. I pray TO the Virgin and TO St. Patrick and TO Jesus and TO St. Joseph and all the others.I am sorry you set him straight. The Rosary can be very comforting and helpful during an illness. But that is your business.
I also use milagros- those funny little body parts you reject.
My house is filled with my family and we talk all day, every day.
The Virgin is alive in spirit and stands ready to help at any time.
I don’t want to mislead you- what I said is true- I do not worship the statue- but I am a human being and not a God, and when my kids are breaking something, or the dog made a mess, and Ifeel like yelling, well, actually I remember whose presence I’m in. And the statues help me to call on them rather than my own strength, which is limited. I will pray for you and your husband. And I hope you will forgive me for being nothingmore than one of those other ignorant Catholics you have met around the world. I just hope that your husband is not deprived of the Blessed Sacrament and the Anointing of the Sick during his illness. I would hope you could try to be big hearted toward us ignorant ones and allow him the comfort of a priest during his illness. See for us, B.J.,Christ in Really Present with us. He is not off in space somewhere, He is here. In all of His healing, all of His love, all of His Wisdom. But that’s just me speaking. You are absolutely guaranteed your
freedom to worship whatever you like.
Peace and please don’t be mad at me for being an ignorant Catholic. I’m happy with it though. And so is my husband. He’s more ignorant than me!

Now you really have me confused about what you believe. I was told emphatically in this forum that Catholics do not worship Mary,or the saints. They said that you only ask them to pray for you. So now I have mislead my husband, he uses his rosary all the time and I did not think it was worshiping Mary to use the rosary. But, I am only an ignorant Mormon, so how could I understand. Now I know you do worship Mary and all the saints as well as Jesus Christ. So thank you for clarifying it for me. I always thought that before the other Catholics told me it was a myth told by anti-Catholics that Catholics worship Mary. There was even a thread a while back where Catholics said it was disgusting how other religions said they worshiped Mary when it was just like a photo on your dresser, and she was being asked to pray for them as you would ask a friend to pray for you. I don’t have any idea what you believe or who you believe in now. I am totally confused, so now I will tell my husband that he does worship Mary. I sure am glad I only worship God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. They do not dwell on any planet, that is a anti Mormon myth. They dwell the same place you think they dwell, and they are just as close to me as to you. We are both God’s children and he loves us both the same. Peace to you…BJ

 

[iwonder]

BJ Colbert:

Now you really have me confused about what you believe. I was told emphatically in this forum that Catholics do not worship Mary,or the saints. They said that you only ask them to pray for you. So now I have mislead my husband, he uses his rosary all the time and I did not think it was worshiping Mary to use the rosary. But, I am only an ignorant Mormon, so how could I understand. Now I know you do worship Mary and all the saints as well as Jesus Christ. So thank you for clarifying it for me. I always thought that before the other Catholics told me it was a myth told by anti-Catholics that Catholics worship Mary. There was even a thread a while back where Catholics said it was disgusting how other religions said they worshiped Mary when it was just like a photo on your dresser, and she was being asked to pray for them as you would ask a friend to pray for you. I don’t have any idea what you believe or who you believe in now. I am totally confused, so now I will tell my husband that he does worship Mary. I sure am glad I only worship God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. They do not dwell on any planet, that is a anti Mormon myth. They dwell the same place you think they dwell, and they are just as close to me as to you. We are both God’s children and he loves us both the same. Peace to you…BJ

Whoa lady slow down. Where did I say we worship Mary? Try to understand- she is alive and with us. She was assumed into heaven. We ask her to pray for us all the time. We do not worship her. We do not worship her statue. Her statue is not her- only a likeness of her. I don’t know how to make it any clearer to you.
And yes, you are totally confused. Unfortunately, you seem to be even more confused by your own religion. And no, it certainly is not my fault. And yes, it is just like a photo on my dresser.
You can do one of two things: you can fo to the official LDS website of your Church, and put planet, or Kolob, or Heaven or whatever into the search engine and what will pop up is what popped up for us when we did the same thing,
Or, if you are more concerned for your husband then yourself, you can go to the New Advent Website, or the Catholic Conference of U.S. Bishops, or ask an apologist here on the forum about the Virgin Mary. but what you cannot do is continue to be contemptous and make fun of my beliefs. Because you see, I don’t make fun of yours. Besides your profile says your husband is a practicing Catholic. How come you say he needs so much help with it from you?

 

[BJ_Colbert]

Did you really say this now when you said clearly in the post before that you do pray to Mary and all of the saints? What are you trying to say? I would never go to a web site and pull up Kolob because it means nothing to me in my religion. It is what anti-mormons dwell on to ridicule and make fun of us. Now, you keep saying exactly what you know is not a main focus, but only one sentence in one of many books and you go on and on about this star that is somewhere near heaven. It has no bearing on what we believe, but you insist on going over and over it. You came in to this forum yesterday in a very hateful arrogant self righteous way and pulled up threads that had long been abandoned and just attacked everything you could find to attack. Everyone else has been having civil conversations and learning about each other in a respectful way. You have posted some today that were not as bad as yesterday, but still very smug and self-righteous. Have a little empathy, I am not out to attack what is very precious to my husband whom I love very much, I am simply trying to understand your posts, which are not very clear in some areas. Now, I guess you are saying you do not worship Mary and my first impression was right. So good thing I didn’t tell my husband that he worships Mary. Right? Do I have it clear now? You do not worship Mary. Just what I understood before your post above this last one. Now, calm down and read your own post and you will see how confusing and angry it is. I am not angry and I do not hate Catholics. The person I love most in the world is Catholic, my daughters are all married to Catholics and one son is married to a Catholic. I have grandsons who are alterboys and grandsons who are Mormon deacons and priests. I do not hate my own family who are all half Catholic. That is why I came to this site to better understand the differences and also the similarities in our religions. As I said before, we are all children of God, even though you would rather not admit it. I will pray that you will have more tolerance and understanding of your fellowman.
and also that I will have more patience with persons like you who do not know or understand anything about my religion. Please do not act like you do. You know even less about Mormons than I know about Catholics.We both need to study more before we make foolish statements.I’m sorry for offending you so terribly…Charity Never Faileth…BJ

 

[iwonder]

BJ Colbert:

Did you really say this now when you said clearly in the post before that you do pray to Mary and all of the saints? What are you trying to say? I would never go to a web site and pull up Kolob because it means nothing to me in my religion. It is what anti-mormons dwell on to ridicule and make fun of us. Now, you keep saying exactly what you know is not a main focus, but only one sentence in one of many books and you go on and on about this star that is somewhere near heaven. It has no bearing on what we believe, but you insist on going over and over it. You came in to this forum yesterday in a very hateful arrogant self righteous way and pulled up threads that had long been abandoned and just attacked everything you could find to attack. Everyone else has been having civil conversations and learning about each other in a respectful way. You have posted some today that were not as bad as yesterday, but still very smug and self-righteous. Have a little empathy, I am not out to attack what is very precious to my husband whom I love very much, I am simply trying to understand your posts, which are not very clear in some areas. Now, I guess you are saying you do not worship Mary and my first impression was right. So good thing I didn’t tell my husband that he worships Mary. Right? Do I have it clear now? You do not worship Mary. Just what I understood before your post above this last one. Now, calm down and read your own post and you will see how confusing and angry it is. I am not angry and I do not hate Catholics. The person I love most in the world is Catholic, my daughters are all married to Catholics and one son is married to a Catholic. I have grandsons who are alterboys and grandsons who are Mormon deacons and priests. I do not hate my own family who are all half Catholic. That is why I came to this site to better understand the differences and also the similarities in our religions. As I said before, we are all children of God, even though you would rather not admit it. I will pray that you will have more tolerance and understanding of your fellowman.
and also that I will have more patience with persons like you who do not know or understand anything about my religion. Please do not act like you do. You know even less about Mormons than I know about Catholics.We both need to study more before we make foolish statements.I’m sorry for offending you so terribly…Charity Never Faileth…BJ

Could you please explain to me why your husband who is the practicing Catholic needs you to explain to him how to do it? I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you, a professed Mormon, should be using anything I say on this forum to instruct your husband, apparently a practicing Catholic, in the Catholic Faith. That just seems very strange to me. Why is it necessary for you to instruct him in Catholicism and the Virgin Mary?
And I am willing to concede that yu have no idea how incredibly offensive you are. It probably comes from the years when the Mormons were publicly and actively anti Catholic and is a left over bad habit.
You have an advantage over me in that you have so many Catholics in your family especially your husband, who need your help to understand their religion. For me, I have never had a Mormon in mine. So I actually know nothing about you except what is said on this forum, how Mormons have acted at my door, and what is on your website.
As far as Kolob goes, if you were operating in good faith you would research it on your own website before telling me it is meaningless.

 

[iwonder]

Help! Why if you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, why then would you want to put his picture in the lobby rather thatn where the celebration occurs?
What is the purpose, please, and I would like the answer to come from someone who is LDS, not a Catholic.

We don’t worship idols, pictures, statues, etc. I think if we had a picture in the chapel sooner or later someone would pray to it. That’s just my opinion; I don’t know the official reason.

Casen- the last time, about a year ago, when two Mormon young men came to my door, as soon as I opened it, they held up a 11 by 14 glossy picture of Jesus as worker. I accepted it and gave them in return the vocation prayer card for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. They returned to the car and recited the prayer, which I found to be very surprising. Twenty years ago they would have just thrown it away. In any case, Casen, why if you do not want anyone worshiping pictures, do you hand them out while missionising?

 

[Casen]

iwonder,
We’re not opposed to pictures; we just don’t include them in our sacrament meetings where someone might be inclined to pray to them. That’s my take on it but I don’t know the official reason.

 

[Brian_Ingram]

"I can understand your feeling, as I felt the same when I entered my husband’s parish the first time. I felt it was very cold(literally as they did not have the heat on), it was huge and not at all welcoming and warm. The people didn’t speak and still don’t, six years later. I was horrified by the blood dripping off some of the statues of Jesus, and it was difficult to feel the spirit with so many statues to take away my attention. "

I did not realise how cold Catholic Churches were until I attended my wife’s Chapel with its cental heating and padded seats. In fact the central heating sometimes is too hot and people nod off. Yes I have found generally speaking the people especially the Bishops are more welcoming in the Mormon Church than in the Catholic Church. Mormons through the different callings they have are more connected to each other than Catholics, Catholic in their faith are more monastic. In regards the suffering Jesus on the cross, to me it is central to my faith, it is a visual representation of the depth of His love for me and all humanity and what he gained for us in His atoning sacrifice. It is also reassuring that when we suffer it is nothing compared to His suffering and yet He says “give me your burdens”.

Pax

Brain

 

[flameburns623]

Mormon chapels are spare and unornamented, yet well-lighted and pleasantly decorated, for a specific purpose: to inspire attendees to relate to God NOT through images or symbols but in the calm quiet of their own spirit. Thomas Howard (a convert from Evangelicalism to Anglicanism and from Anglicanism to Catholicism) has written something about this somewhere. I’ll see if I can locate it and post it here.

 

[BJ_Colbert]

iwonder:

Could you please explain to me why your husband who is the practicing Catholic needs you to explain to him how to do it? I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you, a professed Mormon, should be using anything I say on this forum to instruct your husband, apparently a practicing Catholic, in the Catholic Faith. That just seems very strange to me. Why is it necessary for you to instruct him in Catholicism and the Virgin Mary?
And I am willing to concede that yu have no idea how incredibly offensive you are. It probably comes from the years when the Mormons were publicly and actively anti Catholic and is a left over bad habit.
You have an advantage over me in that you have so many Catholics in your family especially your husband, who need your help to understand their religion. For me, I have never had a Mormon in mine. So I actually know nothing about you except what is said on this forum, how Mormons have acted at my door, and what is on your website.
As far as Kolob goes, if you were operating in good faith you would research it on your own website before telling me it is meaningless.

I am sorry, but when I was younger I very much admired the Catholics I knew. My first kiss was from a Catholic boy. I always thought it was pretty cool how they made the sign of the cross and I wanted to do it too. I guess you were exposed to a few LDS who did not like Catholics(I don’t know where else you would get the idea that Mormons don’t like Catholics or didn’t in the past)
As far as Kolob goes 1 sentence in our 4 standard works of scripture, mentioning a star does not interest me, as much as the scriptures do. What else is there to say about any star, if you have seen one star all the others pretty much look the same. If there is more to tell about it, please print out the website that expounds in more detail about Kolob. I would like to know more about it, if indeed there is more to know.
Thanks iwonder for all your posts, I do appreciate that your tone is starting to soften, but you still sound very anti-something.
The reason I explain to my husband what I read from the Catholics in this forum is because he was raised in a Catholic orphanage, was an alter boy, lived his whole life as a Catholic, but when he went to the Mormon church with me he thought that the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price was also Catholic scripture. He thought it was beautiful and I had to tell him he did not believe that. He did not own a Catholic Bible, so I bought him one and we have studied together the similarities and differences between our Churches. We pray together twice daily and also separate several times a day. We believe in the same God, so sometimes he gets confused, and I explain the things I learn in this forum to him.
I had told him he isn’t supposed to worship Mary, but then you said in a prior post that you did, so I was about to tell him that I was wrong about that, but then you came back and said you didn’t worship Mary. Which was what I had understood all along until you said you worshipped all the saints and Mary and Jesus. That confused me, but now I understand you were just mad and said that in the heat of the moment. You came back and said that you don’t worship Mary, just in time for me not to tell my husband that I had told him the wrong thing before. Catholics do not all know what they believe and I just want my husband to study and really learn what it is he believes.

I have another thread, I started which was a question my husband and I have been struggling with for several years about annulment in the Catholic Church. I had the most wonderful and understanding responses from all the Catholics and got so many good answers, especially from itsjustdave, Jerusha and Brian from NZ. That is the kind of information that I am searching for, and I do not want to be fighting all the time with persons who think I am insincere because I try to defend my faith, when I feel you are attacking unfairly.
I believe the interest in Kolob, is misplaced and simply used to detract from the meat of the gospel. I am sorry if I get perturbed at your insistance that the LDS explain Kolob. I had never even heard of it until Catholics brought it up on this forum.

I hope you can understand now my motivation in being in this forum and that I am speaking from the heart and do not quote scripture unless it is something I memorized as a child. I am not a bible student and could not tell you where to find most things, so please have patience if I say the wrong thing, I truely do not mean to offend you, but you offended me greatly and I was shocked at what I perceived to be an attack on my faith. I am sorry if I was unduly rude to you. BJ

 

[iwonder]

flameburns623:

Mormon chapels are spare and unornamented, yet well-lighted and pleasantly decorated, for a specific purpose: to inspire attendees to relate to God NOT through images or symbols but in the calm quiet of their own spirit. Thomas Howard (a convert from Evangelicalism to Anglicanism and from Anglicanism to Catholicism) has written something about this somewhere. I’ll see if I can locate it and post it here.

Yes, flameburns623 and kudos for mentioning the need for listening to the Spirit without distractions and in calm.
What you are describing is a practice similar to what we do in the Carmelite Order. It is a contemplative prayer, not to be confused with meditative prayers such as the Rosary. I like both, but being alone with God is a very great thing. I am a Catholic who dearly enjoys her statues and icons, but the Holy Spirit is best heard in the silence. One of our chief experts in the calming of the spirit was St. Teresa of Avila. We call her a Doctor of the Church because her work healed many prayer difficulties and offered another way to achieve the calm silence necessary to even hear God in the first place. Calm is rather paramount in importance in any kind of prayer.

 

[flameburns623]

iwonder:

What you are describing is a practice similar to what we do in the Carmelite Order. It is a contemplative prayer, not to be confused with meditative prayers such as the Rosary. I like both, but being alone with God is a very great thing. I am a Catholic who dearly enjoys her statues and icons, but the Holy Spirit is best heard in the silence.

Umm–maybe, but Mormons are not actually contemplative nor meditative in the sense I think a Carmelite would be. At least not in LDS chapels, which can be tremendously noisy. Latter-Day Saints are gregarious AND often come to church with highly-structured agendas. The moments prior to and following worship services are often used to meet one another, touch base on some ongoing issue or project, put the final touches on who will perform various parts of the services if someone doesn’t show up and so forth. Much like what goes on before and after a major business meeting in the workplace.

Even worship itself isn’t especially quiet by Catholic standards. Mormons have, on average, more children than Roman Catholics do these days, and the LDS Church Authorities don’t seem to encourage the use of ‘cry rooms’ for young babies. Of course–this may have changed a tad since they now also encourage mothers to nurse and all. (Meaning–‘nurse’ the old-fashioned way, before the advent of baby bottles and infant formula). Nonetheless–except during the consecration of the Sacrament–their term for the communion service–Mormons seem to do little to calm the fussing and fidgeting of their little ones.

I have heard Mormon mothers lauding the ‘peacefulness’ of the Temple and rather pointedly explaining that peace is greatly enhanced by not being distracted by the presence of little ones–small children apparently cannot attend the Temples. (I obviously have never been to a Mormon Temple, except to tour the one in St. Louis. By the way–the architecture and design is similar although the furnishings are much more lavish and there ARE pictures in some of the rooms).

I believe that Mormon leaders in the past expressly condemned many of the contemplative prayer practices which you might practice in a convent or monastery. Latter-Day Saints pray only extemporaneously–from the heart–and in fact I don’t think most Mormons, nor most non-liturgical Protestants, consider a composed prayer to ‘be’ a prayer. Any more than reading a newspaper article to my spouse constitutes a conversation, they might say.

This is a bit of a tangent and I don’t want to derail the thread. My point was that Mormon architecture is designed to encourage quietness and peaceableness. I think this might be because Mormons often live very busy lives and practice a very ‘busy’ religion, and a few calm moments each week in a simple and unadorned chapel might seem like an oasis for many of them. My concern is that you’ve misunderstood me to say that Mormons practice some sort of contemplative mysticism, which would not be true. Individual LDS MIGHT do so, but it would be very much out of the norm.

 

[iwonder]

flameburns623:

Umm–maybe, but Mormons are not actually contemplative nor meditative in the sense I think a Carmelite would be. At least not in LDS chapels, which can be tremendously noisy. Latter-Day Saints are gregarious AND often come to church with highly-structured agendas. The moments prior to and following worship services are often used to meet one another, touch base on some ongoing issue or project, put the final touches on who will perform various parts of the services if someone doesn’t show up and so forth. Much like what goes on before and after a major business meeting in the workplace.

Even worship itself isn’t especially quiet by Catholic standards. Mormons have, on average, more children than Roman Catholics do these days, and the LDS Church Authorities don’t seem to encourage the use of ‘cry rooms’ for young babies. Of course–this may have changed a tad since they now also encourage mothers to nurse and all. (Meaning–‘nurse’ the old-fashioned way, before the advent of baby bottles and infant formula). Nonetheless–except during the consecration of the Sacrament–their term for the communion service–Mormons seem to do little to calm the fussing and fidgeting of their little ones.

I have heard Mormon mothers lauding the ‘peacefulness’ of the Temple and rather pointedly explaining that peace is greatly enhanced by not being distracted by the presence of little ones–small children apparently cannot attend the Temples. (I obviously have never been to a Mormon Temple, except to tour the one in St. Louis. By the way–the architecture and design is similar although the furnishings are much more lavish and there ARE pictures in some of the rooms).

I believe that Mormon leaders in the past expressly condemned many of the contemplative prayer practices which you might practice in a convent or monastery. Latter-Day Saints pray only extemporaneously–from the heart–and in fact I don’t think most Mormons, nor most non-liturgical Protestants, consider a composed prayer to ‘be’ a prayer. Any more than reading a newspaper article to my spouse constitutes a conversation, they might say.

This is a bit of a tangent and I don’t want to derail the thread. My point was that Mormon architecture is designed to encourage quietness and peaceableness. I think this might be because Mormons often live very busy lives and practice a very ‘busy’ religion, and a few calm moments each week in a simple and unadorned chapel might seem like an oasis for many of them. My concern is that you’ve misunderstood me to say that Mormons practice some sort of contemplative mysticism, which would not be true. Individual LDS MIGHT do so, but it would be very much out of the norm.

Ah, yes I did misunderstand you. Thank you for the explanation.

 

[TarAshly]

BJ Colbert:

I agree with Casen. I have been to many Catholic Churches and Cathedrals all over the world and the people actually start worshiping the statues of the saints and Mary instead of Jesus Christ. They leave all kinds of offerings, flowers, food, toys, little body parts according to what they want healed. They pray to and kiss these statues as if they were alive. That to me is worshiping an object instead of God. God says “I your God am a jealous God, thou shalt not have any other Gods before me”. (I may have missed a couple of words, bad memory)
I know the Catholic Church does not worship these statues and images, but their people are confused and do worship and pray to the statues. My own dear husband thought he was praying directly to Mary. I had to explain that in the Catholic Church he is not praying to Mary, but asking her to pray for him. I learned that in this forum. My husband is not stupid, just so you know he is above average intelligence and retired Marine and retired from NATO in Naples, Italy. So you can see that the average Catholic gets confused.
We do not want that to happen in LDS churches, so we make sure that our statues and paintings are in places where they will be admired, reflected upon to remind us of Jesus, but not worshipped, or prayed to.
In our services there are usually fresh flowers adorning the alter, and it is very beautiful and spiritual to me. Very simple and unadorned. With the soft organ music playing familiar hymns as we enter the chapel, it is difficult to imagine a more reverent atmosphere in which to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I guess it all depends on what is familiar to you, and that is OK.
BJ

They are simply a symbol. at my wedding my husband led me over to the statue of our most Holy Mother Mary, i layed a bouqet of flowers at her feet. i wasnt giving the flowers to the statue i was offering them to Mary. it was my understanding that it is a symbol of offering myself into Motherhood and Wifehood, as Mary did, and also asking for Her guidance. I would ask someone before you start labeling us idol worshipers. I have a problem with an empty church. theres no reverence in a Mormon ceremony or “mass” you just kinda go and listen and i guess pray. and the parishoners were some of the coldest cliqueish people i have ever met. i went alone, sat alone and no one spoke to me not even the bishop or whatever hes called. i went alone because my hubby knew better! but i was curious. Doh! i didnt like it. I was right back home in my beautiful Catholic Church, with her statues and stained glass, and placards and paintings and the Crucifix that is the center of our church. I walk into that building with the beautiful candles, the Priest welcoming everyone, the smiling faces, the young ones on their kneelers with mommy praying the rosary. The Holy Spirit just moves through that building, and knowing the Eucharist is there! you can feel Christ. now thats Church! on top of that the first time i went to that church, i was greeted by not only the priest and the greeters, but other parishoners, these people i was in RCIA with knew i was coming alone and always invited me to sit with their family. the warmth and the love and the acceptance i felt was amazing, it was my second family and home. like i said… NOW THATS CHURCH! and BJ God willing someday your eyes will be opened to the reverent beauty of the Catholic Church, the Church Christ himself started. Your husband has known and obviously loved his faith, i pray he will lead you into the Church of Truth.

 

[TarAshly]

Brian Ingram:

"I can understand your feeling, as I felt the same when I entered my husband’s parish the first time. I felt it was very cold(literally as they did not have the heat on), it was huge and not at all welcoming and warm. The people didn’t speak and still don’t, six years later. I was horrified by the blood dripping off some of the statues of Jesus, and it was difficult to feel the spirit with so many statues to take away my attention. "

I did not realise how cold Catholic Churches were until I attended my wife’s Chapel with its cental heating and padded seats. In fact the central heating sometimes is too hot and people nod off. Yes I have found generally speaking the people especially the Bishops are more welcoming in the Mormon Church than in the Catholic Church. Mormons through the different callings they have are more connected to each other than Catholics, Catholic in their faith are more monastic. In regards the suffering Jesus on the cross, to me it is central to my faith, it is a visual representation of the depth of His love for me and all humanity and what he gained for us in His atoning sacrifice. It is also reassuring that when we suffer it is nothing compared to His suffering and yet He says “give me your burdens”.

Pax

Brain

Brian while i adamently disagree with your feelings on the warmth or friendliness of the Catholic Church as compared to the morman church, i absolutely 100% agree with your takings on the cross, everytime i feel like i just can take it anymore all i have to do is look up at the crucifix in my home, touch the one i wear on my neck, or hold the one i have on one of my many rosaries. its a comfort to know that my suffering is NOTHING compared to his suffering, and yet He wants to shoulder my burdens and pains and sorrows. and i can give them to Him and i will suffer no more. i lift them up to Lord Jesus, knowing he would never give me anything more than i could handle, and all is forgiven, and all will be ok. What a blessing the Crucifix is, and what a blessing to have it adorn my home, my Church, my neck, my car, everywhere. it is a constant reminder of Christs love for me.

 

[BJ_Colbert]

TarAshly:

They are simply a symbol. at my wedding my husband led me over to the statue of our most Holy Mother Mary, i layed a bouqet of flowers at her feet. i wasnt giving the flowers to the statue i was offering them to Mary. it was my understanding that it is a symbol of offering myself into Motherhood and Wifehood, as Mary did, and also asking for Her guidance. I would ask someone before you start labeling us idol worshipers. I have a problem with an empty church. theres no reverence in a Mormon ceremony or “mass” you just kinda go and listen and i guess pray. and the parishoners were some of the coldest cliqueish people i have ever met. i went alone, sat alone and no one spoke to me not even the bishop or whatever hes called. i went alone because my hubby knew better! but i was curious. Doh! i didnt like it. I was right back home in my beautiful Catholic Church, with her statues and stained glass, and placards and paintings and the Crucifix that is the center of our church. I walk into that building with the beautiful candles, the Priest welcoming everyone, the smiling faces, the young ones on their kneelers with mommy praying the rosary. The Holy Spirit just moves through that building, and knowing the Eucharist is there! you can feel Christ. now thats Church! on top of that the first time i went to that church, i was greeted by not only the priest and the greeters, but other parishoners, these people i was in RCIA with knew i was coming alone and always invited me to sit with their family. the warmth and the love and the acceptance i felt was amazing, it was my second family and home. like i said… NOW THATS CHURCH! and BJ God willing someday your eyes will be opened to the reverent beauty of the Catholic Church, the Church Christ himself started. Your husband has known and obviously loved his faith, i pray he will lead you into the Church of Truth.

You have misunderstood my post. First of all, I did not call Catholics ignorant, as iwonder suggests I did. I would never use that word, I simply said that there are Catholics in other parts of the world who believe they are actually worshiping the statues. I simply think they are confused because of traditions in their indigenous tribes mixed with their Catholic religion. I have been told that by several Catholics.
We prefer not to use statues, because of the possibility of this confusion by different people. I do not think they are ignorant, my husband is one of the most intelligent people I know. He just did not know the difference between praying to Mary, and asking her as a friend to pray for him. It is easy to misunderstand that concept, but very clear to me once it was explained in the manner it was explained in earlier posts.
I know that you do not worship idols or statues or Mary. I apologize again if you misconstrued my meaning. I maybe tried to explain too much. Iwonder confused me with her post about worshiping the statues in her home. So it was simply a mass confusion.
I think there is nothing more beautiful than the historic and incredible Cathedrals of the world. I have visited them often, but some of the posters in this thread said things like LDS Churches are as empty as our beliefs, or something to that effect.
I was just saying that the LDS Chapel to me is a very beautiful and simple place to worship. I grew up with it and the organ music, and it is every bit as beautiful and meaningful to me as your Churches are to you.
Tkdnick has also explained that the parish we are in is one of the older ones and the one that he is in is much more friendly and active with welcoming people and having spiritual music(which I really miss in our parish) He has invited us to his parish, but my husband is stubborn about going to the same one where he can put his envelope with his offering in the right parish. I even have to run in and put it in the box, when he misses mass occasionally.
I very much apologize for my confusing posts, I truly am appalled at the confusion it caused for both you and iwonder.
Sorry, Sorry, Sorry

BJ

 

[Cindybasket]

Help me then to understand the following…

No picture of Jesus is in the LDS church where you actually worship? What about Joseph Smith?

The reason I ask is that I do not know - I’ve been to a meeting room but not the chapel area with some of my mormon friends.

When we were stationed on a military base three of my 4 neighbors were mormon and all of them in a very prominent place in their house had an 11x14 photo of Joseph Smith and one of Jesus Christ. Each one of my neighbors had both photos hung up at the same height. I had never seen a photo of Joseph Smith . When I went in and saw the photos I asked. They said that is the LDS prophet and he deserves a place of honor and recognition in our homes to remind us how we are to live our lives.

Based on some of the responses here (mainly from LDS members) am I to now think they “worshipped” these photos? I don’t.

It did, however, help me to understand why through all our talks about religion with my friends that so much of it was based on what the prophet states.

 

[blueadept]

The picture at the begininng of this thread is pretty accurate. There are no pictures in the chapel area. In our home we have a picture of Gordon B. Hinckley and his 2 first Counselors, 2 pictures of Jesus, a figurine of Moroni, and a picture of the Salt Lake Temple. I complained to the wife that no one would know a Catholic lives here and we got a crucifix and a figurine of Mary that’s in discrete parts of the house. With all of the KJV bibles, BoM’s, and Catholic bibles laying around the house. I’m sure any visitor in our house should be thoroughly confused.

 

[iwonder]

blueadept:

The picture at the begininng of this thread is pretty accurate. There are no pictures in the chapel area. In our home we have a picture of Gordon B. Hinckley and his 2 first Counselors, 2 pictures of Jesus, a figurine of Moroni, and a picture of the Salt Lake Temple. I complained to the wife that no one would know a Catholic lives here and we got a crucifix and a figurine of Mary that’s in discrete parts of the house. With all of the KJV bibles, BoM’s, and Catholic bibles laying around the house. I’m sure any visitor in our house should be thoroughly confused.

:bigyikes: You’ve put them altogether? Ha, I win. I’ve got two buddhas, one fat one standing up and one in the lotus position. One statue of Our Lady of Grace, 1 Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, 1 Our Lady of Guadalupe, three Crucifix’, 4 Orthodox icons, various bottles of water and oil from three different religions, multitudinous milagros and rosaries, two BOMs, a box of JW tracts, two King James Bibles, three different Catholic bibles, the Baltimore and the new catechism, a picture of Jesus as a carpenter two Mormon missionaries gave me, a ton of Masonry items inherited from my Grandpa-(he was a staunch methodist and high degree Mason) and a picture of …
Mary Baker Eddy!!!

My visitors don’t know whether to Ohm, Amen, kneel or dance.

 

[LDS]

Chris-WA:

I think this was in reference to my post so I will respond by saying that when it comes to weddings, there is definitely a policy to keep chapel weddings very simple so as not to “compete” with temple weddings. This was explained to me by my wife when I asked these questions. What I mean is that chapel weddings are not allowed to be too ceremonial in order to prevent them from appearing as special as temple sealings. The church wants to keep the temple wedding in the highest esteem, and so de-emphasizes anything less than that.

OK so I was married in the temple and I have been to chapel weddings as well. I want to set this strait. The temple ceramony is different from the church one because of sacredness. In the temple you don’t add any decoration, kinda nice you don’t have to pay for flowers there or anything elaborate. The church you can decorate in anyway you want as long as its first not in the chapel area and second you don’t damage the building I heard about one reception at the church were they put a water fall in the cultural hall and ruined the floor. The point is though and I hope you respect this we believe the temple marriage has blessings that are eternal the church marriages have blessings that are until death. Its different from anyother religion I realize but it is nice, simple but nice and if you think about it, does the amount of decore really matter when it comes to loving God and Jesus or taking vows of loyalty to them and your spouse? Just a thought.

 

[Stylteralmaldo]

I have been to a Mormon “church”, but not a “temple”. They look pretty much how the picture shows.

I have a good friend who is Mormon, however he told me that if he was to get married in a “church” (Mormon to non-Mormon), I could attend the wedding, but that if the wedding was in the “temple” (Mormon to Mormon) I would not be able to attend because only Mormons can enter the temple. Does that sound about right?