Missing the ritual, aesthetics, and intellectual thought


andypg
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A couple weeks ago I celebrated my first year as a Latter-day Saint. It's been an amazing year and am so glad I found the Church. This is where I belong and I believe that this is the restored Church. That being said...

 

I hate writing this and feel guilty admitting this, but recently, I am missing aspects of Catholicism that I love. I miss the ritual of the Mass. The high liturgy for me is something wonderful and points to God in such a beautiful way. It still seems strange attending a very low liturgy. Don't get me wrong, I love going to church on Sundays and stay all three hours, but it's different and part of me is really missing the Mass and high liturgy. Before my conversion I was trying to find a Tridentine Mass (old style Latin) because I love that. The beauty, the ritual, the symbolism.

 

And this one doesn't really seem fair given the age and sizes of the two churches, but there seems to be so much Catholic intellectual thought. Granted, the Catholic Church has been around much much longer and Mormonism is still fairly new, but for me, sitting down to read Ratzinger (Pope Benedict) or Hans Urs von Balthasar, is an act of spiritual nourishment. They write highly intellectual books yet with such beauty and depth that while reading it I feel like I am encountering heaven, spending a few minutes there before I have to put the book down. It doesn't even have to be hard core theologians, the writings of Mother Teresa are some of the most eloquent yet simplest I have read. There is beauty there where I read these things and they impact me much more than a General Conference talk. When I went to Deseret Book, I couldn't find books like this, a lot of it seemed very elementary, inspirational. But there isn't much that I have been able to find that allows me to go deeper. The closest i can find to that is the writings of Terryl and Fiona Givens. Even then I feel like only reading them will make me unbalanced. All that being said, I LOVE the Standard Works.

 

I don't know. I belong here, I love the Church, I love the people, but I feel like something is missing. I told myself after a year as a member I will re-evaluate to see if this is where I belong and I think yes. I just miss these things and I think my spiritual life has been impacted by that. It's been feeling harder to connect deeply with our Heavenly Parents.

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A couple weeks ago I celebrated my first year as a Latter-day Saint. It's been an amazing year and am so glad I found the Church. This is where I belong and I believe that this is the restored Church. That being said...

I hate writing this and feel guilty admitting this, but recently, I am missing aspects of Catholicism that I love. I miss the ritual of the Mass. The high liturgy for me is something wonderful and points to God in such a beautiful way. It still seems strange attending a very low liturgy. Don't get me wrong, I love going to church on Sundays and stay all three hours, but it's different and part of me is really missing the Mass and high liturgy. Before my conversion I was trying to find a Tridentine Mass (old style Latin) because I love that. The beauty, the ritual, the symbolism.

And this one doesn't really seem fair given the age and sizes of the two churches, but there seems to be so much Catholic intellectual thought. Granted, the Catholic Church has been around much much longer and Mormonism is still fairly new, but for me, sitting down to read Ratzinger (Pope Benedict) or Hans Urs von Balthasar, is an act of spiritual nourishment. They write highly intellectual books yet with such beauty and depth that while reading it I feel like I am encountering heaven, spending a few minutes there before I have to put the book down. It doesn't even have to be hard core theologians, the writings of Mother Teresa are some of the most eloquent yet simplest I have read. There is beauty there where I read these things and they impact me much more than a General Conference talk. When I went to Deseret Book, I couldn't find books like this, a lot of it seemed very elementary, inspirational. But there isn't much that I have been able to find that allows me to go deeper. The closest i can find to that is the writings of Terryl and Fiona Givens. Even then I feel like only reading them will make me unbalanced. All that being said, I LOVE the Standard Works.

I don't know. I belong here, I love the Church, I love the people, but I feel like something is missing. I told myself after a year as a member I will re-evaluate to see if this is where I belong and I think yes. I just miss these things and I think my spiritual life has been impacted by that. It's been feeling harder to connect deeply with our Heavenly Parents.

I understand, I have been a member for 36 years. I am a cultural Baptist, but a doctrinal Mormon. Three months ago I buried my mother. She was 81. I spoke at her funeral, the pulpit in which I had began we sang hymns that I remembered with great fondness, and it was like being young again. To love your new faith does not mean you must hate your old faith. :)
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Hi Andy!

 

1 year - cool!  I can understand about missing old traditions - I spend 6 years unbelieving and inactive, and I still miss some of the activities I would engage in.

 

Our temples are full of symbolism - you might want to consider The Holy Temple by Packer.  Are you on a path to attend yourself?

 

If you're looking for intellectually stimulating LDS works, consider Hugh Nibley.

Edited by NeuroTypical
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Frequent temple attendance makes for complete worship.

From Elder Bednar:

"As I participated in the groundbreaking for the Meridian Idaho Temple over the weekend, I was reminded forcefully that the temple is a point of intersection between heaven and earth. In this sacred place, holy work will be performed through selfless service and love. The temple reminds me of all that is good and beautiful in the world."

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The temples are a "whole 'nother world" compare to our weekly sacrament services.  You've probably noticed that Church policy doesn't even allow a picture of the Savior in the chapel.  In the exterior hallways, foyers, etc., you'll find artwork with him in it, but never in the chapel.  The symbol of Christ there is the sacrament.  Our meetinghouses are pretty plain.

 

Then you go to the temple.  If you haven't been endowed yet, visit a temple that has a visitor's center and take a tour of the grounds.  When I was a new convert, I toured the Washington, D.C. temple grounds with a guide who described the architectural details.  It was amazingly rich in symbolism.  For example, each of the six pointy spires is slighly different in height and they represent the offices of the priesthood.  The doors have bronze seals on them that represent different dispensations.  The temple is oriented based on celestial north, not magnetic north, indicating that our personal orientation is celestial, not earthly.

 

Most temples have a "Moroni" on top, but very few members ever ask why that's the case.  In Jewish tradition, the Feast of Trumpets represents the call to repentance.  It precedes the Day of Atonement (judgment) and the Feast of Tabernacles, when God's presence returns to his people.  The day that Moroni gave Joseph Smith the plates in 1827 to begin the translation was the Feast of Trumpets in that year.  Moroni symbolizes God's call to the world to repent and accept the Restoration.  

 

Obviously we can't discuss the temple ordinances, but they are also symbolic.  The use of repetition in the temple is God's own pedagogy that assists individuals in memorizing over two hours worth of information and instruction.  It's beautiful and fulfilling.

 

Yes, the temple is where the OP needs to go to find the ritual richness he is longing for!

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Former pre-Vatican II Catholic here. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to make the Sign of the Cross or how many times I've wished for a kneeler in the Celestial Room so I could kneel in contemplation of both the issues I've brought to the temple and my experience in the temple.

 

I'm finding a fair amount of LDS intellectual thought. Right now (yes, still) I'm reading Hardy's 'Understanding the Book of Mormon.'  Not for those who don't like to think. I've also enjoyed 'Joseph Smith, Jr.: Reappraisals after Two Centuries.'

 

I'll admit looking at some Catholic stuff every now and then. The woman who founded the nuns who taught me in prep school was canonized a few years ago. That's fantastic to me, so I look at her stuff (and the order) on occasion. I still have a warm place in my heart for the Virgin Mary, in terms of the whole mother thing. I will play old hymns on YouTube, but I play MoTab as well.

 

Catholicism was a huge part of my life for a long time. It gave me a wonderful education. It made me not be afraid of hard work (actually, to almost seek it out).  That said, thankfully, I was not able to con my parents into letting me go into the convent in high school. : )  I think it's OK if you miss some of your Catholic rituals and behaviors (oh, those plain LDS chapels!). It was a big part of who you were before you converted. Plus, I don't see what's wrong with reading what the popes have written, same thing as reading works by the Dalai Lama or Thích Nhất Hạnh; we can learn from many worthy people.

 

 
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The temples are a "whole 'nother world" compare to our weekly sacrament services. You've probably noticed that Church policy doesn't even allow a picture of the Savior in the chapel. In the exterior hallways, foyers, etc., you'll find artwork with him in it, but never in the chapel. The symbol of Christ there is the sacrament. Our meetinghouses are pretty plain.

Is this policy? I've been in three LDS chapels with images of Christ--two in Utah.

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Is this policy? I've been in three LDS chapels with images of Christ--two in Utah.

 

I believe it is policy for new buildings, but exceptions are made for older structures where it was part of the architecture.  For example, there are some old buildings in UT where the chapels contain friezes or stained glass windows depicting scriptural or restoration themes. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here's a good book to get started on.  The authors in this book are all pretty pro-Mormonisms historians who take a pretty academic approach to the context and development of mormon history and theology.  This might be a good place to start looking for more cerebral content than you'll find at Deseret Book.  Taysom is working on a biography for Joseph F Smith that I'm dying to read.  It should hit publication in a couple of years.

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