ploomf Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 (edited) Hey everyone, I've been lurking here for awhile and decided to finally register and post. I've been interested in the Catholic church for a little more than a year now and finally decided maybe it's time to investigate it a little more since it appears the interest is not going away. I am a former member of the Mormon church and right now I don't belong to any religion. I was a very active and devout Mormon and losing my faith and leaving the LDS church was a very painful experience that shook me to my core. Everything that I believed, how I saw myself, my relationship with my God, how I prayed, the friends that I had, the clothes I wore, even the types of books, movies, and music that I liked was in some way influenced by the LDS church and when I left it felt like I had been shattered into a million little pieces and I didn’t know what pieces to pick up and put back together and what to throw away. It’s been almost 6 years and I still feel broken honestly. When I left I was hurt and angry and wanted nothing to do with God or with any religion. I swore that I would never give anyone the power to tell me what to believe again. I considered myself agnostic for a long time, then spiritual but not religious, then I decided I believed in Christ but I still didn’t want anything to do with organized religion. I honestly can’t say what got me interested in the Catholic church just suddenly the thought was there and it refused to go away. I thought I had convinced myself that I wasn’t interested and didn’t want to get involved in any religion again when the new Pope was elected. I was interested and following the conclave but when I heard a new Pope was elected and as I learned more about him I was filled with what could only be described as joy, something that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. Ignoring my interest in Catholicism doesn’t seem to be working so maybe there is something to it, I don’t know though, I’ll warn you I’m pretty skeptical when it comes to religions and claims of absolute truth now. I also don’t trust my feelings very well because I had what I thought at the time were genuine spiritual experiences that convinced me that the Mormon church was true, it’s not obviously so it means they were probably just the product of wishful thinking. It’s made me skeptical about spiritual experiences in general though. So I’m probably going to ask a ton of what seems like very basic questions but the Mormon church has very different beliefs from traditional Christianity and while they use a lot of the same words, they mean very different things. As I’ve tried to study Catholicism it’s been pretty confusing honestly, I keep hearing the lyrics to that Weird Al song, "Everything You Know Is Wrong". Sorry I wrote a lot more than I intended to, so I guess to start with can you recommend any books that explain Catholic doctrine and practices in an easy to understand way please? Thank you all for reading this far, hope I didn’t bore you too much. I look forward to posting here more. Edited April 9, 2013 by ploomf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolmom Posted April 9, 2013 Share Posted April 9, 2013 Hi! Welcome to Phatmass. Have you seen the Defense Directory? http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/links/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dUSt Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Welcome to phatmass. I am very glad you found us. You came for the Catholicism, but will stay for the cake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrossCuT Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Welcome!!! You are not alone in your journey! And this is a great place filled with friendly, intelligent, and often silly people! :bounce: I hope you stick around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papist Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Welcome friend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PadrePioOfPietrelcino Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Ploomf, welcome to the Pham. A number of us are converts with different stories, but many of us will understand what you are going through trying to figure out where to start (even most of the cradle Catholics will too.) Basic question are fine and can even be good because they cause all of us to remember the basics. I sponsored a young man this year in RCIA who grew up in the LDS Church so I also ended up learning ALOT oboist the LDS church to meet him better in his conversion process. If you have any questions you for some reason don't feel comfortable posting publically there are many who will be willing to carry on a private conversation via PM if you want. I know I had a couple of those when I first came into the Church's teachings. PAX, Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ploomf Posted April 10, 2013 Author Share Posted April 10, 2013 Hi! Welcome to Phatmass. Have you seen the Defense Directory? http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/links/ I haven't seen that,thank you. I'll take a look at it, it looks interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ploomf Posted April 10, 2013 Author Share Posted April 10, 2013 Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestertonian Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Thomas Smith gave a great talk on his journey from the LDS faith to Catholicism. It costs a couple bucks for the download, but it's worth it. Really insightful and inspiring!If you're interested, here's the link to the download: http://www.lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store/title/from-mormon-missionary-to-the-catholic-faith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggyie Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Hi ploomf!!! if you are interested in a very basic down-to-earth explanation of some of the unique parts of Catholicism, try Catholicism for Dummies by Fr John Trigilio. He's a very good priest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG45 Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Welcome to phatmass! As others have said, there's a number of converts here, though I'm not sure if there are any with an LDS background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisa Marie Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 WELCOME!!! :) Have you ever read C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity? He's Anglican, but that's a very good book on the basics of what a LOT of Christians believe. I don't think I remember anything explicitly against Catholicism in that one. I know a bunch of converts, including ones with LDS in their background, who really liked it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil Red Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Remember to pray as much as or more than you read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PadrePioOfPietrelcino Posted April 10, 2013 Share Posted April 10, 2013 Remember to pray as much as or more than you read. /\ this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ploomf Posted April 10, 2013 Author Share Posted April 10, 2013 Thank you for the book suggestions. :) I'll run to the book store tomorrow and see if I can find them. Hehe I haven't prayed in a very long time, I'm out of practice I think. I didn't even know the Lord’s Prayer until I looked it up recently, Mormons don't say it at all. Looking at it now I think it's a shame they don't, it's a beautiful prayer. So I guess that brings up my first question, when you pray how do you address God? In the Mormon church we always addressed Him as "Heavenly Father" in prayer. When you pray do you call Him that? We also ended our prayers with "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen" is that how Catholics end their prayers? Also in your daily life do you tend to say more set prayers like the rosary or do you pray spontaneously? Thanks again everyone. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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