Josh H.

One of the many things I appreciate about the Catholic faith & traditions are the spring time celebrations, especially Palm Sunday.  That is quite a beautiful way to celebrate.  

Catholic rap.  And good, high quality music at that.  I truly enjoy folks like this guy devoting their copious talents towards their faith. I wish the world had a greater appetite for such things.
Well, you can count this little latter-day saint boy as a Found Nation fan.  We don't align perfectly on various theology and doctrine, but the world is better with this stuff in it.
Go a little easy on the open proselytizing though, please @Josh H.  The people who pay for thirdhour.org do not intend it to be a mouthpiece for Catholic evangelism.   Even if only people with their artistic sensibilities turned up to 11 notice it.

Hands down, the best trinitarian hip-hop rap video I've seen all week.
 
 

Not bad, it makes some sense.

Pro-tip humbly taken. This is good advice.
 
No pitchforks. But sword's are definitely cool.
Hebrews 4:12 
For the word of God is alive and active.Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow

Deleted

I"m gong to refer you again to the Forum Rules, click able up top, and already posted in this thread for you.  We aren't a debate forum.  If debate is what you are interested in, I suggest http://www.mormondialogue.org
 
Talking and listening about things is cool (we're big into listening here, hence the pretty accurate Catholic knowledge).  But not arguing/debating.  

Awesome job reading the Bible all the way through.  I myself read it cover to cover* when I was younger (*ok, I skipped a little of Numbers).  Now I perter topical studies of my own and/or whatever the Sunday School lesson is that week (like this week it's some Acts chapters).
FWIW, Vort's previous statement was a word-play joke.  We knew what you meant   
I think there's two things that help with that:
1) LDS Christians are just big into talking about faith in general-- there's not really a "don't talk about religion or politics" taboo.  So when folks have a question, they just ask it.
2) There's a LOT of misconceptions about the faith of LDS Christians out there.  We each spend a lot of time answering uber-misinformed questions like "do you really have horns" or "how many moms do you have".  So naturally there arrises this want to get the facts straight about what other people believe too.  Like my studying Catholicism intensively for 11 months was just because I want to understand Catholics better (I wasn't looking to convert or anything).  
Pro-tip: *ask* somebody what they believe, rather than trying to inform them.   Just like Catholic Christians don't like being "informed" that they are damned because they worship Mary (that's a total misconception),  LDS Christians likewise don't like it.  We're happy to straighten the record out, but listening & respectful ears go a long way.  Just like I bet you're happy when somebody is willing to listen to you explain "no I don't worship Mary".  
Straightening some important things out--
--Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints view themselves as Christians and under the larger Christian umbrella.  We acknowledge Catholics, Baptists, Orthodox, Methodists, etc as Christians.  We celebrate the many good things and good people in those faith.  No pitchforks here.
-- LDS Christians believe very strongly in Apostolic Priesthood authority and continuing revelation from God.  When we talk about the Goat Apostasy, it is referring to those keys & authority being lost (yes of course you believe the Catholic Church has them).   Without this, there were some errors that creeped in through time.  But it is NOT saying that every one who is not an LDS-Christian is a devil worshipper or anything stupid like that.  Again, see point number 1: many good things and good peolpe in those churches.   Honestly, I find a lot of similarity with how Catholics view most other Christian groups: not having valid priesthood authority, having some mistaken beliefs, but still many good things & good beliefs, and still Christian.  
-- LDS Christians believe that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three person in one God.  This differs from the Athanasian view in *how* the three are one.  This was explained more thoroughly in earlier post.  
-- We also already explained addressed the misconception on the Father's past.
 
 
 
This is a friendly & respectful board, not interested in pitchforks being aimed at anyone. 

@Josh H. I am very impressed with your religion. I have a good friend (who admittedly I haven't spoken to in years) who knew the catholic church doctrine inside and out and wanted to become a priest. We had many long talks and he was able to expound the catholic beliefs on so many topics and I was incredibly impressed with how nicely fit all your doctrine fit together without him having to say the cliche "Only God knows" statements when the hard questions came along.

Do you personally study scripture often? and if so, how do you keep it fresh? I kinda get stuck with what it is I want to study, and we have like twice as much scripture as you do haha xD

Not in any way your'e thinking of.
There's no LDS Christian definitive doctrine that deals with the Father's past.  There's some speculation, but nothing definitive at all, and you'll find LDS Christians with a wide variety of views on it, all sitting at the same pew.  To go into any of those views requires a long long list of theological discussions before we can get there.  

Going for a big picture note:
LDS Christians acknowledge Catholic Christians as being Christians.  That kind of sounds like a "no duh" when I say it, but it is important to say.  Both churches don't believe that the other has Christ's valid priesthood authority, but that doesn't mean there's not very good things and people therein.  As you'll see here, LDS Christian folks readily acknowledge the many good things about Catholic people and Catholic faith.  
To get a few things out of the way: no we don't think your heathen, no we don't think you worship Mary, no we don't think you worship the pope.  Praying for the dead is cool.  Celebrating Christ and His words is awesome.  We likewise value life so you won't find much argument on the abortion front.  There's nothing to argue with about on the sexual abuse front, only things to cry and mourn together about (this plague affects all of society).   Valuing the family and marriage is super super important.  
So...yeah... if you were excepting pitchforks here... umm, sorry?  Don't have any.  

Now that's an honest answer!  
(I think I like this dude thus far).

I was going to write pretty much the exact same "gates of Hell" thing @anatess2 did, but she beat me to it. Different understandings of the same scripture.

Hi NeuroTypical. Not here for confrontational debate or dialogue. I do think respectful debate is a good thing. 
 
Jane_Doe Hello! Thanks for the welcome. God Bless.
 
Hi Anatess2. Not sure about what traditions of the Church I enjoy or hold dear. I will say what has kept me Catholic despite the never-ending child sex abuse and cover-up stuff is Christ in the Eucharist. I believe he's fully present. Also his promise in scripture that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. Devotion to Mary has been key for me as well. I've had some experiences that to me prove she is there interceding in my life and others.
 
The part of my beliefs that brings me joy is God's forgiveness when we repent. Also his promise of heaven for eternity. 
What brings me here is I found the forum while bored and searching the internet.

That one is a good one to discuss between Catholic and LDS. 
Although I don't think it's really a "disagree on" but more like different interpretations of it.  So, in Catholic interpretation, this scripture is mainly interpreted as evil can't go through the gate to defeat the Church.  In LDS interpretation, this scripture is mainly interpreted as the gate to hell (spirit world of the dead) can't stay closed against the revelation that Jesus is the Christ.  Same scripture, different interpretations, different gospel impact.

Oh yes- questions, forgot to ask!
-- What particular part of your beliefs brings you joy today?
-- What brings you here?

Hi Josh H.,
Welcome!  I grew up in the Catholic Church in the Philippines - which is different from the Catholic Churches in the USA.  For example, there's no such things as Flores de Mayo or Misa de Gallo rites in the USA.  And Holy Week is very different.  When I was a little kid, I was an angel for the Flores and the Dagit (an angel would take the black veil of the statue of Mary at midnight on Easter Sunday to signify the end of her mourning).  I miss these traditional expressions of our faith.  It was so majestic, especially to a little kid.
So here's my first question - what Catholic traditions do you most enjoy or you hold most dear to you?
 

Howdy @Josh H.!
Welcome to the site   We're a friendly anti-bashing group of folks, who love chatting about Christ and random stuff.  We've had practicing Catholics on here over the years, and many former Catholics as well.  Several of us (including me) are on Catholic boards as well.  I've had many many great Catholic friends over the years, semi-studied the Catholic church for a decade, and hard-core studied it for a year.  Many good things and people there.

Hi and welcome Josh H.  This isn't an argue/bash board, so if you're here for invigorating debate or something, you might need to look elsewhere.  But welcome anyway!
I think Catholics rock.  My old neighbors (who had about 9 kids, now I think they're up to an even dozen) were great examples of deep faith.  That many kids in a house where bedrooms are a premium, and they still decided to devote one large area to a chapel/meditation area.  Cool people.

Hello. I'm Catholic. If you want ask me anything about my faith. Tough/controversial questions welcome. I will do my best to answer anything asked. God Bless.