Catholic bishop addresses Mormon Institute students

[saemo]

I agree.

Incidentally, a few years ago Robert Rees wrote an article for Dialogue on "Why Mormons Should Celebrate Holy Week" (Fall 2004).

Thanks for the link. An interesting article that gets the Christian aspects of Holy Week mostly right.

The Triduum is one long Mass, that begins on Holy Thursday and ends at the end of the Easter Vigil on Saturday night. A friend said today that for a Catholic to not attend Easter Vigil is like not showing up for your family's Thanksgiving dinner.

In all that, Holy Saturday, before the Vigil, is the "weirdest day", so quiet, and dark, and everything closed up and put away. On one of those days, I was sitting in a nearly empty church before the Easter Vigil. I was thinking how it must have been for the Apostles and disciples of Jesus. He was dead, and they didn't have yet the Good News of His Resurrection. How very sad it must have been for them.

For us, we know that Easter Vigil is just a few hours away, where our Easter celebration begins, with lights, music, singing alleluias and the baptism of new converts. Raised up in Christ, as sons and daughters of God. It is my favorite Mass of the year and I am so looking forward to it!

Meanwhile, we continue on our lenten journey....

[kolipoki09]

This year, though now released as a bishop, I've been requested by the student singles ward that I led to speak to them at a dinner on 18 April about the significance of Palm Sunday. I'm doing my part.

An informant of mine, who has requested to remain anonymous, suggests that this "release" came as the result of the Packer faction cracking down on the libelous Mopologetic dross being published on a certain website that to this day, remains a complete and utter failure since its genesis in Dec. 2009.

Of course, given your reputation for rabid anti-Semitic slurs, I'm sure you'll be "do[ing your] part" quite well.

What might a Latter-day Saint do to be more culturally observant of the Holy Week? Could this perhaps, be addressed in a forthcoming Mormon Times article? If not, I'll chat with Lane Williams tomorrow and see what can be done.

[Corvus]

I agree.

Incidentally, a few years ago Robert Rees wrote an article for Dialogue on "Why Mormons Should Celebrate Holy Week" (Fall 2004).

That was an excellent read. Thank you very much for posting it.

I don't even know what day Easter is this year.

[Mike Reed]

I agree with Dan. The reasons are cultural, and not dotrinal. But the good new is, if you ever decide to join, you become part of that culture... and consequently enter a position to (like Dan--if it is important to you) "do your part" in influencing your ward.

[Mike Reed]

That was an excellent read. Thank you very much for posting it.

You are welcome.

I don't even know what day Easter is this year.

April 24th.

[Mike Reed]

What might a Latter-day Saint do to be more culturally observant of the Holy Week? Could this perhaps, be addressed in a forthcoming Mormon Times article? If not, I'll chat with Lane Williams tomorrow and see what can be done.

Great idea.

[kolipoki09]

Great idea.

I don't see how it would be entirely different from something like this.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705363363/Telling-ghost-stories-is-a-lost-tradition-on-Christmas-Eve.html

[Yirgacheffe]

I don't even know what day Easter is this year.

I find this stunning, like being dropped on your back and having all the breath knocked out of you. Not know when Easter is, how is that even possible for a Christian????

[Mike Reed]

I find this stunning, like being dropped on your back and having all the breath knocked out of you. Not know when Easter is, how is that even possible for a Christian????

Why are you so stunned?

[Corvus]

I find this stunning, like being dropped on your back and having all the breath knocked out of you. Not know when Easter is, how is that even possible for a Christian????

Like I said in an earlier post, I'm a lapsed Catholic. Heavily lapsed. As in "I picked up a Bible for the first time in 10 years last week" lapsed.

Someone loaned me a copy of "Under the Banner of Heaven" a few months ago and it sparked my curiosity on the LDS faith. I know it's a weird way to find your way into investigating a faith, but that, and remembering a Family Home Evening that my old Army squad leader invited me to... It got me thinking about faith again. That's sort of led me into a re-awakening of my spiritual side.

[Magyar]

If you decided to convert... you would be free to celebrate the week on your own, but no... in most wards the only day recognized will be Easter... that is... if General Conference doesn't fall on that weekend. If it does... then you may only hear a couple talks tailored to the significance of the holiday. Mormons generally aren't fond of the symbol of the cross either.

I have made an effort, as a Mormon, to become more familiar with the saints and martyrs of the "primitive" Christian Church. I believe they ought to be part of our heritage as much as the saints and martyrs of the Restoration. We should honor those who paid with their lives for the Christian faith, in 100 A.D. as well as in 1844. My wife and I also have two crosses on the wall of our home -- as well as a picture of the living Christ. Seeing the cross reminds me forcefully of what my Savior endured to pay for my sin. Seeing his living image gives me hope.

So we Mormons, cannot all be lumped into one myopic, cross-shunning pile.

[Jeff K.]

I think part of the issue is that Latter-Day Saints have little to fear from Catholics and vice versa in these days. It is usually a sense of threat, threat to doctrine or threat to culture that creates the strong viceral attitudes (and I include Bruce R. McConkie, a man I personally admire as someone who felt threatened by the Catholic Church at one time). I think on many levels both Catholics and Mormons have felt lessened threatened by each other as the world has become more threatening towards some basic moral issues that Mormons and Catholics share.

[Daniel Peterson]

An informant of mine, who has requested to remain anonymous, suggests that this "release" came as the result of the Packer faction cracking down on the libelous Mopologetic dross being published on a certain website that to this day, remains a complete and utter failure since its genesis in Dec. 2009

All, alas, entirely true.

The Packer Faction outmaneuvered the Oaks Faction (and bought off the Kikuchi and Soares Factions) in order to engineer my release, as a way of punishing me for launching that continuously failing website -- whose failure makes them happy, or angry, or sad, or something.

Of course, given your reputation for rabid anti-Semitic slurs, I'm sure you'll be "do[ing your] part" quite well.

A notorious anti-Semite (as my Malevolent Stalker and some of his acolytes have revealed), I'll be in Israel later this month. Because, of course, I disdain the place and everything connected with it.

What might a Latter-day Saint do to be more culturally observant of the Holy Week?

A first and basic step would be to be aware of it, and to bring it up in family devotions, etc.

In church, we should make sure that we start singing our rich Easter hymns at least the Sunday prior to Easter, and not only on Easter Sunday -- why do we sing Christmas carols for so many weeks? because the commercial shopping season has lengthened out the Christmas holidays more than bunnies and colored eggs and chocolates have thus far managed to do for the celebration of Christ's resurrection? -- and we should guarantee that no Easter Sunday sacrament meeting will be devoted to amusing high school antics culled from the biographies of soon-to-depart missionaries, or to food storage, instead of commemorating the atonement and the resurrection (which are, after all, the fundamental principles of our faith).

Could this perhaps, be addressed in a forthcoming Mormon Times article?

I would say that it's a virtual certainty that it will be. Just guessing, though.

If not, I'll chat with Lane Williams tomorrow and see what can be done.

That would still be worth doing.

What can possibly be wrong with extending and deepening the Saints' reflection on the atonement and resurrection of Christ?

[Kenngo1969]

...Michael G. Reed, Banising the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo (John Whitmer Books, this spring).

I do hope it's not called "Banising the Cross" [sic]. It would be a most unfortunate thing for prospective readers to conclude that such a glaring error in the title justifies them in discounting your hard work in its entirety!

[USU78]

As a lapsed Catholic who is now investigating the LDS faith, I have to ask, do Mormons traditionally not celebrate Holy Week? I thought that the Church taught that everything from the Garden to the Resurrection was part of the redemption of mankind? Why not celebrate all of it?

There's no particular reason not to make a bigger deal of it than we do. There's an historical/cultural reason, however. Our puritan forebears who were there in the early days of the Restoration had a real problem with it. Things like Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday and Holy Week, as I'm sure you already know, are big time no-nos for the Protestants. Even today.

[Mike Reed]

I do hope it's not called "Banising the Cross" [sic]. It would be a most unfortunate thing for prospective readers to conclude that such a glaring error in the title justifies them in discounting your hard work in its entirety!

I appreciate the concern, but I didn't pick the title. I suggested something along the lines of "The Development of the Mormon Cross Taboo"... but how bland is that, right? I wouldn't say that the title has a "glaring" error (particularly when one considers the extreme attitudes towards the cross that existed when the taboo emerged around the turn of the 20th century). A taste of sensationalism?, sure. I am ok with a little shock value in the title, if it encourages people to open the book and read it. Besides... even if more conservative Mormons don't open the book immediately... if they turn it around and read the endorsement blurbs that we expect to have on the back cover (from a couple highly respected scholars, mormon and non-Mormon), I expect that they will reconsider. And there will be lots and lots of pictures. I love books with pictures.

Oh wait... I typed "Banising." Ha! Sorry. I am a little slow today. More than usual, that is. No. The title will be spelled correctly. At least, I hope so. <knocking on wood>

[kolipoki09]

<knocking on wood>

If it can be shown that Joseph Smith believed in knocking on wood for good luck (or stomping on wood in it's nineteenth-century context), you could add at least an extra paragraph of material to your research into the cultural/magickal origins of Mormonism.

[LDS Guy 1986]

For what it's worth, as a bishop I led several congregational celebrations of an explicitly Christianized Passover during the past few years.

Dr. Peterson doesn't BYU also do an annual passover dinner?

[Mike Reed]

If it can be shown that Joseph Smith believed in knocking on wood for good luck (or stomping on wood in it's nineteenth-century context), you could add at least an extra paragraph of material to your research into the cultural/magickal origins of Mormonism.

There will be plenty of discussion of folk-magic in the book, as well as freemasonry. Nothing about "knocking on wood" though, of course-- But I did learn while researching for my book that this was done because people believed that by knocking on wood, evil spirits couldn't hear what you were saying. In other words, you did this to prevent the devil from getting any ideas. Kind of interesting. I confess that this is one superstious practice that I know is silly, but am not willing to give up.

[LeSellers]

Dr. Peterson doesn't BYU also do an annual passover dinner?

I'm not Daniel, and I don't know about BYU, but we Sellers do it frequently, but not annually. With 27 grandchildren, it's more than a bit of a production, but we think it worth it.

Lehi

[DH]

He said one challenge LDS young adults don

[Daniel Peterson]

Dr. Peterson doesn't BYU also do an annual passover dinner?

Yes. Victor Ludlow has been doing it for many years.

I think it's a really good thing to do, particularly -- within a Mormon context -- if the Mormon understanding of its significance is explained or is interwoven with the seder service.

[LDS Guy 1986]

I'm not Daniel, and I don't know about BYU, but we Sellers do it frequently, but not annually. With 27 grandchildren, it's more than a bit of a production, but we think it worth it.

Lehi

I know your not Daniel Peterson, if you look I was quoting him and asking him the question.

[LeSellers]

I know your not Daniel Peterson, if you look I was quoting him and asking him the question.

Gee, I'm sorry. I guess I should ignore you from now on.

This is a public forum. Anyone can see your messages, and anyone can respond. If you don't like this, I suggest you ... well, maybe you could grow a thicker skin.

Lehi

[Yirgacheffe]

Why are you so stunned?

I don't know, everyone in my little corner of the world(and all the little corners I've lived in) knows when Easter is. It may only be because it follows Good Friday a day that schools, banks, state and local offices and, many businesses are closed but they do know when Easter is.