Q: I receive solicitations from many religious organisations with pictures of saints etc. I cannot not afford to give donations to all, so I trash them. I hope it’s not a sin to throw away those pictures of saints? My priority is my contribution to our parish and other areas that the Church gives donations.…
Jenna Marie Cooper Q: In watching The Chosen I noted a couple of demoniac episodes were included, as are in fact depicted in Scripture. No CGI effects were done to show the demons either going in or coming out of the victims, making the healed person seem to simply be someone with personality disorders. What…
Perhaps some apostles have more writings in the New Testament than others because – like their successors, today’s bishops – they were human beings with different strengths, talents and particular pastoral concerns.
Jenna Marie Cooper Q: Praying for the dead: where can this be found in the Bible? I don’t want any reference to the Catechism, thanks. A: As you allude to in your question, many of the details regarding the Church’s teaching on Purgatory (and the utility and appropriateness of praying for the dead) is part…
Jenna Marie Cooper Q: I have a question on discernment of private revelations. I don’t mean big ones like Medjugorje, etc., but individuals who say they ‘have had a word from the Lord’. Couldn’t this be just their own opinion interpreted as God talking? A: Yes, this is a concern. With these kinds of…
It is common to hear, ‘It’s a miracle’, for a sports comeback victory. Does the Church actually have a definition of a miracle?
Jenna Marie Cooper Q: When I was Evangelical, we were told Jesus wanted to heal us, every time; we need only ask “in his name”. If we weren’t healed it was because we lacked sufficient faith to “claim it”. I remember my Catholic Grandma saying though, that sometimes God heals and sometimes not, and…
Jenna Marie Cooper Q: Is it always wrong in every case to lie? What about the so-called ‘little white lie?’ I’m thinking of situations where you tell a person something you know is false to spare their feelings, when they’re likely never going to know the truth anyway. A: Our Catholic Faith teaches us that…
Jenna Marie Cooper Apparitions such as Fatima and Lourdes, along with mystical writings of various visionary saints such as St Faustina’s diary, are considered “private revelations”. This is as opposed to “public revelation,” which is the Word of God contained in Sacred Scripture as it has been interpreted by the Church’s teaching authority down through…
Jenna Marie Cooper Q: Regarding the people Jesus raised from the dead, where were their souls while they were dead? A: Among the many miracles Jesus performed as part of his public ministry, some of the most remarkable include his raising several recently-deceased people from the dead. In the Gospels we read of the raising…