Faith

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Most Holy Trinity and the gift of the sacrament of confirmation. The characteristics of the Holy Spirit describe the nature of the gifts that are bestowed upon the person who is confirmed.

What was the purpose of Jesus visiting hell? What is the spiritual significance of viewing relics?

One aspect of the Easter season I find so moving is the vivid stories of the encounters with the risen Christ. They are personal, moving and sometimes even humorous. Thomas, who struggles with doubt that the testimony of his friends is actually true, encounters Christ in the flesh, who gets right to the point: “Bring your hand here and put it into my side” so that he might believe.

Q) I have recently been reading the Old Testament and have encountered some things that have troubled me. Among them is the way God talks about blessing those who obey him and cursing those who disobey him. I much prefer the New Testament and how Jesus reveals that God is love and calls us to love him. This just seems like God is coercing people into following him. What do I do?

Catholics who celebrated the March 19 Solemnity of St. Joseph may wonder why the Church’s calendar commemorates him again just 42 days later, with an optional memorial May 1, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

Someone once asked me, “Father, can I really see God?” And I responded wholeheartedly, “Yes!” She still seemed skeptical, which her next question proved: “But how?” How, indeed, can we see God?

The Bible says, “Call no man Father.” Why then do Catholics call their priests “father?” The Bible says not to pray in “vain repetition,” so why do Catholics pray the same prayers over and over?

The same Holy Spirt that descended upon the Apostles on the first Pentecost descends upon those who are confirmed, and the dramatic changes that took place in the followers of Christ from that moment on can and will take place in those who are confirmed — if they cooperate with the powerful graces that they receive.