n many cases we seem to be embarrassed by the ideas that spirits are real, that angels and demons exist, and that exorcisms are not an ancient misunderstanding of neurological problems.

I love thinking of God’s love in that way, how he loves us simply as we are, with no expectation for what we might achieve.

For Catholics, the terms “end times” and “last days” refer both to the conclusion of history at some future point, and also — even primarily — to the last 2,000 years.

Catholic funerals express the Christian hope in eternal life and the resurrection of the body on the last day. Every component of Catholic funeral rites should express these fundamental beliefs and hopes.

Matthew’s emphasis on forgiveness can provide us consolation and hope as we recognize our inability to live up to the tenets of the Sermon on the Mount and other moral requirements.

Father Anthony Stoeppel, a diocesan priest of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas and professor of church management at the Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Busine

How often we create messes in our lives—whether we’re spilling something in aisle nine, hurting someone’s feelings, or taking a step that causes issues.

Generally, there is no clear way to know whether or not someone is still in purgatory.

This descent into emotivism and sentimentality has profound consequences for society as well as for individuals.

If you attend a church which blocks misfits, you’re in the wrong church. Jesus welcomed misfits — the Samaritan woman, the leper, the woman “caught in the very act” of adultery, the tax collector.