Feel free to submit a new question or concern in the comment box below. Various topics and questions are archived here for easy retrieval. Please be courteous. Comments are moderated so please be patient in waiting for them to appear and for any responses. God bless you!
NEW MESSAGES/HOMILIES CHRISTIAN REFLECTIONS DEFENDING THE FAITH
Fr you asked me where I got the information that Archbishop Vigano said the covid vaccine was a satanic baptism .it is here :August 15 ,2021 The Robert Moynihan Interview ,The Vigano Tapes .Question 10 .Is it just an opinion?
I have a friend who is 12 weeks pregnant and just found out her child may have down syndrome and is contemplating abortion. I am strongly opposed to the idea and am encouraging her to keep her child. If she does decide to have the abortion am I obligated to cut her out of my life? Can I still be faithful to my catholic beliefs but still be her friend?
I got my first holy communion in 2016 when I was 9 years old at a catholic church. I was baptized and already had my first confession beforehand. But I hadn’t gone to any catechism classes when I was a child I got confirmed because I went to a catholic school, but for some reason I’m feeling guilt that my first holy communion was not valid because I didn’t meet the requirements and now I’m not sure whether I can receive the eucharist anymore so I’m trying to ask a priest if my first holy communion was valid and if I did meet the requirements because I don’t know what the requirements are to make a first holy communion.
Fr ,i am worried about the sin of Presumption .Can this sin be forgiven ? Does St Thomas Aquinas say it is too grave to be forgiven ?
Hi father joe, I’m a Christian, with a Muslim girlfriend and we are planning on getting married (in the church). But my parents are not agreeing because of the culture and religious differences, I tried talking to them a lot but they aren’t agreeing and I think about Jesus Christ because he never told us to discriminate any culture or any religion. my question is if the girl gets baptized and we get married in the church, is it okay to marry her?
Good day Father, i would like about INRI in crucifix in rosary, what font or what country is the inscription looks like 1xx1 of INRI. Thank you so much. God Bless
Tell me please all you know about God and how you know that it is God . Thank you .
I work at a place where visitors were supposed to get tickets for free that they accidentally paid for online before they came in. For some reason they got paid tickets, and didn’t ask about getting them for free even though they had a free pass that they showed me at the entrance. They already bought tickets to go on the tour, so I just let them inside without really thinking about getting them a refund. I can’t do anything about it now, since I don’t have any way to contact them and don’t know their names, but do I owe restitution in some way?
I just saw on a calendar that January 1st falls on a Sunday. Since it’s the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, do I have to go to Mass twice that weekend? Once for Sunday obligation and once for the Solemnity of Mary?
Dear Father I have read your articles re final impertince etc .Are the sins you have mentioned apart from final impentince unforgivable or can you repent of them and be saved ?
Flip the script.
6 is an important number on the Altar.
We have 6 candles with Jesus being the one which makes 7. Completion. So reset your thoughts. We become what we think about as we think how we feel, which manifest what we become. So don’t allow your thoughts to generate. Well, better yet, begin to retrain your thoughts to change how you feel, to enable you how to project your day. Set your hand to the plow within your faith and don’t look back.
Another tip is your comment projects past as being unworthy. God forgives! So rewire your direction of thought to being in the present, and trusting Gods future for you of his will.
The mind wants to stay in familiar territory because it knows how to feel and it wants to not change. That leads to how we think. However, it is important to reverse that order. Managing what we think about is magnificent when we spiritually trust in conscious through The Holy Spirit communicating to us. Living in the past by feeling Is by the subconscious of memories that are attached to neurotransmitters which will cause you to stay in that feeling.
If you believe, then prob yourself if this question from a practical perspective: How do we live what we believe and how do we believe what we live?
Peace Be With you
Skip
Hi Fr Joe
Greetings and hope you are in good health.
My concern is, I recently started a side career as a makeup artist. I spent quite a fortune buying materials that I felt i needed to start on the right track e.g expensive quality Canon camera, expensive makeup etc. Is it a sin to always buy quality stuff? Where does one draw the line? I have some makeup already but want to add one more to my cart because I feel it will make for a great content on YouTube. I won’t deny that I derive great pleasure in owning quality stuff, but is it a sin?
I try to grow in holiness by going to confession, Mass and Holy Communion and saying my Rosary. Can one derive pleasure in quality stuff and love God at the same time?
Being a Youtuber and especially a makeup artist on YouTube means sometimes keeping up with the trend of latest makeup releases. I try not to buy every makeup releases, I choose the ones that appeal to me. The mindset i have in making makeup purchases is that it would look good for my channel and i will express my creativity in doing a makeup tutorial beautifully.
I don’t usually think too much about these things before but I’m wondering if I’m guilty of sin based on what I described above or if I’m being scrupulous, any advice will help. Thanks.
Well, for starters, let’s define intimate. I presume, by the nature of your thoughts, you are defining intimate with sexual activity/“love making”.
It is wise to separate those two.
Your relationship should be full of intimacy in all forms of complete language of our intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritually beings.
Sex is just a small section under intimacy. However, when we do fulfill the relationship entirety of intimacy, the physical intimacy has more meaning and more powerful to engage our heart mind and souls into true desire of the marriage. If we look at sex as the only thing to intimacy and that happens to be not good, then everything works off of that. Which is why we see so many marriages fall apart. They begins to create desire through the mind first, then make it believable that they must be able to get that intimacy, desire, and pleasure somewhere else.
So start there and really dive into intimacy of the marriage.
Discuss that together pray about it and God will guide you.
Peace be with you
Skip
I am 72 and my wife of 40 years passed away 4 years ago. Before that I was married to another woman for 5 years and divorced. I am not Catholic. I have met a Catholic woman whose husband passed away 2 years ago. I know there are certain “rules” about divorce and death as far as marriage again for us. This seems to be an unusual predicament. What needs to happen for us to marry?
Hello!
I am a 52 year old man from southern Sweden and decided to give religion a shot about five and a half years ago. Now, it would be a very very long story to type here to mention every detail so i will keep it short. This is just three things i have experienced while being wide awake during the years:
1. Demonic activity for maybe 5 (2016 in the middle of the night. Was right next to me trying to make open my eyes. Had a loud deep, agressive growling
With right next to me i mean 12 inches)
2. Angelic pressene as a organge/golden orb right next to me on the soffa for about 4 seconds.
3. Angelic presence in male human shape stare at me from outside kitchen window. Felt fear so probably demonic.
So, this tells me that there is a dimension we don’t see. There has been too many disapointments and i don’t want to have god in my life anymore, i want him to take his so called salvation, holy sprit and leave me alone. I don’t have any tolerance for his treatment, no faith, no love and so on.
I rebuke, reject, and i deny the bible, the holy trinity as true, i am not interested in forgiveness and will never ask for it. I typed this here to mark that i am serious because so far i can’t get god to respect me.
I really don’t care wether i go to gehenna or whatever there is.
So, what can i do to make god leave me alone?
Do i really have to contract a real life dark witch to curse god?
I want to invest in the stock market, but as a Catholic, I’m aware that I don’t want to invest in companies that are pursuing immoral activities. I live in the UK and am looking to invest in the SNP 500 and another that covers markets in different countries. Would you be able to recommend me a platform or advice so I comply with Catholic teaching when it comes to investing
Is wet dreams a sin
Hello Father Joe, I was civilly married and divorced outside of the church by a justice of the peace. Both my ex and I are baptized Catholics. I have recently returned to the church and was told that my marriage was not valid and therefore after first going to confession I could receive holy communion. Does this sound correct to you and is my past sinful relationship forgiven after confession? Or do I need to seek an annulment?
i am having trouble with my confessions every time i confess my sin i keep thinking about wether or not i am feeling what i am supposed to be feeling i can feel anxious whenever i think about it too much but i am not sure if i am actually feeling what i am supposed to be feeling in order to do a proper confession
Dear Fr. Joe, hope you are well. I have a question i am unsure if you can answer for me and i completely understand if this question cannot be answered or deemed not suitable here.
Why am i seeing number 33 everywhere? I didnt get a chance to ask the exorcist and now i cant even contact one because they have a committee where it is very difficult to reach them as they are extremely busy. I am concerned because everyday i am seeing this number. I use to be woken up at 3.33am and every hour 33mins past leading up to seeing an exorcist but now i still occasionally see it every now and again just not as much as i use to.
Also, I am praying daily. But if you have a prayer you recommend i would appreciate it.
Thank you.
Fr. Joe,
My husband’s family is Catholic and my stepson was baptized Catholic. We have him every other weekend and for the whole summer (his mother relocated and lives 90 minutes from us). His mother is not religious and makes no effort to support religious education or take him to any kind of church when she has him. Our parish priest has said he likely cannot be catechized because he will not be supported at his mother’s home in keeping the sacraments and he is only with us every other weekend. We are very disheartened and would like to find some kind of solution so he can take his First Communion. Is there any way to support a child who lives in two different locations through no fault of his own? Thank you very much.
Dear Fr Joe,
Is it a sin to not want to forgive yourself?I divorced and remarried many years ago. When I was 18 I married someone who I thought at the time was a devout Christian. He ended up not really being and that came to light a few years later. He ended up drinking possibly using drugs and became abusive. To this day I have had trouble forgiving myself fully for being naive and putting myself in that situation. For many years, I was depressed and angry at myself for destroying my life. I found it was easier to forgive him than myself and I still don’t understand why. I suppose it’s because I intended on marrying for life. I had tried marriage counseling and to work through things. Nothing seemed to work at a certain point when he walked away towards alcoholism. I definitely don’t think I necessarily reacted perfectly to all these issues, but it definitely became something that seemed beyond me when physical abuse occured .I had been in a purity program as a teen and knew I was only going to have sex within the bounds of marriage. I suppose the biggest reason I’m still unable to forgive myself for my past is simply because I made a bad choice possibly due to low self-esteem I had been molested by a relative as a young child and my father died when I was 11 so I think a lot of that interfered with actually clearly seeing how things were. It’s been 17 yrs since I went through all that and I still don’t think Ive been able to forgive myself.
It’s actually one of the things that scares me about also discussing my past with a priest and converting to Catholism.
For background I have year round allergies so I am always kinda sick. I also worked 72 hours last week and my immune system isn’t the best. I have a cold and am exhausted. I don’t want to get out of bed at all. It’s nearly 4 pm (to be fair I have to disclose that I work until about midnight so my normal time is shifted-I don’t get home at 5:30 so 4 is like a 9am start time layin would be maybe 10 or 11.) I am going to drag myself out of bed and go to Mass (assuming I don’t have more serious issues upon getting up) but for future reference is that “enough” of a reason to stay home, a cold/exhaustion? Or would I be in mortal sin and need confession?
Dear Father Joe,
Is legally buying and selling a person’s soul a sin?
I’ve searched for answers on this topic but could never find one that was definitive. If so, what part of the transaction would qualify it to be a sin? Thank you.
Dear Fr. Joe,
My elderly father passed away. He was very religious and a daily communicant. I was given several boxes containing dozens of small statues, hundreds of old holy cards, prayer cards, scapulars, crosses, medals, holy pictures, and I don’t mean disrespect but a lot of religious trinkets such as plastic rosaries, metal coins with a religious symbol or Saint imprinted on it. This is way too much and while I will keep a few of these items to remember him, I don’t know how I can respectfully dispose of the rest. Thank you.