“I Believe in God the Father”: Creeds and Controversies
If you’ve been around any older Christian traditions, such as Catholicism, or even some Lutheran or Methodist groups, you’ve probably heard them talk about “the Creed.” The general idea behind a creed is that it’s an official s...
Barachiel and Baraqiel: Angels named outside Scripture
Investigating angel lore is a tricky subject. There are a lot of false leads and made-up information, as well as careful distinctions that need to be considered. One issue is that angel names tend to derive from Hebrew, and the...
St. José Sánchez del Río, modern child martyr
At the beginning of the 20th century there was a conflict in Mexico that lasted from 1926 to 1929. As a part of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, the government attempted to make Mexico more secular—in the face of its deeply Ca...
Who was St. Gemma Galgani, patron of students?
St. Gemma seems to have had a variety of health problems throughout her life. As a child, she was generally of ill health. At age 16, she developed spinal meningitis. She prayed to the sacred heart of Jesus for recovery from he...
A PhD explains the phrase "What the devil meant for evil"
There isn’t a single, specific Bible verse about what “the enemy meant for evil,” but the closest is Genesis 50:20: “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this...
Pastor vs. Priest: What are the differences?
Christianity is an ancient, widespread religion. Over the centuries, it has built up a wide variety of termss that can get confusing. There are pastors, bishops, ministers, deacons, vicars, cardinals, elders, and popes—to name ...
A fictional angel: Where is Amenadiel in the Bible?
Amenadiel is a figure from the DC comic Lucifer—a Neil Gaiman comic subsequently released as a 6-season television series in 2016. Amenadiel is portrayed as the older brother of Lucifer and the eldest of the angelic siblings, a...
Healing is the children's bread? Miraculous humility
The pop-culture image of Jesus is that he was a nice guy. He was compassionate and gentle with everyone and certainly didn’t deliberately put people down or antagonize them. Or did he? There is a fascinating passage in the Gosp...