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The Catholic Church teaches what we must believe in order to be saved.After college, I traveled the country with a pro-life organization whose staff were evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants. This made for interesting conversations around the trays of lasagna we ate in the evenings. (If you’ve ever had to feed thirty missionaries, you understand the utility of lasagna.)One night, we were having a slightly technical discussion about specific topics related to salvation—li …

“Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.” This is how St. Basil, quoted in the Catechism (336), described the role of the guardian angels. Obviously, God does not need the assistance of the angels; he is capable of taking care of people without them. But in his wisdom God has seen fit to assign angels to watch over human beings. Perhaps because Lucifer, the leader of the fallen angels, led human beings to their downfall, it is appropriate …

God creates, we believe, ex caritate—out of love. If we recall our image of Christianity as a reflection of the human heart, we can ask: what is the first thing love longs to do? What is the first impulse of a lover toward his or her beloved? Is it not the bestowal of gifts? We long to be good to those we love; we look for ways to provide for them, and traditionally such benevolence is the first characteristic of charity. This is how to understand God’s original act outsid …

When I was considering joining the Catholic Church, I sat down with some of my non-Catholic friends to see if they could talk me out of my decision. They were Christians, but they didn’t consider themselves to be “Protestants.” Instead, they called themselves Evangelicals or just “Christ-followers.” Regardless, their response to my decision to become Catholic surprised me. One of the girls said, “As long as Catholics believe in Jesus then I don’t think …

Preparation for the celebration of the holy Mass and reception of Holy Communion is an essential element of our share in this sacrament of sacraments. Here are five things we should do to make ourselves ready. First of all, we approach the sacrament of love with the right intention. This means we come thoughtfully, intending to be united to Our Lord, not out of routine, or because we want to be well-thought of by others, but to be fed by him so as to have renewed strength to live the Chris …