At the end of the month of October every year, many Americans celebrate Halloween, a holiday that is oftentimes associated with the dead and the powers of darkness. There are, of course, defenders of Halloween who claim that it is fundamentally a wholesome holiday involving family, friends, and kids in cute costumes, but the reality is quite different. One cannot, for example, ignore the vampires, werewolves, monsters, ghosts, ghouls, and other things from the occult – …

In the account of the Annunciation of the Birth of our Savior, we read the following response of the Holy Virgin Mary to the Holy Archangel Gabriel’s announcement that she would miraculously conceive and give birth to the Savior of the world: “How can this be, since I know not a man?” (Lk 1:34). From this response, we learn the important lesson that, sometimes, there is value in ignorance. The Holy Virgin Mary’s response to – …