​Believe it or not, that stuff is real! But let's explore what is meant by “real.”  
 
Regarding horoscopes, do our birthdates really have an influence upon who we are, our personality, or what we do? No. Sorry, but it’s simply not true. In some ways, relying on a horoscope is about as reliable as relying upon a comic book! You should choose not even to read them “for the fun of it” because there is always a hidden temptation to wonder if they have an element of truth. But since a horoscope is not based on anything true, then it’s best not even reading it—not even for a laugh.  
 
What about tarot cards and fortunetellers? The goal of both is to try and discover the future. Only God knows the future. The Catholic Church teaches this about knowing the future: “God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2115). Furthermore, the Catechism says, “All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone” (#2116).  
 
Yikes! That’s pretty clear! What needs to be known is that even if someone seeks “guidance” from tarot cards, Ouija boards, fortunetellers, or the like just for fun or for curiosity, they are dabbling in something that is clearly forbidden by God. In fact, persons getting involved with all of this may even be opening themselves up to demonic influence without even knowing it. Why? Because the only way that one of these practices can be “real” is if a demon works through them giving some sort of false guidance about the future.  
 
So, when it is said that this stuff is “real,” it means that it is a real danger and can really influence us in a negative way.  
 
What’s important to believe is that God is the only one who knows the future. And generally speaking, God does not reveal the future to us. If God decides to use a saint or a prophet to reveal the future, in some way, He will do it on His own initiative and for our good. This is rare and is not something we ever need to seek out. God will do this Himself. For our part, regarding the future, we only need to enter more deeply, each day, into a relationship of trust in God’s divine providence.  
 
If you have been involved in one of these forbidden practices, I encourage you to simply go to confession. In that sacrament, God will free you from any mistakes you’ve made and help you rely only on His grace!

First of all, let me give a simple answer and say that I think these practices are fine. I know many devout people who love our Lord and His Blessed Mother who hang rosaries from their cars’ rear view mirrors. For them, it is a way of letting their love for Mary show forth for all to see. The same would be said for those who wear them around their necks. If someone chooses to do either of these practices, they are most likely doing so out of a devotion to and love for our Blessed Mother. While some do not hang the rosary from their mirror or wear it around their neck, they may always have it in their pocket. At night, they may sleep with it wrapped around their wrist. Keeping the rosary close to us is similar to wearing a cross or scapular or hanging a sacred picture in your room. Rosaries are blessed objects and, for that reason, are good to have around.  
 
It must also be said that the Rosary is, first and foremost, an instrument of prayer and one of the best prayers we can pray. The following are some quotes from the saints regarding the rosary.  
 
“Never will anyone who says his Rosary every day be led astray. This is a statement that I would gladly sign with my blood.” St. Louis de Montfort  
 
“Of all prayers the rosary is the most beautiful and the richest in graces…love the Rosary and recite it every day with devotion.” St. Pope Pius X  
 
“How beautiful is the family that recites the Rosary every evening.” St. Pope John Paul II  
 
“There is no surer means of calling down God’s blessings upon the family… than the daily recitation of the Rosary.” Pope Pius XII  
 
“The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings. There is no more excellent way of praying.” Pope Leo XIII  
 
“Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.” Pope Blessed Pius IX  
 
"If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the Rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors.” Pope Pius XI  
 
“Our Lady has never refused me a grace through the recitation of the rosary.” St. Pio of Pietrelcina  
 
“The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary.” St. Francis de Sales  
 
“One day, through the Rosary and the Scapular, Our Lady will save the world.” St. Dominic

​Strictly speaking, the Bible does not explicitly say, “Pray the rosary and other devotions to Mary.” But, of course, that’s a somewhat obvious answer. The real answer to your question has to do with the biblical foundation of those practices.  
 
There are numerous ways that devotion to Mary is found in the Bible. Here are some of those ways.  
 
First, the Rosary, which is the most common devotion to our Blessed Mother, is primarily Scriptural. On each bead of the rosary, we pray the words of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, as well as the words of St. Elizabeth to Mary. “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” And, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:26-46). Additionally, we pray the “Our Father” prayer, which is directly from Jesus, and the “Glory Be” prayer, which is echoed in Scripture many times. So, yes, the Rosary is biblical in that sense. We are primarily repeating passages from Scripture. Additionally, in praying the Rosary, we are to meditate upon one of twenty different Scriptural stories during each of the twenty decades. So the prayers are Scriptural and the meditations are Scriptural.  
 
Second, devotion to Mary in general comes to us from the fact that Jesus lived the Fourth Commandment perfectly. That Commandment says, “Honor your father and mother.” Jesus honored His mother perfectly, and we are to imitate Jesus in all He does. Therefore, we are to honor His mother, too.  
 
Third, at the Cross Jesus said to the Apostle John, “Behold, your mother.” And in giving Mary to John, the Church has always seen that Mary is given to all of us. We are all to behold our mother in the person of Mary.  
 
Fourth, Jesus gave Peter the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and said that whatever he binds on earth is bound in Heaven (Matthew 16:19). He gave Peter the gift of infallibly leading the Church into all truth. We believe that this gift of infallible teaching did not stop with Peter but was passed on through the ages to all his successors, the popes. The popes have definitively taught, through countless ages, the value of honoring our Blessed Mother. So though this last point is not a direct biblical call to honor our Blessed Mother, it is an indirect biblical command through the teaching of the Church founded by Christ in the Scriptures.  
 
It would require a book to detail all the ways in which Mary is spoken in the Old and New Testaments. Hopefully, the thoughts above help.

​These two questions are actually hard to answer with accuracy. In many ways, the answers remain a mystery.  
 
From a theological perspective, we can say that God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus because she, herself, was the Immaculate Conception. This means that she was the only fitting mother for God in the flesh. Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother in a miraculous way in that she was conceived without sin. God chose to bestow upon her a “preservative grace,” meaning, God preserved her from all stain of sin, including Original Sin, at the moment of her creation in the womb of her mother. Of course, He did this so that she would be a fitting vessel for God the Son to become incarnate in her womb. The grace that preserved her came from the Cross of her Son Jesus, but it transcended time so as to free her at the moment of her conception. Thus, her Son was her Savior, even though He had not yet been born in time. If that’s confusing, try to ponder it for a while. It’s a great mystery of faith and a deep one also.  
 
Additionally, Mary chose to remain free from sin throughout her life. Just as Adam and Eve were born without sin, so was Mary. But unlike Adam and Eve, Mary never freely chose to sin throughout her life. This made her the perfect vessel for the Son of God. Her body and soul were perfect, making her the perfect instrument.  
​
But this only answers your question from one perspective. You might also be wondering, “But why Mary?” This is a question that is hard, if not impossible, to answer. It’s most likely a matter of God’s mysterious will. Perhaps God, who can see all things and knows all people even before they are born, looked at all women from all time and saw that Mary was the one who would never freely choose to sin. And perhaps for that reason God chose to gift her with the Immaculate Conception. But this is ultimately a mystery of faith that will be revealed only in Heaven.  
 
As for your second question, “Why was she so young?” this might be easier to answer from a historical perspective. Today, in the twenty-first century, it’s uncommon for a fifteen-year-old girl to marry and have a child. But it wasn’t that way back then. When Mary had Jesus, she was seen, not as a dependent child, but as a young woman ready to start a family. So it’s always important to try to understand the culture of the time when considering questions of history.

​The short answer to this question is “No.” Let’s explore further.  
 
Most likely you are asking this question because some Scripture passages seem to suggest that Jesus had brothers and sisters. For example, here are two such passages:  
 
Mark 6:3– Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?”  
 
Matthew 13:55-56– Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us?  
 
Should we conclude from these passages that Jesus had brothers and sisters in a literal way, meaning Mary and Joseph had other children in addition to Jesus? Certainly not.  
 
Below is a brief answer to this question that is taken from Chapter 3 – The God-Man and His Mother of the book My Catholic Faith!  
 
The Virgin Mother  
 
Scripture is quite clear that Mary conceived Jesus in a virginal way – by the power of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, it is the constant teaching of the Church that she always retained her virginity. She had no other children and never engaged in the marital act with Joseph. Sometimes this is confusing since there are references in the Scriptures to Jesus’ brothers and sisters. But this language was commonly used in reference to cousins. This shouldn’t confuse us if we understand the language of the time. In fact, this language is still a common practice in other cultures of our day. People from various African countries commonly refer to those within their own village as their brother or sister when they are with them outside of that village.  
 
God’s plan was that Mary have one Son for various reasons. It was especially so because we are all called to become brothers and sisters of Christ through spiritual adoption. Therefore, if Jesus had had blood brothers or sisters, it would have undermined his spiritual brotherhood with them. It would have made their relationship with Jesus different. God desires this deeper spiritual relationship with all people. Mary is the only blood relation to Jesus; thus, she shares a special bond with Him that no one else does. It had to be that way if God were to become true man. Interestingly, even Mary’s deepest bond with Jesus does not come as a result of her physical blood relationship. It comes, first and foremost, by her spiritual motherhood. She is united with her Son primarily by her perfect faith and obedience. It is this bond that surpasses the natural one.

​Every priest hears this question from children! It seems that the deep affection children (and all people) have for their pets leads them to a strong desire for a “yes” to this question. So the answer is…”yes,” “maybe,” “not exactly,” and “you can hope!”  
 
This difficult question does not have a clear and absolute answer. Therefore, any of the above answers could be correct. However, let’s offer some clarity and possibilities regarding the afterlife and animals.  
 
First of all, when we humans die, that is, when we die in this age in history before Jesus returns to establish “The new Heavens and Earth,” we believe that our body and soul separate. The body dies and is “laid to rest” until Jesus returns in all His glory and brings about the resurrection of the body. Until then, the body is dead. However, human spirits live on. Our spirit cannot die and, thus, Heaven (or Purgatory or Hell) awaits our spirits after earthly death. Only humans, angels, and God have eternal spirits. Animals do not. Therefore, for now, when an animal dies, it is dead and there is no spirit that lives on in Heaven.  
 
But wait just a moment! There is hope that your pet, and all creatures, will rise again. How and why? The reason you can have this hope is because from the very beginning of time, in the original state of holiness (the Garden of Eden) there were animals. So, even though animals do not have eternal spirits, they are physical and have what we may call an animal soul. An animal soul does die when the animal dies, but there is no telling what might happen at the resurrection of the dead! When Jesus returns in all His glory and all humans rise from the dead, will animals and all living creatures also rise? This is something you can hope for.  
 
Furthermore, Isaiah 11:6 speaks prophetically about this new age to come. That passage says, “Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.” So is this a literal statement? Is it proof that animals will rise? Or is it just symbolic and figurative? Hard to tell. However, for that reason, it is worth having hope that animals will have some share in the new Heavens and Earth to come!

​No. Jesus’ death was because of our sin. Had sin never entered the world, Jesus would not have had to die. This question, however, can only be answered in a theoretical way since Adam and Eve did sin, as have we all.  
 
Though this question is difficult to answer in a short and simplified way, let’s consider an analogy. Let’s say that your parents ate poison. The result of this poison is death. The only cure for this poison is to receive a transfusion of new and healthy blood from someone not affected. By analogy, you could say that Jesus entered the world without any effects of this “poison” so that He could offer the divine “transfusion” to Adam and Eve and all their descendants affected by the poison of sin. Thus, the blood of Jesus is what heals us as we receive His blood poured forth from the Sacrifice of the Cross. We receive His saving blood by accepting Him into our lives, especially through the Sacraments and faith.  
 
But this question brings up another more interesting question. If Adam and Eve (and all of us who descended from them) never sinned, would God the Son have become human? Would He have taken on human flesh through the Incarnation through the Virgin Mary?  
 
Though the death of Jesus was on account of our sin, His Incarnation (becoming human) was not solely so that He could die for our sin. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that one of the primary reasons for His Incarnation was “in order to save us by reconciling us with God.” The Catechism identifies three other reasons: “so that thus we might know God’s love;” “to be our model of holiness;” and “to make us ‘partakers of the divine nature’” (See CCC #457-460).  
 
Some speculate that even if there were no sin, God would have become flesh so as to fulfill these other effects of the Incarnation. Perhaps that’s a bit deep and is only speculation, but it’s beautiful to reflect upon nonetheless!

The simple answer is that the serpent (the devil) persuaded Adam that eating the apple would be to his benefit. Adam would “become like God” if he ate it. Sadly, Adam believed this lie and chose to disobey God who had told him not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This was the first sin and resulted in humanity falling from what we call Original Innocence. But to give a more thorough explanation, let’s consider the entire story in a broader way.  
 
First of all, did Adam actually eat the apple? Perhaps, but perhaps not. It’s important to understand that we should not read this story in a “literal” way. That doesn’t mean the story is not true. A good explanation of this comes from Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became Pope Benedict XVI) in his book “In the Beginning …: A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall” (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing). In that book, Cardinal Ratzinger stated, “It has become clear that the biblical creation narratives represent another way of speaking about reality than that with which we are familiar from physics and biology.” He went on to explain that these stories “represent truth in the way that symbols do — just as, for example, a Gothic window gives us a deep insight into reality, thanks to the effects of light that it produces and to the figures that it portrays.”  
 
In other words, the story of Adam and Eve is true, but not necessarily in the way a science book is factual. A science book presents truth in a literal way, explaining the physical truths as they are in this world. The story of Adam and Eve presents truth in the form of a symbolic narrative. Whether or not Adam actually ate the apple in the literal way explained in that symbolic narrative is not important. What is important is the truth that the narrative presents.  
 
So what is the truth it presents? It presents us with the fact that our first parents turned from God in disobedience. The consequence was a fall from the original state of innocence and union with God for which God had made them. Therefore, the answer remains that Adam “ate the fruit” for selfish motivations because he believed the lie that disobeying God was better for him than obeying God. He was selfish and failed to trust the truth of God.

Romans 3, verse 10 says, “…as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one.’” Yet, James 5:16 says that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. If absolutely no one is righteous, then who is James talking about? Luke chapter 1 says that Elizabeth and Zechariah were righteous before God. If absolutely no one is righteous, then how can that be? Is Scripture contradicting itself? No, the folks who interpret Romans as saying absolutely, without exception, no one is righteous, are misinterpreting that passage. They are failing to realize that the key to understanding Romans 3:10 is the phrase, “it is written.”  
 
Here in Romans, Paul is quoting from the Old Testament, Psalm 14 to be exact. In Psalm 14 it says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God. They are corrupt…there is none that does good.’” But then that same psalm goes on to talk about the “righteous.” Well, if none has done good, who are these righteous the psalm is talking about? Obviously, when the psalmist says that none has done good, he is talking about the fools who say there is no God. He is not talking about absolutely everyone.  
 
Just so Paul when he quotes from this psalm. Paul is not saying absolutely no one is righteous, if he was, then how do you explain all the Old and New Testament passages that refer to the righteous? In Romans 3:11 it says that no one seeks for God. Does that mean that absolutely no one is seeking God? No, to interpret it that way would be ludicrous!  
 
Just so verse 23 which says that “all have sinned”. Babies haven’t sinned, have they? Little children haven’t sinned, have they? No! This is not an absolute. There are exceptions. What about John the Baptist? Did he sin? Scripture says that he was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb. Can someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit his entire life ever sin? It’s something to think about.  
 
So, it is perfectly legitimate to say that these passages from Romans, when interpreted in context, in no way conflict with the Church’s teaching on Mary being without sin.

​1 Tim 2:5 reads as follows: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus…” “You see,” we Catholics are told, “there is only one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. Therefore, praying to the saints goes against the Bible because you are making them mediators between God and man, you are diminishing Jesus‘ role as the sole mediator!”  
 
Is that an appropriate interpretation of that passage? No, it‘s not and let‘s see why not.  
 
In the Old Testament we see that Moses, Abraham, and Job interceded on behalf of others… that’s mediating between God and man. We know that it is okay to ask others here on earth to pray and intercede for us…. that’s mediating between God and man. So, I think, once again, we have a situation where a passage of the Bible is being misinterpreted and misunderstood.  
 
There is only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, but as members of the Body of Christ, He allows us to share in His mediation.  
 
Also, Scripture tells us that we have only one foundation, Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:11); but, Scripture tells us that there is more than one foundation (Eph 2:19-20). Scripture tells us that we have only Lord, Jesus Christ (Eph 4:4-5); but, Scripture tells us there is more than one lord (Rev 19:16). Scripture tells us that we have only one Judge, Jesus Christ (James 4:12); but, Scripture tells us there is more than one judge (1 Cor 6:2).  
 
Contradictions in Scripture? No! Not when these passages are all properly understood in context. Jesus is the only foundation; Jesus is the only Lord; and Jesus is the only Judge. But, we are members of Jesus‘ Body. Therefore, we are able, according to the graces given by Christ, to share in Jesus‘ role as foundation, as lord, and as judge, and in other aspects of Christ, as well. Another example, a father shares in God‘s role as Father, by His grace. And, so also, we, and the saints in Heaven, and the angels in Heaven, can share in Christ‘s role as Mediator.