Pat McCloskey, OFM

Q: When I pray a petition, I can’t help feeling that if I pray for one person only, the prayer will be stronger or more effective than if I pray for 20 people at once. For example, is “Please help David” a stronger prayer than “Please help all my family”?

All excommunications are meant to be medicinal. They are a kind of shock therapy intended to make sinners aware of the seriousness of their sin and their spiritual condition and call them to conversion.

The Book of Blessings directs that the blessing should not be given unless those who live in the home are present—you don’t just bless empty living quarters.

Q. In our parish a group of us gather before Mass to pray the rosary and the Litany of the Blessed Mother. From where did the Litany of the Blessed Virgin come? And what do the titles “Mirror of Justice,” “Seat of Wisdom,” “Mystical Rose,” “Tower of David,” “Tower of Ivory,” “House of Gold,” “Morning Star” and “Ark of the Covenant” mean?

My husband believes all that Catholics teach. He believes in his heart that Jesus is present in the Eucharist. There is one problem: My husband resists the idea of becoming Catholic, of converting to this faith.