Dear Bryon:

I praise God that you and your friend have an interest in the Catholic Church. History and the Bible is what lead me to convert from a Baptist preacher to a Catholic many years ago. It was John Henry Cardinal Newman who said, "To go deep into history is to cease to be Protestant." Cardinal Newman had been a Protestant and converted when he went "deep into history."

I am sorry but I do not remember your friend Matt. I answer thousands of questions and talk to so many people that I barely remember my own name :)

As for your first question about dishonoring your mother, I do not have enough information to really answer that. I do not know how old you are or the context of what your mother did or said to "almost kill you." If you are a minor then you do have obligations to obey your parents. That is not an absolute obligation, a minor does not have to obey orders from a parent that are immoral, illegal, abusive, etc. But, generally speaking there is an obligation for a minor child to obey his parents. God expects this obedience and honors it.

There have been cases where a minor child wanted to convert to the Catholic Church but the parents would not let him and forbid him to attend Mass. The minor child had to obey this and wait until he was an adult to convert.

This obedience to parents is seen in some of the Catholic saints. There have been Catholic saints, who as children, wanted to join a religious order but was forbidden to do so by their parents. They patiently waited until either their parents changed their mind with the grace or God, or they became adults. God is pleased by such obedience and will honor it.

Now, whether or not you are in a situation that studying the Catholic faith as you are violates the due obedience you have to your parents (assuming you are a minor) I do not know. I would not think that reading about the Catholic faith would be a problem, but I do not know your situation.

On the second question concerning the "23 minutes in Hell" review, you are misinterpreting my comments a little. The idea that we "get what we expect" refers to the fact that angels and demons are pure spirit. They have no body, no material form. If they appear to us they take on a bodily form. The bodily form they take on will often be consistent with what we expect. For example, an angel may appear to us in long white robes and wings. This is not how angels actually look, but they may appear to us that way because that is what we are expecting. This does not mean they MUST appear this way, but they might.

With demons it is the same way: if we expect a demon to be red with horns and a tail and a pitchfork then a demon may very well appear that way to us, but he does not have to appear that way.

The motivation of the angel is to appear to us in a pleasant and comforting way. The motivation of the demon is to appear to us in a frighting way.

In terms of the destination of our eternal soul getting what we expect is certainly NOT the case. Even in the Bible there is a story of people who thought of themselves as followers of Jesus and thus going to heaven but Jesus told them to depart from him and to go to hell (Matthew 7:21-23; 25:31-46).

There is most likely going to be people who expect to go to heaven but will find themselves in hell. And, by the way, there may be people who expect to go to hell who find themselves in heaven.

Our eternal destination is not determined by our expectations, but by the state of our soul at the time of our death, the sincerity of our heart to honestly seek God, and the mercy and just judgment of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary