Grandma is an Angel: and Other Colloquial Phrases that Distort Catholic Teaching

What if the kind things we say are not always the true things?At funerals, hospital bedsides, family gatherings, and parish events, Catholics often reach for familiar phrases: Grandma is an angel now. Everything happens for a reason. God won’t give you more than you can handle. Love is love. I’m spiritual, not religious. It’s just a symbol.Most of these phrases are spoken with kindness. They are meant to comfort, encourage, and make sense of difficult moments. But many of them also quietly distort what the Catholic Church actually teaches.Grandma Is an Angel is a clear, pastoral, and deeply Catholic guide to the phrases modern Christians use without realizing how much they shape belief. With tenderness and precision, TJ Mesler walks through common sayings about death, heaven, suffering, morality, worship, Mary, the Church, prayer, and the sacraments — showing what each phrase is trying to say, where it falls short, and how Catholics can speak more truthfully without sounding cruel.This is not a book about correcting people at funerals or winning arguments at family dinners. It is a book about recovering the Catholic vocabulary that speaks more beautifully, more lovingly, and more truthfully than the clichés.For parents, catechists, parish leaders, priests, deacons, teachers, and ordinary Catholics who want better words for real life, this book offers a simple invitation:Speak like the Church.Because the truth, said with love, is always more merciful than the cliché. Read more