Did you know that there’s an old plantation hymn that Catholics traditionally sing in church on Good Friday? The hymn was composed in the 19th century by African American slaves and was first published in 1899 by William Eleazar Barton in his hymnal, Old Plantation Hymns. Here’s the first verse of the hymn:
My first jury trial was in 1983, the same year that I started practicing law. I was the attorney for a young woman who had been charged in federal criminal court for embezzling money from a local bank. After that case, I continued to accept criminal defense cases for several years. In one of those cases, I represented a young man who was charged with a serious crime. The evidence against him was overwhelming, and he was found guilty of the crime. At the sentencing hearing, he told the judge that he had discovered God, and he was a changed man. The judge responded to his comment by stating,
Last month I wrote two articles that provided suggestions on what you can do if you are diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus. The titles of articles were Preparing Your Body for the COVID-19 Virus and Treatment Ideas for COVID-19. After I published the articles, I heard from a man who provided me with a protocol that has been used by doctors who have successfully treated people who were in the early stages of the virus. I asked him to send the protocol to me so I could share it with my readers. Here’s what he sent:
Last month, while my 10-year-old granddaughter, Grace Hercik, was playing outside, she fell and broke her arm. Two days before she broke her arm, when my family was together for a birthday party, I told Grace and my other grandchildren about how I broke my leg in 1967. I was the same age as Grace when I broke my leg.
As we grow older, we get to a point where we realize that if we want to maintain our sanity, we must accept each new challenge that we face as an opportunity for growth. We learn that each time we conquer a new challenge, there’s always going to be a new and greater challenge that we will have to deal with in the future. While each new challenge is always personal in nature, it also sometimes includes one or more of our family members or friends.
About five years ago, while I was driving to my office, I came upon some construction on Interstate 74. There were several vehicles that were stopped in front of me. They were backed up for several blocks. When I began slowing down, I saw that the exit ramp to get into downtown Peoria was about a block away and that the shoulder on the right side of the roadway was clear.
She was born on September 5, 1926, in Peoria, Illinois. Her name was Phyllis E. Houlihan. Eighteen years after her birth, she entered the convent of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ). Five years later, she made her final profession of faith as Sister Roberta Cecile Houlihan.