Suffering – Perpetual Adoration

September 15, 2018

A Formula for Conquering Loneliness

I’ve written before about how I grew up in a family neighborhood that included seven families. My grandparents, Tom and Effie Williams, lived next door to my parents. The other families in the neighborhood were made up of my aunts, uncles, and cousins.

August 11, 2018

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The Pain of Humiliation

During the 1990s, I had a devout Catholic friend who decided that he was going to pray every day that he would go straight to Heaven when he died. He didn’t want his soul to have to endure any suffering in purgatory. He decided that he was going to bypass purgatory and go straight to heaven.

June 30, 2018

The 60 Most Important Minutes of Your Life

You may have heard of Rick Warren, the author of the book, The Purpose Driven Life, which has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Warren is the Evangelical Christian pastor of Saddleback Church, which is located in Lake Forest, California. Saddleback Church has more than 20,000 members and is the eighth largest church in the United States.

June 23, 2018

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From Suffering to Suicide

One of the villains in the Marvel Comics universe is Venom, an alien organism that seeks out a host and attaches itself to whatever person is closest to it. Venom starts out as a black, tar-like substance that adheres to and then quickly spreads and covers the head and body of the person it has targeted. When Venom has completely enveloped the head and body of the person, it looks like the person is wearing a tight, black, form-fitting, slimy rubber suit.

June 9, 2018

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A 4-Year-Old Superhero Emerges

In 1976, during the spring semester of my freshman year in college, I got in my car and drove to the local Western Union office. When I walked in, I told the clerk at the counter that I wanted to send a telegram. At that time, a telegram was a written message that was sent by telegraph from one Western Union office to a Western Union office in a different city. The second Western Union office would then make arrangements to hand-deliver the message to the intended recipient.

February 10, 2018

The Death of a Special Christ-Like Priest

Georgette and I met on August 4, 1978, when we were both 21 years old. We were married in June 1980, while I was on break from law school. Ten months later, in March 1981, we had our first child, Harry. I graduated from law school in May of the following year.

January 20, 2018

Why Is It So Hard To Practice Patience?

It doesn’t happen very often, but every once in a while, I complain directly to God about something that’s bothering me. Last week, my frustration with an ongoing issue finally got to the point that one of my thoughts went up to God in the form of a question: Why can’t you just have an angel appear to me in a dream and tell me what to do? I’m tired of playing these cat and mouse games where I’m always struggling to try to figure out what I should do.

January 13, 2018

The Difficulties That Arise After Years of Marriage

Last week, I wrote about a couple who was having financial problems because of the husband’s inability to work. Here’s what I wrote at the end of the article:
I’ve been a lawyer for more than 35 years. I’ve dealt with hundreds of couples who, after years of marriage, are facing an unexpected crisis. You would think that after being married for 20 or more years, married couples would be more patient and forgiving of each other than they were when they were newly married. But that’s usually not the case. The fact that they’ve spent years together seems to somehow inhibit their ability to practice real patience and forgiveness toward each other.

June 17, 2017

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Repairing the Damage

During a recent storm, the electrical power in my daughter Maria’s house went out. Maria and her husband have four young children. Several other homes in their neighborhood also lost power. Apparently, a couple of trees were hit by lightning and one of the trees fell and snapped a power line.