Virtues – Page 7 – Perpetual Adoration

December 19, 2015

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Would the Mother of God Ever Wear Jeans?

I’ve written before about the first time I went Christmas shopping alone with my mom. It was in 1969, when I was 12 years old. At that time, my parents had 13 children — seven boys and six girls — all of whom were living at home.

December 5, 2015

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A Lovely Night With Cinderella

Last month, Peoria Players Theater put on the musical production of Cinderella. While the music in the play was from the original musical version of Cinderella, the script was adapted from the 1997 teleplay that featured pop stars Brandy and Whitney Houston. My daughter Mary Rose played the part of Cinderella in the Peoria Players production. My initial plan was to attend two of the eight performances that were put on, but I couldn’t stay away. I ended up seeing four of the performances.

June 20, 2015

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Training To Be A Superhero

Have you ever heard of Benjamin Percy? He’s a 36-year-old writer who has won several awards for his novels and short stories. His newest novel, The Deadlands, was just released. He is currently adapting his previous novel, Red Moon, for Fox, and is writing a new television series — Black Gold — for the Starz cable network. His favorite current project is writing the newest version of Green Arrow for DC Comics.

June 6, 2015

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John Wayne vs. Bruce Jenner

Every so often, my wife tells me that I’m living in the wrong times. Because of my old-fashioned beliefs, she claims that I would have been better off living during the 1800s. Whenever she comments about this, I remind her that I spent the better part of my early years at my grandfather’s (Tom Williams’s) house, and since he was born in 1898, that’s probably where I picked up a lot of my beliefs.

May 23, 2015

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I was a god for a day

After I graduated from Saint Louis University law school in 1982, my wife and I moved back to Peoria. At that time, my wife was pregnant with our second child. Shortly after returning to Peoria, I began teaching CCD classes on Sunday mornings at St. Sharbel Catholic Church to seventh- and eighth-grade students.

May 16, 2015

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How We See Ourselves

Last week, I listened to an audio recording of a presentation that was given by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in the 1950s. During his presentation, Sheen talked about an experience he had while he was a Monsignor in New York. He recounted the following story:

April 18, 2015

Guidelines For A Disgraced Congressman

If you pay attention to the news, you know about the recent resignation of our local U.S. Congressman, Aaron Schock. Schock is currently under investigation for violating federal law while he was in office. Some of the violations include using campaign funds for his own personal benefit, overcharging the government for mileage expenses, and flying around in private jets that were owned by individuals or companies who donated money to his campaign.

March 21, 2015

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Eradicating Weeds

In the early summer of 1975, one of my cousins decided that he wanted to try his hand at gardening. For the purpose of this article, I’m going to call him “James.” At the time, James and I were both 18 years old. I knew quite a bit about gardening because I had been in charge of taking care of our large family garden for the previous five years.

November 29, 2014

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An Unusual Reason to be Grateful

During the spring semester of my senior year of high school, I had a communications class with a teacher who was in her mid-50s. One of my classmates was a good friend of mine whose father was a doctor. On the last day of class, the teacher asked each of the students what their goals were for the future.