Listen to this inspiring talk by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen about the importance of adoration.
It happened during the summer of 1990. Georgette needed to go to the grocery store, so she asked me to keep an eye on our four children while she was gone. At that time, Harry was nine, Anna was seven, Maria was six, and Laura was three.
Imagine you are driving on University Street in Peoria and in the distance you see a large crowd of people gathered in a parking lot. As you drive closer to the crowd, you see a man who you have met before tied to a telephone pole. To your horror, you see two young, well-built men taking turns at beating the man with leather whips that have sharp pieces of metal attached to the ends of each whip.
About 20 years ago, I was hired to represent a young man in his mid-20s who had been charged with the crime of arson. He had set fire to the house of a man who had “stolen” his girlfriend away from him. (For the purpose of this article, I’m going to call my client “James.”)
I met my wife, Georgette, on August 4, 1978, a few weeks before starting my senior year in college. We dated for almost two years and we got married on June 15, 1980, a couple of months before I started my second year of law school.
Last week, my daughter, Laura, shared a recent experience in a family email. After I read the email, I asked Laura if I could publish what she said in my Adoration Letter. She said yes. Laura is 26 years old and was recently involved in a play at a local community theater. I changed the name of her friend to protect her friend’s privacy. Here’s the email:
Last week, USA Today ran a story about how leaders of the American Postal Workers Union are outraged about a pilot program that the U.S. Postal Service is testing in four states. The Postal Service has arranged for the installation of 84 postal counters to operate within Staples office supply stores in California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.
The dictionary defines the word “title” as “an appellation of dignity, honor, distinction, or preeminence attached to a person or family by virtue of rank, office, precedent, privilege, attainment, or lands.” It is said that the Blessed Virgin Mary has more than 1,000 titles, a handful of which are: Mother of God, Queen of Heaven, Seat of Wisdom, Mirror of Justice, Vessel of Honor, Cause of Our Joy, Gate of Heaven, Morning Star, and Comforter of the Afflicted.
You may have heard of bitcoins, a digital currency that is being used by various individuals to purchase items on the Internet. There are a lot of people who think that the adoption and use of bitcoins is a solution to some of the problems caused by the runaway creation of money by various governments throughout the world. I have my doubts about the viability of this so-called new form of money. Here’s how Wikipedia describes Bitcoin:
The psychiatry journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA Psychiatry) recently published the results of a study that revealed that people who are at high risk of depression and believe that religion or spirituality is important are less likely to suffer from depression. The results of the study showed that the cerebral cortex of each of the brains of the people who were less likely to suffer from depression was thicker. The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of the brain.
Last week I saw the movie, Catching Fire, with Georgette and two of our daughters, Mary and Teresa. Catching Fire is based on the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy, and picks up where the original movie, The Hunger Games, left off. Following the events of the first movie, the main character, Katniss Everdeen, returns home to her mother and sister.