A few months ago in an article entitled Ambushed By My Cousin, I told you about how I promised a cousin of mine that I would write about what I thought parents should be doing to raise their boys into decent, honorable, and respectable Catholic men.  In the Ambushed… Read More

I have a rule that my teenage daughters are not allowed to download any songs from the Internet to play on their iPods until I’ve given my approval.  Do you know what I call the wires that come out of an iPod and connect onto the small earphones that go into a teenager’s ears?  Pipelines.  Here’s what travels through those pipelines: (1) sewage that is pumped directly into our children’s brains (and imaginations) that will eventually… Read More

Last week, after I published my article on The Two Greatest Desires, I happened to run into one of my cousins.  When I saw her walking toward me, I noticed the expression on her face.  It was one of those determined looks, a look that alerted me that she was about to give me a lecture.  How was it that was I able to read the look on her face?  She raised her family in the same neighborhood I grew up in, and during that time I had several… Read More

We’ve covered The Idling Man and The Passion Bridge.  The last critical lesson I believe every Catholic girl must be taught before she is allowed to go out on a date with a boy is: The Two Greatest Desires.  You may have heard of Fr. Clair Bourdereaux.  He was a Franciscan priest who was assigned to Sacred Heart Church in downtown Peoria in 1976.  He remained there for 19 years (until his death in January of 1995). Fr.… Read More

In last week’s article, The Unspoken Invitation, I told you there are 3 lessons I think every Catholic girl must be taught before she is allowed to go out on a date with a boy.  I covered the first lesson last week: The Idling Man.  This week I want to tell you about The Passion Bridge. I met my wife, Georgette, during the summer of 1978 (between my junior and senior year in college).  Even though Georgette was raised in the… Read More