Saturday, July 30th, 2011

When I was 12 years old, I experienced two events that changed the course of my life: (1) I got my own paper route; and (2) my mom drove me to the bank and opened up a checking account in my name. The reason she opened the account was because she didn’t want the job of writing a check every week to the local newspaper (
Peoria Journal Star). When we got home, she taught…
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Tags: Captain America Movie Review, Captain America: The First Avenger, Comic Book Villains, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, The Avengers
Posted in Catholic Boys, Movies, Television & Broadway, Popular Culture, Teenagers | 2 Comments »
Monday, April 4th, 2011
[caption id="attachment_485" align="alignleft" width="231" caption="Elizabeth Taylor"]

[/caption] When my daughter Mary Rose was 15 years old (4 years ago), Georgette enrolled her in a couple of classes at Illinois Central College. At that time, I bought her a cell phone so she would be able to call from school if she needed anything. The first voicemail message she recorded…
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Tags: Adoration, Elizabeth Taylor, Holy Hour, Justin Bieber, Zac Efron
Posted in Adoration, Celebrities, Movies, Television & Broadway, Popular Culture, Teenagers | 1 Comment »
Saturday, February 26th, 2011

The year was 1988. Georgette and I had four children – Harry, 7; Anna, 5; Maria, 4; and Laura, 1. During the last week in May, I told my three older children that if the weather cooperated, we were going to plant a garden on Saturday. When I told them, they all got excited and started looking forward to the adventure. Although the weather forecast was for rain, the sun was shining…
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Tags: Behavior, Beliefs, Illicit Drugs, Peer Pressure, Personal Responsibility, Premarital Sex, Rejection
Posted in Beliefs, Catholic Boys, Catholic Girls, Catholic Parenting, Faith, Prayer, Pride, Teenagers | No Comments »
Saturday, February 19th, 2011

I’ve only been to one high school reunion since graduating in May of 1975. I never had the desire to attend one until I received a letter in 1995 inviting me to the 20 year reunion. After I received the invitation, I tracked down my best friend from high school. He was living in Chicago at the time, was married, and had two children. Like me, he had not gone to any of the previous…
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Tags: Behavior, Beliefs, Emotional Pain, High School, Personal Responsibility, Rejection, Suffering, Suicide
Posted in Beliefs, Catholic Boys, Catholic Girls, Catholic Parenting, Dating, Purity, Sex, Suffering, Teenagers | No Comments »
Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

Last week I told you I had three observations about the Arizona killings that I wanted to share with you. My first observation (“All Behavior Originates And Proceeds From Beliefs”) was covered in last week’s article. If you didn’t get a chance to read the article, you can find it
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Tags: Behavior, Beliefs, Gabrielle Giffords, Grace of God, Jared Lee Loughner
Posted in Beliefs, Catholic Boys, Catholic Parenting, Faith, Keys To Greatness, Personal Growth, Personal Responsibility, Teenagers | 2 Comments »