We all want to wind up somewhere on purpose. The problem is that often we wind up somewhere and wonder: How did I get here? This is not where I want to be. So, one day you find your business filing for bankruptcy, or your spouse filing for divorce or your best friend no longer speaking to you. It happens to all of us in different ways, at different points. And it happens usually because we don’t define what success looks like or as I like to put it, we don’t define what a win looks like.

Dear Friends,

“Oh when the saints come marching in…” You’re gonna want to be in that number this coming Thursday when St. Bernadette comes marching into our Parish! This is the first time that the relics of the Saint, from the Sanctuary at Lourdes, France, will be on tour in the U.S. and we are fortunate to be one of the hosts. Of course, St. Bernadette is tied to Our Lady though the apparitions at Lourdes.

Dear Friends,

One of our esteemed US Senators recently gave her uninformed opinion about “how those pro-lifers don’t care about women.” Well, actually Senator, we care very much. Not only about women but about their unborn child as well. In fact, we care so much that since 1973 we have opened and operated, at our own expense, over 4,000 Pro-Life Centers and Clinics to assist women with prenatal and postnatal care.

Dear Friends,

For those of you who keep track, it’s been a year since I came to Our Lady of Lourdes. I have to admit that the Sun Cities area (and I’ll include in that the North Peoria area) is a very nice place to live. In fact, it seems to me that you have to work really hard to be miserable if you live particularly in Sun City West. There is an endless stream of things to do, people to meet, fun to be had all wrapped up in a safe, rather quiet (except for those F-35’s) active senior adult community. It has been a big change from my days in the ASU College town of Tempe.

Dear Friends,

The long and winding road that led to the overturning of Roe v Wade required almost 50 years of playing legal jujitsu. In 1973 the Supreme Court actually decided two cases Roe v Wade and then Doe v Bolton. In Roe, somehow the Justices found what no one else had ever found: that a woman has a constitutional right to an abortion. Then Bolton said restrictions can be placed on that right. Putting restrictions on something that is declared a constitutional right is always were trouble starts. When and what restrictions can be placed on a constitutional right always leads to lawsuits that seek clarification. In another recent example, the Court also took up a case on when and what restrictions can be place on the constitutional right to bear arms.