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An interesting parallel can be drawn between Peter and Judas. There are some similarities, and yet such tremendous differences. First, Our Lord called them both "devils." He called Peter "Satan" when he rebuked Him for saying He would be crucified; He called Judas a devil when He promised the Bread of Life. Second, He warned both that they would fall. Peter said that even though others would deny the Master, he would not. Whereupon, he was ..
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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The pure in heart shall see God, because they always do His will. Purity does not begin in the body but in the will. From there it flows outward, cleansing thought, imagination, and, finally, the body. Bodily purity is a repercussion or echo of the will. Life is impure only when the will is impure.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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d52dbc3
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Look at your heart! It tells the story of why you were made. It is not perfect in shape and contour, like a Valentine Heart. There seems to be a small piece missing out of the side of every human heart. That may be to symbolize a piece that was torn out of the Heart of Christ which embraced all humanity on the Cross. But I think the real meaning is that when God made your human heart, He found it so good and so lovable that He kept a small ..
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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hunger is not just an economic problem. It is a moral and spiritual problem.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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One day a woman went to the saintly Father John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, in France, and said, "My husband has not been to the sacraments or to Mass for years. He has been unfaithful, wicked, and unjust. He has just fallen from a bridge and was drowned --a double death of body and soul." The Cure answered, "Madam, there is a short distance between the bridge and the water, and it is that distance which forbids you to judge."
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Venerable Fulton J. Sheen |
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Our Lord was born not just of her flesh but also by her consent.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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Humility does not mean a submissiveness, a passiveness, a willingness to be walked on, or a desire to live in the doghouse. Humility is a virtue by which we recognize ourselves as we really are, not as we would like to be in the eyes of the public; not as our press notices say we are, but as we are in the sight of God when we examine our conscience.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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1978005
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In almost nine cases out of ten, those who have once had the Faith but now reject it, or claim that it does not make sense, are driven not by reasoning but by the way they are living
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catholic-church
catholicism
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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00c3785
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God prefers a loving sinner to a loveless "saint." Love can be trained; pride cannot. The man who thinks that he knows will rarely find truth; the man who knows he is a miserable, unhappy sinner, like the woman at the well, is closer to peace, joy and salvation than he knows."
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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03becb4
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It is possible to love more than we know. A simple person in good faith may have a greater love of God than a theologian and, as a result, a keener understanding of the ways of God with the heart than psychologists have.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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0556ba4
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To marry someone with the idea of possessing him or her is to rob that person of the precious endowment of liberty. If that other person is "mine," like a cocktail, then he or she can never make a present of himself or herself."
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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17cb9ba
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love needs no reasons. Sex asks science to defend it; love never asks "Why?" It says, "I love you." Love is its own reason."
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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f5ed5ba
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To marry someone with the idea of possessing him or her is to rob that person of the precious endowment of liberty. If that other person is "mine," like a cocktail, then he or she can never make a present of himself or herself. What I possess I can no longer receive as a gift. You cannot receive a gift of ten dollars if you already have it in your pocket and you own it."
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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b5682c5
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religious leaders have agreed not to disagree and those beliefs for which some of our ancestors would have died they have melted into a spineless Humanism.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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As Euripides said: "He is not a lover who does not love forever."
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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1b869fe
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Two principles inspire much of the personal and social dealings of many a citizen in our land: "What can I get out of it?" and "Can I get away with it?" Evil is confused with good, and good is confused with evil. Revolting books against virtue are termed "courageous"; those against morality are advertised as "daring and forward-looking"; and those against God are called "progressive and epoch-making." It has always been the characteristic o..
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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57df31f
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Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: "I am Who am." The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: "I am who am not." Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side. The"
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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c469e34
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In divorce cases, this is called "mental torture" or "domination." Really, it is egocentricity, in which one ego loves itself in the other ego. The I is projected into the Thou and is loved in the Thou. The Thou is not really loved as a person; it is only used as a means to the pleasure of the I. As soon as the other ceases to exhilarate, the so-called love ceases."
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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3fc0d4e
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Woe to you that are filled: for you shall hunger";"
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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5c088a3
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For love concentrates on the object, sex concentrates on the subject.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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0c3ebdf
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Character is to some extent judged by what a man does with his falls. A pig falls into the mud and stays there; a sheep falls in and climbs out.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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e8fedf6
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We know nothing about the inside of our neighbor's heart, and hence, we refuse to forgive. Jesus knew the heart inside out, and because He did know, He forgave. Take any scene of action, let five people look upon it, and you will get five different stories of what happened. No one of them sees all sides. Our Lord does, and that is why He forgives. Why is it that we can find excuses for our anger against our neighbor, yet we refuse to admit ..
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Venerable Fulton J. Sheen |
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2aeee06
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In fact, in order that we may never know ourselves, we hate silence and solitariness. Lest our conscience should carry on with us an unbearable repartee, we drown out its voice in amusements, distractions, and noise. If we met ourselves in others, we would hate them.
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Venerable Fulton J. Sheen |
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d4fcfbb
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Truth does grow, but it grows homogeneously, like an acorn into an oak; it does not swing in the breeze, like a weathercock. The leopard does not change his spots nor the Ethiopian his skin, though the leopard be put in bars or the Ethiopian in pink tights. The nature of certain things is fixed, and none more so than the nature of truth. Truth may be contradicted a thousand times, but that only proves that it is strong enough to survive a t..
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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a17ffa9
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purifying
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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a6fe5c3
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the very permanence of marriage is destructive of those fleeting infatuations, which are born with the moment and die with it; it destroys selfishness, furthermore, because the mutual love of husband and wife takes them out of themselves into the incarnation of their mutual love, their other selves, their children; and finally it narrows selfishness because the rearing of children demands sacrifice, without which, like unwatered flowers, th..
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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70b78f9
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When the "deity" of the other is deflated, either because it is exhausted or because one becomes accustomed to living with a "god" or a "goddess," there is a terrific sense of ennui and boredom." --
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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cfc56b5
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Sanctity means separation from the spirit of the world, with immersion in the activity of the world. Saints would be in the world, not of it; they would have no public relation boosters to publicize them; they would never ask for money; perhaps the one venture which would stand out most in their lives would be poverty of spirit.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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93180a8
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greatest poverty of all--the spiritual poverty of seeming abandonment by God:
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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1f315b7
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We live in days of assassins'--where evil is sought in lives more than good to justify a world with a bad conscience.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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a5bc759
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No one can love himself properly unless he knows why he is living. Love is useless when alone,
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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5975f42
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The ungodly like religion in the same way that they like lions, either dead or behind bars;
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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Blessed finally are the poor in spirit intellectually. Blessed are the humble, and the teachable who like the Shepherds know they know nothing, or like the Wise Men who know they do not know everything.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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410b4ce
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Sex understood in the modern way is Eros-love severed from responsibility; it is desire without obligation. Because it is lawless desire, it is therefore Godless desire. That is why eroticism and atheism always go together.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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0f7ec7e
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The son of Confucius once said to him: "I apply myself with diligence to every kind of study, neglect nothing that could render me clever and brilliant; but I do not advance." "Omit some of your pursuits," replied Confucius, "and you will get on better. Among those who travel on foot, have you ever seen any who run? It is essential to do everything in order, and to grasp that which is within the reach of your arm; otherwise, you give yourse..
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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Blessed also are the poor in spirit socially.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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f6d6103
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The fewer sacrifices a man is required to make, the more loath he will be to make those few. His
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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903fb85
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We shrink therefore from God, knowing that He wants to enrich our being, rather than our having--that He wishes to elevate our nature, not to submerge and lose it in trifles. He has called us to the superior vocation of being His children, of partaking of His nature, and of being related to Him as branches to a vine. Few of us completely want that elevation; it is our petty desire to have more,not to share the glory of being more.We want th..
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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f91bef6
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For love concentrates on the object, sex concentrates on the subject. Love is directed to someone else for the sake of the other's perfection; sex is directed to self for the sake of self-satisfaction.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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25faea9
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It is easier to get the attention of the press when one says, as Ibsen4 did, that "two and two make five," than to be orthodox and say that two and two make four."
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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e4b5b9d
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What the new morality resolves itself into is this: You are wrong if you do a thing you do not feel like doing; and you are right if you do a thing you feel like doing. Such a morality is based not only on "fastidiousness," but on "facetiousness." The standard of morality then becomes the individual feeling of what is beautiful, instead of the rational estimate of what is right."
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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ea96e84
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As the "no" of Eve proves that the creature was made by love and is therefore free, so thy Fiat proves that the Creature was made for love as well."
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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0a1728b
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Animals never have recourse to law courts, because they have no will to love; but man, having reason, feels the need of justifying his irrational behavior when he does wrong.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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1d670cd
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A character is made by the kind of thoughts a man thinks when alone, and a civilization is made by the kind of thoughts a man speaks to his neighbor. On
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Fulton J. Sheen |