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95642ac
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Two classes of people make up the world: those who have found God, and those who are looking for Him - thirsting, hungering, seeking! And the great sinners came closer to Him than the proud intellectuals! Pride swells and inflates the ego; gross sinners are depressed, deflated and empty. They, therefore, have room for God. God prefers a loving sinner to a loveless 'saint'. Love can be trained; pride cannot. The man who thinks that he knows ..
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sinners
intellectuals
humility
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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e54304d
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The higher the love, the more demands will be made on us to conform to that ideal.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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afa47b3
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Those who deny guilt and sin are like the Pharisees of old who thought our Saviour had a "guilt complex" because He accused them of being whited sepulchers--outside clean, inside full of dead men's bones. Those who admit that they are guilty are like the public sinners and the publicans of whom Our Lord said, "Amen, I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before you" (Matt. 21:31). Those who think t..
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healing
guilt
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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6195d82
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Divinely wise souls often infuriate the worldly-wise because they always see things from the Divine point of view. The worldly are willing to let anyone believe in God if he pleases, but only on condition that a belief in God will mean no more than belief in anything else. They will allow God, provided that God does not matter. But taking God seriously is precisely what makes the saint. As St. Teresa put it, "What is not God to me is nothin..
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wisdom
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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2210691
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Wars come from egotism and selfishness. Every macrocosmic or world war has its origin in microcosmic wars going on inside millions and millions of individuals.
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war
selfishness
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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24ddfc3
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The wicked fear the good, because the good are a constant reproach to their consciences. The ungodly like religion in the same way that they like lions, either dead or behind bars; they fear religion when it breaks loose and begins to challenge their consciences.
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morality
religion
immorality
shame
guilt
sin
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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a6b117e
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You cannot always depend on prayers to be answered the way you want them answered but you can always depend on God. God, the loving Father often denies us those things which in the end would prove harmful to us. Every boy wants a revolver at age four, and no father yet has ever granted that request. Why should we think God is less wise? Someday we will thank God not only for what He gave us, but also for that which He refused.
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prayer
god
request
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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a123422
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Since the basic cause of man's anxiety is the possibility of being either a saint or a sinner, it follows that there are only two alternatives for him. Man can either mount upward to the peak of eternity or else slip backwards to the chasms of despair and frustration. Yet there are many who think there is yet another alternative, namely, that of indifference. They think that, just as bears hibernate for a season in a state of suspended anim..
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morality
spiritual-warfare
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Fulton J. Sheen Ph.D.D.D. |
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7987c92
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In all human love it must be realized that every man promises a woman, and every woman promises a man that which only God alone can give, namely, perfect happiness. One of the reasons why so many marriages are shipwrecked is because as the young couple leave the altar, they fail to realize that human feelings tire and the enthusiasm of the honeymoon is not the same as the more solid happiness of enduring human love. One of the greatest tria..
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marriage
happiness
love
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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ecf0dc3
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The very freedom which the sinner supposedly exercises in his self-indulgence is only another proof that he is ruled by the tyrant.
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wisdom
p211
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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00065c6
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No soul ever fell away from God without giving up prayer. Prayer is that which establishes contact with Divine Power and opens the invisible resources of heaven. However dark the way, when we pray, temptation can never master us. The first step downward in the average soul is the giving up of the practice of prayer, the breaking of the circuit with divinity, and the proclamation of one's owns self sufficiency.
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prayer
independence
faith
god
self-sufficiency
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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deaf957
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Grace does not work like a penny in a slot machine. Grace will move you only when you want it to move you, and only when you let it move you. The supernatural order supposes the freedom of the natural order, but it does not destroy it.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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26b7d12
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A dying man asked a dying man for eternal life; a man without possessions asked a poor man for a Kingdom; a thief at the door of death asked to die like a thief and steal Paradise. One would have thought a saint would have been the first soul purchased over the counter of Calvary by the red coins of Redemption, but in the Divine plan it was a thief who was the escort of the King of kings into Paradise. If Our Lord had come merely as a teach..
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heaven
jesus
penitent-thief
the-cross
salvation
repentance
paradise
christ
forgiveness
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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bf4b6a6
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Why is anyone lovable - if it be not that God put His love into each of us?
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love
image-of-god
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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a877024
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There has been no single influence which has done more to prevent man from finding God and rebuilding his character, has done more to lower the moral tone of society than the denial of personal guilt. This repudiation of man's personal responsibility for his action is falsely justified in two ways: by assuming that man is only an animal and by giving a sense of guilt the tag "morbid."
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personal-responsibility
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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3dddac7
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Skeptics always want miracles such as stepping down from the Cross, but never the greater miracle of forgiveness.
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jesus
the-cross
skepticism
miracles
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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2a17990
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When the will loves anything that is below it in dignity, it degrades itself.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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5e7ea91
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We must go out to Pure Life, Pure Truth, Pure Love, and that is the definition of God. He is the ultimate goal of life; from Him we came, and in Him alone do we find our peace.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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c7cd837
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The humble, simple souls, who are little enough to see the bigness of God in the littleness of a Babe, are therefore the only ones who will ever understand the reason of His visitation. He came to this poor earth of ours to carry on an exchange; to say to us, as only the Good God could say: 'you give me your humanity, and I will give you my Divinity; you give me your time, and I will give you My eternity; you give me your broken heart, and ..
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jesus
love
the-cross
humility
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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8923e45
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Just as sex is a God-given instinct for the prolongation of the human race, so the desire for property as a prolongation of one's ego is a natural right sanctioned by natural law. A person is free on the inside because he can call his soul his own; he is free on the outside because he can call property his own. Internal freedom is based upon the fact that "I am"; external freedom is based on the fact that "I have." But just as the excesses ..
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sex
greed
property
lust
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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7777a01
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Love of self without love of God is selfishness; love of neighbor without love of God embraces only those who are pleasing to us, not those who are hateful.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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fe235c3
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Strong passions are the precious raw material of sanctity. Individuals that have carried their sinning to extremes should not despair or say, "I am too great a sinner to change," or "God would not want me." God will take anyone who is willing to love, not with an occasional gesture, but with a "passionless passion," a "wild tranquility." A sinner, unrepentant, cannot love God, any more that a man on dry land can swim; but as soon as he take..
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sin
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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83c2855
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Deep sorrow does not come because one has violated a law, but only if one knows he has broken off the relationship with Divine Love. But there is yet another element required for regeneration, the element of repentance and reparation. Repentance is a rather dry-eyed affair; tears flow in sorrow, but sweat pours out in repentance. It is not enough to tell God we are sorry and then forget all about it. If we broke a neighbor's window, we woul..
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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b41da09
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The fact the enemies of God must face is that modern civilization has conquered the world, but in doing so has lost its soul. And in losing its soul it will lose the very world it gained. Even our own so-called Liberal culture in these United States which has tried to avoid complete secularization by leaving little zones of individual freedom is in danger of forgetting that these zones were preserved only because religion was in their soul...
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god
liberty
liberalism
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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6581ce0
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The sun which warms the plant can under other conditions also wither it. The rain which nourishes the flower can under other conditions rot it. The same sun shines upon mud that shines upon wax. It hardens the mud but softens the wax. The difference is not in the sun, but in that upon which it shines. The Divine Life which shines upon a soul that loves Him, softens it into everlasting life; that same Divine Life which shines upon the slothf..
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hate
love
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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0d6ef3b
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Remember that every science is based upon an abstraction. An abstraction is taking a point of view or looking at things under a certain aspect or from a particular angle. All sciences are differentiated by their abstraction.
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science
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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e21abbf
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In answer to modern requests for signs and wonders, Our Lord might say, 'You repeat Satan's temptation, whenever you admire the wonders of science, and forget that I am the Author of the Universe and its science. Your scientists are the proofreaders, but not the authors of the Book of Nature; they can see and examine My handiwork, but they cannot create one atom themselves. You would tempt Me to prove Myself omnipotent by meaningless tests...
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temptation
christianity
jesus
satan
miracles
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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d059e54
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Conversion can also occur among those who already have the faith. Christians will become real Christians, with less facade and more foundation. Catastrophe will divide them from the world, force them to declare their basic loyalties; it will revive shepherds who shepherd rather than administrate, reverse the proportion of saints and scholars in favor of saints, create more reapers for the harvest, more pillars of fire for the lukewarm; it w..
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suffering
hardship
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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620b06a
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Illness especially, may be a blessed forerunner of the individual's conversion. Not only does it prevent him from realizing his desires; it even reduces his capacity for sin, his opportunities for vice. In that enforced detachment from evil, which is a Mercy of God, he has time to search himself, to appraise his life, to interpret it in terms of larger reality. He considers God, and, at that moment, there is a sense of duality, a confrontin..
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illness
suffering
illness-and-hope
hardship
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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087b7fd
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Charity is to be measured, not by what one has given away, but by what one has left.
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self-sacrifice
giving
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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9fd6694
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as the mother knows the needs better than the babe, so the Blessed Mother understands our cries and worries and knows them better than we know ourselves.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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6887c8f
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How can one love self without being selfish? How can one love others without losing self? The answer is: By loving both self and neighbor in God. It is His Love that makes us love both self and neighbor rightly.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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659a464
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The man is interested in the sowing of wheat in the field; the woman in making the bread.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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ab727f0
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Judas became the spokesman of all those who through the centuries would protest the ornamentation of the Christian cult and would feel that, when the best of gold and jewels were given to the God Who made them, there was some slight made to the poor - not because they were interested in the poor, but because they were envious of that wealth.
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money
socialism
social-gospel
liberalism
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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d3c87a7
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What is discovered may be abused, but that does not mean the discovery was evil.
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evil
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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bae8dd9
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If we use our lives for other purposes than those given by God, not only do we miss happiness, but we actually hurt ourselves and beget in us queer little "kinks"."
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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a5ec19a
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Love is a vicarious principle. A mother suffers for and with her sick child, as a patriot suffers for his country. No wonder that the Son of Man visited this dark, sinful, wretched earth by becoming Man - Christ's unity with the sinful was due to His love! Love burdens itself with the wants and woes and losses and even the wrongs of others.
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love
the-cross
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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fcbde60
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Yet what moved Our Blessed Lord to invective was not badness but just such self-righteousness as this...He said that the harlots and the Quislings would enter the Kingdom of Heaven before the self-righteous and the smug. Concerning all those who endowed hospitals and libraries and public works, in order to have their names graven in stone before their fellow men, He said, "Amen I say to you, they have received their reward" (Matt. 6:2). The..
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self-righteousness
hypocrisy
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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46d0c26
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The greatest influence in writing was G. K. Chesterton who never used a useless word, who saw the value of a paradox, and avoided what was trite.
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writing
paradox
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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c4ad162
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Some religions draw by force of arms; He would draw by force of love. The attraction would not be His words, but Himself. It was His Person around which His teaching centered; not His teaching around which He would be remembered. 'Greater love than this no man hath' - that was the secret of His magnetism.
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jesus
religion
god
the-cross
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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edfb20e
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Love of God thus becomes the dominant passion of life; like every other worth-while love, it demands and inspires sacrifice. But love of God and man, as an ideal, has lately been replaced by the new ideal of tolerance which inspires no sacrifice. Why should any human being in the world be merely tolerated? What man has ever made a sacrifice in the name of tolerance? It leads men, instead, to express their own egotism in a book or a lecture ..
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tolerance
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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a5b2acf
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It is not easy to explain why God permits evil; but it is impossible for an atheist to explain the existence of goodness. How could a spiritless, soul-less, cross-less, Godless universe become the center of faith, purity, sacrifice, and martyrdom? How can decency be the decent thing if there is no God? Since God is love, why should we be surprised that want of it should end in pain, hate, broken hearts, and war?
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morality
goodness
god
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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79e8019
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Communism is an aggressive religion of the species.
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Fulton J. Sheen |
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e8bc05d
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Holiness must have a philosophical and theological foundation, namely, Divine truth; otherwise it is sentimentality and emotionalism. Many would say later on, 'We want religion, but no creeds.' This is like saying we want healing, but no science of medicine; music, but no rules of music; history, but no documents. Religion is indeed a life, but it grows out of truth, not away from it. It has been said it makes no difference what you believe..
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jesus
religion
truth
sanctification
holiness
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Fulton J. Sheen |