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The Life Of Each And Every One Of Us Has Been Written. The Crucifix Is My Autobiography. The Blood Is The Ink. The Nails The Pen. The Skin The Parchment. On Every Line Of That Body I Can Trace My Life. In The Crown Of Thorns I Can Read My Pride. In The Hands That Are Dug With Nails, I Can Read Avarice And Greed. In The Flesh Hanging From Him Like Purple Rags, I Can Read My Lust. In Feet That Are Fettered, I Can Find The Times That I Ran Away And Would Not Let Him Follow. Any Sin That You Can Think Of Is Written There.

-Fulton J. Sheen

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The Life Of Each

Fulton J. Sheen

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The Life Of Each And Every One Of Us Has Been Written. The Crucifix Is My Autobiography. The Blood Is The Ink. The Nails The Pen. The Skin The Parchment. On Every Line Of That Body I Can Trace My Life. In The Crown Of Thorns I Can Read My Pride. In The Hands That Are Dug With Nails, I Can Read Avarice And Greed. In The Flesh Hanging From Him Like Purple Rags, I Can Read My Lust. In Feet That Are Fettered, I Can Find The Times That I Ran Away And Would Not Let Him Follow. Any Sin That You Can Think Of Is Written There.

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No One Has Ever Laughed At A Pun Who Did Not See In The One Word A Twofold Meaning. To Materialists This World Is Opaque Like A Curtain; Nothing Can Be Seen Through It. A Mountain Is Just A Mountain, A Sunset Just A Sunset; But To Poets, Artists, And Saints, The World Is Transparent Like A Window Pane - It Tells Of Something Beyond....a Mountain Tells Of The Power Of God, The Sunset Of His Beauty, And The Snowflake Of His Purity.

The Egocentric Is Always Frustrated, Simply Because The Condition Of Self-perfection Is Self-surrender. There Must Be A Willingness To Die To The Lower Part Of Self, Before There Can Be A Birth To The Nobler.

The Principle Of Democracy Is A Recognition Of The Sovereign, Inalienable Rights Of Man As A Gift From God, The Source Of Law.

At Cana, [mary] Gave Him As A Savior To Sinners; On The Cross He Gave Her As A Refuge To Sinners.

Never Forget That There Are Only Two Philosophies To Rule Your Life: The One Of The Cross, Which Starts With The Fast And Ends With The Feast. The Other Of Satan, Which Starts With The Feast And Ends With The Headache.

The Power Of The Rosary Is Beyond Description.

Praying The Rosary

It Was To A Virgin Woman That The Birth Of The Son Of God Was Announced. It Was To A Fallen Woman That His Resurrection Was Announced.

Hearing Is The Motion Of Molecules; Sound Is A Wave In The Atmosphere; Solidity Is The Characteristic Of Spatial Juxtaposition Of Atoms; Smell Is Something Given Off By A Body, Rather Than Something Belonging To A Body.

So The Divine Love Is Sacrificial Love. Love Does Not Mean To Have And To Own And To Possess. It Means To Be Had And To Be Owned And To Be Possessed. It Is Not A Circle Circumscribed By Self, It Is Arms Outstretched To Embrace All Humanity Within Its Grasp.

Your Unhappiness Is Not Due To Your Want Of A Fortune Or High Position Or Fame Or Sufficient Vitamins. It Is Due Not To A Want Of Something Outside Of You, But To A Want Of Something Inside You. You Were Made For Perfect Happiness. No Wonder Everything Short Of God Disappoints You.

Our Happiest Times Are Those In Which We Forget Ourselves, Usually In Being Kind To Someone Else. That Tiny Moment Of Self-abdication Is An Act Of True Humility: The Man Who Loses Himself Finds Himself And Finds His Happiness.

In Every Friendship Hearts Grow And Entwine Themselves Together, So That The Two Hearts Seem To Make Only One Heart With Only A Common Thought. That Is Why Separation Is So Painful; It Is Not So Much Two Hearts Separating, But One Being Torn Asunder.

If I Were Not A Catholic, And Were Looking For The True Church In The World Today, I Would Look For The One Church Which Did Not Get Along Well With The World; In Other Words, I Would Look For The Church Which The World Hated.

Love Burdens Itself With The Wants And Woes And Losses And Even The Wrongs Of Others.

The Mark Of The Christian Is The Willingness To Look For The Divine In The Flesh Of A Babe In A Crib, The Continuing Christ Under The Appearance Of Bread On An Altar, And A Meditation And A Prayer On A String Of Beads

Modern Man Has So Long Preached A Doctrine Of False Tolerance; He Has So Long Believed That Right And Wrong Were Only Differences In A Point Of View, That Now When Evil Works Itself Out In Practice He Is Paralyzed To Do Anything Against It.

Modern Prophets Say That Our Economics Have Failed Us. No! It Is Not Our Economics Which Have Failed; It Is Man Who Has Failed-man Who Has Forgotten God. Hence No Manner Of Economic Or Political Readjustment Can Possibly Save Our Civilization; We Can Be Saved Only By A Renovation Of The Inner Man, Only By A Purging Of Our Hearts And Souls; For Only By Seeking First The Kingdom Of God And His Justice Will All These Other Things Be Added Unto Us.

Freedom Is Not Just Something With Which We Are Born; It Is Something We Achieve. America Did Not Receive A Perpetual Endowment Of Freedom; It Has Had To Struggle And Fight To Preserve It. Freedom Is Not An Heirloom Or An Antique; It Is A Life That Must Fight Against The Corrosive Powers Of Death And Nourish Itself On The Daily Bread Of Goodness And Virtue.

Sex Divorced From Love, Instead Of Raising Man By Taking Him Away From Himself, Drags Him Down To The Hall Of Mirrors Where He Is Always Confronted With Self. Sex Does Not Care About The Person, But About The Act. The Fig Leaf Which Once Was Put Over The Secret Parts Of Man And Woman In Sculpture Is Now Put Over The Face. The Person Does Not Matter.

All Our Anxieties Relate To Time.

As A Man Must Be Born Before He Can Begin To Lead His Physical Life, So He Must Be Born To Lead A Divine Life. That Birth Occurs In The Sacrament Of Baptism. To Survive, He Must Be Nourished By Divine Life; That Is Done In The Sacrament Of The Holy Eucharist.

It's Impossible To Lose Your Footing When You're On Your Knees.

Unless Souls Are Saved, Nothing Is Saved; There Can Be No World Peace Without Soul Peace.

There Are No Planes In The Spiritual Life; We Are Either Going Uphill Or Coming Down.

Communism Is The Final Logic Of The Dehumanization Of Man.

The History Of Civilization Could Actually Be Written In Terms Of The Level Of Its Women.

Some Representatives Of Monopolistic Capitalism, Sensing This Evil In Their System, Have Tried To Silence Criticism By Pointing To The Diffused Ownership In The Great Corporations. They Advertise, "no One Owns More Than 4 Percent Of The Stock Of This Great Company." Or They Print Lists Of Stockholders, Showing That These Include Farmers, Schoolteachers, Baseball Players, Taxi Drivers, And Even Babies.

Every Man Rejoices Twice When He Has A Partner In His Joy. He Who Shares Tears With Us Wipes Them Away. He Divides Them In Two, And He Who Laughs With Us Makes The Joy Double.

A Teacher Who Cannot Explain Any Abstract Subject To A Child Does Not Himself Thoroughly Understand His Subject; If He Does Not Attempt To Break Down His Knowledge To Fit The Child's Mind, He Does Not Understand Teaching.

Men Work Harder And More Readily When They Labor On That Which Is Their Own.

All Love Craves Unity.

Sex Has Become One Of The Most Discussed Subjects Of Modern Times. The Victorians Pretended It Did Not Exist; The Moderns Pretend Nothing Else Exists.

Neither Theological Knowledge Nor Social Action Alone Is Enough To Keep Us In Love With Christ Unless Both Are Proceeded By A Personal Encounter With Him. Theological Insights Are Gained Not Only From Between Two Covers Of A Book, But From Two Bent Knees Before An Altar. The Holy Hour Becomes Like An Oxygen Tank To Revive The Breath Of The Holy Spirit In The Midst Of The Foul And Fetid Atmosphere Of The World

Atheism, Nine Times Out Of Ten, Is Born From The Womb Of A Bad Conscience. Disbelief Is Born Of Sin, Not Of Reason.

Nothing Is More Destined To Create Deep-seated Anxieties In People Than The False Assumption That Life Should Be Free From Anxieties.

Prayer Is Helplessness Casting Itself On Power, Infirmity Leaning On Strength, Misery Reaching To Mercy, And A Prisoner Clamoring For Relief.

Once You Have Surrendered Yourself, You Make Yourself Receptive. In Receiving From God, You Are Perfected And Completed.

Patience Is Power. Patience Is Not An Absence Of Action; Rather It Is "timing" It Waits On The Right Time To Act, For The Right Principles And In The Right Way.

The World Is Rapidly Being Divided Into Two Camps, The Comradeship Of Anti-christ And The Brotherhood Of Christ. The Lines Between These Two Are Being Drawn. How Long The Battle Will Be We Know Not Whether Swords Will Have To Be Unsheathed We Know Not Whether Blood Will Have To Be Shed We Know Not Whether It Will Be An Armed Conflict We Know Not. But In A Conflict Between Truth And Darkness, Truth Cannot Lose.

Democracy Cannot Survive Where There Is Such Uniformity That Everyone Wears Exactly The Same Intellectual Uniform Or Point Of View. Democracy Implies Diversity Of Outlook, A Variety Of Points Of View On Politics, Economics, And World Affairs. Hence The Educational Ideal Is Not Uniformity But Unity, For Unity Allows Diversity Of Points Of View Regarding The Good Means To A Good End.

When The Will Loves Anything That Is Below It In Dignity, It Degrades Itself.

Truth Must Be Sought At All Costs, But Separate Isolated Truths Will Not Do. Truth Is Like Life; It Has To Be Taken On Its Entirety Or Not At All. . . . We Must Welcome Truth Even If It Reproaches And Inconveniences Us -- Even If It Appears In The Place Where We Thought It Could Not Be Found.

There Are Three Ways In Which A Man Becomes A Slave. He May Be Born Into Slavery, Or Forced Into It, Or He Can Deliberately Accept His Servitude. All Three Forms Flourish In The Modern World. Men Are Born And Forced Into Slavery In Russia And Her Satellites States. Men In The Free World Invite Slavery When They Ask The Government To Provide Complete Security, When They Surrender Their Freedom To The "welfare State."

Man Is Incurably Curious.

It Is A Long Established Principle Of The Church Never To Completely Drop From Her Public Worship Any Ceremony, Object Or Prayer Which Once Occupied A Place In That Worship.

Facts Themselves Do Not Give Knowledge

Satan Always Tempts The Pure - The Others Are Already His.

So Long As There Are Poor, - I Am Poor, - So Long As There Are Prisons, - I Am A Prisoner, - So Long As There Are Sick, - I Am Weak, - So Long As There Is Ignorance, - I Must Learn The Truth, - So Long As There Is Hate, - I Must Love, - So Long As There Is Hunger, - I Am Famished. - Such Is The Identification Our Divine Lord Would Have Us Make With All Whom He Made In Love And For Love.

It Is Easy To Find Truth, Though It Is Hard To Face It, And Harder Still To Follow It.

The Pacifist Thinks That The Alternative To War Is Peace; It Is Not. Sometimes The Alternative Is Oppression. Sometimes Certain God-given Rights And Liberties Can Be Preserved Only By Resistance To That Which Would Destroy Them. And To Defend Certain Basic God-given Rights And Liberties Is Not Immoral But Righteous.

Why Are Those Who Are Notoriously Undisciplined And Unmoral Also Most Contemptuous Of Religion And Morality? They Are Trying To Solace Their Own Unhappy Lives By Pulling The Happy Down To Their Own Abysmal Depths.

There Are Not One Hundred People In The United States Who Hate The Catholic Church, But There Are Millions Who Hate What They Wrongly Perceive The Catholic Church To Be.

Each Of Us Makes His Own Weather, Determines The Color Of The Skies In The Emotional Universe Which He Inhabits.

The World Would Hate His Followers, Not Because Of Evil In Their Lives, But Precisely Because Of The Absence Of Evil Or Rather Their Goodness. Goodness Does Not Cause Hatred, But It Gives Occasion For Hatred To Manifest Itself. The Holier And Purer A Life, The More It Would Attract Malignity And Hate. Mediocrity Alone Survives.

Other People Are Like A Mirror Which Reflects Back On Us The Kind Of Image We Cast.

If There Is Continuity In The Universe, It Is Fitting That There Should Be Intelligent Beings Without Bodies Which Are Called Angels.

Communism Is The Final Logic Of The Dehumanization Of Man. The Industrial Civilization Of The Western World Has No Intent To Destroy Man's Freedom Or To Deny His Personality. But Communism Does. Denying God, It Reduces Man To A Robot.

When We Die To Something, Something Comes Alive Within Us. If We Die To Self, Charity Comes Alive; If We Die To Pride, Service Comes Alive; If We Die To Lust, Reverence For Personality Comes Alive; If We Die To Anger, Love Comes Alive.

I Feel It Is Time That I Also Pay Tribute To My Four Writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke And John.

You Must Remember To Love People And Use Things, Rather Than To Love Things And Use People.

A Reasonable Being Should Ask Himself Why - If Chemicals Can Enter Into Plants, And Plants Be Taken Up Into Animals, And Animals Be Taken Into Man - Why Man Himself, Who Is The Peak Of Visible Creation, Should Be Denied The Privilege Of Being Assimilated Into A Higher Power? The Rose Has No Right To Say That There Is No Life Above It And Neither Has Man, Who Has A Vast Capacity And Unconquerable Yearning For Eternal Life And Truth And Love.

Fasting Detaches You From This World. Prayer Reattaches You To The Next World.

The Only Time Laughter Is Wicked Is When It Is Turned Against Him Who Gave It.

One Function Of The Angels Is Illumination, And The Other Function Is That Of Being A Guardian.

No Man Hates God Without First Hating Himself.

Confiscation In Any Form Is An Unhealthy Solution For A Real Disease. It Amounts To Telling Men That Because They Are Economically Crippled, They Must Abandon All Efforts To Get Well And Allow The State To Provide Them With Free Wheelchairs.

Head Knowledge Is Worthless, Unless Accompanied By Submission Of The Will And Right Action.

The Rosary Is The Book Of The Blind.

There Is No Other Subject On Which The Average Mind Is So Much Confused As The Subject Of Tolerance And Intolerance... Tolerance Applies Only To Persons, But Never To Principles. Intolerance Applies Only To Principles, But Never To Persons.

If All Things In This Universe Exist, It Is Because They Participate In The Being Of God, If There Are Some Things With Life, It Is Because They Are Reflections Of The Life Of God; If There Are Beings Endowed With Intellect And Will - Like Men And Angels - It's Because They Are A Participation Of The Sovereign Intellect Which Is God.

Our Personal Dispositions Are As Windowpanes Through Which We See The World Either As Rosy Or Dull. The Way We Color The Glasses We Wear Is The Way The World Seems To Us.

The Mind Has Three Operations: The Formation Of Ideas, Judgements And Reasoning.

The Christmas Gift Of Peace Was The Uncoiling Of The Links Of A Triple Chain That First Unites A Person With God, Then With Himself, Then With His Neighbor.

The Western World Generally Has Lost The Concept Of Man As A Creature Made To The Image And Likeness Of God, And Reduced Him Either To A Component Part Of The Universe, To An Economic Animal Or To A "physiological Bag Filled With Psychological Libido." Once Man Became Materialized And Atomized In Western Thinking, It Was Only Natural For A Totalitarianism To Arise To Gather Up The Fragments Into A New Totality And Substitute The Collective Man For The Individual Man Who Was Isolated From All Social Responsibilities.

It Is Not Particularly Difficult To Find Thousands Who Will Spend Two Or Three Hours A Day In Exercising, But If You Ask Them To Bend Their Knees To God In Five Minutes Of Prayer They Protest That It Is Too Long.

Education Lays Hold Of What Is Best In A Person, But Character Lays Hold Of What Is Worse. It Takes Hold Of A Failing And By Very Skillful Manipulation And Training Turns It Into A Perfection.

Unless Souls Are Saved, Nothing Is Saved; There Can Be No World Peace Unless There Is Soul Peace. World Wars Are Only Projections Of The Conflicts Waged Inside The Souls Of Men And Women, For Nothing Happens In The External World That Has Not First Happened Within A Soul.

Never Measure Your Generosity By What You Give, But Rather By What You Have Left.

When A Child Is Given To His Parents, A Crown Is Made For That Child In Heaven, And Woe To The Parents Who Raise A Child Without Consciousness Of That Eternal Crown!

When A Man Loves A Woman, He Has To Become Worthy Of Her. The Higher Her Virtue, The More Noble Her Character, The More Devoted She Is To Truth, Justice, Goodness, The More A Man Has To Aspire To Be Worthy Of Her. The History Of Civilization Could Actually Be Written In Terms Of The Level Of Its Women.

One Becomes More Interested In A Job Of Work After The First Impulse To Drop It Has Been Overcome.

Show Me Your Hands. Do They Have Scars From Giving? Show Me Your Feet. Are They Wounded In Service? Show Me Your Heart. Have You Left A Place For Divine Love?

Do Mathematics Have A Relation To Reality Or Are They Only A Mathematical Symbol?

We Become Like That Which We Love. If We Love What Is Base, We Become Base; But If We Love What Is Noble, We Become Noble.

Live Each Day As You Would Climb A Mountain. An Occasional Glance Toward The Summit Keeps The Goal In Mind, But Many Beautiful Scenes Are To Be Observed From Each New Vantage Point. So Climb Slowly, Enjoying Each Passing Moment; And Then The View From The Summit Will Serve A More Rewarding Climax For Your Journey.

Any Book Which Inspires Us To Lead A Better Life Is A Good Book.

Books Are The Most Wonderful Friends In The World. When You Meet Them And Pick Them Up, They Are Always Ready To Give You A Few Ideas. When You Put Them Down, They Never Get Mad; When You Take Them Up Again, They Seem To Enrich You All The More.

A Catholic May Sin And Sin As Badly As Anyone Else, But No Genuine Catholic Ever Denies He Is A Sinner. A Catholic Wants His Sins Forgiven - Not Excused Or Sublimated.

If You Don't Behave As You Believe, You Will End By Believing As You Behave.

We Are All Born With The Power Of Speech, But We Need Grammar. Conscience, Too, Needs Revelation.

Love Is A Mutual Self-giving Which Ends In Self-recovery.

Freedom Does Not Mean That Right To Do Whatever We Please, But Rather To Do As We Ought. The Right To Do Whatever We Please Reduces Freedom To A Physical Power And Forgets That Freedom Is A Moral Power.

Our Lord Did Not Ask Us To Give Up The Things Of Earth, But To Exchange Them For Better Things.

To Love What Is Below The Human Is Degradation; To Love What Is Human For The Sake Of The Human Is Mediocrity; To Love The Human For The Sake Of The Divine Is Enriching; To Love The Divine For Its Own Sake Is Sanctity.

Love Was Meant To Be Also A Sign, A Symbol, A Messenger, A Telltale Of The Divine. Love Is A Messenger From God Saying That Every Human Affection And Every Ecstasy Of Love Are Sparks From The Great Flame Of Love That Is God.

Communism Is An Aggressive Religion Of The Species.

Because God Is Full Of Life, I Imagine Each Morning Almighty God Says To The Sun, "do It Again"; And Every Evening To The Moon And The Stars, "do It Again"; And Every Springtime To The Daisies, "do It Again"; And Every Time A Child Is Born Into The World Asking For Curtain Call, That The Heart Of The God Might Once More Ring Out In The Heart Of The Babe.

The World May Disagree With The Church, But The World Knows Very Definitely With What It Is Disagreeing. In The Future As In The Past, The Church Will Be Intolerant About The Sanctity Of Marriage, For What God Has Joined Together No Man Shall Put Asunder; She Will Be Intolerant About Her Creed, And Be Ready To Die For It, For She Fears Not Those Who Kill The Body, But Rather Those Who Have The Power To Cast Body And Soul Into Hell.

The Denial Of The Right Of Ownership To A Man Is A Denial Of His Basic Freedom: Freedom Without Property Is Always Incomplete. To Be "secured" - But With No Accompanying Responsibility - Is To Be The Slave Of Whatever Group Provides The Security.

Much Suffering In Hospitals Is Wasted.

Judge The Catholic Church Not By Those Who Barely Live By Its Spirit, But By The Example Of Those Who Live Closest To It.

Too Many People Get Credit For Being Good, When They Are Only Being Passive. They Are Too Often Praised For Being Broadminded When They Are So Broadminded They Can Never Make Up Their Minds About Anything.

America, It Is Said, Is Suffering From Intolerance - It Is Not. It Is Suffering From Tolerance. Tolerance Of Right And Wrong, Truth And Error, Virtue And Evil, Christ And Chaos. Our Country Is Not Nearly So Overrun With The Bigoted As It Is Overrun With The Broadminded.

Evil Is Thus A Kind Of Parasite On Goodness. If There Were No Good By Which To Measure Things, Evil Could Not Exist. Men Sometimes Forget This, And Say, There Is So Much Evil In The World That There Cannot Be A God. They Are Forgetting That, If There Were No God, They Would Have No Way Of Distinguishing Evil From Goodness. The Very Concept Of Evil Admits And Recognizes A Standard, A Whole, A Rule, An Order. Nobody Would Say That His Automobile Was Out Of Order If He Did Not Have A Conception Of How An Automobile Ought To Run.

The Rosary Is The Book Of The Blind, Where Souls See And There Enact The Greatest Drama Of Love The World Has Ever Known; It Is The Book Of The Simple, Which Initiates Them Into Mysteries And Knowledge More Satisfying Than The Education Of Other Men.

It Is The Basic Principle Of Marxism That Any Attempt To Reconcile Capital And Labor So That They Both Co-operate In Peace And Prosperity Is A Betrayal Of Communism.

God Does Not Love Us Because We Are Valuable. We Are Valuable Because God Loves Us.

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 I Will Give You Love; You Give Me Your Nothingness, And I Will Give You My All.

Our Generosity Is Measured Not By What We Give But By What We Keep.

There Are Ultimately Only Two Possible Adjustments To Life; One Is To Suit Our Lives To Principles; The Other Is To Suit Principles To Our Lives. If We Do Not Live As We Think, We Soon Begin To Think As We Live. The Method Of Adjusting Moral Principles To The Way Men Live Is Just A Perversion Of The Order Of Things.

The Reason We're Bored Is Because We Don't Love Anything.

We Can Think Of Lent As A Time To Eradicate Evil Or Cultivate Virtue, A Time To Pull Up Weeds Or To Plant Good Seeds. Which Is Better Is Clear, For The Christian Ideal Is Always Positive Rather Than Negative.

For A Woman, Love Is Its Own Reason. "i Love You Because I Love You.

If You Do Not Live Out Your Faith Enthusiastically, Maybe You Don't Have Any Faith.

When We Try To Make Everything Clear, We Make Everything Confused. If, However, We Admit One Mysterious Thing In The Universe, Then Everything Else Becomes Clear In The Light Of That. The Sun Is So Bright, So Mysterious, That One Cannot Look At It, And Yet In The Light Of The Sun Everything Else Is Seen.

Buddha Wrote A Code Which He Said Would Be Useful To Guide Men In Darkness, But He Never Claimed To Be The Light Of The World. Buddhism Was Born With A Disgust For The World, When A Prince's Son Deserted His Wife And Child, Turning From The Pleasures Of Existence To The Problems Of Existence. Burnt By The Fires Of The World, And Already Weary With It, Buddha Turned To Ethics.

Advertising Tries To Stimulate Our Sensuous Desires, Converting Luxuries Into Necessities, But It Only Intensifies Man's Inner Misery. The Business World Is Bent On Creating Hungers Which Its Wares Never Satisfy, And Thus It Adds To The Frustrations And Broken Minds Of Our Times.

The Danger Today Is In Believing There Are No Sick People, There Is Only A Sick Society.

A Man Without God Is Not Like A Cake Without Raisins; He Is Like A Cake Without The Flour And Milk; He Lacks The Essential Ingredients.

If You Do Not Live What You Believe, You Will End Up Believing What You Live.

Too Many People Get Credit For Being Good, When They Are Only Being Passive.

The Refusal To Take Sides On Great Moral Issues Is Itself A Decision. It Is A Silent Acquiescence To Evil. The Tragedy Of Our Time Is That Those Who Still Believe In Honesty Lack Fire And Conviction, While Those Who Believe In Dishonesty Are Full Of Passionate Conviction.

God Has Given Different Gifts To Different People. There Is No Basis For Feeling Inferior To Another Who Has A Different Gift. Once It Is Realized That We Shall Be Judged By The Gift We Have Received, Rather Than The Gift We Have Not, One Is Completely Delivered From A False Sense Of Inferiority.

Most Of Us Love A Non-self, Or Something Extrinsic And Apart From Our Inner Life; But A Mother's Love During The Time She Is A Flesh-and-blood Ciborium Is Not For A Non-self But For One That Is Her Very Self, A Perfect Example Of Charity And Love Which Hardly Perceives A Separation. Motherhood Then Becomes A Kind Of Priesthood. She Brings God To Man By Preparing The Flesh In Which The Soul Will Be Implanted; She Brings Man To God In Offering The Child Back Again To The Creator.

Far Better It Is For You To Say: "i Am A Sinner," Than To Say: "i Have No Need Of Religion." The Empty Can Be Filled, But The Self-intoxicated Have No Room For God.

The Proud Man Counts His Newspaper Clippings, The Humble Man His Blessings.

The Simple Shepherds Heard The Voice Of An Angel And Found Their Lamb; The Wise Men Saw The Light Of A Star And Found Their Wisdom.

It Is A Characteristic Of Any Decaying Civilization That The Great Masses Of The People Are Unconscious Of The Tragedy. Humanity In A Crisis Is Generally Insensitive To The Gravity Of The Times In Which It Lives. Men Do Not Want To Believe Their Own Times Are Wicked, Partly Because It Involves Too Much Self-accusation And Principally Because They Have No Standards Outside Of Themselves By Which To Measure Their Times.

Let Those Who Think That The Church Pays Too Much Attention To Mary Give Heed To The Fact That Our Blessed Lord Himself Gave Ten Times As Much Of His Life To Her As He Gave To His Apostles.

The Modern Man, Finding That Humanism And Sex Both Fail To Satisfy, Seeks His Happiness In Science ... But Science Fails Too, For It Is Something More Than A Knowledge Of Matter The Soul Craves.

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.

Souls Generally Do Not Fall Away From Christ Because Of The Creed; They First Have Difficulty With The Commandments.

Faced With Such Insecurity, Labor Unions Seek A Solution In Demands For Higher Wages, Shorter Hours, Pensions, And Such Things. But This Approach Takes Monopolistic Capitalism For Granted, And Accepts The Unnatural Division Between Property And Responsibility As Permanent. A Much More Radical Solution Is Apt To Come, And This May Take Either Of Two Forms.

To Value Only What Can Be "sold" Is To Defile What Is Truly Precious. The Innocent Joy Of Childhood, The Devotedness Of A Wife, The Self Sacrificing Service Of A Daughter--none Of These Have An Earthly Market. To Reduce Everything To The Dirty Scales Of Economic Values Is To Forget That Some Gifts, Like Mary's, Are So Precious That The Heart That Offers Them Will Be Praised As Long As Time Endures.

Scepticism Is Never Certain Of Itself, Being Less A Firm Intellectual Position Than A Pose To Justify Bad Behavior.

There Are 200 Million Poor In The World Who Would Gladly Take The Vow Of Poverty If They Could Eat, Dress And Have A Home Like I Do

To Create The World Cost God Nothing; To Save It From Sin Cost His Life Blood.

Life Is Like A Cash Register, In That Every Account, Every Thought, Every Deed, Like Every Sale, Is Registered And Recorded.

A Woman Gets Angry When A Man Denies His Faults, Because She Knew Them All Along. His Lying Mocks Her Affection; It Is The Deceit That Angers Her More Than The Faults.

One Of The Greatest Disasters That Happened To Modern Civilization Was For Democracy To Inscribe "liberty" On Its Banners Instead Of "justice." Because "liberty" Was Considered The Ideal It Was Not Long Until Some Men Interpreted It As Meaning "freedom From Justice"; Then When Religion And Decent Government Attempted To Bring Them Back To Justice, Organized Into "freedom Groups" They Protested That Their Constitutional And Natural Rights Were Being Violated.

Joy Is Not The Same As Pleasure Or Happiness. A Wicked And Evil Man May Have Pleasure, While Any Ordinary Mortal Is Capable Of Being Happy. Pleasure Generally Comes From Things, And Always Through The Senses; Happiness Comes From Humans Through Fellowship. Joy Comes From Loving God And Neighbor. Pleasure Is Quick And Violent, Like A Flash Of Lightning. Joy Is Steady And Abiding, Like A Fixed Star. Pleasure Depends On External Circumstances, Such As Money, Food, Travel, Etc. Joy Is Independent Of Them, For It Comes From A Good Conscience And Love Of God.

Many Married Women Who Have Deliberately Spurned The "hour" Of Childbearing Are Unhappy And Frustrated. They Never Discovered The Joys Of Marriage Because They Refused To Surrender To The Obligation Of Their State. In Saving Themselves, They Lost Themselves!

We Can Think Of Lent As A Time To Eradicate Evil Or Cultivate Virtue, A Time To Pull Up Weeds Or To Plant Good Seeds. Which Is Better Is Clear, For The Christian Ideal Is Always Positive Rather Than Negative. A Person Is Great Not By The Ferocity Of His Hatred Of Evil, But By The Intensity Of His Love For God. Asceticism And Mortification Are Not The Ends Of A Christian Life; They Are Only The Means. The End Is Charity. Penance Merely Makes An Opening In Our Ego In Which The Light Of God Can Pour. As We Deflate Ourselves, God Fills Us. And It Is God’s Arrival That Is The Important Event.

Love Is The Key To The Mystery. Love By Its Very Nature Is Not Selfish, But Generous. It Seeks Not Its Own, But The Good Of Others. The Measure Of Love Is Not The Pleasure It Gives-that Is The Way The World Judges It-but The Joy And Peace It Can Purchase For Others.

The Forgiveness Of God Is One Thing, But The Proof That We Want That Forgiveness Is The Energy We Expend To Make Amends For The Wrong.

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.

The Higher The Love, The More Demands Will Be Made On Us To Conform To That Ideal.

If You Wish To Convert Anyone To The Fullness Of The Knowledge Of Our Lord And Of His Mystical Body, Then Teach Him The Rosary. One Of Two Things Will Happen. Either He Will Stop Saying The Rosary - Or He Will Get The Gift Of Faith.

I Wonder Maybe If Our Lord Does Not Suffer More From Our Indifference, Than He Did From The Crucifixion.

Most Of Us Do Not Like To Look Inside Ourselves For The Same Reason We Don't Like To Open A Letter That Has Bad News.

The Rosary Is The Best Therapy For These Distraught, Unhappy, Fearful, And Frustrated Souls, Precisely Because It Involves The Simultaneous Use Of Three Powers: The Physical, The Vocal, And The Spiritual, And In That Order.

Never Will We Be Able To Understand Our Times If We Naively 'think' Of This System Of Self Government As The Work Of A Few Gangsters Or The Creation Of A Pack Of Criminals We Call A Political Party. The Appeal Of Socialism, Fascism And Communism Was Principally Negative; They Were Protests Against A Live And Let Live Anything Goes Liberalism, A Spineless Indifference To Causes, A Failure To Recognize That Nothing Was Evil Enough To Hate, And Nothing Was Good Enough To Die For.

Evil May Have Its Hour, But God Will Have His Day.

Modern Minds No Longer Object To The Church Because Of The Way They Think, But Because Of The Way They Live. They No Longer Have Difficulties With The Creed, But With Her Commandments. The Heresy Of Our Day Is Not The Heresy Of Thought, But Of Action.

Temptation Is Not A Sin But Playing With Temptation Invites Sin.

All Worry Is Atheism, Because It Is A Want Of Trust In God.

Nothing Can Do Men Of Good Will More Harm Than Apparent Compromises With Parties That Subscribe To Antimoral And Antidemocratic And Anti-god Forces. We Must Have The Courage To Detach Our Support From Men Who Are Doing Evil. We Must Bear Them No Hatred, But We Must Break With Them.

All Badness Is Spoiled Goodness. A Bad Apple Is A Good Apple That Became Rotten. Because Evil Has No Capital Of Its Own, It Is A Parasite That Feeds On Goodness.

If A Man Surrenders All Power Of Self-determination In Regard To The Profits, Management Or Ownership Of The Place Where He Works, He Not Only Loses That Special Prerogative Which Marks Him Off From A Cow In A Pasture, But What Is Worse, He Loses All Capacity For Determining Any Work. This Is The Beginning Of A Slavery Which Sometimes Goes By The Name Of Security.

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.

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.

Joy Is The Happiness Of Love - Love Aware Of Its Own Inner Happiness. Pleasure Comes From Without, And Joy Comes From Within, And It Is, Therefore, Within Reach Of Everyone In The World.

Believe The Incredible And You Can Do The Impossible.

The Only Way To Win Audiences Is To Tell People About The Life And Death Of Christ. Every Other Approach Is A Waste.

Ever Since The Days Of Adam, Man Has Been Hiding From God And Saying, 'god Is Hard To Find.

Christian Inspirational

Civilization Is Always In Danger When Those Who Have Never Learned To Obey Are Given The Right To Command.

Moral Principles Do Not Depend On A Majority Vote. Wrong Is Wrong, Even If Everybody Is Wrong. Right Is Right, Even If Nobody Is Right.

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.

By The Mere Fact That We Do Not Go Forward, We Go Backward.

There Is A Tendency Among Many Shallow Thinkers Of Our Day To Teach That Every Human Act Is A Reflex, Over Which We Do Not Exercise Human Control. They Would Rate A Generous Deed As No More Praiseworthy Than A Wink, A Crime As No More Voluntary Than A Sneeze. . . Such A Philosophy Undercuts All Human Dignity. . . All Of Us Have The Power Of Choice In Action At Every Moment Of Our Lives.

All My Sermons Are Prepared In The Presence Of The Blessed Sacrament. As Recreation Is Most Pleasant And Profitable In The Sun, So Homiletic Creativity Is Best Nourished Before The Eucharist. The Most Brilliant Ideas Come From Meeting God Face To Face. The Holy Spirit That Presided At The Incarnation Is The Best Atmosphere For Illumination. Pope John Paul Ii Keeps A Small Desk Or Writing Pad Near Him Whenever He Is In The Presence Of The Blessed Sacrament; And I Have Done This All My Life - I Am Sure For The Same Reason He Does, Because A Lover Always Works Better When The Beloved Is With Him.

Leisure Is A Form Of Silence, Not Noiselessness. It Is The Silence Of Contemplation Such As Occurs When We Let Our Minds Rest On A Rosebud, A Child At Play, A Divine Mystery, Or A Waterfall.

Many Souls Fail To Find God Because They Want A Religion Which Will Remake Society Without Remaking Themselves.

The Workmen In A Factory May Have A Shadowy, Unknown Absentee "employer" - The Thousands Of Individual Owners Of Stock - Whom "management" Represents And Tries To Please By Extra Dividends. The Workman's Livelihood Is At The Disposition Of Strangers Who Make A Single Demand Of Their Representatives: Higher Profits.

Possession Properly Has Two Faces, Two Aspects: We All Have A Right To Private Property, But This Is Accompanied By Our Responsibility For Its Righteous Use. These Two Things (which Should Be Inseparable) Are Frequently Divided Today. Everyone Admits That The Farmer Who Own A Horse Is Obligated To Feed And Care For It, But In The Case Of Stocks And Bonds, We Often Forget That The Same Principle Should Prevail.

Each And Every One Of Us, At The End Of The Journey Of Life, Will Come Face To Face With Either One Or The Other Of Two Faces... And One Of Them, Either The Merciful Face Of Christ Or The Miserable Face Of Satan, Will Say, "mine, Mine." May We Be Christ's!

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.

But There Was No Room At The Inn"; The Inn Is The Gathering Place Of Public Opinion; So Often Public Opinion Locks Its Doors To The King.

Pride Is The King Of Vices...it Is The First Of The Pallbearers Of The Soul...other Vices Destroy Only Their Opposite Virtues, As Wantonness Destroys Chastity; Greed Destroys Temperance; Anger Destroys Gentleness; But Pride Destroys All Virtues.

Counsel Involving Right And Wrong Should Never Be Sought From A Man Who Does Not Say His Prayers.

Knowing Belongs To Man's Intellect Or Reason; Loving Belongs To His Will. The Object Of The Intellect Is Truth; The Object Of The Will Is Goodness Or Love.

Before The Sin, Satan Assures Us That It Is Of No Consequence; After The Sin, He Persuades Us That It Is Unforgivable.

Once A Man Ceases To Be Of Service To His Neighbor, He Begins To Be A Burden To Him.

How Could Science Be An Enemy Of Religion When God Commanded Man To Be A Scientist The Day He Told Him To Rule The Earth And Subject It?

A Smile Across The Aisle Of A Bus In The Morning Could Save A Suicide Later In The Day.

Help Someone In Distress And You Lighten Your Own Burden; The Very Joy Of Alleviating The Sorrow Of Another Is The Lessening Of One's Own.

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. And As Religion Fades So Will Freedom, For Only Where The Spirit Of God Is, Is There Liberty.

If You Do Not Worship God, You Worship Something, And Nine Times Out Of Ten It Will Be Yourself.

Each Of Us Comes Into Life With Fists Closed, Set For Aggressiveness And Acquisition. But When We Abandon Life Our Hands Are Open; There Is Nothing On Earth That We Need, Nothing The Soul Can Take With It.

The Very Freedom Which The Sinner Supposedly Exercises In His Self-indulgence Is Only Another Proof That He Is Ruled By The Tyrant.

Monopolistic Capitalism Is To Blame For This; It Sunders The Right To Own Property From Responsibility That Owning Property Involves. Those Who Own Only A Few Stocks Have No Practical Control Of Any Industry. They Vote By Postcard Proxy, But They Have Rarely Even Seen "their" Company. The Two Elements Which Ought To Be Inextricably Joined In Any True Conception Of Private Property - Ownership And Responsibility - Are Separated. Those Who Own Do Not Manage; Those Who Manage; Those Who Manage And Work Do Not Control Or Own.

Nature Gives Man Corn But He Must Grind It; God Gives Man A Will But He Must Make The Right Choices.

The Way Not To Lead A Monotonous Life Is To Live For Others.

Monotonous Life

Live For Others

The Basic Struggle Today Is Not Between Individualism And Collectivism, Free Enterprise And Socialism, Democracy And Dictatorship. These Are Only The Superficial Manifestations Of A Deeper Struggle Which Is Moral And Spiritual And Involves Above All Else Whether Man Shall Exist For The State, Or The State For Man, And Whether Freedom Is Of The Spirit Or A Concession Of A Materialized Society.

Lenten Practices Of Giving Up Pleasures Are Good Reminders That The Purpose Of Life Is Not Pleasure. The Purpose Of Life Is To Attain To Perfect Life, All Truth And Undying Ecstatic Love - Which Is The Definition Of God. In Pursuing That Goal We Find Happiness. Pleasure Is Not The Purpose Of Anything; Pleasure Is A By-product Resulting From Doing Something That Is Good. One Of The Best Ways To Get Happiness And Pleasure Out Of Life Is To Ask Ourselves, 'how Can I Please God?' And, 'why Am I Not Better?' It Is The Pleasure-seeker Who Is Bored, For All Pleasures Diminish With Repetition.

The Industrial And Social Injustice Of Our Era Is The Tragic Aftermath Of Democracy's Overemphasis On Freedom As The "right To Do Whatever You Please." No, Freedom Means The Right To Do What You Ought, And Ought Implies Law, And Law Implies Justice, And Justice Implies God. So Too In War, A Nation That Fights For Freedom Divorced From Justice Has No Right To War, Because It Does Not Know Why It Wants To Be Free, Or Why It Wants Anyone Else To Be Free.

When The Record Of Any Human Life Is Set Down, There Are Three Pairs Of Eyes Who See It In A Different Light. There Is The Life As I See It. As Others See It, And As God Sees It.

There Is Only One Thin In The World That Is Really Our Own-and That Is Our Will...our Will Is Ours For All Eternity. That Is Why The Most Precious Gift That One Can Give Is Another In His Will.

Most Commit The Same Mistake With God That They Do With Their Friends: They Do All The Talking.

You Have A Chance To Move In Far Better Society Than The Joneses. Why Worry About Keeping Up With The Joneses? Keep Up With The Angels And You'll Be Far Wiser And Happier.

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