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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.

-Fulton J. Sheen

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Fulton J. Sheen

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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.

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

To See A Priest Making His Meditation Before Mass Does More For An Altar Boy's Vocation Than A Thousand Pieces Of Inspirational Literature.

Communism Is An Aggressive Religion Of The Species.

There Is No Word More "dangerous" Than Liberalism, Because To Oppose It Is The New "unforgivable Sin."

Unforgivable Sin

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Burning The Candle At Both Ends For God's Sake May Be Foolishness To The World, But It Is A Profitable Christian Exercise-for So Much Better The Light. Only One Thing In Life Matters. Being Found Worthy Of The Light Of The World In The Hour Of His Visitation. We Need Have No Undue Fear For Our Health If We Work Hard For The Kingdom Of God; God Will Take Care Of Our Health If We Take Care Of His Cause. In Any Case It Is Better To Burn Out Than To Rust Out.

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

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.

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

Sin Is A Disproportionate Seriousness.

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.

...discussion Is Also A Most Excellent Means To Avoid -decision-

The Soviet Union Is Like The Cross Without Christ, While American Culture Is Like Christ Without The Cross.

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!

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.

Man Wants Three Things; Life, Knowledge, And Love.

There Is More Grace Per Square Foot In San Francisco Than Any Place On Earth.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Pride Is An Admission Of Weakness; It Secretly Fears All Competition And Dreads All Rivals.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

If The Bringing Of Children Into The World Is Today An Economic Burden, It Is Because The Social System Is Inadequate; And Not Because God’s Law Is Wrong. Therefore The State Should Remove The Causes Of That Burden. The Human Must Not Be Limited And Controlled To Fit The Economic, But The Economic Must Be Expanded To Fit The Human.

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

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

Unless There Is A Good Friday In Your Life, There Can Be No Easter Sunday.

The Greatest Love Story Of All Time Is Contained In A Tiny White Host.

Much Suffering In Hospitals Is Wasted.

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

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 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.

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.

Why Is It That Any Time We Speak Of Temptation We Always Speak Of Temptation As Something That Inclines Us To Wrong. We Have More Temptations To Become Good Than We Do To Become Bad.

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

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

Christian Inspirational

A Democracy Flirts With The Danger Of Becoming A Slave In Direct Ratio To The Numbers Of Its Citizens Who Work, But Do Not Own / Or Who Own, But Do Not Work; Or Who Distribute, As Politicians Do, But Do Not Produce. The Danger Of The "slave State" Disappears In Ratio To The Numbers Of People Who Own Property And Admit Its Attendant Responsibilities Under God. They Can Call Their Souls Their Own Because They Own And Administer Something Other Than Their Souls. Thus They Are Free.

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

When I Stand Up To Talk, People Listen To Me; They Will Follow What I Have To Say. Is It Any Power Of Mine? Of Course Not. St. Paul Says, 'what Have You That You Have Not Received And You Who Have Received, Why Do You Glory As If You Had Not?' But The Secret Of My Power Is That I Have Never In Fifty-five Years Missed Spending An Hour In The Presence Of Our Lord In The Blessed Sacrament. That's Where The Power Comes From. That's Where Sermons Are Born. That's Where Every Good Thought Is Conceived.

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.

It Takes Three To Make Love, Not Two: You, Your Spouse, And God. Without God People Only Succeed In Bringing Out The Worst In One Another. Lovers Who Have Nothing Else To Do But Love Each Other Soon Find There Is Nothing Else. Without A Central Loyalty Life Is Unfinished.

All Our Anxieties Relate To Time.

Obedience To Truth Is Obedience To Love.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Prayer Begins By Talking To God, But It Ends By Listening To Him. In The Face Of Absolute Truth, Silence Is The Soul's Language.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Man Is Incurably Curious.

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.

Not Only Were The Jews Expecting The Birth Of A Great King, A Wise Man And A Saviour, But Plato And Socrates Also Spoke Of The Logos And Of The Universal Wise Man 'yet To Come'. Confucius Spoke Of 'the Saint'; The Sibyls, Of A 'universal King'; The Greek Dramatist, Of A Saviour And Redeemer To Unloose Man From The 'primal Eldest Curse'. All These Were On The Gentile Side Of The Expectation. What Separates Christ From All Men Is That First He Was Expected; Even The Gentiles Had A Longing For A Deliverer, Or Redeemer. This Fact Alone Distinguishes Him From All Other Religious Leaders.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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

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

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.

Science Is Not Wisdom.

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

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.

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.

Charity Is To Be Measured, Not By What One Has Given Away, But By What One Has Left.

If We Had Intellectual Vigour Enough To Ascend From Effects To Causes, We Would Explain Political, Economical And Social Phenomena Less By Credit Sheets, Balance Of Trade And Reparations Than By Our Attitude Towards God.

The World Is Living Today In What Might Be Described As An Era Of Carnality, Which Glorifies Sex, Hates Restraint, Identifies Purity With Coldness, Innocence With Ignorance, And Turns Men And Women Into Buddhas With Their Eyes Closed, Hands Folded Across Their Breasts, Intently Looking Inward, Thinking Only Of Self.

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.

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.

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.

His Words Even Imply That Philanthropy Has Deeper Depths Than Is Generally Realized. The Great Emotions Of Compassion And Mercy Are Traced To Him; There Is More To Human Deeds Than The Doers Are Aware. He Identified Every Act Of Kindness As An Expression Of Sympathy With Himself. All Kindnesses Are Either Done Explicitly Or Implicitly In His Name, Or They Are Refused Explicitly Or Implicitly In His Name.

No Man Hates God Without First Hating Himself.

Humility Is Dependence On God As Pride Is Independence Of Him. The Humble Soul Is Always The Thankful Soul.

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.

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?

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 Trials Of Marriage Is The Absence Of Solitude. In The First Moments Of Human Love, One Does Not See The Little Hidden Deformities Which Later On Appear.

In Vocal Prayer We Go To God On Foot. In Meditation We Go To God On Horseback. In Contemplation We Go To God In A Jet.

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.

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.

As Long As The Decent People Refuse To Believe That Morality Must Manifest Itself In Every Sphere Of Human Activity, Including The Political, They Will Not Meet The Challenge Of Marxism.

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 Old Liberal Rebelled Against Taxation Without Responsibility, The New Liberal Wants The Taxation As A Handout Without Responsibility.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Whenever Man Attempts To Do What He Knows To Be The Master's Will, A Power Will Be Given Him Equal To The Duty.

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

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.

The Rosary Is The Book Of The Blind.

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.

Satan Stations More Devils On Monastery Walls Than In The Dens Of Iniquity, For The Latter Offer No Resistance.

When Our Conscience Bothers Us, Whether We Admit It Or Not, We Often Try To Justify It By Correcting Others, Or By Finding Fault With Them. The Readiness To Believe Evil About Others Is In Large Part Ammunition For A Thousand Scandals In Our Own Hearts.

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.

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

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.

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.

The Science Of A Religious Man Must Be Scientific; The Religion Of A Scientific Man Must Be Religious.

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?

Sometimes The Only Way The Good Lord Can Get Into Some Hearts Is To Break Them.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Today (1950), The Hatred Of The Moslem Countries Against The West Is Becoming Hatred Against Christianity Itself. Although The Statesmen Have Not Yet Taken It Into Account, There Is Still Grave Danger That The Temporal Power Of Islam May Return And, With It, The Menace That It May Shake Off A West Which Has Ceased To Be Christian, And Affirm Itself As A Great Anti-christian World Power.

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

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

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.

Everything That Is Full Of Life Loves Change, For The Characteristic Of Life Is Movement Toward A New Goal And Urges Toward New Pleasures

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

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.

If You Do Not Worship God, You Worship Something, And Nine Times Out Of Ten It Will Be Yourself. You Have A Duty To Worship God, Not Because He Will Be Imperfect And Unhappy If You Do Not, But Because You Will Be Imperfect And Unhappy.

No Man Discovers Anything Big If He Does Not Make Himself Small.

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.

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.

Facts Themselves Do Not Give Knowledge

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!

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.

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

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.

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

By A Beautiful Paradox Of Divine Love, God Makes His Cross The Very Means Of Our Salvation And Our Life. We Have Slain Him; We Have Nailed Him There And Crucified Him; But The Love In His Eternal Heart Could Not Be Extinguished. He Willed To Give Us The Very Life We Slew; To Give Us The Very Food We Destroyed; To Nourish Us With The Very Bread We Buried, And The Very Blood We Poured Forth. He Made Our Very Crime Into A Happy Fault; He Turned A Crucifixion Into A Redemption; A Consecration Into A Communion; A Death Into Life Everlasting

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.

God Could Not Keep, As It Were, The Secret Of His Love, And The Telling Of It Was Creation.

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

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

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.

Tolerance Is An Attitude Of Reasoned Patience Toward Evil... A Forbearance That Restrains Us From Showing Anger Or Inflicting Punishment. Tolerance Applies Only To Persons... Never To Truth.

A Woman Never Tells You Why She Loves; She Just Tells You How She Loves.

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.

A Man May Stand For The Justice Of God, But A Woman Stands For His Mercy.

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.

Freedom That Ignores The Transcendent Difference Between Good And Evil Ends In The Denial Of Freedom Itself.

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.

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

Believe The Incredible And You Can Do The Impossible.

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

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.

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

Every Moment Comes To You Pregnant With Divine Purpose . . . . Once It Leaves Your Hands And Your Power To Do With It As You Please, It Plunges Into Eternity, To Remain Forever What You Made It.

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

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

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.

Calamity, War, Famine, Plague, Death, Adversity, Disease, Injury Do Not Necessarily Produce Repentance. We May Become Better In A Calamity But It Does Not Necessarily Make Us Repent. The Essence Of Repentance Is That We Cannot Be Repentant Until We Confront Our Own Self Righteousness With God's Righteousness.

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

Broadmindedness, When It Means Indifference To Right And Wrong, Eventually Ends In A Hatred Of What Is Right.

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.

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

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.

The Power Of The Rosary Is Beyond Description.

Praying The Rosary

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.

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!

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

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.

Hearing Nuns' Confessions Is Like Being Stoned To Death With Popcorn.

There Are Angels Near You To Guide You And Protect You, If You Would But Invoke Them. It Is Not Later Than We Think, It Is A Bigger World Than We Think.

There Are Two Ways Of Waking Up In The Morning. One Is To Say, 'good Morning, God,' And The Other Is To Say, 'good God, Morning'!

Morning Inspirational

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Martina Navratilova

Friedrich Nietzsche

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