Category: Fulton Sheen

As Adam lost the heritage of union with God in a garden, our Blessed Lord ushered in its restoration in a garden. Eden and Gethsemane were the two gardens around with resolved the fate of humanity. In Eden, Adam sinned; in Gethsemane, Christ took humanity’s sin upon Himself. In Eden, Adam hid from God; Christ interceded with His Father; in Eden, God sought out Adam in his sin of rebellion; in Gethsemane, the New Adam sought out the Father and His submission and resignation. In Eden, a sword was drawn to prevent entrance into the garden and thus immortalize evil; in Gethsemane, the sword would be sheathed.

Each instinct and passion of man is amoral; it is only the abuse of these passions that makes them wrong. There is nothing wrong about hunger, but there is something wrong about gluttony; there is no sin in thirst, but there is a sin in drunkenness; there is nothing wrong with a man who seeks economic security, but there is something wrong with a man who is avaricious; there is nothing to be despised in knowledge, but there is something to be condemned in pride; there is nothing wrong with the flesh, but there is something wrong in the abuse of the flesh.

Imagine a large circle and in the center of it rays of light that spread out to the circumference. The light in the center is God, each of us is a ray. The closer the rays are to the center, the closer the rays one to one another. The closer we live to God, the closer we are bound to our neighbor; the farther we are from God, the farther we are from one another. The more each ray departs from its center, the weaker it becomes, and the closer it gets to the center, the stronger it becomes.

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 entirely 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.

The proud man counts his newspaper clippings, the humble, his blessings.

Eternity is, without succession, simultaneous possession of all joys. To those who live toward Eternity, it is not something at the end; it is that which influences every moment of the now.

Say to yourself over and over again regardless of what happens: “God loves me!” And then add “And I will try to love Him!”

In order to love anyone with your whole heart, in order to be really peaceful, in order to be really wholehearted, you must go back again in God to recover the piece He has been keeping for you from all eternity.

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.

God has given different gifts for 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.