Monday, February 07, 2022

The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen

 

 

I really didn't know anything about Ven. Fulton Sheen before I picked up The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen  other than he was on TV many years ago. In the introduction, Matthew Kelly explains that this archbishop "knew that Jesus' model of reaching people was to go to the people." He offered "inspiring and practical messages" with his key message being "life is worth living!" He also helped people feel proud to be Catholic.

With the exception of the introduction, this is a book of quotes (one for each day). Some are short, some are long, but I found myself pondering many of them. It is clear Ven. Fulton Sheen had a prophetic spirit about our world. Here are a few quotes that especially spoke to me:

 

To value only what can be “sold” is to defile what is truly precious. . . To reduce everything to the dirty scales of economic value 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.

 

The kind person bears with the infirmities of others, never magnifies trifles, and avoids a spirit of fault finding.

 

Humility is a virtue by which we recognize ourselves as we really are, not as we would like to be in the eyes of the public; not as our press releases say we are, but as we are in the sight of God when we examine our conscience.

 

Faith teaches that all men, however poor, or ignorant, or crippled, however maimed, ugly, or degraded they may be, all bear within themselves the image of God, and have been bought by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. As this truth is forgotten, men are valued only because of what they can do, not because of what they are.

 

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