Bishop Fulton Sheen
Communism and the Conscience of the West
For decades, this book has been recognized as the finest book ever written by a Catholic on the subject of communism. Dedicated to Our Lady in prayerful hope for the conversion of Russia, this is one of Fulton Sheen's most forgotten yet most important books. In Communism and the Conscience of the West, Sheen explains the problems with society stemming from socialism and communism, which continue to infect universities and political discourse today. This timeless book exposes communism's defects, its attitude toward the family, the decline of historical liberalism, and the rise of the antireligious spirit that pervades our world.
Readers will be impressed as Sheen diagnoses the issues facing our once peaceful cities, with history being put on trial, scrubbed, rewritten, and explained in terms of class hate. While communism destroys human freedom, Sheen illustrates how man is free as a result of two guarantees: one economic and the other spiritual. The economic enables man to call something his own which is outside of himself. The spiritual is the soul, which makes man independent of an earthly tyrant or a political dictator. In short, man's soul is his own on the inside, as his property is his own on the outside.
Sheen carefully illustrates how even though we are living at a time when man has all the material conditions necessary for his happiness, "having lost the purpose of life which religion supplied, modern man became increasingly frustrated as his disappointed hedonism turned to pessimism. Thus man, who isolated himself from the religious community, now by reaction finds himself absorbed by the political community as despair becomes the dominant note of contemporary philosophy and literature." For anyone seeking to understand one of the greatest threats to the Faith and our world, Communism and the Conscience of the West will be your guide.
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Cries of Jesus from the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology
Follow the Lenten Reading Schedule HERE.
As death approaches, the human heart speaks its greatest words of love to those it holds most dear. So it was with Jesus who in His final hours gave us seven last "words," rich with spiritual meaning for every human soul.
For the first time ever, Archbishop Fulton Sheen's complete writings and reflections on Christ's last words have been compiled into this one book. Sheen shows how the seven words are, in fact, a full catechism on the spiritual life. From them, you'll learn the secrets to living the Beatitudes, ways to avoid the deadly vices of anger, envy, lust, and pride, and how to cultivate the heavenly virtues of fortitude, prudence, justice, and charity.
Few books are such an inspiring call to sanctity, and few books are such a spiritual powerhouse. With Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen as your guide, you'll also learn:
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Cross and the Beatitudes: Lessons of Love and Forgiveness
This classic work from the pen of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen brings together Christ's Sermon on the Mount with his Seven Last Words. From the Mount of the Beatitudes to the Hill of Calvary, Our Lord's public ministry and statements centered on the themes of love and forgiveness, which are explored here with Archbishop Sheen's characteristic insight and passion.
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Declaration of Dependence
This book reveals the shocking truth you need to know in a world riddled by irrationality, emotionalism, and violence. Religion is under attack, whether from totalitarian governments or modern education. Our tacit submission to politics, "freedom," and science has made us slaves to a diabolical New Atheism and fear.
With his prescient wit, wisdom, and fervor, Archbishop Fulton Sheen provides clarity amid propagandist lies and pagan societies united in purpose to destroy. He reminds us why we must fear what kills the soul more than what kills the body. He exposes the false prophets and philosophies at work in the world and the many "believers" who no longer worship or act in accordance with their beliefs.
Archbishop Sheen masterfully decries the divisions and hatreds in America, explaining how we have turned from God and are on the precipice, that there is "too much tolerance of evil and not enough intolerance of injustice." The chastisements the world is facing, he declares, are a consequence of its sins; they are the result of our abandonment of God, our idolatry; and man's attempts to replace God serve only to show that the world is devoid of goodness without His presence.
By declaring ourselves independent of God, we have brought down His wrath and made ourselves slaves to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Archbishop Sheen invites us to examine our consciences to see how we have, in fact, caused the wars in the world.
By reading this book you will see how "isms" control people where the seeds have been planted for them to be controlled. You will learn how, throughout history, God punishes to destroy evil and, at the same time, to heal His sons from their sins. In addition, you will absorb the future saint's teachings on:
The presence of the Antichrist in history
The cause of war -- whether or not it is just -- and where its greatest tragedy lies
How to truly fight for peace, justice, and unity in our country and among nations
The standard to which all Christians should hold themselves
Why the Church is opposed to extreme militarism and pacifism
Why those without conscience persecute those with conscience
Best of all, Archbishop Sheen explains how God's wrath is not capricious but is a consequence of our actions, how He is good and loving and will not let us drown in our sins, and how the key to our restoration -- repentance -- is readily in our grasp.
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Go to Heaven
Why is it, asks Bishop Fulton Sheen, that one hears so often the expression Go to hell! and almost never the expression "Go to heaven!" Here, at his most penetrating, challenging, and illuminating best is Bishop Sheen with his answer, in a book that breathes new meaning into the truths about heaven and hell, and new life into the concepts of faith, tolerance, love, prayer, suffering, and death.
Beginning with "The First Faint Summons to Heaven," Sheen shows how unpopular it is today to be a true Christian, and describes the struggle for living our faith amid the disorders of our times. Keenly aware of evil in the myriad forms it takes in today's world, Bishop Sheen writes about the constant battle man faces with the "seven pallbearers of character" - pride, avarice, envy, lust, anger, gluttony and sloth - linking them with the corrosive forces that never cease in their attacks on the Church and those who earnestly desire to be serious Christians.
In Go to Heaven, a great spiritual teacher and writer, deeply aware of the human and spiritual conflicts being waged in the world, shows us the way to heaven in a most eloquent book, encouraging the reader to choose heaven now, and to understand the "reality of hell."
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Greatest Commandment: A Fulton Sheen Anthology on Love
We need Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's knowledge, wit, and logic now more than ever to fight these fallacies. His perceptive insights illuminate the most controversial topics of our day in our blind, irrational, and severely polarized world. Archbishop Sheen condemns anti-Semitism, racism, and sexism, remembering that we are all children of God. He also discusses what true tolerance entails and why anti-hate program fail.
The Greatest Commandment is a timely reissue of Archbishop Sheen's groundbreaking works Love One Another and God Love You. This collection of his best-selling comments also includes statements and prayers he gathered to promote ecumenism and societal unity. Archbishop Sheen explains, drawing on Sacred Scripture, saints' works, and philosophy:
- The meaning of love in light of the Holy Trinity
- Why God created us to love — and to be loved
- The three types of love and the nine ingredients to charity
- How Heaven is the ultimate fulfillment of our joy, desire, and love
- Why love cannot exist without truth
- How we give the greatest glory to God at Mass by uniting ourselves to Christ
The Greatest Commandment is a treasure to ponder because it expounds on our deep need to love God and plead His mercy by forming a personal relationship with Him through Sacred Scripture and the Sacraments, particularly the Holy Eucharist and Confession. God's loving pursuit of our souls compels us to love our neighbour. Love is a choice that necessitates sacrifice; it is the whole offering of oneself to another. Our witness helps the disillusioned find their way back to God. We shall bring about the world's restoration by collaborating with God's Love.
In modernity, the word love is one of the most commonly misused and abused in our language. Devoid of order, misconceptions about love run rampant, steeped as we are in narcissism, secular humanism, relativism, and hedonism. Separated from God, society tragically propagates a notion of love that is, in truth, the antithesis of authentic love.
Now more than ever we need Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's wisdom, wit, and logic to refute these errors. In our sightless, irrational, and deeply polarized world, his prescient words elucidate the most divisive issues of our time. Mindful that we are all children of God, Archbishop Sheen decries anti-Semitism, racism, and sexism. He also explains what real tolerance means and why anti-hate campaigns don't work.
The Greatest Commandment is a timely reprint of Archbishop Sheen's two seminal books Love One Another
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In the Fullness of Time: Christ-Centered Wisdom for the Third Millennium
This compendium, published on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Sheen's death, is more than anything, a celebration of life: our life in Christ and our destiny in faith. If you're looking for a renewed understanding and appreciation of the Christian life and the promise of faith for the new millennium, this work offers strong and practical encouragement for growing closer to God through a deepened spirituality.
Paperback
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Life is Worth Living
Bishop Sheen's writings, tapes and videos are as popular today as when he was alive. His timeless insights offered in this book give wise, personal and inspiring guidance on the problems affecting our lives in today's world. His talks cover an amazing variety of subjects, from the character of the Irish to the handling of teen-agers. He discusses education, Christianity, relativity, and world affairs. He speaks about love, conscience, fear, motherhood, work. He tells amusing anecdotes, recites poetry, and ponders the fate of the free world as well as America's destiny.
Among his many best-selling books, none has greater universal appeal than Life Is Worth Living. It offers a stirring and challenging statement of Bishop Sheen's whole philosophy of life and living. It is a book for everyone - of immediate concern to all people seeking understanding, belief, and purpose in these troubled times.
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Life of Christ
Fulton J. Sheen-bishop, scholar, professor, radio and television personality, and writer-spent his life sharing the Word of God with millions of Christians across the world. One of his best-known works is The Life of Christ, written in 1954. This book explores the foretelling of Christ's birth, his life, temptations, death, and resurrection. But while Sheen himself was a scholar and academic, his recounting is both readable and accessible to the layperson.
Fulton J. Sheen was born in El Paso, Illinois, in 1895. Ordained in 1919, he went on to study at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC and the Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum in Rome, where he received his Sacred Theology Doctorate.
In 1925, he began teaching philosophy and theology at Catholic University. His speaking talents were noted, and he was chosen to preach at the annual University Mass honoring St. Thomas Aquinas in 1927.
In 1930, then-Monsignor Sheen was added as a weekly speaker on the NBC radio broadcast The Catholic Hour on Sunday nights. He continued the broadcast for the next 20 years, and the show eventually reached a weekly audience of four million listeners. He appealed to the audience through his extensive knowledge of Catholicism and how the teaching of Christ applied to the moral and societal questions of modern life.
By 1950, Sheen had resigned his teaching position at Catholic University of America and became director of the Society for the Propagation of Faith, where he raised millions of dollars to support Catholic missionary work.
The following year, he was consecrated a bishop and began the well-known television series, Life is Worth Living. The program ran for the next five years and reached an estimated 30 million weekly viewers. Sheen won an Emmy for Most Outstanding Television Personality in 1952. In response, he said, "I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers-Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." He was also featured on the cover of Time magazine that year.
Although he was now one of the most recognized Catholics in the country, Sheen still made time to write. He wrote 73 books during his life, including The Life of Christ in 1954.
Life of Christ is considered a classic work of Christian faith. It is unique in its readability, which is perhaps to unsurprising from a theologian with decades of experience bringing religion to the masses on radio and television.
Broken into five parts, the book explores the early life of Christ, his temptations, the beatitudes, his public life and Passion, and his death and resurrection. Sheen explains the meaning of Christ's words, as well as the significance of the trials and temptations he overcame. Through careful scholarship, he connects the events of Christ's life, showing how even the humble location of his birth on Earth shared an important lesson: "Divinity is always where we least expect to find it."
In his explanation of the beatitudes-the eight blessings given by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount-Sheen shares their value to the modern world. He dismisses the words of Marx, Lenin, Nietschze and Freud. And he reminds us that the words of Christ are not "from another time." Christ is timeless and His Word is eternal.
Shortly before his death in 1979, Archbishop Sheen encountered Pope John Paul II in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. The Pope told Sheen that he had "...written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus. You are a loyal son of the Church!" Two months later, Archbishop Sheen passed away in his private chapel. He is a candidate for beatification, which may pave the way for future canonization.
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Lift Up Your Heart: A Guide to Spiritual Peace
Contains a brilliant analysis of the spiritual life. It is full of profound lessons and words of wisdom on sanctifying the present moment, the effect of conduct on belief, how to pray and meditate, and making up for the past.
Paperback
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Lord, Teach Us to Pray: A Fulton Sheen Anthology
Over the course of Archbishop Fulton Sheen's storied career, thousands approached him with a simple request: "Teach us to pray." Now, for the first time ever, his wise teachings on prayer have been collected into a single volume to help you perfect your prayers and make them what they must become: a daily, holy habit.
First come Bishop Sheen's insightful reflections on the Our Father and its indispensable connection to the Seven Last Words of Christ. Then Bishop Sheen unveils smoldering, oft-overlooked riches in other everyday Catholic prayers, transforming them from rote recitations into powerful moments of communion with God.
With his help, you'll then journey through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, learning how to bring peace to your soul and grow more receptive to God's grace. You'll also discover how to make your Holy Hours more efficacious and master a variety of other techniques that Bishop Sheen employed in his own fruitful quest for
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Mystical Body of Christ
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On Being Human
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On the Demonic
In 1974, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen stated that he intended to write a book about the demonic. But such a book never came to fruition. Now, some fifty years later, Sheen's intended book has finally been compiled, all in his own words.
In On the Demonic, Sheen addresses the history of the demonic, how the devil manifested himself to Our Lord, how he has worked throughout the Church's history, and how the Anti-Christ will come in the end times.
Though Sheen is not optimistic about world history, he is most optimistic about Jesus' final victory: "There is one thing we do know. If Christ wins, we win!"
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Peace of Soul
Sheen brilliantly examines the vast differences between the benefits of psychotherapy and true confession that leads to conversion. While one may help the patient gain some peace of mind, the Christian gains something far greater through the grace of Confession: peace of soul.
"Sheen has...analyze[d] the inner troubles of frustrated post-war man...to make religion up-to-date, attractive, and necessary to the unhappy, God-repelling souls of the present." (Library Journal)
Paperback
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Philosophies at War
The modern crisis stems from a great divorce--a divorce between those who have the Truth and those who do not. In Philosophies at War, Sheen addresses the American people on the themes of government and politics not only as a bishop but also as a conscious citizen. He writes of war and revolution, the need of an absolute (God) and the roots of democracy, patriotism, and peace. He shows that the culture war is not merely political and economic but also theological.
Sheen warns that dangerous political currents are reactions against the excesses and defects of the secularist and materialist culture at large, the result of society turning into nothing but a crisscross of individual egotism. He brilliantly summarizes the false claims of recent totalitarian ideologies such as Marxist socialism, Nazism, fascism, and more. Of these dangers, Sheen explains what they have in common: they "demand power over the total man--the whole man, body and soul, and aim at control over the most intimate regions of the spirit."
Sheen is further critical of certain aspects of the Industrial Revolution and Liberalism which have isolated man from all responsibility to the common good. He laments, "Such is the essence of our secularist culture: the supremacy of the individual man. In this way man is severed from his roots in God, his roots in law and his roots in the brotherhood of man, which can naturally lead to anarchy and the oppression of the weak and the unfortunate." For anyone seeking to understand the current ideologies that seek to destroy our world, Philosophies at War will be your guide.
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Preface to Religion
Amidst the backdrop of World War II, the great Fulton Sheen wrote Preface to Religion, his first book published after the war ended. As the world was recovering from death, destruction, and despair, Sheen's timely work tackles the most salient questions pertaining to happiness and sanity. With simplicity and frankness, Sheen declares, "If you do not worship God, you worship something, and nine times out of ten it will be yourself. If there is no God, then you are a god." Throughout this work, Sheen addresses the perennial subjects of fallen nature, forgiveness, the four last things, how God remakes us, the role of religion in the process, and the gift of second chances.
Contrary to the modern world, God does not give us what "we want for our pleasure" but "what we need for our perfection." Preface to Religion reminds us of education's primary purpose, which is to train the mind to use freedom rightly. God chose to make a moral universe, but morality is impossible without freedom. And therefore, the reader will see that the body must always serve the soul.
Finally, Sheen writes on faith, that "the modern man who is not living according to his conscience wants a religion without a Cross, a Christ without a Calvary, a Kingdom without Justice," and a pastor "who never mentions hell to ears polite." For anyone seeking to find true happiness and true freedom, Preface to Religion will be your guide.
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Priest Is Not His Own
The beloved Archbishop Sheen, whose cause for canonization is open in Rome, presents a profound and deeply spiritual look at the meaning of the priesthood and relationship of the priest with Christ as an "alter Christus."
Sheen delves deeply into what he considers the main character of the priesthood, and one not often discussed, that of being, like Christ, a "holy victim." To be like Christ, Sheen emphasizes that the priest must imitate Christ in His example of sacrifice, offering himself as a victim to make His Incarnation continually present in the world."Unlike anyone else, Our Lord came on earth, not to live, but to die. Death for our redemption was the goal of His sojourn here, the gold that he was seeking. He was, therefore, not primarily a teacher, but a Savior. Was not Christ the Priest a Victim? He never offered anything except Himself. So we have a mutilated concept of our priesthood, if we envisage it apart from making ourselves victims in the prolongation of His Incarnation."
--Bishop Fulton Sheen
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Remade for Happiness
When asked, What's wrong with the world?, G.K. Chesterton famously replied simply, I am. People who reflect on life's problems find many of them of to be of their own making. We want to be happy and yet we often seem to be the source of our own unhappiness--as well as that of others. Even when that is not the case, our lives, as blessed as they may be, have their share of disappointments, shocks, and disillusionments. How do we respond? Do we become cynical and try at all costs to get as much pleasure as we can? Or do we recognize we were made for more?
In this classic work, Fulton Sheen explains the secret of authentic happiness: being spiritually remade. A genuinely spiritual life, Sheen contends, consists in more than obeying a set of commands, submitting to certain laws, reading the Bible, or even following the example of Jesus. Before all else, it consists in being re-created and incorporated into a new, higher kind of life--the supernatural life of grace--and brought into a new kind of spiritual relationship--as a child of God through Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to be a Christian? Christianity is not a system of ethics; it is a life. It is not good advice; it is Divine adoption. Being a Christian does not consist in being kind to the poor, going to Church, reading the Bible, singing hymns, being generous to relief agencies ... serving on Church committees, though it includes all of these. It is first and foremost a love relationship.
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Simple Truths: Thinking Life Through with Fulton J. Sheen
Brimming with rich and life-changing words of wisdom from one of this century's most beloved Catholic writers, this book touches on virtually every aspect of the human condition.
Paperback
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Think Right, Live Well: Daily Reflections with Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
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Thinking Life Through
n the face of a world crisis, which is manifestly deeper than one can imagine, many are inclined to ask: "Has Christianity failed?" Fulton Sheen's Thinking Life Through seeks to answer this critical question. The conclusions the author proposes are far-reaching and touch upon subjects as diverse as the truth and meaning of human sexuality, the purpose of life, discordant marriages, angels, alcoholism, the vocation of the soldier, materialism, parenting, and even the question of spanking children.
On the critical subject of freedom, Sheen writes, "The true definition of freedom is the right to do whatever one ought, and oughtness implies law, goals, purposes, and perfection. Freedom is a moral power and not a physical one. It revolves around what man is rather than what man does. We are more free within the law than outside of it."
Thinking Life Through also addresses the world's political climate, something that in many ways mirrors the present political discourse. Focusing on the tragic decline of post-Christian society, Sheen gives special attention to both the threat of communism and the dangers of socialism. Sheen also gives clarity to the role of the individual and the family while living in a time of moral and political uncertainty. Finally, Sheen addresses good manners and politeness as he states in his quintessential style, "Another effect of materialism is to be seen in the decline of courtesy. There is politeness and decorum and a desire to please others when it is generally recognized that every person bears within himself an image of the Divine." For anyone seeking to grow in wisdom, Thinking Life Through will be your guide.
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Three to Get Married
One of the greatest and best-loved spokesmen for the Catholic Faith here sets out the Church's beautiful understanding of marriage in his trademark clear and entertaining style. Frankly and charitably, Sheen presents the causes of and solutions to common marital crises, and tells touching real-life stories of people whose lives were transformed through marriage. He emphasizes that our Blessed Lord is at the center of every successful and loving marriage. This is a perfect gift for engaged couples, or for married people as a fruitful occasion for self-examination.
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Victory Over Vice
Fulton Sheen shows you how to win a lasting victory over vice.
Fulton Sheen claims that since all seven deadly sins led Christ's enemies to nail Him to the Cross, we can find in the example of His suffering and death sure means to overcome each of those sins, plus the key to understanding -- and to nurturing in our own soul -- each corresponding virtue.
So, for example, in these pages filled with wisdom and hope, Blessed Sheen teaches us not only how to conquer our gluttony; he shows us how to satisfy our spiritual hunger. We learn not merely how to overcome pride; we discover what we must do to grow humble. From Christ's holy response to each of the seven deadly sins that led to His Crucifixion, Blessed Sheen draws a lesson in how you and I must deal with those same sins, whether we meet them in others or in ourselves.
Day after day, Christians struggle to do good, to avoid evil, and to take up with patience and love the crosses that threaten to crush them. For those of us who still know more of sin than sanctity, Fulton Sheen's revelation of the light that vice sheds on virtue affords a way to understand even better, and a means to attain it. If you abide by the holy counsel of these pages, enduring virtue will soon be yours: you will have achieved your own long-sought-after victory over vice.
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War and Peace: A Sheen Anthology
Witnessing the growing threat of communism, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen recognized that modern atheism was a new type of Messianism threatening to beguile and conquer humanity.
Sheen stressed the use of reason as the unparalleled countermeasure to deceptive communism. The first three books contained in this anthology are a collection of Sheen's classic Catholic Hour radio addresses that were heard by millions of listeners in the 1930s and 1940s. Here, in a single compilation, are Bishop Sheen's most clearly delineated investigations into the underlying causes of communism -- every bit as relevant today as when he spoke them -- along with an entirely sound and hopeful program for defeating it.
In the fourth book of this anthology, The Philosophies of War, Sheen addresses the confusion felt by most people who were dissatisfied with the ephemeral and superficial commentaries about World War II. Like a master surgeon,
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Way to Happiness
Every human person seeks happiness, but few find it, because they have not discovered the source of all happiness: God. In the Way to Happiness, Futon Sheen reflects on the most fundamental aspects of our lives: love, politics, motherhood, work, teens, forgiveness, rest, meditation, and more.
In a culture stricken with anxiety, boredom, despair, and fear, Sheen desires to reignite healing, hope, and contentment in the reader. While the secular world holds the mistaken belief that hunger for infinity can be satisfied by an infinity of material things, Sheen warns that they really wish for the infinity of divine love. Addressing the philosophy of pleasure, Sheen reminds the reader of the centrality of self-discipline and detachment.
At the heart of Way to Happiness is heroically living out the spirit of charity: love of God and love of neighbor. To achieve a spirit of service and self-donation, a strong interior life is a perquisite. True peace is born in meditation.
Lastly, Sheen provides a blueprint to overcome bad habits through introspection, avoiding the occasion of sin, willing the good, and a right philosophy of life. In an age when so few people have time to make a retreat, allow the retreat master, Sheen, to take you on a spiritual journey that will spurn you on to holiness. For anyone seeking a clear path to a happy and saintly life, The Way to Happiness will be your guide.
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Wisdom of Fulton Sheen: 365 Days of Inspiration
In this beautiful collection of inspiring quotes from Sheen's life and works, we are given a unique glimpse into the heart, mind, and soul of this incredible man. With each turn of the page, it is easy to see why his inspiring and practical messages inspired so many during his lifetime and continue to inspire so many people today.
"The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen," is a powerful collection of writings that will encourage you to think differently about who you are, how your life is unfolding, what God is calling you to next, and what priorities will lead you to the peace and purpose you desire.
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