A Gentleman Is. . .

Thoughts on being a gentleman by Bishop Sheen from his book, Guide to Contentment.

The gentleman is the one who is modest and retiring, who waits first on the others and thinks of everyone but himself, and finds his chief happiness in making someone else happy; who, however poor and humble anyone else may be bears to them the open palm of true nobility.

The State as Guarantor of Rights, Not Supplier

As the nanny state is poised to grow ever larger Bishop Sheen had these comments on freedom,

The State must guarantee the social security of its citizens, but it must not supply that security. Freedom from want must not be purchased by freedom from freedom, in which a Bureaucratic State becomes the world's caterer. from Seven Pillars of Peace

"Freedom is the right to do whatever I please." This is the liberal doctrine of freedom, which reduces freedom to a physical, rather than a moral, power. from World's First Love

The Church and Politics

Much has been made of the influence, some would say 'interference', of the Catholic Church in the healthcare debate because of the outspoken defense of the right to life and freedom of conscience protections sought by the U.S. Bishops in the healthcare bills in Congress. Undoubtedly these same hypocrites would have been glad to have their pictures taken with any Bishop who would have ignored these rights and simply supported the bill. But is it wrong for the Church to interfere in the political arena? Here is today's quote from Bishop Sheen and what he says to the subject,

If by interference in politics is meant judging or condemning a philosophy of life which makes the party, or the state, or the class, or the race the source of all rights, and which usurps the soul and enthrones party over conscience and denies those basic rights for which this war was fought, the answer is emphatically Yes! The Church does judge such a philosophy. But when it does this, it is not interfering with politics, for such politics is no longer politics but Theology. When a State sets itself up as absolute as God, when it claims sovereignty over the soul, when it destroys freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, then the State has ceased to be political and has begun to be a counter-Church.

From Characters of the Passion

The Incarnation

A daily dose of Bishop Sheen.

Love tends to become like the one loved; in fact, it even wishes to become one with the one loved. God loved unworthy man. He willed to become one with him, and that was the Incarnation.

from The Divine Romance

Social Work Is Serving Without Christ

For my birthday my lovely wife gave me a book of quotes from Fulton Sheen and I hope to post one a day. I've written previously on one of his Life Is Worth Living episodes titled 'Social Work' and that is the topic of this first quote which is on the same subject but not from the show. It is from his book, Those Mysterious Priests.

If God appears dead in our nuclear age, it is because Christians and arid people have isolated Christ from His Cross. Some priests and religions have love enough for he hungry, but not love enough to redeem from guilt. (A bad word for modern man)The priest, in order to relate himself better to the world, may preach a "social Christ" or a "political Christ" or a "revolutionary Christ," but such indifference to the crucifixion produce sermons that are "sounding brass and clinking cymbals." The intellectual and moral commitment of the priest to the Sermon on the Mount needs also the existential surrender to the prolongation of the Cross. Mother Teresa of Calcutta expressed this idea: "Serving of the poor without the love of Christ crucified is social work."

Bye Now, God Love You

Today is the 30th anniversary of the death of the Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and we had a votive Mass for him at the St. Paul Seminary chapel from where he graduated. Due to the snowfall here the turnout from outsiders was lighter than we hoped but we still had a nice group. I will post some pictures when I get them. Please continue to pray for his beatification and visit the Archbishop Sheen Foundation to learn more.

Canonization Cause of Bishop Sheen on EWTN Live

On Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. Eastern time, Msgr. Stanley Deptula the Executive Director for the Archbishop Sheen Foundation will be a guest on EWTN Live to discuss the Cause for Canonization of Bishop Sheen. Tune in Wednesday or check listings for encores of the show, Thursday and Sunday.

Canonization Cause of Bishop Sheen on EWTN Live

On Wednesday evening at 8 p.m. Eastern time, Msgr. Stanley Deptula the Executive Director for the Archbishop Sheen Foundation will be a guest on EWTN Live to discuss the Cause for Canonization of Bishop Sheen. Tune in Wednesday or check listings for encores of the show, Thursday and Sunday.