Short videos discussing the Wisdom of Fulton Sheen

As the “no” of Eve proves that the creature was made by love and is therefor free, so (Mary’s) Fiat proves that the creature was made for love as well.

The world might have expected the Son of God to be born in an inn; a stable would certainly be the last place in the world where one would look for him. The lesson is: divinity is always where you least expect to find it. So the Son of God made man, is invited to enter into his own world through the back door.

But when finally the scrolls of history are complete, down to the last work of time, the saddest line of all will be: “There was no room in the inn.” The inn was the gathering place of public opinion, the focal point of the world’s moods, the rendezvous of the worldly, the rallying place of the popular and the successful. But there’s no room in the place where the world gathers. The stable is a place for outcasts, the ignored and the forgotten.

Judge the Catholic Church not by those who barely live by its spirit, but by the example of those who live closest to it.

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.

It is typically American to feel that we are not doing anything unless we are doing something big. But from the Christian point of view, there is no one thing that is bigger than any other thing.

Because we live in a world where position is determined economically, we forget that in God’s world the royalty are those who do His will.

What we over-love, we often over-grieve.

The principle cause of discontent is egotism, or selfishness, which sets the self up as a primary plant around which everyone else must revolve. The second cause of discontent is envy, which makes us regard the possessions and the talents of others as if they were stolen from us. The third cause is covetousness, or an inordinate desire to have more in order to compensate for the emptiness of our heart. The fourth cause of discontent is jealousy, which is sometimes occasioned through melancholia and sadness, and at other times by hatred and those who have what we wish for ourselves.

Satan may appear in many disguises like Christ, and at the end of the world will appear as a benefactor and philanthropist–but Satan never has and never will appear with scars.

November 10 2022 is the …. birthday of the founding of the United States Marine Corps…it is also the Feast of St. Leo the Great. And then we have November 11, Veteran’s Day and the Feast of St. Martin of Tours. As a U.S. Marine veteran these celebrations back many memories of the four years I served but also of the many life lessons I learned and how they continue to guide and effect my life as a man, a Catholic and a priest.

As I digest and think about how the state of California has become not only a place where abortion is tolerated but where, after the passing of Proposition 1, it is not only promoted but also now celebrated fills my heart sadness. In some ways I knew it was a forlorn hope that the proposition would be defeated by vote but it was a true hope based on a true desire for the protection of the most vulnerable in our society, the protection of life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. My hope was in our Catholic tradition that all life has dignity and this dignity and gift is discovered in our creation in the likeness of our Heavenly Father.
And while my spirits are dampened my hope remains firm because of the promise given to us in Jesus Christ. On Wednesday morning, as I went to Holy Hour, my reflection book began with this quote from the Gospel of St. John, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:33) We are reminded that Jesus does not promise us a world without sin and suffering, but he does promise us faith, hope, love and the knowledge of his victory over sin and death. The firm gift of faith that evil, while present and maybe even looming large in the moment, will not have the last word.
It is a reminder this battle may be lost but the war, the spiritual victory will be won if we preserver in faith and trust. In the Marine Corps we learned very early that “no Marine is left behind” and each and every exercise we did was a drum beat in our heart and mind how true this needed to be so that each Marine stood beside the other in trust and confidence, no matter what, on the battlefield. And perhaps, for us today and in the coming years, we must to be reminded in prayer and adoration how we are called to leave no person, even the baby in the womb, behind for the expedience of our own life.

God’s second reminder to me was in the Thursday morning readings in the Liturgy of the Hours, where St. Paul wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Rm 8:18-21) It is in this hope we are called as people of faith to continue the conversation of conversion to the culture of life. We hear about the rising tide of depression, anxiety, fear and loss of hope as the world turns from God seeking fulfillment in the transitory and ultimately empty fields of momentary and worldly conquest and pleasures. In the hope and defense of life, we once more proclaim the sovereignty of the Kingdom of God in humble service of all people. In directing our desire and hopes to Love we discover the fulfillment of joy and peace that celebrates, treasures and proclaims the goodness of each life created in the image and likeness of God.

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
    for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
    till the storms of destruction pass by.
I cry out to God Most High,
    to God who fulfills his purpose for me. (Psalm 57:1-2)

So my hope may be bruised but not broken, and like so many years past, in January I will climb on the bus and travel to San Francisco for the March for Life. Not because Proposition 1 was approved, but because of my belief and trust that all life is precious and holy and good. We pray for life.

God bless
Fr. Mark

“There is the discarding of children that we do not want to welcome with the law of abortion that sends them to the dispatcher and kills them directly. And today this has become a ‘normal’ method, a practice that is very ugly. It is really murder,” Pope Francis (from Catholic News Agency article dated Sept. 27 2021)

https://www.dsj.org/bishop-oscar-cantu-statement-on-the-passage-of-proposition-1/

The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen…short videos

the more materialistic a civilization is, the more it is in a hurry.

He was lonely, until he found God.

External circumstances may condition our mental outlook and our dispositions, but they do not cause them.

Our modern world has produced a generation of rich politicians who talk love of the poor, but never prove it in action, and a brood of the poor whose hearts are filled with envy for the rich and covetousness of their money.

Humility is the pathway to knowledge. No scientist would ever learn the secrets of the atom if, in his conceit, he told the atom what he thought it ought to do. Knowledge comes only with humility before the object which can bring us truth.

The egotist standing alone in his self-imagined greatness, lives in the world of a lie, because the truth about himself would puncture his self-inflation.

Repose–true leisure cannot be enjoyed without some recognition of the spiritual world, for the first purpose of repose is the contemplation of the good.

ever before have men possessed so many time-saving devices. Never before have they had so little time for leisure or repose. Yet few of them are aware of this: advertising has created in modern minds the false nation that leisure and not working are the same–that the more we are surrounded by bolts and wheels, switches and gadgets, the more time we have conquered for our own.

The rapidity of communication, the hourly news broadcasts, tomorrow’s news the night before–all these make people live on the surfaces of their souls. The result is that very few live inside themselves. They have their moods determined by the world.

Even Friendships are matured in silence. Friends are made by words, love is preserved in silence. The best friends are those who know how to keep the same silences.

Short video reflection of The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen

Happiness must be our bridesmaid, not our bride.

Our enjoyment of life is vastly increased if we follow the spiritual injunction to bring some mortification and self-denial into our lives.

The fact is: you want to be perfectly happy, but you are not. Your life has been a series of disappointments, shocks, and disillusionment. How have you reacted to your disappointments? Either your became cynical or else you became religious.

If a ship is sailing on a polluted canal and wishes to transfer itself to clear waters on a higher level, it must pass through a device which locks out the polluted waters and raises the ship to the higher position. Mary’s Immaculate Conception was like that lock..[[T]hrough her, humanity passed from the lower level of the sons of Adam to the higher level of the sons of God.

The world is in a state of mortal sin, and it needs absolution. Vain platitudes and ‘regeneration,’ ‘the Constitution,’ and ‘progress’ are not going to save us, even though we go on shouting them louder and louder. We need a new word in our vocabulary and that word is God.

The better we become, the less conscious we are of our goodness. If anyone admits to being a saint, he is close to being a devil…The more saintly we become, the less conscious we are of begin holy. A child is cute as long as he does not know he is cute. As soon as he thinks he is, he is a brat. True goodness is unconscious.

Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals

Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved; there can be no world peace without soul peace.

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 we wish to have the light, we must keep the sun; if we wish to keep our forests we must keep our trees; if we wish to keep our perfumes, we must keep our flowers–and if we wish to keep our rights, then we must keep our God.