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10 of Blessed Sheen’s one-liners: challenges and comfort

Let's take a look at just a tiny selection of some of his greatest quotes in the hopes his message lives on with us today.

4 min read

Source: Aleteia

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Older Catholics perhaps remember many of Archbishop Fulton Sheen's witty sayings. Younger Catholics might be familiar with only a few, including perhaps his quip at winning the Emmy (“I feel it is time I pay tribute to my four writers -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John") or his encouragement to have coffee before prayer (see the full quote below!)

But Archbishop Sheen left thousands and thousands of written pages, and hours of television and radio programming, as well as countless homilies and meditations -- so there are plenty more bits of Sheen wisdom to learn and contemplate. Let's take a look at just a tiny selection of some of his greatest quotes in the hopes his message lives on with us today.

1Practical Advice

For some practical advice, sometimes it comes down to a simple cup of coffee.

  1. “The average American is physically, biologically, psychologically, and neurologically unable to do anything worthwhile before he has a cup of coffee. And that goes for prayer too. Even sisters in convents whose rules were written before electric percolators were developed would do well to update their procedures. Let them have coffee before meditation.”

When we recall God’s will and His intentions for us, let’s remember this:

  1. “God has to have two pictures of us: one is what we are, and the other is what we ought to be. He has the model, and He has the reality: the blueprint and the edifice, the score of the music and the way we play it.”

2World peace

  1. “Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved; there can be no world peace unless there is soul peace. World wars are only projections of the conflicts waged inside the souls of modern men, for nothing happens in the external world that has not first happened within a soul.”
  2. “Right is right if nobody is right, and wrong is wrong if everybody is wrong.”

3Uplifting Wisdom

When we’re struggling with our daily worries and how we can best serve God, Blessed Sheen has some wonderful wisdom to share. 

  1. “Evil has its hour, but God has His day.”
  1. “...The difference between pain and sacrifice is love. Love is the soul of sacrifice.” 

And never get too discouraged about measuring up to those around you, because Sheen had these wise words:

  1.  “You have a chance to move in a far better society than the Joneses. Why worry about keeping up with the Joneses? Keep up with the angels and you’ll be far wiser and happier.”
  1. “The proud man counts his newspaper clippings – the humble man his blessings.”

4Heaven

For a short Meditation at Mass, let us recall what Blessed Sheen said about how united we are with God as we receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist, in a meditation on the mystery of the Rosary, the Transfiguration

  1. “Oh heavenly Magnet, in each Communion draw our body and blood to Thy own, that already following Thee in heart we may later ascend with Thee in the flesh!”

Finally, as we move towards celebrating the archangels and our guardian angels, let’s remember what Blessed Sheen said about them:

  1. “There are angels near you to guide you and protect you, did you but invoke them.”

And now, we invoke the name of Blessed Fulton Sheen after this great day of his beatification, to also guide and protect us as well. Blessed Fulton Sheen, Pray for us!


Sources/Citations:

  1. Fulton J. Sheen, The Priest Is Not His Own (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963).
  2. The World’s First Love - in Chapter 1 - https://archive.org/details/TheWorldsFirstLove/page/n1/mode/2up
  3. Peace of Soul p. 1 Link:  https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.72814/page/n11/mode/2up 
  4. The Catholic Hour aired April 12, 1942 called “Peace:Ressurection” - It was Easter Sunday. It was the final talk in Sheen’s 17-address “Peace” series.
    YT Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Z35hMNR64
  5. He said this multiple times. Life Is Worth Living television series (Program 19); also appears in related writings such as the essay “A Plea for Intolerance” in Old Errors and New Labels (1931).
  6. The Moral Universe A Preface to Christian Living https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.157880/page/n67/mode/2up Page 55
  7. Life is Worth Living - Episode on the Angels as seen here: https://archive.org/details/LifeIsWorthLiving-Angels 
  8. Fulton J. Sheen, On Being Human: Reflections on Life and Living (Doubleday, 1982), p. 148. Link: https://archive.org/details/onbeinghumanrefl0000shee/page/n147/mode/2up?q=clippings
  9. Sheen, Fulton. Meditations on the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary: A Traditional Catholic Rosary Book with Archbishop Fulton Sheen (p. 30). (Function). Kindle Edition.
  1. Life is Worth Living - Episode on the Angels as seen here: https://archive.org/details/LifeIsWorthLiving-Angels