Spiritual Quote of the Day (Fulton J. Sheen, on Christianity’s Journey From Defeat to Victory)

“Christianity, unlike any other religion in the world, begins with catastrophe and defeat. Sunshine religions and psychological inspirations collapse in calamity and wither in adversity. But the Life of the Founder of Christianity, having begun with the Cross, ends with the empty tomb and victory.”— Blessed Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), Life of Christ (1958)

Technically, Archbishop Sheen will not be beatified until Thursday, Sept.24. But by the time many readers notice this post, the event will have taken place.

In any case, thousands have already taken to heart, during his lifetime or in the nearly half-century since his death, the spiritual lessons of perhaps the greatest mass communicator in the history of American Catholicism.

TV Quote of the Day (Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, on How ‘The Higher Life of Man is God’)

“The higher life of man is God. And if man is ever to be lifted up, God in some way must come down to man.”—Venerable Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), Life Is Worth Living, Season 4, Episode 112, “The True Meaning of Christmas,” original air date 1956

Quote of the Day (Fulton J. Sheen, on Religion Without Demands)

"Most people today want a religion which suits the way they live, rather than one which makes demands upon them. The result is that, in order to make religion popular, too many prophets have watered down religion until it is hardly distinguishable from sentimental secularism. Religion thus becomes a luxury, like an opera, not a responsibility, like life." —Venerable Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), The Seven Virtues (1956)

Quote of the Day (Fulton J. Sheen, on Christianity and Defeat)

“We all have to accept failure; we do not all have to lament it. It is interesting to contrast the Christian's proper attitude toward defeat with the pagan's; the unbeliever's setbacks end in pessimism, for, deluded by false optimism and its doctrine of inevitable progress, he had never visualized the disappointment he has met….But the Christian has never expected this earth to be his paradise; he has ever before him the words of the Saviour: ‘In the world, ye shall have tribulation.’ For this reason, Christianity alone can answer defeat, wherever it comes—for Christianity was born in defeat: in the world-shattering defeat of Good Friday. One lesson of the Cross is that although we cannot prevent some kinds of defeat, we can always prevent a wrong reaction to defeat.” —Venerable Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), Lift Up Your Heart: A Guide to Spiritual Peace (1950)

Quote of the Day (Fulton J. Sheen, on God’s Entering Through the ‘Trap Door of Our Emptiness’)

“Despite our efforts to find contentment in the temporal, we fail. For as the fish needs the water and the eye needs light, as the bird needs air and the grass needs earth, so the spiritual soul needs an Infinite God. Because God, for Whom we were made, is left out of its reckoning, the soul feels an emptiness, a boredom with what it has, a yearning for what it has not. This ennui is the negative presence of God in the soul—just as sickness is the negative presence of health in the body, and hunger is the negative presence of food in the stomach; a lack in us points to the existence of something capable of filling it. Through this trap door of our emptiness, God enters. If we do not admit Him at first, He will intensify the dissatisfaction and the loneliness, until finally He is accepted as our soul's guest and its eternal host." ” —Venerable Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), Lift Up Your Heart: A Guide to Spiritual Peace (1950)

Quote of the Day (Fulton Sheen, On Intellectual and Moral Preparation for the Faith)

“The moral preparation for the Faith or for making Divine Truth dynamic in us is as important as the intellectual; both kinds of readying should go together, the Wisdom and the Love of God, the Son and the Holy Spirit are equal in the Trinity. If the reason is neglected, a different sort of error follows. Those whom the moral development outstrips the intellectual generally end in a religion that is negative, critical, and pharisaical, or else in. a vague, emotional piety without content—as those who have intellectual without no growth become skeptics, cynics, and doubters. We can never love until we know; but once we love, then it can increase knowledge.”—Venerable Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979), Lift Up Your Heart: A Guide to Spiritual Peace

(1950)