Meditation with Fulton Sheen III

The end of an old year makes one hear the injunction God gave Moses: " You will not tread that way again." Though time indeed cannot be turned back, the faults and failings of time are not fixed and unalterable. Divine Padon can make them non-existent. Magdalenes can have fires that burned inward changed into fires that burn upward; Paul's who hate can learn to burn with zeal. The essence of the Gospel is the blessing of the second chance."

Bishop Fulton Sheen

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Reflection

At times we tend to see our Saints as skating through life and fail to realise that they are just like us, struggling at times inconsistent and also doubtful. The Saints were not born 'saintly' it is a choice they made daily to live holy lives, to choose virtue over vice and to face the struggles within themselves and outside of themselves. What they did not allow to happen was to be overcome by adversity, instead they turned adversity into a challenge in that they could see and recognise the hand of God at work.

Edith Stein through her teens did not believe in God and instead relied on her intellect alone to solve the deepest issues which affects all people. Her study of philosophy and her vast intelligence was no encumbrance to God and He moved within the soul of Edith and convicted her of the Truth through the works of that great spiritual master, Teresa of Avila. God moved Edith to her very depths, for at the core of Edith was a love of the unvarnished and naked Truth. Edith not only grew to love God she was also converted to the Catholic faith thereby shaking the very foundations of her whole life as she left her Jewish roots and embraced Catholicism.

We also see through the words of Bishop Fulton Sheen the 'God of the Second Chance'. What this essentially means is that no matter what wrong or even sinful choices we make in life we are not beyond His Mercy, nor are we far from His sight. That leaves us no excuse to continue a wrongful pattern, for God through the Sacraments of the Church restores and makes all things new not for His sake but for ours.

Reflection written by Marie

Minute Meditation with Fulton Sheen I

"Try meditation for at least fifteen minutes a day, and in the end you will make two great discoveries: what you really are, and what you are on the way to becoming."

Bishop Fulton Sheen

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Reflection

Christians are placed under enormous pressure to always be perfect and to say the right thing at the right time, and when we don't it doesn't take long for others to remind us how imperfect we are.

When we study Scripture and reflect on the words of Christ we see how little we are and how far we must go when we truly absorb what our Lord teaches us through His Word and the Church. One only has to look at some of our greatest Saints to see how God can work through a soul that is open to Him. St. Augustine for many years lived a very loose and immoral lifestyle much to the anguish of his mother St. Monica, but in the end the Spirit of God touched Augustine's heart through the inspiring words of Bishop Ambrose.

When we look at St. Vincent de Paul we see a man driven by ambition who came to such a compassionate love of God by the path of suffering which turned his heart into a reflection of the living Christ. In this way St. Vincent de Paul became a servant of the poor and a true lover of God. It is our very imperfections which allows the love of God to shine through us for every good thing we do has as it's source in The Triune Spirit.

Reflection written by Marie

Inspirational Quote- Bishop Fulton Sheen

Leisure is a form of silence, not noiselessness.

It is the silence of contemplation such as occurs

when we let our minds rest on a rosebud,

a child at play, a Divine mystery, or a waterfall.

~ Bishop Fulton Sheen