Reading Sheen

Once again I am read Archbishop Fulton Sheen, and as always I am not disapointed, he always has a way of making feel welcomed into the pages of his book. The current book I am reading, Victory over vice looks at our vices through the last words of Christ upon The Cross.
What I like about Sheen is his ability to take the complex and make it simple, almost to simple, if you don’t take the time to stop and think, contemplate and pray over what you just read.
The Holy Spirit is truly working through this man still. Sheen passed away in 1979, whatva loss to the Catholic Church, and to America. I can’t help but feel I am reading the words of a Saint when I read Sheen. I can hear gis voice and see his smile as he places a well hidden joke among his words. The Irish wisdom and wit shine bright in his works, and anyone, be they Catholic or not, would be wise to Shean. With over 90 books you have a lot to chose from, along with his CD’s and DVD’s, I’m am sure you can find some way to fit Fulton into you daily life. I know once I discovered him, not that he was undiscoverd prior to me, I just can’t get enough of him. I have already ordered my new book… Always got to have a new Sheen book in the waiting!
God bless him and may God keep him….

God Bless
Paul

 

Characters of the Passion: A reading for Lent

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Cover via Amazon

I just finished the book, Characters of the Passion, by Fulton J. Sheen, one of two books I am read for Lent, the other is also a Sheen book, The Cross and the Beatitudes. If you have never read a Sheen book, I would recommend it, he is a gifted writer, and has a way of making God’s words seem present in todays world. The book, Characters of the Passion was written in 1947, it still holds true today.

Being only 94 pages, it is an easy read  for anyone who wants to deepen there faith. Divided into seven chapters, Sheen walks the reader through the passion of Christ using the characters of the passion, from Peter to Judas and Herod and others. Each person teaching a lesson of the passion. Sheen has the ability to give sight to the reader, sight into the mindset of the person and of the actions going on. We feel the pain of betrayal Peter must have felt and the utter disperse of Judas, the contempt of Herod and the befuddlement of Barabbas. Each giving the reader a new insight in the Passion of our Dear Lord.

The words of Sheen are timeless and true, Sheen was a visionary of our times, he saw the failings of the Western Culture and writes about it with in the pages of this book. He gives solid advice on what we, Christians, need to do and the failure to do so.  If you read no other spiritual book this year, I would recommend that you read this one, make is a Lenten reading, devote 5 minutes per day, and you will see the Passion in a whole new light.

God Bless

Paul

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Reading and Ranting

I love to read, I read books, magazines, newspapers and anything else I can find to read. I love to read different types or styles from Stephen King to Bishop Fulton Sheen. Give me a Catholic book, magazine or newspaper and I will read it. I have read the liberal press and the conservative press. I just love to read. Most people I know read for enjoyment, not to expand their knowledge base, not to learn a new fact or verify a teaching, they just read to be entertained. Me, I read knowledge, I read to grow my mind, my understanding and my ability to process information. I love to find new facts or expand my understanding of what I already know. It doesn’t matter what I am reading, for the most part, with very few exceptions, everything I read teaches me something. I will admit that at times I just want to read, I don’t want to learn anything new, I don’t want to grow, I just want to read. And when that feeling hits me I pick up one of my “car” books, books I have that I place in my car for emergency reading, like when I have a doctors appointment or decide to go out to eat on my own. My “car” books are mindless pocket books, detective type stories, no moral message, just good old fashion 1930’s style detective books. They are good for a fun and easy read, so they make perfect “car” books. But mostly I read to grow…

This fact is nothing new to anyone who has read my blogs before, I often talk about reading and relay some interesting fact along from what I have read. Well this posting is no different, except instead of a fact to pass on this time I am going to pass on a concept, an idea I read. I know I have blogged the same idea or concept along before, but sometimes you just got to keep beating the same drum. Over the weekend I was reading through all my Catholic newspapers I get, it seems that Saturday and Sunday are the only days I get to read them… So I am always playing catch up on the weekend. But be that as it may, I was reading my favorite Catholic Newspaper, The Wanderer, by the way if you do not subscribe to this paper, do so now, it is by far the best paper I have read. What makes me like it so much, it is only 8 pages, the news is conservative and it always has interesting articles. But back to what I was saying, I was reading The Wanderer and ran across an article about abortion, they always includes a pro-life article or two in each weekly paper, this article used and example of how truly ridicules the liberals can be when it comes to there pro-murder stance with adoration. The author used the example of how the government is deciding to regulate soda pop in schools. In-of-itself not a bad thing, but is it truly something the government should be concerned with, is it not more a parenting issue? I think it is, but the liberal government seems to think that they are charged with the health and wellbeing of your child, and they have to look out for and care for them. Once again, as a conservative I feel it is up to the parents and the community to decide if soda pop should be allowed in schools, along with candy bars and pizza and any other unhealthy items. But our Big Brother Government has decided we are to stupid to deal with it. But our government, who is so concerned about our child’s health and well being will allow that same 12 year old, who can not get a soda to get an abortion. Stop and think about that…

Government will not allow soda pop but will allow murder…

Government feels children should be “protected” in schools from harmful things, such as soda and candy, but hands out condoms to 5 year olds like it was candy…

Government requires a parent to be present and notified for an under age child to get an ear piercing or tattoo, but allows a 12 year old to get a major operation to abort the baby, with out parent notification…

Government states that you, the parent, are responsible for that child until they turn 18, yet they undermined your authority at every step of the way. They decided that it is ok for your under aged child to murder another human being, they decide that soda is harmful, yet murder is not.

The article in The Wanderer made the simple comparison of soda banning to abortion, the rest was mine and the list is endless. The nanny state is growing in the country and we, the American People, are allowing it to do so, We are tossing our hands up in the air and allowing the Obama administration to do as they please. Our freedoms as parents and care givers are being striped away, one silly law at a time, our freedoms as law abiding adults are being minimized with each passing day, yet we do nothing, Why? Why do we do nothing, why do we just sit back and allow this to happen? Because we have been sold a bill-of-goods that sounds utopic in nature. We have been told that they care for us, they know best for us, and and by the way here is some money… They have purchased us, and we are becoming powerless, complacent and sedentary. Shame on us, shame on the Catholic Bishops of the United States for not teaching the truth boldly and loudly! And why don’t they, why are the silent on most issues, because most of the Bishops are in the pockets of the liberal Democratic Party of this great nation. Sure they state they are pro=life, but not to loudly for fear that the Democrats may hear them. Sure they write there papers and event send them to the press, but the liberal press will use it only to degrade the Church.

Our Bishops should be marching on DC, demanding that abortion be abolished, that our children should be protected from Planned Parenthood should not be allowed to be in contact with our children. Our Bishops should be teaching and informing the faithful and the true teachings of our faith, the Church established by God. Our Bishops should be speaking out against the Obama administration and its efforts to allow millions of illegal immigrants to gain entry into this country, a act that has nothing to do with compassion but everything to do with the 2012 election. Our Bishops need to take a stand for the faith, the true faith and not some liberation theology version of the faith. And if they refuse to do so, they should leave the church and find one that represents there version of the truth. Harsh I know, but that’s how I feel most of the time. I do not understand Catholics who disagree with 90% of the teachings, yet remain Catholic. Our Bishops need to hold the Catholic politicians feet to the fire of truth, calling them in, confronti
ng them with the truth and forcing the issue at hand. Basically our Bishops need to stand up and be men, be the voice of the Church, the voice of Christ calling out in to the wilderness and calling His sheep back in to the fold. They need to stand tall and strong in the face of deception, toll the line of truth and fly the flag of our Church, The Church established by Jesus Christ, the visible Church here on earth.

The more I read, the more passion I get for the Truth, for the Faith. The more I learn the more love I have for my Church and Her teachings. I may not understand them all, and I may wish at some of Her teachings were not, but that is a human problem, my problem, not Hers. Reading provides me with the ability to discover the truth, in my own time and way. Be it Stephen King or Catholic Answers Magazine, The Truth will shine through the pages. The Truth will set you free, a lesson we all need to learn and relearn on a daily basis. The Bishops would be smart to remember this, and to teach this truth.

Please know that in no way do I assume that all Bishops are failing in there duties. Most are, i assumed, good and holy people. But over all the Catholic voice in America is silent, and that voice belongs to the Bishops. Yes Catholic laity and priest and other religious have a duty to proclaim the Good News to all the ends of the earth, but it is our Bishops who should be leading us, teaching us and guiding us.

God Bless

Paul

Ethics of Procreation and the Defense of Human Life: Contraception, Artifical Fertilization, and Abortion

Matthew 4:4“Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

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We are called too knowledge

This past weekend I spent my time reading and listing to Catholic radio. Of course I cleaned the house, did my wash and other such tasks, but I spent a lot of time sitting and reading. It was nice, I have not had a lot of time to do that, or should I say I have not made time to do that.

I love to read, as anyone who knows me would know. I read all kinds of stuff, I read books for just pure entertainment, books on the Catholic faith, political (conservative) books and byes even some books on spirituality. I read Catholic and Political magazines and newspapers and a few journals. I just love to read! I even read on line sometimes. I always have a book in my car, for emergency reading and I have downloaded some eBooks on to my laptop, so I always have something to read. But truth be told, I don’t like to read online, I prefer to print it off, ya I know not very green of me… But I like to hold it, to feel the paper when I read. It’s just the way it is.

It has not always been like this for me, at one time I hated to read. I school I hated it, it wasn’t until I graduated High School that I actually read a complete book. the book was the classic by J.D. Salinger’s “The catcher in the rye”. I read it because of my other passion, The Beatles. I am a huge Beatles fan, and the murderer of John Lennon, Mark David Chatman, stated that this was the book he read that made him kill Lennon. So I have to read it. And read it I did, I have read that book well over 100 times, I love it, and J.D. Salinger is one of my favorite authors, along with Steven King.  Bit I have never reread a Steven King book, but I have reread all of J.D. Salinger’s books.. I love his style..

I didn’t read in school not because I couldn’t, I didn’t read because there was nothing that interested me that they offered. I had a 12th grade comprehension level in the 3rd grade, so it was not an issue of ability, but rather an issue of desire.  I had a very difficult time trying to get my teachers and others to understand this, so I spent years in “special reading” classes. But that is for different blog…

The point of this blog, knowledge.

I read not only for enjoyment but also to grow my mind, soul and heart. I hind that reading, like no other activity, allows me to do this. It is a time of peace and quiet a time for me to dissolve into myself and a time for the voices of the authors to speak to me. I look at each and everything I read as an opportunity to learn, to grow. Truth be told, I look at everything in life as an opportunity to learn and grow. My mom use to always say that I was to “preachy”  that I try to turn everything in to a lesson. Well I do and I know it, but I find life to be a very good classroom. But my personal reading is my privet classroom. I learn just as much from Steven King as I do from Bishop Fulton Sheen.

Sure Bishop Sheen is dealing with my soul and faith and King normally is dealing with things of the supernatural, but in truth there is more in common that one may think.  It is Kings character development and the underlining psychology of his characters that teach, and often times his stories do also. Fulton Sheens style is more poetic than Kings therefore it flows like honey as you read it and Kings style is, well more, modern in language (nice way to say the words and images used would not be appropriate for young children). Bishop Sheen would also not be appropriate for young children, not for the imagery or words used, but for the depth of the words used. But both would be good for teens that are mature and have an ability to think outside of themselves and the box.

But enough on the comparison of Sheen and King, back to the main point. Knowledge…

As Catholics we as called to proclaim the Gospels (the Good News) to all the corners of the earth, to all the nations. As baptized Catholics we are baptized as priest, profit and king. We are give an office with in the faith. But how can we all be priest, profit and king, and what does that mean?

Priest:

We are called to be priest, not ordained priest like Father at the parish, but non-the-less a priest. so what is a priest, well in the old testament a priest was the one who offered up the sacrifice for the people of God. In the modern world the priest also offer up the sacrifice for Gods people, they offer up the bread and wine. They offer up our sins in the confessionals for forgiveness of our sins. So how are we priest? We cannot offer up the Bread and Wine nor can we hear confessions and offer forgiveness. So what, if anything, can we do as priest. Well we can still offer up a sacrifice, our suffering  We can offer up our work, our abilities and our service.

Profit:

We are called to be profits, but if we think about what a profit is or who was a profit it can sound very intimidating. Elijah was a profit as was Moses and Aaron. The Old Testament is filled with them, and each of them did basically the same thing, they proclaimed Gods message to others. That is the call of baptism, that is what the Lord has called you to in His name. But not all of us are called to Moses or Aaron or any of the other profits. Some are, but most of us are not. In the modern world I would say there have been a few who have been called as a Moses or Elijah, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa and Fr. John Recardo, to name just a few. But most of us are to be the profits of the back ground, no less important, just not as visible as the others. So how do we become the profit that God has called us to? We proclaim the Good New, we share our faith and we practice our faith. I am doing it with this blog, I do it with my company, STATIC Solutions, and I do it by offering my time to others. My name may never be known to others, and that’s ok, Mother Teresa said “Our job is not be become famous, but to become Holy” (may not be a direct quote, but almost).

King:

I think this is the hardest one to understand, how can we all be kings? All priest, sure you can have more than one, all profits, yep, several are better than a few. But all kings? This, in the material world, would never work out. So what is it that God is baptizing us into, what is kingship? If we look at the kings of the Old Testament we think of King David, the ruler of the Israelites. He was charged with protecting the people, providin
g justice and watching over them. If we look at kingship in the New Testament we see only one example, Jesus the Christ. Jesus spoke of his Kingdom often, and He spoke of how a King should act. But Jesus also showed us how a King should act. This is the Kingship we are called to. We are to protect what has been placed into our trust, children,pets,wife,husband,elderly,unborn,etc.. The list is endless. We are called to shepherd them and to provide for them. Think about it, If I fulfill my Kingship, I would make sure that all my Brothers and Sisters in Christ are provided for. If you fulfilled your Kingship, you too would also make sure that all your Brothers and Sisters in Christ are provided for, including me. If we all did this, all our needs would be met, and the Kingdom here on earth would be heavenly, not Heaven itself, but darn close.

So are you ready to fulfill your calling as priest, profit and king? Most likely your all reading this thinking I am nuts. Well most people who know me would agree, but that’s a different point.

Now that you know what you are called to, now you have to build up your toolbox with the tools you need to perform each office you are called to. This is were reading comes in to play…. See how I tied all that in…..

Your reading tool box should have, with out a doubt the following:

• Catholic Study Bible (one to use, not to display)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)
• Any book by Bishop Fulton Sheen (I would recommend “The Life of Christ”)

I would also recommend the following:

• Link to Catholic On Line (www.catholic.org) A news website
• Link to Catholic Answers (www.catholic.com) Full of great information and a place to find answers concerning the faith.
• Link to New Advent (www.newadvent.com) Contains the CCC and Bible and Catholic Encyclopedia and Church Fathers.
• Link to my blog (www.staticyouth.wordpress.com) just because it mine…. and sometimes fun to read.
• Listen to Catholic Radio, many offer online web-radio
• Watch Catholic TV, Both EWTN and CatholicTV offer online web access to programming live.

I would also recommend that you attend local bible studies or if your parish offers a RCIA for Catholics class, take it,or see if you can attend your local RCIA class. But make sure that the teachings are true to the Catholic Church and not some nutty DRE or Deacon’s personal wishes of what they think the Catholic Church should be. You need to do your homework first.

The same is true for the bible you choose, make sure it is a good catholic bible. There are several around.

As part of your toolbox you should also add a journal, journaling is an important part of your growth. Journaling offers you the ability to place on paper what is in you. If you can not articulate it well, the writing process will help you with this. I use this blog as my journal. So start blogging, or just use a note book or journal. There are several good places to start blogging, I have several feeds I use.

• WordPress (www.wordpress.com)
• 4Makrs (www.4marks.com)

There are a few more I feed to, but the two above are good places to start. The 4Marks is a Catholic social networking site that offers blog posting. WordPress is an open blogging site, so anyone can post blogs. This is my main blog posting site.

So now that you got the tools, or at least a list of tools and you now understand your calling, the one you received at your Baptism, your ready to go right? Most likely not.

Knowing what to read and were to find the information does not make you ready. One more thing we all must do first…

PRAY

We must pray prior to engaging others, be it face to face or through your blog. Prayer is you knocking on Gods front door, asking God to inspire you and to fortify you. To send the Holy Spirit you you to help you fulfill your calling as priest, profit and king. Pray with a sincere heart and a silent mouth, allow God to speak. Pray often for guidance.

God Bless

Paul

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Hebrews 7:25“Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

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Saints

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Each day offers new and exciting opportunities, one never knows what one may fine tomorrow. That’s what I love about life, everyday can is new and can be exciting, if we only allow it.

One of the splendors of the Catholic Church are the Saints, ordinary people who offers us an extraordinary life as an example of how we are to live in Christ. The Church in Her wisdom knows that life is a struggle and God in His mercy has given us Saints to emulate and learn from.

Many Catholic websites offer a Saint of the Day email that can be used to help remind us of how we are to act. What I like about the saint of the day concept is this, each and every day a new and exciting offering is in my inbox. A new world to explore or a new name to read about. The lives of the Saints are anything except boring. Most Saints seem to have lived very hard lives and a few, well ok lots and lots of them lives what one might call a life of sin until their conversations.

You can read about child saints and saints who came along reluctantly. Sainthood is no cake walk and all to often it seems that the saints suffer more persecution than you and I could ever dream of. Yet the Church sees the glory in the suffering the redemption and the holiness. the Church, through the eyes of Jesus knows the souls of the saints and understands their power on us, here today, even thought they themselves may have passed on hundreds of  years before.

We believe in the communion of saints, a line we pray, or as in most cases we just say, each week at Church. But do we really understand this one simple statement from the credo? Do we truly understand the power of that one line, do we truly believe in the communion of saints?

God has established for us a communion of saints, He has given us a gift of living examples in times passed and yes, even in our own times. But not only has God given us people living in this world, but He has also given us the living souls in the after world. Remember God is the God of the living, living here in the material world as well as those living in the spiritual world.

Saints, the gift of examples offered to us all…

What an exciting world indeed, who knows the next person I talk to could be the next St. Thomas or St. Faustian or even The Venerable Pope John Paul II. Every person has the ability to become a saint, the only difference between St. Francis and you or I is choice. They chose to trust in God, they chose to suffer, they chose to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We, well we give lip service to it all, we say we want to follow, but the path is to hard, we want to suffer but the pain is to much, we want to trust but we have been let down to often. Sainthood is not a live of ease, rather it is a life of earthly discontent and a prayer of submission.

I thank God for the likes of Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, modern day suffers along with Padre Pio and Fr. Solanus Casey along with Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Souls that seem to be made to sing the praises of the Lord. Each one of the modern day examples given to us by God offers a life time of refection and study. Each soul brings a new and exciting ingredient to the mix, creating a “Saint Stew” of sorts with in the Catholic Church. Each adding a flavor that is uniquely theirs yet at the same time ours. The communion of Saints, a gift of love is ever I saw one.

God Bless

Paul

Holy Terrors and Gentle Souls: Stories About the Saints

Luke 9:23-24“Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

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The Liberals are coming… Opps to late…

The Catholic Church has been under attach for sometime from the liberals. Be it the liberal media or liberal Catholics. They have decided that the the Catholic faith is the last allowable prejudice. Not only is it allowable but it is also encouraged!

The attaches coming from with in the faith are the most destructive and discouraging. But all is not lost, we, the faithful can still take back our faith, be can still put up a good fight and win the battle for our Church and our souls.

As someone who has been involved in church ministry for over 20 years I have a great deal of background knowledge to build off of. As someone who seems to always be placed in a parish that is liberal, I seem to have been inundated with there concepts and lies. the lies can seem harmless at first, maybe even silly or no big deal. they can start off as just a tid-bit of information that leads the faithful off the path but just centimeters. But as that path continues to wind it’s way through the forest that centimeter turns in to meters.

The smallest of lies can lead to the biggest of errors. In truth it is easer to tell a small lie, less chance it will be seem. The liberal lie of “All are welcome” is a small lie. A lie the use to segregate the population under the flag of open mindness. They use the rally cry of “All are welcome” to bring in the pro-abortionist or the pro-same-sex couples. They cry out for acceptance yet fail to except the true teaching of the faith.

The lie itself is an inviting lie, who would not want to welcome all, as a conservative I to say “All are welcome” but unlike the liberal who use the it as a rally cry to bring down the Church from with in, I use it as a beckoning to call home the lost sheep to build up the Church.

Simple lie really, just a slight change in the purpose, yet the consequence of one will destroy what God has made and the other will build upon the foundation that God had laid.

The list goes on:

• Woman Priesthood
• Abortion
• Same-Sex unions
• Social Medicine
• Unions

And on and on and on…..

The list of so called social issues can be exhausting, the catholic Church does address each and everyone of the issues, yet the liberals are able to twist each one to fit in to there agenda, perverting it in to some sore of pagan/Christian social/economic all you can eat buffet. They give the same value to the poor as they do to abortion. The use a concept call the one cloth or one garment theology.  A theology that perverts the teachings of the Church and Jesus. The Church teaches that Abortion is intrinsically evil, that under no circumstances is it ever allowable. that human life is sacred. Yet the liberals see no problem in demoting abortion to the same level and the poor.

The poor should be cared for as they are. They should be loved and nurtured and we as the faithful and as the Church have an obligation to do all we can to eliminate the conditions that create the poor. But the Church does not and has never taught that the poor were intrinsically evil. Big difference. Even Jesus stated that we will always have the poor with us.

The liberal Catholics have perverted the meaning of Catholic Social Justice to be a catch all phrase for all liberal concepts and ideas. They have impregnated the minds of countless Catholics with bubble gum intellectual thoughts that are nothing but sugar and air, no real substance to it.

The cry foul are every utterance the Pope makes, yet claim allegiance to the Church. They site Church dogma, yet lack understanding because they allow their own prejudice to interfere with Gods voice. And they claim fidelity to the Traditions and Faith  as they tear them down in the name of “Social Justice” and “Progress”.

The state of the Catholic Church is on shaky grounds, the liberals have succeeded in eroding the foundation. We, the faithful, must fight back, we must demand that our Priest, Religious Sisters and Brothers, Catholic Schools and Hospitals and Universities hold true to the Teachings and traditions of the Faith. We must demand that they return to the fold.

The video below is from Real Catholic TV , please watch this and go to their sight to watch other videos concerning Catholics and the attach on our faith.

 

God Bless

Paul

FULTON J. SHEEN COLLECTION : THIS IS THE MASS , THESE ARE THE SACRAMENTS , THIS IS ROME, THIS IS THE HOLY LAND

Psalm 23:1-3“[A psalm of David.] The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) . All Rights Reserved.

 

5 at a time

I like to read, I like reading Stephen King, Dean Kuntz (only the Odd Thomas stuff) books on the catholic Faith, general spiritual books and as of late political books. The last in the list is new to me, I never read them until last year prior to the election, now I’m hooked.

It was the same way when I started out reading, all through school I hated to read, than one day I read “Catcher in the Rye” and I have never stopped reading, went from J.D. Salinger to Stephen King and on… One of the many strange facts about me is I like to read 4 or 5 books at one time, I’ll have a Stephen King book going, a book by Kuntz maybe a book by Fulton J. Sheen and Wayne Dyer all at the same time along with a few magazines and papers. I love the ability to change directions, to find something that fits my needs at the time. Sometimes the character development of King is what I need and other times it’s some straight talk by Sheen, but what ever it is, I have it at hand.

This method of reading takes time, some books I have been reading for over one year, others last only a few weeks, all depends on my over all needs and the ease of reading. For example I have been reading “An introduction to the Devout life” by St. Francis de Sales for well over a year, i think it’s going on 2 years. And in that same time I have read several King and Kuntz books.

Why such a difference in time, why one book takes me 2 weeks and another 2 years, well it’s not size, Kings are 500 or more pages and The Devout life is just over 200. The disparity in time is due to the depth of reading. When it comes to King, as much as I love his writing and think he is an amazing story teller, in truth the depth is only so deep, St. Francis de Sales on the other hand offers fewer words and, well his story telling is not his strong point, but the depth of each word can make an ocean seem as a kiddy pool. It’s all about processing time and how much my mind can take, and my need at the time of reading. I have devoured faith books as fast if not faster than a King book. It’s all timing and need…

Our faith life is much the same, there should be more than one aspect of our faith life, just as I like to read King and Sheen, two very different styles of writing. King, more a character development, more in to the need to set it all up. King can take one hundred pages to set up an event that only takes ten pages. Some would say over kill, others, like me, would say nope not at all, with in those one hundred pages are the souls of his characters the very essence of there beings. On the other hand, Sheen has the ability to take complex concepts and turn them in to, almost, sill ideas. He has the ability to use the absurd to relay the truths of the faith. It is the multi-faceted aspect of reading 5 books at the same time that invigorates my mind, and it is this same multi-dimensionalness of  faith that invigorates my soul. To challenge my soul to think and love and live in 4 or 5 different ways, all at the same time. To offer up the heart aches and the joys of life all while harvesting the wheat of passion that was sown the year before. To live in the light of Christ and still choose the path, that often times delivers me in to that darkness of lies. To turn the page of defeat in to a page of victory to live out my life in the fullness of the truth as I discover the deeper meaning of my relationship to my God.

Yep, my faith is live a Stephen King book mixed with a little Kuntz and a dash of Sheen. Each offering me a new way to see the light of Christ. A light that will help me to keep on reading my soul…

Paul

 

Let the Holy Spirit Drive

Life is worth living, you may have heard that before, it was an old TV show hosted by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, a very dramatic speaker and an excellent teacher. On his show he would pick one topic, say sin, and spend the whole time teaching and talking about sin. Now that in of itself is not amazing, I could spend 30 to 60 minutes talking about anything. What was amazing was the depth of his talks and the passion and love he had for not only the topics, but also for the unseen TV audience.

He used no q-cards, no notes, he just allowed the Holy Spirit to guide him. On my local Catholic radio they air his show. I was driving to work and listing to him, can’t remember the topic, but I do remember him saying, “Oh, I know, I said the topic was ____, but I don’t use notes, and this is where it lead me” or something to that effect. Now once again, I can talk about anything without notes, but I’m not sure my passion and depth would be as his was.

So what is my point, why do I write about Bishop Sheen, to what point am I driving to?

The Holy Spirit, that’s the message of this blog. Fulton Sheen had a gift, the gift of allowing the Holy Spirit to work through him. Sure, he also had the gift of talking, teaching and just over all presence, but his true gift was his ability to move over and allow the Holy Spirit to do its work.

This is a gift we all could use a little more of, and I am sure Bishop Sheen would agree that he too could have used a bit more of it. We humans tend to want to do it for ourselves rather than allowing other to do it for us. We see it in our everyday lives, we hear people saying it, and we ourselves are guilty of it. It’s not easy for us to push our ego aside and allow others to do what we feel we should do, it’s hard to allow someone else in on our own glory. But as Catholics, as Christians we are called to do just that.

Jesus tells us the he will carry our cross, lighten our load, ease our burden and yoke. All the different ways Jesus has told us to allow Him, the Son of God, to carry us. But all too often we have to say no, we reject the offer on the bases of simple human pride, we allow our ego to dictate our actions, leaving our heart and souls out of the discussion.

Now I have no idea what Bishop Sheen was like off camera, so I cannot comment on his personal or spiritual life. But I can make observations based on what I have seen and heard. Many will was he was a show man, and they would be correct, he studied to be an actor at one time. Many will say he was conceited, to this I cannot comment; I have never met the man. Others have said he is just a talking head, once again, that may or may not be the case, I would not know. But what I do know is that he had a way of teaching and speaking that moved many. His show was a simple production, him and a blackboard, that’s it, nothing else. No live audience or guest, just him and his talk. The show won major awards, and was watched by millions each week. I also can tell you that he has inspired and tough me. He has made me think deeply on my faith and even had me question some of my understandings, and has caused me to research the topic. Simply put, Bishop Sheen was and still is one of the great teachers of the catholic faith. His ability to state simply the complex is inspiring and his depth of knowledge is truly amazing. But his ability to move aside and allow the Holy Spirit to work through him was truly his greatest gift. We all can learn from this holy man, we all can benefit from him and we all should learn how to move over and allow the Holy Spirit to drive us, as He drove Bishop Fulton Sheen.

Paul