My Alma Mater is closing….

I hadn’t realized how hard this post would be to write until I sat down and couldn’t find the words, couldn’t express my feeling and couldn’t understand the depth of loss. But…a few months down the road from hearing the my Alma Mater was closing at the end of the school year, I hope to find the words with God’s grace.

I was accepted to Holy Names College (later University)in Oakland in the spring of 1986. It was all happenstance and something of God’s providence that led me to this small Catholic liberal arts college in the hills of Oakland. After my discharge from the Marine Corps, I was living in Seattle and going to Community College and had decided that I wanted to go to a small Catholic liberal arts college/university. So I applied to several (I think 10 or more) institutions throughout the United States.
As luck, happenstance, or God’s divine providence would have it, the first acceptance letter I received was from Holy Names…I took that as a definite sign and wrote back my “yes” and all the other acceptance letters that followed were declined as I prepared to move from the northwest and down to the Bay Area I still call home.

And although I was 25 years of age when I began my studies at Holy Names, I like many people, made life long and deep friendships that sadly I do not always cherish in the way I should. I studied under dedicated and great professors who were true teachers and mentors in every sense of the word. The small and intimate size of the college and of my major, philosophy, led to deep and life changing encounters of seeing the other as a child of God. I remember being asked to meet with Dr. Richard Yee, one of my philosophy professors, where he gently scolded me for my callous and unkind words towards a fellow student and how he expected more of me. How leaving his office humbled and ashamed I continue to hear his voice in many of my interactions even to this day…seeking a more gentle and kinder way of knowing the other.

Or Dr. Tricia McMahon and her invitation into the joy and playfulness of children’s theater and how I can even today remember some of the songs which we sang and how this helped me to be a better teacher by incorporating the experiences I had in shaping the children I was honored to teach.

Then there was the day in class when a friend and I were discussing the merits of a certain “Calvin and Hobbes” cartoon and how Dr. Shelia Gibson, walking into our Ethics Class and hearing us began to discuss the historical figures Calvin and Hobbes with us. And when discovering we were discussing comic strip characters graciously asked for the book and read it. Teaching me and all in the class to look a little deeper into the culture around us and begin to see the depths of God’s fingerprints to be found even in a comic strip.

The last memory, I will share, is of Sr. Irene Woodward and her time in my last undergraduate year at Holy Names College…her teaching and leading me through two philosophy courses. Her torturing me into using fewer words that I wish to use and then to answer questions that seemed impossible but became clearer through discussion and correction. How learning to listen carefully to the hints and proddings shared in weekly discussions opened my mind and life to greater and more profound encounters with God.
And I could go on.

In the years that followed Holy Names went from College to University…added sports programs that were non existent in my undergraduate years but more importantly continued to outreach to the local community and in a special way looking for and helping those first generation college students.

I graduated from Holy Names College in the spring of 1989 after spending a year studying in Germany. I later returned to work towards my teaching credential which ultimately led me to my call to the priesthood.

Shortly after I heard the news, I was up at dinner with my sister and her family and my godson’s wife, who works at a local community college in helping students transition to 4 year institutions lamented the loss of Holy Names and shared how hard the Holy Names Sisters worked in these final years in seeking to help students graduate debt free in understanding the burden student debt can be to many graduates.

The local community of Oakland and the greater community of the Catholic Church will surely miss the gift of mission that is/was Holy Names University. Begun with the joy, the grit and the passion of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the courage of the Holy Names Sisters, whether in the mid 19th century founding or their continued service into the beginning of this 21st century…their mission continues in the lives of those they touched and formed as we pass on the gift of education, friendship and joy we received, not in a diploma or degree but in our hearts formed in the image and charism of the Sisters of the Holy Names call to serve in the image of Jesus.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Thank you Grandpa! I heard these words the other day outside of Lucky’s as I was walking to my car. A younger man than I, had asked me if I could spare a few dollars. I hadn’t any cash in my wallet, but I thought I may have in the car door pocket. I apologized and said if he would wait I would check if I had any in my car. I loaded my groceries in the trunk, checked the door and low and behold there were three one dollar bills. I gathered them into my hands and then walk back to him, gave him the few dollars and said “God bless” to which he replied, “Thank you Grandpa.”
I walked away stunned. I didn’t know what to think. And certainly, in all my life, no one…and I mean no one…had ever said those three words to me. Being called “Father” after I was ordained to the priesthood was a challenge to get used too and now I was called “Grandpa.”

When I arrived home a few minutes later, I was still rolling these words around in my mind. In the bathroom, I looked in the mirror, it was there that I realized…I looked like a grandpa, an old man with grey whiskers, a receding hairline and yes a few extra pounds around the waist. And it was there that the blessing of these words took hold and the acceptance of God’s blessing of growing older was known in the troubled heart.

In a recent conversation with a true grandparent, I was told for the 100th time about how wonderful grandchildren were and how as grandparents it was much easier to unconditionally love them than their own children. Distance, time and wisdom helps us to understand the beauty of life and how each life is so very precious in the eyes of God…and especially in the little ones that surround us.

Since that morning when I was given thanks as a “grandpa” I have begun to wonder about this gift.

I truly enjoy being a Father, a pastor and shepherd to God’s holy people. I take this calling and vocation very seriously and find peace in the blessings, the sorrows, the joys and the sadness which my daily ministry challenges me to embrace. I can see more clearly how I am also called to be a grandfather; a little softer, gentler and accepting in sharing the unconditional love I am to offer through God’s loving and compassionate grace.
I get to experience this through my many relationships but in a special way in the relationship I have with the Sisters of the Holy Names (SNJM) as we celebrate Mass together. When I was pastor of St. Lucy I would go to celebrate with them in their little chapel once a month. Being surrounded by this group of wonderful and blessed women, I can now begin to see how they become the grandmothers needed in our Church and how in my weekly celebrations with the Eucharistic Missionaries of the Most Holy Trinity (MEEST) I also know this unconditional love.

As Pope, Francis, reminds us, “Very often, it is grandparents, who, ensure that the most important values are passed down to their grandchildren,… Their words, their affection, or simply their presence help children to realize that history did not begin with them, that they are now part of an age–old pilgrimage and that they need to respect all that came before them.” (#194 Amoris Laetitia)
I love this quote because if we live this quote! Live it in joy and love…respect, honor and blessing…even in a story heard so many times…it is the story of our faith, our hope and our love of God and neighbor. It is hearing the words spoken…”thank you grandpa!”.

God bless
Fr. Mark

A several months ago I went to present a weekend with Worldwide Marriage Encounter. Working with married couples we present a weekend to other couples seeking to make the Sacrament of Marriage a renewed gifts of love. In truth, when I go, I have many things on my mind, especially leaving the parish and when I return I am physically and emotionally exhausted by the work being done. But I also am spiritually uplifted in ways I cannot begin to describe. I have a spring in my spiritual step that propels me forward with a greater joy and blessing.
When I was called to become a pastor of a parish a friend and mentor gave me a copy of The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community to help me to understand the new role I was assuming as not just a priest but a Pastor and Leader of a community of faith. He also gave me the Canon Law citations is should read, pray and study over in the coming months. While this academic study was wonderful, and I truly did spend time in prayer over the “assignments” given to read, it wasn’t until I began to understand, through Marriage Encounter, the unity of Marriage and Holy Orders that I began to fully integrate the teachings and traditions of the Church into my ministry.

“To the extent that priests are living signs and servants of ecclesial communion they become part of the living unity of the Church in time, that is, of Sacred Tradition of which the Magisterium is the custodian and guarantor. Reference to Tradition invests the ministry of priests with a solid basis and an objectivity of testimony to the Truth, which came in Christ and was revealed in history. Such helps to avoid a prurience with regard to novelty which injures communion and evacuates the depth and credibility of the priestly ministry.” (#16)

To “become part of a living unity of the Church in time” is to enter into relationships fully alive with joy and blessing, with conflict and hurt and hope filled healing and conversion to life, peace and love. Trusting in this peace it was a reminder, a pastor is called to care for all souls, all the children of God within the parish boundaries. Like a parent, we, as priests, are called to seek to unite all people together. The Church once more teaches us, “The parish priest is called to be a patient builder of communion between his own parish and the local Church, and the universal Church. He should be a model of adherence to the perennial Magisterium of the Church and to its discipline.” (#16)

This loving obedience to the wisdom and truth of the Catholic Church helps to moderate and gather us together where as a “builder of communion” both near and far, we learn to heal and not simply tolerate the differences that divide us.
And of course, when you talk to any married couple, any mother and father or for that matter any member of the family you discover that to be a “builder of communion” is necessary and a movement to a unity of grace filled love. The United States Bishops in their document, “Love Is or Mission: The Family Fully Alive”, the Bishops talk about the need of encounter with the person of Jesus in an invitation in and through a greater community. It is a priority of being united around a common table where differences are acknowledged and at the same time the call to a unity of love is also recognized and worked for as a family caring for one another. The Bishops write, “In the Church, the first priority is to bring people to an encounter with the Divine Physician. Any encounter with Christ brings healing to fallen humanity, and the Holy Spirit can always be invited into our hearts to enable repentance and conversion. In the words of Pope Francis: “I invite all Christians everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least and openness to letting him encounter them; I asked all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord.” (#155)
The “personal encounter with Jesus” as Pope Francis teaches is an encounter of family and a call to choosing to gather and share life and love. It is through these relationships, just as the relationship within the family of the Church, as members of the one family of God, we learn to love and grow in hope. My work as a “father of a parish family”, works towards this goal…as bumpy and difficult as it can be.

“The Church is a family of families, constantly enriched by the lives of all those domestic churches. “In virtue of the sacrament of matrimony, every family becomes, in effect, a good for the Church. From this standpoint, reflecting on the interplay between the family and the Church will prove a precious gift for the Church in our time. The Church is good for the family, and the family is good for the Church. The safeguarding of the Lord’s gift in the sacrament of matrimony is a concern not only of individual families but of the entire Christian community”.” (Amoris Laetitia #87)
I have been working on this way to long….3 months, so I will end this in reminding me, my parish and all of God’s holy people…that we are a family of faith and the responsibility of parenting the family is always modeled on God’s will…the call to follow him with our whole heart, our whole life, our whole being. To be a pastor, a parent, a mentor is the call to lead others, as brothers and sisters in Christ to the heavenly throne of the Father…nothing less.

Thanks for your patience.
God Bless
Fr. Mark.

Short videos discussing the Wisdom of Fulton Sheen

With the crib seen as a tabernacle and the child as a kind of host, then the home becomes a living temple of God. The sacristan of that sanctuary is the mother, who never permits the tabernacle lamp of faith to go out.

The life of a bishop should be more perfect than the life of a hermit. The reason he gave was that the holiness which the monk preserves in the desert must be preserved by the bishop in the midst of the evil of the world

Our Lord was born not just of her flesh but also by her consent.

We are living in perilous times when the hearts and souls of men are sorely tried. Never before has the future been so utterly unpredictable; we are not so much in a period of transition with belief in progress to push us on, rather we seem to be entering they realm of the unknown, joylessly, disillusioned, and without hope. The whole world seems to be in a state of spiritual widowhood, possessed of the harrowing devastation of one who set out on life’s course joyously in intimate comradeship with another, and then is bereft of that companion forever.

Since evil is nothing positive, there can be no principle of evil. It has no meaning expect in reference to something good.

Many a modern preacher is far less concerned with preaching Christ and Him crucified than he is with his popularity with his congregation.

It is not the sanctuary that is in danger; it is civilization. It is not infallibility that may go down; it is personal rights. It is not the Eucharist that may pass away; it is freedom of conscience. It is not divine justice that may evaporate; it is the courts of human justice. It is not that God may be driven from His throne; it is that men may lose the meaning of home. For peace on earth will come only to those who give glory to God! It is not the Church that is in danger, it is the world!

What is discovered may be abused, but that does not mean the discovery was evil.

There has been no single influence which has done more to prevent man from finding God and rebuilding his character, has done more to lower the moral tone of society than the denial of personal guilt. This repudiation of man’s personal responsibility for his action is falsely justified in two ways: by assuming that man is only an animal and by giving a sense of guilt the tag “morbid.”

O Emmanuel, our King and Giver of Law:
come to save us, Lord our God!

The very freedom which the sinner supposedly exercises in his self-indulgence is only another proof that he is ruled by the tyrant.

O King of all nations and keystone of the Church:
come and save man, whom you formed from the dust!

The nice people rarely come to God; they take their moral tone from the society in which they live. Like the Pharisee in front of the temple, they believe themselves to be very respectable citizens. Elegance is their test of virtue; to them, the moral is the aesthetic, the evil is the ugly. Every move they make is dictated, not by a love of goodness, but by the influence of their age. Their intellects are cultivated–in knowledge of current events; they read only the bestsellers, but their hearts are undisciplined. They say that they would go to the church if the Church were only better–but they never tell you how much better the Church must be before they will join it. They sometimes condemn the gross sins of society, such as murder; they are not tempted to this because they fear the opprobrium which comes to them who commit them. By avoiding the sins which society condemns, they escape the reproach, they consider themselves good par excellence.

O Radiant Dawn,
splendor of eternal light, sun of justice:
come and shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the
shadow of death.

Short videos discussing the Wisdom of Fulton Sheen

The nice people do not come to God, because they think they are good through their own merits or bad through inherited instincts. If they do good, they believe they are to receive the credit for it; if they do evil, they deny that it is their own fault. They are good through their own good-heartedness, they say; but they are bad because they are misfortunate, either in their economic life or through an inheritance of evil genes from their grandparents.

O Key of David,
opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom:
come and free the prisoners of darkness!

Look for the Church that is hated by the world, as Christ was hated by the world. Look for the Church which is accused of being behind the times, as Our Lord was accused of being ignorant and never having learned. Look for the Church which men sneer at as socially inferior, as they sneered at Our Lord because He came from Nazareth…Look for the Church which the world rejects because it claims it is infallible, as Pilate rejected Christ because he called Himself the Truth. Look for the Church which amid the confusion of conflicting opinions, its members love as they love Christ, and respect its voice as the very voice of its Founder, and the suspicion will grow, that if the Church is unpopular with the spirit of the world, then it is unworldly, and if it is unworldly, it is other-worldly. Since it is other-worldly, it is infinitely loved and infinitely hated as was Christ Himself.

O Root of Jesse’s stem,
sign of God’s love for all his people:
come to save us without delay!

If I were not a Catholic, and were looking for the true Church in the world today, I would look for the one Church which did not get along well with the world; in other words, I would look for the Church which the world hates. My reason for doing this would be, that if Christ is in any one of the churches of the world today, He must still be hated as He was when He was on earth in the flesh. If you would find Christ today, then find the Church that does not get along with the world..

O Leader of the House of Israel,
giver of the Law to Moses on Sinai:
come to rescue us with your mighty power!

When you think of the condition the world is in now you sometimes wish that Noah had missed the boat.

The modern atheist does not disbelieve because of his intellect, but because of his will; it is not knowledge that makes him an atheist…The denial of God springs from a man’s desire not to have a God–from his wish that there were no Justice behind the universe, so that his injustices would fear not retribution; from his desire that there be no Law, so that he may not be judged by it; from his wish that there were no Absolute Goodness; that he might go on sinning with impunity. That is why the modern atheist is always angered when he hears anything said about God and religion–he would be incapable of such a resentment if God were only a myth.

If bringing of children into the world is today an economic burden it is because the social system is inadequate; and not because God’s law is wrong. Therefore the State should remove the causes of that burden. The human must not be limited and controlled to fit the economic, but the economic must be expanded to fit the human.

Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: ‘I am Who am.” The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: “I am who am not.” Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side.

Any book which inspires us to lead a better life is a good book.

The world blesses not the meek, but the vindictive; it praises not the one who turns the other cheek, but the one who renders evil for evil; it exalts not the humble, but the aggressive. Ideological forces have carried that spirit of violence, class-struggle, and the clenched fist to an extreme the like of which the world before has never seen.

(Repose) reminds us that all actions get teir worth from God: “worship” means “admitting worth.” To worship is to restore to our workaday life its true worth by setting it in its real relationship to God. Who is its end and ours.

Short videos discussing the Wisdom of Fulton Sheen

Many people make the great mistake of aiming directly at pleasure; they forget that pleasure comes only from the fulfillment of a duty or obedience to a law–for man is made to obey the laws of his own nature as inescapably as he must obey the laws of gravity. A boy has pleasure eating ice-cream because he is fulfilling one of the “oughts” of human nature: eating. If he eats more ice-cream that the laws of his body sanction, he will no longer get the pleasure he seeks, but the pain of a stomachache. To see pleasure, regardless of law, is to miss it.

Change your entire point of view! Life is not a mockery. Disappointments are merely markers on the road of life, saying: “Perfect happiness is not here.” Though your passions may have been satisfied, you were never satisfied, because while your passions can find satisfaction in this world, you cannot.

Every earthy ideal is lost by being possessed. The more material you ideal, the greater the disappointment; the more spiritual it is, the less the disillusionment.

I wonder maybe if our Lord does not suffer more from our indifference, than He did from the crucifixion.

The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen…Memorial of St. Nicholas….It is not particularly difficult to find thousands who will spend two or three hours a day in exercising, but if you ask them to bend their knees to God in five minutes of prayer they protest that it is too long.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15)

the Rosary is the best therapy for these distraught, unhappy, fearful, and frustrated souls, precisely because it involves the simultaneous use of three powers: the physical, the vocal, and the spiritual, and in that order.

Evil may have its hour, but God will have His day.

But in a conflict between truth and darkness, truth cannot loose.

It is a characteristic of any decaying civilization that the great masses of the people are unconscious of the tragedy. Humanity in a crisis is generally insensitive to the gravity of the tines in which it lives. Men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because it involves too much self-accusation and principally because they have no standards outside of themselves by which to measure their times.

Deep sorrow does not come because one has violated a law, but only if one knows he has broken off the relationship with Divine Love.

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.