"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
If you’ve read this blog for a while, it’ll be no secret that I’m a big fan of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. I recently found out something I didn’t know about Grandpa Sheen, that the FBI kept a file on him. Interested in knowing the contents? Please click on the image below..
I wonder if all those files had “JMJ” written in the top corner too… 😉
Last Sunday I got to pray in front of the tomb of Venerable Fulton Sheen. Since it’s Friday and time for a little bit of Friday Frivolity, here’s the vide of Grandpa Sheen as the special guess on the hit TV show of the era, “What’s my line?”:
There’s some news on Fulton Sheen’s canonization process…
As the case for his canonization continues, I thought I’d post a TV episode from my all-time favourite archbishop, Fulton Sheen:
“In the last analysis, no love is ever driven out; it is only conquered by another love. One cannot overcome a love of alcohol until he finds some other love which is more compelling”
– Fulton Sheen, Guide to Contentment
The article A love more compelling first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net
Today is Valentine’s Day, a day on which we celebrate the life of a 3rd Century Roman Saint, as well as trying to stave off the tremendous societal pressure to be romantic and lovey dovey 😉
“The human heart is not shaped like a valentine heart, perfect and regular in contour; it is slightly irregular in shape as if a small piece of it were missing out of its side. That missing part may very well symbolize a piece that a spear tore out of the Universal Heart of Humanity on the Cross, but it probably symbolizes something more.
It may very well mean that when God created each human heart, He kept a small sample of it in heaven, and sent the rest of it into the world of time, where it would each day learn the lesson that it could never be really happy, that it could never be really wholly in love, that it could never be really whole-hearted until it rested with the Risen Christ in an eternal Easter…” – Archbishop Fulton Sheen
(Thanks to Alexandra for this one)
When I was at University, I read a book by Jean Vanier in which he said that whenever a homeless person asked him for money, he would reach into his pocket and hand over the first coin he found, whether big or small.
Likewise, in an interview with Fulton Sheen’s niece, she said that her uncle would give money to the poor whenever it was asked of him. When she asked him if he might be being lied to by those asking for help, he simply responded “I can’t take the chance”.
A little while ago I did a post about tithing where I spoke about the general responsibility Christians have towards the poor. However, this begs the question: what is the best way in which to help the poor?
For example, most social workers I’ve known have always said that you should never give money to beggars. Following this advice, some of my friends no longer hand over cash, but instead make sure that their car, purse or bag is always stocked with snacks, so that they have something to give when asked for help.
I recently read an article in Crisis Magazine which looks at this issue. I’d be interested to see what you think about it. What you think is the best way to help the poor?