The Cries of Jesus From the Cross Quotes

“Make this experiment whether you believe in God or not. At your first opportunity, stop in a Catholic Church for a visit. You need not believe, as we Catholics do, that Our Lord is really and truly present in the tabernacle. But just sit there for an hour, and within that hour you will experience a surpassing peace the like of which you never before enjoyed in your life. You will ask yourself as a sensationalist once asked me when we made an all-night vigil of adoration in the Basilica of Sacre Coeur in Paris: “What is it that is in that church?” Without voice or argument or thundering demands, you will have an awareness of something before which your spirit trembles — a sense of the Divine.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“Let those souls who think their work has no value recognize that by fulfilling their insignificant tasks out of a love of God, those tasks assume a supernatural worth. The aged who bear the taunts of the young, the sick crucified to their beds, the ignorant immigrant in the steel mill, the street cleaner and the garbage collector, the wardrobe mistress in the theater and the chorus girl who never had a line, the unemployed carpenter and the ash collector — all these will be enthroned above dictators, presidents, kings, and cardinals if a greater love of God inspires their humbler tasks than inspires those who play nobler roles with less love.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“Where will the capacity for heaven come from if we have neglected it on earth? A man cannot suddenly walk into a lecture room on higher mathematics and be thrilled by its equations if all during life he neglected to develop a taste for mathematics. A heaven of poets would be a hell to those who never learned to love poetry. And a heaven of divine truth, righteousness, and justice would be a hell to those who never studiously cultivated those virtues here below. Heaven is only for those who work for heaven.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“Let no one think he can be totally indifferent to God in this life and suddenly develop a capacity for Him at the moment of death.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“I want to be ignorant of everything in the world — everything but You, dear Jesus. And then, by the strangest of strange paradoxes, I shall be wise!”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“It is not wisdom that saves; it is ignorance! There is no redemption for the fallen”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“One reason for a long life is penance. Time is given us not just to accumulate that which we cannot take with us, but to make reparation for our sins.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“The most current philosophy of life is self-expressionism: “Let yourself go”; “Do whatever you please.” Any suggestion of restraining errant impulses is called a masochistic survival of the dark ages. The truth is that the only really self-expressive people in the world are in the insane asylum. They have absolutely no inhibitions, no conventions, and no codes. They are as self-expressive as hell, i.e., in complete disorder.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“You can justify your refusal to come to God because of scandals. So did the soldiers. It was an awful scandal that Christ the Son of God should swing impotent from a peg.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“Three common criminals in the eyes of Roman law carry their crosses up a hill. One of them Our Savior forgives and rescues him into paradise. It was so undramatic. In fact, it was boring. So the soldiers took dice and sat down and shook them to see who would have His garments. There, within a stone’s throw of them — was being enacted the tremendous drama of redemption, and they only sat and gambled. All life is a gamble, as we only know it! Some throw dice and play for such small stakes, such as garments and wealth; others throw a life and play for the stake of eternal salvation. But it was so undramatic! They missed their play and lost! But the man on the Cross was saying His cause had won. “It is finished.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“Sensationalists miss divinity for just that reason: the true religion is always unspectacular. The foolish virgins go to buy oil for their lamps, and when they come back, they find the Bridegroom already returned. And the door closed. It was so undramatic. A beautiful maiden knocks at the door of an inn, and an innkeeper tells her there is no room. Into a stable she enters, and there a child is born. It was God’s entrance into the world. But it was so undramatic.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“Their mockery is something like we hear today. “Germany prays to God; America prays to God; England prays to God: On whose side is God?” The implication being that God must necessarily be a geographical Deity restricted to one people, one race, and one nation. The answer to that taunt is, of course, that if we prayed as we should, we would all be on the same side because the perfect prayer is: “Thy will be done.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“Sin is self-mutilation, the destruction of personality — when it takes the form of pride, it crowns Goodness with thorns; when it takes the form of dishonesty, it nails hands to a Cross; when it takes the form of hate, it blasphemes the dying; when it takes the form of lust, it crucifies.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“Why is it that the lover of horror cannot stand the sight of the crucifix? Why is it that the fanatics of murder stories are so cold to the story of the world’s greatest sacrifice? The answer is that, unlike all other crimes, the crucifix accuses us.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“So when God pulls down the curtain on the drama of the world’s redemption, He will not ask what part we played, but only how well we played the role assigned to us.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“In the Christian order, it is not the important who are essential, nor those who do great things who are really great. A king is no nobler in the sight of God than a peasant. The head of government with millions of troops at his command is no more precious in the sight of God than a paralyzed child. The former has greater opportunities for evil, but like the widow in the Temple, if the child fulfills his task of resignation to the will of God more than the dictator fulfills his task of procuring social justice for the glory of God, then the child is greater. “God is not a respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34).”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology

“We lose our souls not only by the evil we do but also by the good we leave undone.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology