The Ven. Fulton Sheen Library

Being in my late 30's I obviously missed Fulton Sheen in his lifetime, but I've recently been going back through a ton of his stuff and have been really inspired. I'm glad so much of what he said was recorded. His Family Retreat series on Spotify is excellent.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm trying to tackle the Summa right now - probably not all at once. So I feel your pain re: God and Intelligence. I felt similar after reading a bunch of C.S. Lewis and then cracking open Miracles - I felt like I had just turned the game onto ultra-hard mode.

 

Thanks for listing these books. I am a great fan of Archbishop Sheen and I have read the first book on your list but not the others. Thanks for the pointer!

 

Been back on my kick of listening to Fulton Sheen podcasts/videos - came across this quote I hadn't heard from him before:

"We become used to the Eucharist as husbands become used to beautiful wives, and we begin to take them for granted."

I definitely take both for granted - something to think about.

 

Wow - that playlist is fantastic (and thorough)! Thank you - this will keep me busy for a while.

I stumbled upon a recording from Characters of the Passion on Spotify. This is for Chapter 1 - Peter. I will provide the link below. Full disclosure, I really don't like this recording, nothing personal against the reader but he sounds way too dry and I find the background music distracting. But it seems like this is the only audiobook version on spotify. Even so, I could picture Fulton Sheen saying these words with his characteristic passion and drama.

As someone who is trying to claw his way back into the Catholic faith and get PMO free I found the subject of Peter's fall from grace really fascinating as I see a mirror in it in the long view (my leaving the faith in my high school years) and short view (my falling back into PMO last summer after a 100 day streak). Sheen says the "psychology of a fall" can be broken into five steps:

1. Neglect of Prayer
2. Substitution of action for prayer
3. Lukewarmness
4. Satisfaction of material wants, feeling and emotions
5. Human Respect (when we deny our faith or are ashamed of it under ridicule or scorn)

I've felt myself go through all of these steps in my PMO battle - I have bounced around within steps 2-4 as I continually fail to get back to (and fix) step 1. I know and I've read so many times that step 1 is the key. Anyway, before I ran too much, here it is:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0A9qf130XJufvqHh1dfCOf

 

It is interesting to read of these 5 stages as discerned by the venerable Bishop Sheen. I languished in these stages far too long without even realizing that the first one led to all of the rest. Two and a half years ago, I was led to the realization that every one of my falls was preceded by complacency in my commitment to daily prayer. I cannot take credit for this realization because it suddenly became clear to me like a light being switched on in a dark room of my own muddled thoughts. I am sure God led me to this understanding and I pray that I may never forget it. I hope others will learn from this without wallowing in sin for decades as I did.