Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?
Fulton J. SheenRead
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.
Interpretation
Lent is an opportunity for self-improvement and positive actions rather than merely avoiding negative ones.
This quote by Fulton J. Sheen reflects on the purpose of Lent, emphasizing that it is a season intended for growth and the nurturing of positive qualities rather than just abstaining from negative behaviors. The metaphor of pulling up weeds versus planting good seeds illustrates the choice between eliminating bad influences and actively fostering virtues, aligning with a positive Christian ideal that focuses on constructive change.
In practice
During a Lent retreat, this quote can inspire participants to focus on personal growth.
Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?
A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults.
Many married women who have deliberately spurned the "hour" of childbearing are unhappy and frustrated. They never discovered the joys of marriage because they refused to surrender to the obligation of their state. In saving themselves, they lost themselves!
No one has ever laughed at a pun who did not see in the one word a twofold meaning. To materialists this world is opaque like a curtain; nothing can be seen through it. A mountain is just a mountain, a sunset just a sunset; but to poets, artists, and saints, the world is transparent like a window pane - it tells of something beyond....a mountain tells of the Power of God, the sunset of His Beauty, and the snowflake of His Purity.
The big print giveth, and the fine print taketh away.
Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.
We seldom learn the true want of what we have till it is discovered that we can have no more.
When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.
We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.
Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.
I have absolutely no objection to growing older. I am a stroke survivor so I am extremely grateful to be ageing - I have nothing but gratitude for the passing years. I am ageing - lucky, lucky me!
Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.
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