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
What this quote means
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.
Themes
LentVirtueEvilGrowthPositiveNatureSeeds
In practice
Example use cases
During a Lent retreat, this quote can inspire participants to focus on personal growth.
More from Fulton J. Sheen
All quotes →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.
Fulton J. SheenRead
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!
Fulton J. SheenRead
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.
Fulton J. SheenRead
The big print giveth, and the fine print taketh away.
Fulton J. SheenRead
Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.
Fulton J. SheenRead
Similar quotes
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.
AristotleRead
We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.
Cato The ElderRead
the writing of some men is like a vast bridge that carries you over the many things that claw and tear. The Wine of Forever
Charles BukowskiRead
It took me whole decades to appreciate the depth and true value of yoga. Sacred texts supported my discoveries, but it was not they that signposted the way. What I learned through yoga, I found out through yoga.
B.K.S. IyengarRead
No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was every more clouded than the present! Wisdom, and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm.
George WashingtonRead
Wishing you happiness always! Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. . . . . Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Max EhrmannRead