Sunday

*Excerpts on Prayer from St. Fulton Sheen in 1950 ‘Lift Up Your Heart’

This is probably the most talkative age in the history of the world – not only because we have more mechanical devices to diffuse our talking, but also because we have little inside our minds which did not come there from the world outside our minds, so that human communication seems to us a great necessity. As a result, talk is deified as a means of solving all problems. Even the young – who have not yet studied the philosophy of human rights – are called upon to solve the problems of the world in their “progressive” classrooms. There are few listeners, although St. Paul tells us that “faith comes from hearing.” If the bodies of most of us were fed as little as the mind, they would soon starve to death. Hyperactivity and love of noise and chatter characterize our age, as a compensation for the modern man’s profound distrust of himself. Not knowing clearly what he is, the American of today tries to become important by what he does – for the more anxious a man is, the more active he becomes.

Prayer: Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Monday
The rocking chair, it has been said, is a typical American invention; it enables man to rest as he is restless, to sit in one place and still be on the go. In the days of a truly Christian civilization, man was active because of his body – he worked to eat. In the post-Christian era, man is active because of his mind – he works to stop thinking. The external necessity of labor is less exigent and cruel than the inner compulsion to “work off” anxiety. Man keeps in futile motion partly to escape having to ask himself two questions: “Why am I here?” and, “Where am I going?”

Because of his inner chaos and division, man cannot endure chaos around him – he longs for uniformity in everything. Having lost his internal unity through union with God, he tries to compensate by seeking an exterior unity with other human beings in the collective.

Prayer: O my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love. (Part of St. Therese morning offering)
Tuesday

Another result of our loss of inner peace is the replacement of quality by quantity. Having lost Grace, a quality of the soul that makes us God-like, a compensation is sought in the worship of quantity. Thus we boast of the “biggest,” the “highest,” the “greatest.” The biggest university becomes the best university. Educators cease to be interested in the discovery of truth that unifies and strive only for a colossal accumulation of unrelated facts. As Pliny said: “Not being able to make our values beautiful, we make them huge.” The greatness of our civilization is sometimes reckoned in terms of New York’s Babels towering against the sky; we forget that Egypt built her greatest pyramids on the eve of her decline.

Prayer: Blessed be the name of the Lord from henceforth and forever more.

 

Wednesday
Life becomes standardized. Today nearly all newspapers have the same standards of what is news. Mass opinion is created by the few magazines which are most widely sold. Our proper internal likeness to others through Divine Grace has given way to an external likeness brought about by slavish imitation. Mechanized opinion, imitation of our cheap “celebrities,” dependence on “they say” or “they are wearing” for our guidance dwarf the modern man’s individuality. The one who lives close to God cares not if he is unlike everybody else; but as one loses unity with Divinity, he develops a fear of being alone. He hopes (falsely) to derive some sense of protection from similarity to others.

Prayer: Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us.

 

Thursday

Finally, as the soul becomes impoverished through want of God-likeness, the body seeks compensation in excessive luxury and show of all sorts. Inner nakedness is atoned for by a new ornateness of dress. A rich boy can dress poorly and still be known as rich; a poor boy who wants to be known as rich must wear the semblance of wealth. A truly learned man does not have to talk about all the books he has read to be known as educated; but the sophomore who wants to be a member of the intelligentsia must intersperse his conversation with: “What! You never read that?” It is so with spirituality, too

We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory

 

Friday

…the soul that has put on Christ does not need to pray publicly in the market places, to draw attention to its piety, as the Pharisees do. The show-off in any area is the man who lacks the quality he so carefully pretends to have. Those who love publicity are always people who do not want their real selves to be known to anyone; they have to advertise a legendary self. When these starved souls are told that they cannot take their various masks and pretenses with them, we seem to hear them say: “Well then, we will not go.” The “act” which they put on has come to them to seem more precious than any truth or any reality.

Prayer: My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I beg pardon for all those that do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee. Amen. (Fatima prayer)

 

Saturday No human being is happy when he is as externalized as most men are today. Everyone wants peace of soul, knowing that he cannot be happy on the outside unless he is happy on the inside. As a Chinese said: “Americans are not happy; they laugh too much.“ He may have seen the million photographs we show of people laughing, with nothing to laugh at but with a grim desire to create the illusion that they are having fun. More important than an analysis of our excessive “outwardness“ is its cure; for no one is happy in such extrinsic posturings. As one looks back to the Gospel, one finds Our Divine Lord warning us against such forms of peace, against standardization and conformity to the world. Prayer: Jesus, Meek and Humble of Heart, make my heart like unto Thine.