Today we have a double-dip of "FishEater" profiles in courage ~ the great late Archbishop Fulton Sheen and Father Edward Flanagan of Boys Town, Nebraska. Great Americans, great Catholics, both of whom are on the road to sainthood, whose causes are being advanced for the highest honor of Christendom. And true patriots, both of them.
QUOTE LOVE'S OVERFLOW
Away back in the agelessness of eternity, in that day that had neither beginning nor end, God was enjoying infinite communion with Truth and Love in the amiable society of the three Persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Wanting nothing for His perfection, desiring nothing for His happiness, needing nothing for the replenishing of His life, there was no need for God ever to go outside of Himself. If, therefore, He ever chose to create a world, it must have been not on account of need, nor duty, nor constraint, but only on account of love.
Why then did God create a world? God created the world for something like the same reason that we find it hard to keep a secret! Good things are hard to keep. The rose is good, and tells its secret in perfume. The sun is good, and tells its secret in light and heat. Man is good, and tells the secret of his goodness in the language of thought. But God is infinitely good and therefore infinitely loving. Why therefore could not He by a free impulsion of His love let love overflow and bring new worlds into being? God could not keep, as it were, the secret of His love, and the telling of it was creation....
Quite naturally the mind of that great Architect might have conceived ten thousand other possible worlds than this. This is not absolutely the best world that God could have made. But it is the best world for the purpose that He had in mind in making it. Almighty God chose to make a universe in which not all the creatures would be like sticks and stones, trees and beasts, each of which is impelled by a law of nature, or a law of instinct to a determined rigorous end, without the slightest enjoyment of freedom. He willed to place in paradise a creature made to His own image and likeness, but a creature different from all others, because endowed with that glorious gift of freedom, which is the power of saying “Yes” or “No,” of choosing to sacrifice oneself to duty or duty to oneself, and forever remaining master and captain of one’s own fate and destiny. In other words, God willed to make a moral universe and the only condition upon which morality is possible is freedom. UNQUOTE
(Excerpt from: The Divine Romance, by Archbishop Fulton Sheen)
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Edward Flanagan was born in County Roscommon, Ireland on July 13, 1886. As a young man Flanagan wanted to be a priest. Father Flanagan moved to America in the 1910s. His first parish was in O'Neill, Nebraska. His second one was in Omaha, Nebraska.
Father Flanagan developed an understanding for the boys and young men who were orphaned by society. He realized that children who were neglected often turned to crime. He's known all over the world for his work at Boys Town.
Here's Fr. Flanagan himself. "I have really never found a boy who wanted to be bad."
QUOTE LOVE'S OVERFLOW
Away back in the agelessness of eternity, in that day that had neither beginning nor end, God was enjoying infinite communion with Truth and Love in the amiable society of the three Persons of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Wanting nothing for His perfection, desiring nothing for His happiness, needing nothing for the replenishing of His life, there was no need for God ever to go outside of Himself. If, therefore, He ever chose to create a world, it must have been not on account of need, nor duty, nor constraint, but only on account of love.
Why then did God create a world? God created the world for something like the same reason that we find it hard to keep a secret! Good things are hard to keep. The rose is good, and tells its secret in perfume. The sun is good, and tells its secret in light and heat. Man is good, and tells the secret of his goodness in the language of thought. But God is infinitely good and therefore infinitely loving. Why therefore could not He by a free impulsion of His love let love overflow and bring new worlds into being? God could not keep, as it were, the secret of His love, and the telling of it was creation....
Quite naturally the mind of that great Architect might have conceived ten thousand other possible worlds than this. This is not absolutely the best world that God could have made. But it is the best world for the purpose that He had in mind in making it. Almighty God chose to make a universe in which not all the creatures would be like sticks and stones, trees and beasts, each of which is impelled by a law of nature, or a law of instinct to a determined rigorous end, without the slightest enjoyment of freedom. He willed to place in paradise a creature made to His own image and likeness, but a creature different from all others, because endowed with that glorious gift of freedom, which is the power of saying “Yes” or “No,” of choosing to sacrifice oneself to duty or duty to oneself, and forever remaining master and captain of one’s own fate and destiny. In other words, God willed to make a moral universe and the only condition upon which morality is possible is freedom. UNQUOTE
(Excerpt from: The Divine Romance, by Archbishop Fulton Sheen)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edward Flanagan was born in County Roscommon, Ireland on July 13, 1886. As a young man Flanagan wanted to be a priest. Father Flanagan moved to America in the 1910s. His first parish was in O'Neill, Nebraska. His second one was in Omaha, Nebraska.
Father Flanagan developed an understanding for the boys and young men who were orphaned by society. He realized that children who were neglected often turned to crime. He's known all over the world for his work at Boys Town.
Here's Fr. Flanagan himself. "I have really never found a boy who wanted to be bad."
The "Two Brothers" statue with the famous quote, "He ain't heavy, Father, . . .he's my brother," greets visitors at Father Flanagan's "Boys Town," established in 1917. Today this 900-acre campus and working farm is home to 500 troubled boys and girls.
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