The Cries of Jesus from the Cross: An Anthology
As death approaches, the human heart speaks its greatest words of love to those it holds most dear. So it was with Jesus who in His final hours gave us seven last “words” rich with spiritual meaning for every human soul.
For the first time ever, Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s complete writings and reflections on Christ’s last words have been compiled into this one book. Sheen shows how the seven words are, in fact, a full catechism on the spiritual life. From them, you’ll learn the secrets to living the Beatitudes, ways to avoid the deadly vices of anger, envy, lust, and pride, and how to cultivate the heavenly virtues of fortitude, prudence, justice, and charity.
Few books are such an inspiring call to sanctity, and few books are such a spiritual powerhouse. With Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen as your guide, you’ll also learn:
- Why, during His Passion, Jesus never proclaimed his innocence.
- Why Jesus appealed to His Father to forgive, but did not Himself forgive directly.
- What Jesus’ third word from the Cross says about lust.
- Why, like Jesus, the most innocent among us must suffer.
- Why darkness covered the earth after Jesus spoke his fourth word.
- The seven words spoken unto Jesus while He hung on the Cross “š€š” and what they reveal about the impact of Christ’s Passion on your soul.
- What the Passion says about judging others (and why it’s an assault against hope).
- How the conversion of the good thief is the key to the conversion of our modern world.
- Why you and I can sin a thousand times and be forgiven, and the angels who have sinned but once are eternally unforgiven.
- How envy becomes the denial of all justice and love.
- The difference between the virtue of hope and the emotion of hope.
About the Author
Fulton John Sheen was born in El Paso, Illinois, in 1895. In high school, he won a three-year university scholarship, but he turned it down to pursue a vocation to the priesthood. He attended St. Viator College Seminary in Illinois and St. Paul Seminary in Minnesota. In 1919, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois. He earned a licentiate in sacred theology and a bachelor of canon law at the Catholic University of America and a doctorate at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.
In 1952, Sheen began appearing on ABC in his own series, Life Is Worth Living. Despite being given a time slot that forced him to compete with Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra, the dynamic Sheen enjoyed enormous success and in 1954 reach tens of millions of viewers, non-Catholics as well as Catholics.
When asked by Pope Pius XII how many converts he had made, Sheen responded, “Your Holiness, I have never counted them. I am always afraid if I did count them, I might think I made them, instead of the Lord.”
His two great loves were for the Blessed Mother and the Eucharist. He made a daily holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament, from which he drew strength and inspiration to preach the gospel and in the presence of which he prepared his homilies. “I beg [Christ] every day to keep me strong physically and alert mentally in order to preach His gospel and proclaim His Cross and Resurrection,” he said. “I am so happy doing this that I sometimes feel that when I come to the good Lord in Heaven, I will take a few days’ rest and then ask Him to allow me to come back again to this earth to do some more work.”
