Catholic Review: Finding True Happiness
Are you perfectly happy, or are you still looking for perfect happiness?
Most people are still actively searching for true and lasting happiness, but are looking in the wrong places. It s easy to be misled into believing that happiness is found in money, rank, or renown. While these things are not inherently bad, and can in fact be used to do much good, they will, in the final analysis, not bring a happiness that endures.
Once we realize that nothing less than a complete union with God will satisfy our souls, we will not let transitory things distract or disappoint us. This is because then, according to Fulton Sheen, you put no more hope in things than they can bear. You cease looking for first-rate joys where there are only tenth-rate pleasures.
In addition to addressing the topic of joy vs. pleasure in Finding True Happiness, Fulton Sheen also helps us gain the right perspective on things such as loneliness and the secret of sanctity. This brings us to our ultimate purpose, which is found in God alone. Only by losing oneself in God, will we find our true selves-- and true happiness along with it.
I had told myself that I was not going to borrow another book from my mom until I had read some more of my own. Well, that lasted about half a day when I happened to see Finding True Happiness on a stack of books from when we moved the books out for painting. I'm really glad that I picked this one because Fulton J. Sheen's writing is so good and this book was just right.
As one who is generally a happy person, you are probably wondering why I would feel the need to read Finding True Happiness. Well, that is because every now-and-again even a happy person needs to be reaffirmed in their path to happiness. What really interested me in this one would have to be how Fulton J. Sheen draws lines between true happiness and worldly happiness, and, as we are in the middle of the Christmas season I thought it'd be a good idea to reevaluate.
With the over secularization and commercialization of the Christmas season these days, and the straying from what it's really about: the birth of Jesus. I wanted, no needed to step back from all that to rethink what it means to be happy.
Ah, Fulton J. Sheen, his writing and the way he doesn't pull punches is really refreshing. I really enjoy reading his work because he doesn't beat around the bush with what he says. It's rather nice to have an author, like him, who just tells it like it is. So, when it comes to Finding True Happiness, I really enjoyed how clear he was, and how true it is, on how happiness is not found in worldly things but internally. That's what I liked about this book because in the world we live in everyone's always searching for that "thing" that'll make them happy. Yet, once they achieve that "thing" they find themselves still unhappy and move on to another thing without really ever finding happiness.
The only weird thing about Finding True Happiness would have to be that the book is made up of selected chapters from a couple different books by Fulton J. Sheen. I was not really expecting that when I started, but I liked how well each of them tied into each other. It was unexpected, yet it turned out quite well in the in.
With this being my second venture into the writing of Fulton J. Sheen, I'm thinking that I'm going to need to get my hands on the rest of his work. His writing is straightforward, clear and really some of the best I've ever read.
Final Verdict: Finding True Happiness- An excellent book that'll lead you down the road to true happiness.
Finding True Happiness earns
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