Now available as a downloadable audiobook, The Life of All Living is one of Fulton J. Sheen’s earliest and most profound works—a sweeping meditation on life, sacrifice, love, death, and the divine order that runs through all creation.
First published in 1929, this remarkable book reveals the intellectual and spiritual foundations of the man who would later become one of the most beloved Catholic voices of the twentieth century. Long before Life Is Worth Living brought him into millions of homes, Sheen was already developing the vivid analogies, memorable paradoxes, Eucharistic spirituality, and Christ-centered vision that would define his preaching and writing for decades to come.
Beginning with the question “What is life?”, Sheen traces an ascending order through creation. The mineral world serves the plant, the plant serves the animal, and the animal world is gathered into human life. Yet man himself still points beyond the natural order toward a higher Life—perfect, eternal, and uncreated.
From there, Sheen explores the great laws of life: growth and expansion, nourishment, sacrifice, mortification, spiritual death, grace, and ultimately the unity of all things in Jesus Christ. His reflections move effortlessly between philosophy, Scripture, theology, nature, poetry, history, and ordinary human experience.
Among the book’s most memorable themes is Sheen’s insistence that sacrifice is not opposed to life, but is one of its deepest laws. The seed must fall before it can rise. The lower gives itself for the higher. The Cross leads to the Resurrection. And behind every true sacrifice, Sheen argues, is the force that gives sacrifice its meaning: love.
This audiobook has been produced from Catholic Shop Publishing’s carefully restored edition of the original 1929 text. To evoke something of the distinctive warmth, rhythm, and character associated with Sheen’s historic broadcasts, the narration was created using modern AI voice technology inspired by his recognizable speaking style. It is a newly produced narration and is not an archival recording of Archbishop Sheen himself.
Whether you are already familiar with Fulton Sheen or are encountering his thought for the first time, The Life of All Living offers a compelling vision of a universe filled with meaning—a creation in which everything points beyond itself toward the One who is Life itself.
Digital Audiobook Download
Listen on your computer, phone, tablet, or other compatible audio device after purchase.
A portion of the proceeds from this edition benefits the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation, helping support its work to preserve and advance the legacy of Fulton J. Sheen.
