Worth Revisiting - That More of Our Priests Would Heed This Fine Shepherd's Voice

(Photo credit: Fulton Sheen.com)

Thank you once again, Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb  for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers.

Here is my contribution.

That More of Our Priests Would Heed This Fine Shepherd's Voice

(Originally published on April 16, 2012)


I have frequently expressed my fondness and admiration for Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen. Not surprisingly, I appreciated the article Father John Baptist Ku, O.P. wrote about this preacher which he entitled Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Master Preacher, Master of the Airwaves. You will too.

Let me share the following excerpt from Father's article. In doing so, I ask everyone reading this entry today to pray that all of our priests will follow the good Archbishop's example and advice - knowing in my heart that if they did so their priesthood, our Church and our world would be so much different than they presently are.

"What exerted the greatest influence in the life of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and has become his trademark is the Holy Hour. Sheen entitles one of the chapters in his autobiography, 'The Hour That Makes My Day.' On the day of his ordination, Sheen resolved to spend one hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament every day of his life, and this he did faithfully. This nourishment served as the very root of his prayer life and vocation. He made a point to recommend it at all times, especially on retreats and even to Protestants.

First, the Holy Hour is not a devotion; it is a sharing in the work of redemption. Our Lord asked: 'Could you not watch one hour with Me?'

I keep up the Holy Hour…to grow more and more into His Likeness…. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain…. The purpose of the Holy Hour is to encourage deep personal encounter with Christ. The holy and glorious God is constantly inviting us to come to Him, to hold converse with Him, to ask for such things as we need and to experience what a blessing there is in fellowship with Him.

I have found that it takes some time to catch fire in prayer. This has been on of the advantages of the daily Hour. It is not so brief as to prevent the soul from collecting itself and shaking off the multitudinous distractions of the world. Sitting before the Presence is like a body exposing itself before the sun to absorb its rays. Silence in the Hour is a tête-à-tête with the Lord. In those moments, one does not so much pour out written prayers, but listening takes its place. We do not say: 'Listen Lord, for Thy servant speaks,' but 'Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.'

It is impossible for me to explain how helpful the Holy Hour has been in preserving my vocation…. Being tethered to a tabernacle, one’s rope for finding other pastures is not so long. That dim tabernacle lamp, however pale and faint, had some mysterious luminosity to darken the brightness of 'bright lights.' The Holy Hour became like an oxygen tank to revive the breath of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the foul and fetid atmosphere of the World. Even when it seemed so unprofitable and lacking in spiritual intimacy, I still had the sensation of being at least like a dog at the master’s door, ready in case he called me."

Monday Musings- "The End of Christendom"

I am a big fan of Archbishop Sheen. It is a shame that so many Catholics do not know more about him and his writings. 

The following quotation is a powerful reminder of an unsettling truth: our Loving Lord has placed prophets here among us but we have ignored them.

What a different world this would be had we listened to the prophetic voice of Archbishop Sheen and the other messengers God has sent:

[ I ran across this particular quotation yesterday on Tony Agnesi's blog - a place you should visit.]

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - September 27, 2012

Pondering Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.

From St. John Eudes

“Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make His spirit, His devotion, His affections, His desires and His disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly.” 
                      (The Life and Reign of Jesus in Christian Souls)



From Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen


"Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even 'if everybody' is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right."

From Thomas Dubay, S.M.

 

In the view of St. Teresa of Avila and of St. John of the Cross, many think they are “listening to the Spirit”, whereas in fact they are hearing nothing other than their own ideas and desires. They baptize their own preferences and somehow convince themselves, at times others as well, that they enjoy a privileged access to the divine.

 

(From Fire Within)

 

That More of Our Priests Would Heed This Fine Sheperd's Voice

I have frequently expressed my fondness and admiration for Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen. Not surprisingly, I apppreciated the article Father Kevin Gabriel Gillen, O.P. posted on the website for the Dominican Province of St. Joseph, entitled Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Master Preacher, Master of the Airwaves. You will too.

Let me share the following excerpt from Father's article. In doing so, I ask everyone reading this entry today to pray that all of our priests will follow the good Archbishop's example and advice - knowing in my heart that if they did so their priesthood, our Church and our world would be so much different than they presently are:

What exerted the greatest influence in the life of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and has become his trademark is the Holy Hour. Sheen entitles one of the chapters in his autobiography, “The Hour That Makes My Day.” On the day of his ordination, Sheen resolved to spend one hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament every day of his life, and this he did faithfully. This nourishment served as the very root of his prayer life and vocation. He made a point to recommend it at all times, especially on retreats and even to Protestants.

First, the Holy Hour is not a devotion; it is a sharing in the work of redemption. Our Lord asked: “Could you not watch one hour with Me?”

I keep up the Holy Hour…to grow more and more into His Likeness…. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain…. The purpose of the Holy Hour is to encourage deep personal encounter with Christ. The holy and glorious God is constantly inviting us to come to Him, to hold converse with Him, to ask for such things as we need and to experience what a blessing there is in fellowship with Him.

I have found that it takes some time to catch fire in prayer. This has been on of the advantages of the daily Hour. It is not so brief as to prevent the soul from collecting itself and shaking off the multitudinous distractions of the world. Sitting before the Presence is like a body exposing itself before the sun to absorb its rays. Silence in the Hour is a tête-à-tête with the Lord. In those moments, one does not so much pour out written prayers, but listening takes its place. We do not say: “Listen Lord, for Thy servant speaks,” but “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”

It is impossible for me to explain how helpful the Holy Hour has been in preserving my vocation…. Being tethered to a tabernacle, one’s rope for finding other pastures is not so long. That dim tabernacle lamp, however pale and faint, had some mysterious luminosity to darken the brightness of “bright lights.” The Holy Hour became like an oxygen tank to revive the breath of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the foul and fetid atmosphere of the World. Even when it seemed so unprofitable and lacking in spiritual intimacy, I still had the sensation of being at least like a dog at the master’s door, ready in case he called me.

(Photo credit: Fulton Sheen.com)

He Had A Way With Words!

Yes, I’ll admit it. I love everything I ever read that was written by the late Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. You will find more than two dozen of his gems included in my book, Forgotten Truths To Stir Faith Afire! –Words to Challenge, Inspire and Instruct”. 

The following, however, is one that got away. I don’t know how I overlooked it:

"America is suffering not so much from intolerance, which is bigotry, as it is from tolerance, which is indifference to truth and error, and a philosophical nonchalance that has been interpreted as broad-mindedness."

(Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen)

 

Have We Forgotten?

We marvel at the physical miracles, big and small, that Jesus performed during His time here on earth – for example raising Lazarus from the dead and healing St. Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever. And well we should.

But what we often overlook is the frequency with which Jesus spoke to and expelled demons – as is mentioned in today’s Gospel. Isn’t it foolish to think that there is less demonic presence in our current times then when Jesus walked this earth?

The reality of Satan and the never ending spiritual battle to which we are subjected during our earthly lives are two topics rarely discussed or considered these days. Too few among us recognize that we are engaged in spiritual combat with the unseen demons roaming the world in search of our souls.

This is not, according to Father George P. Schommer, O.P., a good thing:

“The devil is real.  We fail to recognize the reality of his existence and power and therefore we often fall prey to his many tricks.  Satan’s goal is to lead us away from God and to separate us from Him for all eternity…Satan wants us to despair, to give up, to separate us from God and lead us to hopelessness.  We cannot fight this spiritual battle on our own.  We fail because we rely on our own resources.  We fail to grasp that a missile is coming in from the enemy.  We try on our own to defeat Satan.  We cannot succeed on our own.”

This good Dominican is not alone. The late Servant of God, Archbishop J. Sheen, insisted that many seeking the assistance of psychologists and psychiatrists suffer not from mental illness, but from their failure to recognize and repent of the sin in their lives. They would be better served by spending less time on the couch and more time at the foot of Jesus’ Cross, on their knees in front of His tabernacle and in the confessional from which flows the spiritual cleansing and healing graces they seek and which our loving and merciful Lord offers in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Let’s be clear then. Satan and his cohorts are real. Just look around you. There is abundant and irrefutable evidence.

We don’t. Consequently, evil often roams unimpeded and countless souls are lost.

(Rediscover many more truths and treasures in Forgotten TruthsTo Set Faith Afire! Words to Challenge, Inspire and Instruct)

Imagine

Imagine what we, our families, our priests, our Church, our communities and our world would be like if the Eucharist was, in fact, the source, center and summit of our daily lives.

The following two men have something significant to share with all of us, be we lay men and women, priests or religious, about the value of Eucharistic Adoration. May our spiritual journey and desire for holiness be enriched by reading and reflecting on what they have said.

Father James M. Sullivan, O.P. – “Adoration is not just one more thing to do, like going to the store, the doctor, etc.  It is an encounter with Christ.  His love changes and orders our life.”

Fulton Sheen, Servant of God – “The priest should think of the practice of the daily Holy Hour, as something to continue for his whole life…the daily Holy Hour gives us wisdom…The mind of the priest who lives close to the tabernacle door gains a special illumination.  The priest's mind and heart are best guided when they seek the Eucharistic Lord at dawn…Daily exigencies demand a daily Holy Hour…Vitamins cannot be stored up.  Spiritual energy has to be renewed; today's strength must come from the Lord today.  Thus the monotony of life is broken, and there comes to the priest new power for each day's apostolate.  The Holy Hour each day also destroys in the priest forebodings and worries about the future.  Kneeling before the Eucharistic Lord, he receives the rations for each day's march, worrying not at all about tomorrow...The Holy Hour should be a daily event because our crosses are daily, not weekly…These daily crosses will sour us, sear our souls and make us bitter, unless we turn them into crucifixes; and how can that be done except by seeing them as coming from the Lord?  That we can do only if we are with Him.  The Holy Hour may be a sacrifice, but the Lord does not make the week the unit of sacrifice.  He tells us our cross is daily.”

Yes, let us imagine…

Holy Thursday and Our Priests

According to St. Pius X, our sanctity depends in large measure on the holiness of our priests. This Holy Thursday then is an appropriate time to reflect on our priests, the imperative that the Eucharist be the source, center and summit of their and our lives, and our duty as laity to treasure, encourage and support them.

We begin by recalling how eloquently St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Doctor of our Church, wrote of what it is to be a priest:

 “We must begin by purifying ourselves before purifying others; we must be instructed to be able to instruct, become light to illuminate, draw close to God to bring Him close to others, be sanctified to sanctify, lead by the hand and counsel prudently…I know God’s greatness and man’s weakness but also his potential.  The priest is the defender of Truth, who stands with angels, gives glory with archangels, causes sacrifices to rise to the altar on high, shares Christ’s priesthood, refashions creation, restores it in God’s image, recreates it for the world on high and, even greater, is divinized and divinizes.” 

In 1962 the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen advised his fellow priests that they “become significant to their fellow men not by being ‘a regular guy’ but by being ‘another Christ’.”  He foresaw the failings of his brother priests, as “a want of lively faith in the Divine Presence.” He was just as astute to recognize “the sanctity of the priesthood starts there too.” He warned prophetically that “every worldly priest hinders the growth of the Church; every saintly priest promotes it.” He prayed that God would make each of His priests “alter Christus”. That too should be our prayer.

The perspectives of St. Gregory and St. Pius X and the observations of Archbishop Sheen remain as valid and essential for us and our priests today as when they first shared them.  Zeal for the salvation of souls cannot be replaced with a misguided emphasis on community organizing and social justice issues. The Fathers of Vatican Council II made this clear when they wrote in Gaudium et Spes that “Christ did not bequeath to the Church a mission in the political, economic or social order: the purpose he assigned to it was a religious one.” The physical well-being of people (a notable goal and obligation for all) must of necessity be secondary to their eternal salvation. 

No one expresses this vital truth more clearly than St. John Chrysostom:

“Zeal for the salvation of souls is of so great a merit before God, that to give up all our goods to the poor, or to spend our whole life in the exercises of all sorts of austerities cannot equal the merit of it. There is no service more agreeable to God than this one. To employ one's life in this blessed labor is more pleasing to the Divine Majesty than to suffer martyrdom. Would you not feel happy if you could spend large sums of money in corporal works of mercy? But know that he who labors for the salvation of souls does far more; nay, the zeal of souls is of far greater merit before God…than the working of miracles.”

Our priests are under enormous pastoral and administrative burdens and are, have been and will continue to be viciously and relentlessly subjected to spiritual attack by the Evil One who knows full well that without priests there will be no Eucharist.  We can not allow that to happen.

They, like each of us, are human and prone to sin.  Sadly, some of our priests have grievously sinned and exposed a foul stench within their midst. Fortunately, the majority of our priests have not succumbed to such filth. But our priests can faithfully fulfill their role as “another Christ” only with the grace of God – abundant grace flowing to all priests for whom the Eucharist is the source, center and summit of their priestly lives, who treasure offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass daily, who spend time before the Blessed Sacrament each day, and who have developed a deep and trusting relationship with and devotion to our Blessed Mother.

They need our prayers, our support and encouragement.  Never a day should pass by without each of us getting on our knees, thanking God for the faithful priests he has sent and will be sending to help us on our path to personal sanctification and eternal salvation and asking Him to provide them with all they need to be faithful to their vocation and successful against the attacks of the Evil One. Regularly lift these heroic men up in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, fast on their behalf, offer a Novena to St. John Vianney and a daily rosary for their sanctification, regularly go to confession to them, and let them know that you appreciate them even when the Truth they share may cause you to take a closer look at yourself, your relationship with God and your fidelity to the teachings of His Church. 

If we do all that, in God’s perfect timing, each of us will be able to say about all our priests, the same thing one lawyer reportedly said when, after returning from seeing St. John Vianney in Ars, someone asked him what he had seen there:  “I saw God in a man.”

It's past time to treasure our priests

(Adapted from an article written in 2009 during the Year for the Priests)