Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's Intercession for a Stillborn Baby Boy

Bonnie Engstrom remembers praying silently to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen over and over again after her baby son was born lifeless and without a pulse for 61 minutes.

~ Excerpt from Catholic News Agency ~

Prayer for Canonization

Heavenly Father, source of all holiness, You raise up within the Church in every age men and women who serve with heroic love and dedication. You have blessed Your Church through the life and ministry of Your faithful servant, Archbishop Fulton J Sheen. He has written and spoken well of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, and was a true instrument of the Holy Spirit in touching the hearts of countless people.

If it be according to Your Will, for the honor and glory of the Most Holy Trinity and for the salvation of souls, we ask You to move the Church to proclaim him a saint. We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

~ From archbishopsheencause.org ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: A Fruitful Vineyard of Vocations

"How fruitful a vineyard of vocations is the sacristy. 

To see a priest making his meditation before Mass

does more for an altar boy's vocation

than a thousand pieces of inspirational literature."

~ Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, The Priest Is Not His Own ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.  Amen.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: Heroic Virtue and the Holy Hour

Previous post: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and a Chinese Martyr of the Eucharist

~ Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen cause for canonization: official site ~

Mary Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests. Amen.

The Power and Love of the Eucharist

"The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white Host."

~ Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests, and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests. Amen.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's Reflections on Pain and Suffering

Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. Please offer a prayer for his canonization.

Prayer for Canonization

Heavenly Father, source of all holiness, You raise up within the Church in every age men and women who serve with heroic love and dedication. You have blessed Your Church through the life and ministry of Your faithful servant, Archbishop Fulton J Sheen. He has written and spoken well of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, and was a true instrument of the Holy Spirit in touching the hearts of countless people.

If it be according to Your Will, for the honor and glory of the Most Holy Trinity and for the salvation of souls, we ask You to move the Church to proclaim him a saint. We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests, and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests. Amen.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and a Chinese Martyr of the Eucharist

Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is known to have had a great devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, a devotion that he encouraged in others, especially priests. On the day of his ordination, he resolved to make a continuous daily Holy Hour before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. In his autobiography, Treasure in Clay, he tells the following true story of a priest adorer and a young Chinese martyr of the Eucharist:

"..in China, a priest had just begun Mass when Communists entered and arrested him and made him a prisoner in a house adjoining the little church. From a window in that house he could see the tabernacle. Shortly after his imprisonment, the Communists opened the tabernacle, threw the Hosts on the floor and stole the Sacred Vessels. The priest then decided to make adoration to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament as much as he could day and night. About three o'clock one morning he saw a child who had been at the morning Mass open a window, climb in, come to the sanctuary floor, get down on both knees, press her tongue to the Host to give herself Holy Communion. The priest told me there were about thirty Hosts in the ciborium. Every single night she came at the same time until there was only one Host left. As she pressed her tongue to receive the Body of Christ, a shot rang out. A Communist soldier had seen her. It proved to be her Viaticum.

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests, and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests. Amen.

Mary: The Most Important Woman in the Life of a Priest

"Why are pulpits which resound with the Name of Christ, so silent about His Mother, who was chosen for such a dignity in the agelessness of eternity?

"...it was not the Church that made her important; it was Christ himself...she, of all creatures was closest to God. Without her as the key it is difficult to discover the treasures in the vault of Faith.

"God Who made the sun also made the moon. The moon does not take away from the brilliance of the sun...All its light is reflected from that glowing furnace. In like manner, Mary reflects her Divine Son...On dark nights we are grateful for the moon; when we see it shining we know there must be a sun. So, in this dark night of the world, when men turned their backs on Him Who is the Light of the World, we look to Mary to guide our feet while we await the sunrise.

"There must be a Woman in the life of a priest...When I was baptized as an infant, my mother laid me on the altar of the Blessed Mother...and consecrated me to her.

"I was drawn to her before I knew her, but never drawn to her without Christ. When I made my first Holy Communion...I made the conscious dedication of myself to Mary...words of my prayer...similar to the motto I chose for my coat of arms as bishop: Da per matrem me venire (Grant that I may come to Thee through Mary). My First Communion book...contained the Litany of the Blessed Virgin which I began reciting every night as a boy and have continued to this hour.

"The call to the priesthood was always in my mind; it was her intercession I sought, to make myself worthy and to be protected from great falls. While I was still in the first grade, a suggestion was made by a good nun that we put at the top of every page the initials J.M.J., standing for dedication to "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." In the course of my life, I have written tens of thousands of pages. I do not believe I ever set my pen or pencil to paper without first having put that seal of dedication on my work. The practice continued even automatically when I was on television and used a blackboard.

"When I was ordained, I took a resolution to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Eucharist every Saturday to the Blessed Mother, renewing my feeble love of her and invoking her intercession. All this makes me very certain that when I go before the Judgement Seat of Christ, He will say to me in His Mercy: "I heard My Mother speak of you."

~ Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, from Treasures in Clay ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High priest, Mother of all priests, and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests.

Vow of Celibacy

"The priest is pledged to celibacy, not because human generation is wrong, but because it must yield so that he can devote himself wholly to a higher form of generation: the begetting of children in Christ by bringing to Him those who never knew Him, by restoring to Him those lost in sin, and by arousing in those who already love Christ the inspiration to serve Him more fully as religious or priests...Too often the vow of chastity is presented negatively...but is pure water only the absence of dirt, a white diamond merely the negation of carbon?

~ Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen ~

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests, and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to Goe Eucharistic adoration for priests. Amen.

The Priest: Virginity and Fatherhood

"The priest, first, gives up the earthly love of a woman, as Mary gave up the earthly love of a man...The married man imposes limitations on himself in respect to all women, but one. The priest admits of no exception, and he does so in the exercise of a perfect freedom...His surrender is like Mary's. She willed her Son and she conceived. So the priest willed to be God's, and he can identify the day and the hour. The more he serves that surrender, the more he knows that only the Christ-fettered are free.

"But a priest cannot live without love...If there is to be a generation of souls, and if he is to be a "father" begetting others in Christ, there must be love. That love is the same as Mary's; the Fire and Passion of the Holy Spirit overshadowing him. As in her, were united virginity and motherhood, so in the priest, there is to be the unity of virginity and fatherhood. This is not barrenness but fecundity, not the absence of love, but its ecstasy.

"Through Mary's example and influence, there comes a moment in the priest's life when he realizes he does not belong to his family, his parish, his diocese, his country. He belongs to the missions and to the world; he belongs to humanity. The closer the priest gets to the mission of Christ, the more he loves every soul in the world. As Mary "mothered" all men at the Cross, so the priest "fathers" them. No bishop is consecrated for a diocese; he is consecrated for the world...The priest is not ordained for a diocese; he is ordained for souls.

"Devotion to Mary keeps the priest from being the hireling, a hired servant with fixed hours, assigned duties, parish limits, and no lost sheep. There is no "on duty" for a priest. He is "on love" everywhere...Every soul is either a potential convert, or a potential saint.

"Every woe, every wound in the world is ours as a priest. So long as there is an innocent priest in a Siberian jail, I am in prison. So long as a missionary is without a roof over his head, I am homeless. Sharing with these there must be, if there is to be compassion. The priest will never sit and watch the world's enmity against Our Lord, knowing that Mary's co-operation was so real and active that she stood at the foot of the Cross."

~ Excerpts from The Priest Is Not His Own by Fulton J. Sheen ~

APPEALS FROM THE ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN FOUNDATION

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests, and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests. Amen.

Masses for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation is asking for Catholics all over the world to help mark the 30th anniversary of his death, December 9, 2009, with Masses said in his memory and to pray for the cause of his canonization. They are asking us to schedule Masses in our parishes on that day, and then to contact Sara Worrell at sworrell@cdop.org or 1-309-671-1550 to tell her the time and the place of the Mass. The Foundation's website will be kept updated so we are all able to see where Masses are scheduled. Their latest newsletter listed 14 countries outside the USA that have scheduled Masses and 12 states in the USA. It would be a fitting tribute if all 50 states in the USA were able to schedule Masses in honor of this holy native son!

Another worthy project of the Foundation is an appeal to help provide copies of Archbishop Sheen's inspiring book The Priest Is Not His Own to the almost 5,000 seminarians in the USA. A $15.oo donation to the Foundation (includes shipping and handling) will send a copy to a seminarian and also help the work of the Sheen Cause. The book may be donated in honor of someone--perhaps a favorite priest?--and that special someone will be made known to the seminarian. Donations of books are not limited to just one, but to as many as you are inspired to provide for seminarians. Book orders can be sent to : The Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation, P.O. Box 728, Peoria IL 61652-0728. (They are also grateful to receive donations to help further the Sheen Cause).

Archbishop Sheen was very concerned about the sanctification of priests during his lifetime. In Treasure in Clay he wrote, "I have loved every work to which I have been called or sent. But perhaps the most meaningful and gratifying experience of my life has been giving retreats to priests...In the course of his life, a priest may make thirty or more retreats. I am sure that most of them could not remember a single resolution they made and kept...For that reason, all of my retreats centered in one general resolution--namely, to make a continuous hour of meditation in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament...If I were asked what detail of my sixty years of priesthood I would show to the Lord as a sign I loved Him, I would point to the Holy Hours which have been made by priests in the course of their lives as a result of my retreats. Since these retreats have been put on tape and circulated throughout the world, there is hardly ever a week goes by without a priest writing me a letter telling me that for nine years, or twenty years, or thirty years he has answered the Lord's request to watch with Him the hour. But it is not only priests who have practiced this act of adoration and reparation: thousands of laity have likewise been inspired to do so ."

AN APPEAL FOR ONE HOUR OF EUCHARISTIC ADORATION FOR PRIESTS

Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Mother of all priests, and our Mother, help us respond generously to the Holy Spirit's request, through the voice of His Church, to offer up to God Eucharistic adoration for priests. Amen.