Fulton Sheen - Archbishop Fulton Sheens Saint Therese: A Treasured Love Story

This book is meant to celebrate something very special in the Church.

On December 14, 1927, Pope Pius XI proclaimed St. Thrse of the Child Jesus principal patroness of all missions and all missionaries, the equal to St. Francis Xavier.

In 2007, the entire Catholic world will celebrate the eightieth anniversary of that happy event with great solemnity. The Shrine of St. Thrse in Lisieux and the Lisieux Carmel have, in fact, already begun their commemorations.

I mention this fact for two reasons:

1. St. Thrse, much as she would have loved to, never set foot on mission soil, and yet she most powerfully helped the missions by her heroic prayer and sacrifices. The Pope wanted to highlight this fact and to remind us that we, too, could and should do likewise.

2. The Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen, whose great love was the Catholic missions, was also very aware of the missionary power of Carmelite contemplatives such as St. Thrse. In fact, his life-long correspondence with the Carmelite Sisters in New Albany, Indiana, is fully reserved in his Rochester archives. Very revealingly, he wrote to the Carmelite prioress, Your prayers and sufferings do more good than all our preaching and our hectic actions. We make the noise; we get the credit; we enjoy the consolation of a victory seen and tasted. You are responsible for it and yet you cannot see the fruitsbut you will, on that day when the Cross appears in the heavens and every man is rewarded according to his works. He also wrote, I want to cling on to Carmel for I love its love of Jesus. I refuse to give it up, and like the blind man of Jericho, I shall go on shouting out to you continually to cure my blindness and my ills.

In 1973, the centenary of St. Thrses birth, I was anxious that we would celebrate this greatest saint of modern times in the best possible way. Given his great love of the missions (he was director of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith for 16 years) and the fact that he was a professed member of the Carmelite Third Order and easily the most renowned preacher in the world of his time, I felt Archbishop Sheen was the one to invite to preach, if he had the availability. He had already preached on two special occasions in our Carmelite Church at Whitefriar Street, Dublin (1969 and 1971), and we were thrilled when he accepted our request to preach on St. Thrse.

For me, the novena he preached was unforgettable. My only regret is that the 11 beautiful sermons he gave were never put into book form until now. For their publication I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR, vice-postulator of Archbishop Sheens cause for canonization. It was totally his idea that these splendid talks be published, and he has done all the work to bring this brilliant jewel to light.

These beautiful talks are vintage Sheen. His approach to St. Thrse is absolutely unique. It is abundantly clear that he is a master of her spirituality, and that his own spiritual life drew much inspiration from her. Principally using her autobiography Story of a Soul (written under the patronage of Our Blessed Lady, for whom both St. Thrse and the archbishop had a most tender love), he takes us through her beautiful life and that spiritual classic in a masterful way.

He gives us precious insights into her virtues, her faith, hope, charity, fortitude, and humility, her heroic perseverance in prayer, her science of divine love, her heroic resistance to the temptations to suicide, not to mention her total grasp of Gods teaching and its application to our everyday lives. He was fascinated by her love for and knowledge of sacred Scripture (attributes that could similarly be ascribed to him).

He even gives us a count of St. Thrses quotations (107 from the Old Testament and 250 from the New Testament). Archbishop Sheen adds, Think of that! One hundred and seven from the Old. And she did not study Scripture as the scholar does. For example, she picked up the Prophet Isaiah and she read, she said, about 50 chapters before there came to her an inspiration that she applied to her own life.

I find in taking up this book that it makes for compelling readinga reluctance to put it down. Not only does it reveal the essential Thrse, it also reveals the essential Fulton Sheen. This is a book that will be a rich resource for anyones spiritual reading or meditation and, extraordinarily, it is as relevant to todays spiritual life as it was when first delivered 33 years ago. It is no wonder St. Thrse is called one of the ageless saints of God. Needless to add, it is written with all the famous Sheen wit and charm.

St. Thrse has been greatly misunderstood by many who have attempted to interpret her. One of the greatest communicators of the twentieth century, the Servant of God Archbishop Sheen has not made that mistake but has left us a wonderfully readable book that directs and authentically leads us in the footsteps of St. Thrse. He has dealt very lucidly with her great power of intercession.

May the Little Flower take special care of Fulton Sheens cause for canonization.

To Fr. Andrew Apostoli, his staff, and to all who read these majestic sermons, may St. Thrse send her choicest roses.

Fr. J. Linus Ryan, O. Carm.

St. Thrse National Office,

Carmelite Community,

Terenure College,

Dublin 6W, Ireland

October 1, 2006,

Feast of St. Thrse of the Child Jesus
of the Holy Face

Notes

Quam laeto animi, declaration, Sacred Congregation of Rites, December 14, 1927, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 20, pgs. 147-8.

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According to the online Catholic Encyclopedia, This society is an international association for the assistance by prayers and alms of Catholic missionary priests, brothers, and nuns engaged in preaching the Gospel in non-Catholic countries. Sheen was director of its American branch. Between 1950 and 1966, he raised $200 million for foreign missions. In todays dollars, that would roughly equate to $1.172 billion.