Bert Ghezzi - Think Right, Live Well: Daily Reflections with Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Think Right, Live Well Think Right, Live Well Daily Reflections with Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Edited by Bert Ghezzi Our Sunday Visitor www.osv.com Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. Huntington, Indiana 46750 Every reasonable effort has been made to determine copyright holders of excerpted materials and to secure permissions as needed. If any copyrighted materials have been inadvertently used in this work without proper credit being given in one form or another, please notify Our Sunday Visitor in writing so that future printings of this work may be corrected accordingly. Copyright permission for quotations from the works of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was granted by The Estate of Fulton J.

Sheen/The Society for the Propagation of the Faith/www.onefamilyinmission.org. Introduction, prayers, and arrangement of texts: Copyright 2017 by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division. Published 2017. 22 21 20 19 18 171 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts for critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without permission from the publisher. For more information, visit: www.osv.com/permissions.

Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750; 1-800-348-2440 ISBN: 978-1-61278-872-2 (Inventory No. T1666) eISBN: 978-1-61278-874-6 LCCN: 2017944350 Cover design: Amanda Falk Cover art: background: Shutterstock; photo: Our Sunday Visitor file photo Interior design: Sherri L. Hoffman Interior art: Photo on page 5 courtesy of Bert Ghezzi Printed in the United States of America About the Editor Bert Ghezzi is a popular author and speaker. He has written twenty books, including Voices of the Saints, Mystics and Miracles, and most recently, Prayers to the Holy Spirit and The Power of Daily Mass. Hundreds of Berts articles have appeared in the Catholic and religious press. Bert has been involved in all levels of religious education for more than forty years.

He has served as a leader and teacher in several Catholic renewal movements. Numerous educational and renewal conferences throughout the United States and Canada have featured Bert as a speaker. He appears frequently as a guest on EWTN programs. EWTN also features his series Signs of Our Times. Bert is often interviewed on Catholic radio networks. His two-minute spots on saints play regularly on EWTN radio.

After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame, Bert served for seven years as a professor at Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan. From 1975 to 2016, he served as a senior editor for five publishing companies. Bert has seven adult children and sixteen grandchildren. He is an active member of St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church and lives near the church in Altamonte Springs, Florida.

His website is www.bertghezzi.com. Contents Introduction In the 1950s, Fulton J. Sheen emerged as televisions very first popular religious communicator. As a kid, I enjoyed watching him on Tuesday nights at eight oclock. The DuMont Television Network launched his program, Life Is Worth Living, in 1951, with modest expectations, as the network had put him up against both Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra. But his smart formula of down-home humor, clear exposition, and no proselytization made him an immediate success.

In his first yearout of a field that included Lucille Ball, Arthur Godfrey, Jimmy Durante, and Edward R. MurrowSheen (he became an archbishop in 1969) won the Emmy for Most Outstanding Television Personality. When he accepted the award, he said, I feel its time I paid tribute to my writersMatthew, Mark, Luke, and John. By 1954, his ratings competed favorably with those of Mr. Television himself, Milton Berle. Berle, known as Uncle Miltie, became Bishop Sheens friend.

Berle also nicknamed him Uncle Fultie, and once quipped that he used old material too. In 1956, Life Is Worth Living had moved to ABC television, was being broadcast on 187 stations, and drew as many as 30 million viewers every week. Without a doubt, Archbishop Sheen stands as the preeminent Catholic media evangelist of the twentieth century. In the 1930s and 1940s, millions listened to his weekly radio teachings on The Catholic Hour. Over six decades, from the time of his ordination to the priesthood in 1919, Sheen gave thousands of talks to groups in the United States and throughout the world. During this time, he published more than sixty best-selling books, mostly popular presentations of practical teaching on growing in faith.

From 1925 to 1950, he taught philosophy to hundreds of students as a professor at The Catholic University of America. And in 1950, Pope Pius XII appointed Sheen as the national director of the American branch of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. For three decades, he used this platform to evangelize thousands and raised millions of dollars to serve the needs of the poor and marginalized throughout the world. Over the years in his broadcasts, talks, and books, Fulton Sheen honed his skill at turning an apt phrase that would capture attention. He expressed his famous sense of humor, for example, in quips such as Hearing nuns confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn and An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support. But as you will see in this book, he also had a knack for creating profound expressions that touched peoples hearts.

Archbishop Sheen was convinced that if people shaped their minds with the truth, they would live well, they would please God, and they would become saints. This book presents daily quotes of the main themes he advocated. Among them are: The centrality of the cross in Gods plan and our accepting it as the pattern for our lives. The marvelous exchange Jesus made by lowering himself to become a man so that he could elevate us to living a share in his divine life. The power unleashed in our lives by doing everything for love of God and neighbor. The service of others, especially the poor, by personal care and generous giving.

Archbishop Sheen himself lived by these truths. All his life he patiently bore the cross of criticism, opposition, and even ridicule. Every day, for more than six decades, he spent an hour in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Stories of his love, personal care, and generosity abound. He never hung on to cash, giving money freely to anyone who asked and donating all of his book royalties to charity. He often gave his coats or sweaters to needy persons he encountered on the street.

And much, much more. My favorite Sheen story typifies his compassion. Once he welcomed into his life a man so disfigured by Hansens disease that the man was rejected by family and could not find work. The man met Sheen at St. Patricks Cathedral in New York, saying, I have no friends. Sheen replied, Well, you have one now.

He got the man set up in an apartment, found him a job, and invited him to his table once a week, personally cutting up his food. Many years later, when Sheen was installed as the bishop of Rochester, he seated his friend as an honored guest in the sanctuary. I hope you hear Archbishop Sheens voice in this book, assuring you that your life is worth living. His message to you is that if you think right, you will live well. Bert Ghezzi January 1 Eternal Happiness My wish for you is that you will have a Happy New Yearbut by a new year I do not mean in the sense of another there is no happiness in adding year to year and growing older.