Fulton J. Sheen - The Worlds First Love, 2nd Edtion: Mary, the Mother of God

The Worlds First Love

FULTON J. SHEEN

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Original edition 1952 Fulton J. Sheen
Published by McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York
All rights reserved
This edition published with permission of
The Society for the Propagation of the Faith
New York City

Cover art: Coronation of the Virgin
by Fra Angelico (13871455)
Museo di S. Marco, Florence, Italy
Finsiel / Alinari / Art Resource, New York

Cover Design by Roxanne Mei Lum

Reprinted in 1996, 2010, and 2011 by Ignatius Press
Foreword 2010 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-58617-474-3 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-64229-038-7 (EB)
Library of Congress Control Number 2009941681

Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATED TO
THE WOMAN I LOVE

The Woman whom even God dreamed of
Before the world was made ;

The Woman of whom I was born
At cost of pain and labor at a Cross ;

The Woman who, though no priest,
Could yet on Calvarys Hill breathe ,

This is my Body; This is my Blood
For none save her gave Him human life .

The Woman who guides my pen,
Which falters so with words

In telling of the Word .

The Woman who, in a world of Reds,
Shows forth the blue of hope .

Accept these dried grapes of thoughts
From this poor author, who has no wine ;

And with Canas magic and thy Sons Power
Work a miracle and save a soul

Forgetting not my own .

Father Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R.

For the last seven years I have been privileged to be working as the Vice-Postulator for the Cause of Canonization for Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. I feel a very special closeness to the Archbishop because he was Gods instrument to ordain me to the priesthood. In the homily he gave at my Ordination Mass, he said that it is a special grace for a bishop to have sons in Christ, referring to those men he was ordaining. In a similar way, I like to refer to Archbishop Sheen as my father in Christ.

In his lifetime, Fulton Sheen made an enormous contribution to the Catholic Church in America. He put the Church on the map, so to speak, breaking down many anti-Catholic prejudices and forging bonds with believers of other religions long before most people ever heard the word ecumenism . He did this chiefly through his very popular television series entitled Life Is Worth Living . He was watched by an estimated thirty million viewers weekly. He won an Emmy in his first year on television as The Most Outstanding Personality on Television. He also had great success on the radio. For twenty years on Sunday afternoons, he hosted a radio program called The Catholic Hour , with a listening audience estimated at four million people. He was without doubt the first, and probably still remains the greatest, Catholic media evangelist in America.

With all of his success in the electronic media, his awesome contribution by way of the written word can easily be overlooked. Yet, it forms a tremendous addition to the spiritual writing of American Catholic authors. He wrote some sixty-eight books, as well as just about an equal number of pamphlets. At the same time, he was a columnist in both the Catholic press and the secular press. His output was simply enormous. One would think, with such a great amount of writing, it would be most difficult, if not impossible, to point to a single book that the late Archbishop cherished more than all the rest! But there actually is one such volume that he claimed as his favorite. It is his beautiful book on the Blessed Virgin Mary, The Worlds First Love .

Anyone even moderately familiar with the Archbishops life would not be surprised with his choice. He often referred to Our Lady as the Woman I love. He said that this special relationship to her began on the day of his baptism. After he was baptized, his mother placed him on the altar of Our Lady and dedicated him to his heavenly Mother. Sheen used to say later in life that that consecration was like a magnet drawing him to Our Lady. He felt so strongly about it that he renewed his consecration to Our Lady on the day of his First Holy Communion. He used to say that he hoped that when he died and appeared before Jesus for his judgment, the Lord would say to him: I know all about you! My Mother told Me all about you! We have to be grateful to the late Archbishop for sharing his love for and insights into the role of Our Lady in Gods plan of salvation. He does this so beautifully in The Worlds First Love .

In the first part of this book, The Woman the World Loves, the Archbishop gives us a beautiful understanding of Mary as seen in Scripture. He gives us deep insights into the events of her life and their meaning for us. This is therefore a treasure for all who wish to grow in their relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary. We need to base our spirituality on the solid foundation of Scripture. Like Mary, we must ponder Gods word in our hearts (see Lk 2:51).

In the second part, entitled The World the Woman Loves, the Archbishop gives us good insights into how Our Lady assists us in dealing with the world today. It is amazing that a person who died more than thirty years ago can still give us insights into the world around us that are as valid today as they were the day he wrote them. In his chapter entitled The Seven Laws of Love, the Archbishop is able to show us how the seven words Our Lady spoke, as recorded in Scripture, teach us the meaning of love. Another chapter that readers will find especially striking is Mary and the Muslims. With the world situation as challenging as it is today, especially the fear of war and terrorism, this chapter is truly prophetic. The importance he places on the message of Fatima reminds me of something he once said with regard to Islam: I believe that the Blessed Virgin chose to be known as Our Lady of Fatima as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Muslim people, and as an assurance that they who show her so much respect will one day accept her Divine Son too.

There is one more point we can make about the Archbishops Marian love and dedication. It is reflected in the fact that when he was consecrated a bishop, on June 11, 1951, he chose as the motto on his coat of arms the words: Grant that I may come to You through Your Mother! (The motto in Latin was Da per Matrem me venire .) Since the first printing of his beautiful book The Worlds First Love appeared (1952), we can wonder whether he wrote this book so that through its wisdom and inspiration many of the faithful might come to Jesus through His Mother. Many millions have greatly profited by this spiritual treasure.

We are now grateful to Ignatius Press, on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of their first publication of this book, for giving us a new edition, with a new cover. And we can hope and pray that, through its influence, many more millions of the faithful will come closer to the Lord through His Blessed Mother.

Feast of St. Martin of Tours
NOVEMBER 11, 2009

Every person carries within his heart a blueprint of the one he loves. What seems to be love at first sight is actually the fulfillment of desire, the realization of a dream. Plato, sensing this, said that all knowledge is a recollection from a previous existence. This is not true as he states it, but it is true if one understands it to mean that we already have an ideal in us, one that is made by our thinking, our habits, our experiences, and our desires. Otherwise, how would we know immediately, on seeing persons or things, that we loved them? Before meeting certain people we already have a pattern and mold of what we like and what we do not like; certain persons fit into that pattern, others do not.