Blessed Fulton Sheen

Today, Fulton Sheen became Blessed Fulton Sheen, one step closer to canonization. He was born Peter John Sheen in El Paso, Illinois, in 1895 to Irish immigrants. He came to be called Fulton (his mother’s maiden name). After college, he decided to become a priest and was ordained in the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois in 1919. He continued his studies in D.C. and then Leuven, Belgium. His doctoral thesis was titled "The Spirit of Contemporary Philosophy and the Finite God." He was the first American to win the university’s prize for best philosophical treatise.

After two more years of study in Rome, he returned and served in Peoria. Both Columbia and Oxford offered him philosophy teaching positions, but he turned them down. His bishop ultimately sent him to teach in D.C. and London.

In the 1930s, Sheen began a weekly radio program, “The Catholic Hour.” He spoke about contemporary issues in theological terms. By 1950, he had about 4 million listeners a week. In 1940, he commentated for a broadcast of the Easter Mass in D.C., one of the first televised religious services.

In 1950, he became the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which coordinates assistance for missionaries. While serving as director, he was also appointed as an auxiliary bishop of New York.

Monday Motivation: Augustine on Happiness

"Since the highest good is known and acquired in the truth, and that truth is wisdom, let us enjoy to the full the highest good, which we see and acquire in that truth. For those who enjoy the highest good are happy indeed. This truth shows forth all good things that are true, holding them out to be grasped by whoever has understanding and chooses one or many of them for his enjoyment." - St. Augustine

Ask and It Will be Given

What is the purpose of asking God for things? Doesn’t He already know what we want, and more importantly, what we need? C. S. Lewis asked this question as well: if petitionary prayer requires faith that the request will be granted (Matthew 7:7), how can petitionary prayer also account for submission to the will of God and a possible response of “no”?

If God has promised that for those who ask, it will be given, then it shows a lack of faith to place conditions on the request. To acknowledge that God might not fulfill the request either means God has gone back on His promise or that the one making the petition lacks true faith.

However, there are examples in the Bible of prayers that seem to hedge in their requests. Most notably, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39). He asks that this cup be taken from Him, but He conditions it, “if it be Your will.” The Father’s will come first, before any other request. He asks that the cup be taken, but the answer is no. Surely we cannot think that Jesus’ faith faltered so egregiously in the garden.