Fulton Sheen Beatification: September 24, 2026

   

 Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification on September 24, 2026. 

Members of Christ's Body (2)

If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. 1 CORINTHIANS 12:26 (NAB)

Reflection

There is perhaps no greater way to share in the redemptive work of Christ than by praying for others. Using the image of the physical body, Bishop Sheen reminds us of how one part of the body can help another part, so too he says in the Mystical Body of Christ. Our prayer can have a positive effect on others, often in ways that we may never know.

Most people know that Dorothy Day was a pacifist, but I doubt many know why. Her beliefs were based on the Baltimore Catechism, which had taught her that every baptized person was a temple of the Holy Spirit. She reasoned that if that were so, then she could never support the physical attack of places where human beings who were both actual and potential temples of the Holy Spirit resided.

But Dorothy's pacifism was not passive. In fact, she once stated, "If we are not going to use our spiritual weapons, let us by all means arm and prepare." She believed in the power of God's ability to do what was humanly impossible, namely to bring about peace. Do we divide the world into friend or foe? Or do we see all people as actual and potential members of the Body of Christ?

We share in Our Lord's redemptive work when we use the spiritual weapons that He has put at our disposal to combat the real enemy of all - the devil. In the same way that we might donate blood to help someone in desperate need of a transfusion, let us donate our prayers to those in most need of the Blood of Christ.

 

Fulton Sheen Beatification: September 24, 2026

  

 Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification on September 24, 2026. 

Members of Christ's Body (1)

If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. 1 CORINTHIANS 12:26 (NAB)

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Bishop Sheen

In medicine, when a patient is suffering from anemia, blood will be transferred from a healthy person to cure the sick of that condition. Skin is grafted from the back to the face to repair a burn. If blood can be transfused and skin grafted, then prayers and sacri- fices can be transmitted to the sick members of the Mystical Body of Christ. The motivation for a Holy Hour is reparation. We pray for those who do not pray, we make acts of faith in the Real Presence for those who lack or who have lost the faith. In a word, we are their victims, like Christ, innocent but one with their guilt in the progressive redemption of mankind.

From Those Mysterious Priests

Michael Dubruiel on the Jesus Prayer

  -by Michael Dubruiel

 

Since the time of early Christianity, there have been forms
of prayer that use breathing as a cadence for prayer. The Jesus
Prayer and the Rosary, along with various forms of contemplative
prayer, are all variations of this type of prayer. The real prayer
behind all of these methods is the prayer of surrender: “Into
your hands I commend my spirit.” This was the prayer that Jesus
prayed to the Father from the cross.

Though confession alone does not remove the temporal penalty
of sin, healing still is possible by God’s grace. Prayer, reading the
Scripture, giving alms, doing good works all are acts that have
had indulgences attached to them by the Church. By obtaining
an indulgence, the Christian receives healing from the temporal
penalty of even the gravest sins, reducing or eliminating altogether
the time of purification needed in purgatory (CCC 1471).

Ideally, the Christian is motivated to perform these spiritual
exercises not from fear of punishment but out of love for God.
As we read in the preceding passage, St. Paul tells the Ephesians
to offer themselves as a spiritual sacrifice with Christ, who has
paid the debt of our sins. Seeing Christ on the cross and meditating
on his love for us should help us to understand how much
God loves

Michael Dubruiel: Book on Catholic Social Teaching

      

To help emphasize the role of the Works of Mercy in the Life of the Christian!

  Here are Michael Dubruiel's comments on the genesis of the book, which he edited:

While the Bishop and Father Benedict were working on the written text of the book I came across a stunning work of iconography one day while visiting an Eastern Catholic church. On the back wall of the church was an icon of the Last Judgment taken from Matthew 25. I found that the great iconographer Mila Mina had written the icon. I immediately contacted Mila and asked if the icon might be used as an illustration for this book, her response was "anything to make the Gospel known!" Thanks to Mila and her son Father John Mina for allowing Joyce Duriga and David Renz to photograph the icon at Ascension of Our Lord Byzantine Catholic Church, Clairton, PA.

Fr. Groeschel has written the introductory text that begins each section as well as the final "What Should I Do?" at the end of the book, and Bishop Baker has written the individual meditations and prayers contained in each of the six sections.

Free Catholic E-book from Michael Dubruiel

  The Power of the Cross by Michael Dubruiel is available in a free e-book version today. 

   This is honor of two feasts this week: Our Lady of Sorrows and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The Cross of Christ Transforms. . . Our Priorities

-Michael Dubruiel

 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 JOHN 4:10–12 

And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” MARK 12:32–34 

A young girl dying of cancer befriended a famous archbishop. The bishop had a soft spot in his heart for children like her; his own niece had been diagnosed and he knew firsthand the agony both the patient and her parents faced. The archbishop had extended a standing invitation to the Protestant chaplain of the children’s hospital: If any Catholic child in the cancer ward wanted to see a priest, he should be summoned. So it happened that the archbishop was called to accompany this young cancer patient, Lorraine, in her last months of life. In time Lorraine came to trust the archbishop, and she shared with him her greatest trial. Her parents were angry with God because of her illness. She had been diagnosed when she was five years old, and had not yet made her First Communion. Would it be possible, she asked her friend, to receive the Eucharist before she died? After consulting with the parents, the archbishop prepared her personally for her first reconciliation, then celebrated Mass in her hospital room, confirming her and giving her First Communion. She lived only a short while longer. The archbishop said she had great faith but her constant worry was her parents. No doubt she was now interceding for them, that they might come to know the love that she had experienced in her suffering, that same suffering that had become an obstacle of faith to them.

This is the obstacle of the cross—when Our Lord died on the cross, some left believing that he was the Son of God, others left in utter disbelief. Yet the Scriptures tell us that Jesus’ death on the cross was a sign of God’s love.

Michael Dubruiel

--an excerpt from  The Power of the Cross by Michael Dubruiel is a book well-suited to daily reading during Lent.