Sheen Gems: The Best Of Fulton J. Sheen | Full Movie | Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

I remember once I went into a restaurant I asked for a toast a cup of coffee an egg and a few kind words and the waiter brought me back toast coffee the egg and the chick does it haven't got a few kind words she said don't eat the egg if I a one Sunday off on Sunday wore my mitre on the side of my head like that I know a bishop who wears his where's his his that way because he's bald and that's funny Fulton J Sheen a man for all seasons a man who knew the power of prayer each day in his daily holy hour he sought the Christ's light for his journey each day was different like the seasons in summer God warms the earth and paints a tapestry of colors to give our journey where we are going more joy from the Bible remember other journeys by two men Peter and Paul they walked on these ancient gray stones called the Appian Way the road to Rome Quo Vadis Peter Quo Vadis Paul with a goest thou leave me fellow Americans I tell you that before the flood the book of Genesis we read and in the days of Noah there was violence on the earth all of the violence that happens in our country is a fever graph read it and it points to a decay in our civilization how are you going to get out of it the eagle always built its nest high on the mountain crevices when the young are hatched the Eagle pushes its young over the nest they fly down - what - Egret iers must seem like sudden death just before the young eagle crashes mother Eagle swoops down from its nest down to their beasts and catches the young and flies up into the sky swoops from out it again and repeats the process until the bird has learned to fly Moses saw that he wrote as the Eagle stirs among the young so does God stir among the nations maybe God is stirring us bringing us to the brink of danger in order that we might begin to examine ourselves and restore Jefferson the dignity of man and a belief in God our nation is too full of those that are crying town down with the universities down with schools down with the churches down with teachers down with government down with the police can you build anything down you cannot certainly time in our nation to change our words let's begin now to use the word up up from all of this filth off from this violence or from this indifference of Courts up after the hit battlements of eternity up up to God to be as timeless as a gentle ocean wave seeking the shore where you walk in the season of autumn your companions at the sea birds and a friendly sea creature who comes to say hello the blue color has turned to autumn gold he washed the boats out in the sparkling blue wishing for a voyage to a new world or a secret place like a modern day Columbus I remember during the counsels I was waiting one day for the bus that took us to the council and as our street cleaner in front of the hotel where I was staying and I went up to him and I said how long will you work today's the 12 hours what time did you get up he said 4 o'clock this morning and I said what is your duty he says nothing but just sweeping the gutters about a mile of gutters you're in Rome how much do you earn he told me it was really a trivial wage I said tell me your philosophy of life and he said you're going to the council aren't you you're going to make important decisions for the church in the world yes he said that if I clean my gutters with a greater dedication than you do that work Lord is far more pleased with me that's right he saw that we have work in the world and it can be a dedicated and divine and holy work now this is the good side there's a kind of a bad side to this tool I'm going to mention it for just a few minutes and then I'm going to get back again to the good side this concern with the world is called secularism it it's bad side is that some would like to do away with the divine and the sacredly we've had a series of thinkers in our day that believe that in order to uphold the world one has to destroy the divine that's one of the reasons incidentally for the god is dead movement these poor thinkers believe that in order to make room for the words you got to make get rid of God don't mud says in order to make room for the Christian message you have to get rid of the historical Christ practically and we have the author secular city today I'd practically identify as the secular city and the kingdom of God and even in the field of religion itself today the holier on the defensive this world spirit has gotten hold of us to such an extent that many do not like the holy I may tell you that has gotten so bad that when any of you people see us priests on our knees you asked us if we lost our contact lenses well that's enough of that in the season of spring we celebrate Mother's Day the day of flowers of love and faith we remember the words of Mary at the Annunciation when the angel Gabriel told her she was with child I am the servant of the Lord he had done unto me according to thy word in the Book of Psalms we read that children are a gift from God but in the book of life we know that mothers of a real gift they are the poetry and love of our lives and love can be a many-splendored thing [Music] Annie wrote I filled a lovely sweet because loves the ambassador of loss loved the ambassador of loss white flake of childhood clinging so to my soiled raiment i shy snow at endless touch were freaking go love me not delightful child my heart my man snares beguiled has growin timorous wild it would fear thee not at all for that thou not so harmless small because thy arrows not yet dire are still unbarred with destined fire I fear thee more than hadst thou stood for pine oak lead in womanhood in all the while he's being haunted haunted by something and I told you of that poem of haunting I gave it to you one year The Hound of heaven did he wrote he went back again to dope the Meynell still cared for him this hound was pursuing him but despite this shell that shell that first came to the main ELLs he had no stockings on and his toes were out - his shoes and dirty old brown coat no shirt consumptive because of the nights he slept under the cartwheels of London he still had this love love love that pulled him probably that was pulling it at the beginning of his life from so he wrote her world invisible review the a world intangible we touch thee a world unknowable we love thee turn the stove start away tis you tis your estranged it faces that miss the many-splendored thing loves the many-splendored thing not earth love heaven love the Thompson saw everywhere and haunted by that love he went finally to his reward in one day well in London I went out to Kensal Green Cemetery and I asked someone whom I had met in the cemetery do you know where the tomb or the grave of Francis Thompson is no I never heard of him so I walked and walked and I finally came to a slab that read Francis Thompson 1859 1907 and then there came a line an unforgettable line the drew one back to all his loves of childhood and that last line on the tombstone was look for me in the nurseries of heaven love's a many-splendored thing [Applause] it is a beauteous evening calm and free the holy time is quiet as a nun breathless in adoration the broad Sun is sinking down in its tranquillity the gentleness of heaven broods over the sea we live in the light of our imagination we begin as children racing with the wind as the years pass we build many memories within the portrait of our world it is a journey well traveled for to experience faith hope and love is to have lived to have used our time well on this pilgrimage back to a place we never left Bishop Sheen's message the ages of men and did you hear the announcement of the subject tonight it's on thee the ages of man now there are various ways of treating the subject one of the light ways of course is there are three ages there's youth there's middle age and my you do look wonderful I was going to call this telecast at first the seven ages of man on account of Shakespeare you remember his he is a review of the seven ages in his drama as you like it the scene was laid in Arden a forest not a paradise by any means and the Duke one of the characters gives us the seven ages and we will go over these seven ages of Shakespeare and then see if we can find another way of treating them we certainly couldn't take the seven ages in a program of this length because if we gave three minutes to each age well we would be skipping over them very quickly now here is Shakespeare all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players they have their exits and their entrances and one man in his time plays many parts his acts being seven ages first the infant mewling and puking and his nurses are and the whining schoolboy shining morning face and Satchel creeping like snail unwillingly to school then the lover breathing like a furnace with a woeful ballad made to his mistress eyebrow and then the soldier full of strange oaths bearded like a pard sudden and quick in quarrel seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannons mouth and then the justice in fair round belly with good Capon lined with eyes severe beard a formal cut full of wise saws and modern instances and so he plays his part the sixth scene shifts to the lean and slippered Pantaloon with spectacles on nose pouch on side his youthful hose a world too wide for his shrunk shank and his big manly voice turning once again to childish treble pipes and whistles in his sound last scene of all that ends this strange eventful history in second childishness and mere oblivion sans eyes sans teeth sans taste sounds everything Bishop Sheen often said if it were not for hope the human heart would break for hope is the candle of our soul its light is the dawn of our days we pray for hope to be constant in our lives like the ocean waves that break up on the shore and their never-ending ritual hope is a vital part of our faithful prayer give us this day our daily bread deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory hope is a whisper a breath a thought always it is our gift from the Lord in a world that as the poet Tennyson writes is bound by gold chains about the feet of God Bishop Sheen now speaks on hope for a wounded world in the corridor of this television station there is a cloakroom over it is a sign these are reserved for the President and the ten vice presidents underneath are a series of long hooks do you know what my angel just did he put it a sign underneath said you can also hang coats and hats on these being of a very sweet disposition the angel is put in charge of these flowers that you see he was a little slow in getting them out today the floor manager said to him better put those flowers out or I'll spank you the angel says that's a big joke an angel doesn't have any place to spank well this is a telecast on hope and the reason we've chosen this subject is because there seems to be so much despair in the world and we will take us despairing a look as one can and then extract hope you remember the old legend of of Pandora's box and aura opened a box and death disease destruction economic chaos leprosy fears all came out and she barely slammed the lid on the box otherwise hope would have got out hope was the only thing that was left in the box to indicate that there's some hope even amidst all the evils of the world GF watts did a painting of hope and in it he pictured a beautiful lady but blindfolded seated on a solitary planet whirling around into space and she had before a harp but the harp had only one string and she was drawing a melody out of that one stream that is hope now because we're going to show the real basis of hope let us picture what the the world thinks of despair and we're going to give the three wounds and origins of modern despair and I will perhaps leave these on the board and then come back to them every now and then in other words what makes modern despair well first thing is God is dead in other words we have nothing left and in this world except the world itself if there's any hope it's technology and science maybe if we just give enough time technology may be able to take care of all of our diseases maybe no more poverty but there's no such thing as guilt or sin we have only to deal with social issues this is one of the despairing pictures of the modern world and the second is violence which disturbs us all now out of all of the many facets of violence that we could choose we're just going to choose one phase of violence and that will be modern wars now what is terrible about modern wars is that they involve less and less the soldiers who fight they touch more and more the civilians the sea is calm tonight the tide is full the moon lies fair upon the Straits words from the English poet Matthew Arnold a stream of water creates its own pathway a spiraling journey past many places always moving toward the sea it is like our human journey we seek the fulfillment of inner needs that only our soul and God know about we look for our pathway after his baptism by John two men asked Jesus where do you live jesus answered come and see it is an invitation that we should accept it is a direction along our pathway again Bishop Sheen and before we start talking about neurotics may I tell you that this morning I was crossing Fifth Avenue about 38th Street and there was a mother with a little girl about 4 years of age out in the middle of the street it was a New York cop John Flanagan directing traffic and the little girl said to his mother mummy was was that policeman ever a baby and the mother said yes she said you know I've never seen a baby policeman apropos of neurotics there was a mother who brought her child who was the Khayat rest' and she said I don't know why he is insecure everyone else in the neighborhood is which brings up the question are we more neurotic on these days now there are two answers we're going to consider both one answer is well we're not more neurotic there have always been or psychotics neurotics take for example very famous people have done queer things the point perceive this is Shelley for example had a passion for building paper boats he would float them in the bathtub and one day he didn't have any paper and he made a boat out of a 50 pound bill Spinoza the philosopher you know what he was fond of doing he was fond of catching spiders and matching them one against another watching them fight Fateh vyas used to get up from his chair at the end of every second hour of work and spin it around ten times then sit down and work for another two hours but those who hold that we are not more neurotic today than before you such arguments as these first of all in 1853 there was a work just think 1853 a work published the great disease of our time neurosis work by Reineke the University of Tubingen and Germany made a study of neuroses and came in to the conclusion that we are not more neurotic it is only the symptoms that have changed if you want if you want a real good philosophy along these lines read victor VI kto our Victor Frankel's F RANKL a Jewish psychiatrist of the University of Vienna was given us psychology called logotherapy l OG o th ER APY anything of his is worth reading man who went through concentration camps suffered under the Nazis suffered under the Communists he came out of it all saying that he survived simply because he realized that life had a meaning he told me not very long ago and I had dinner with him when the Nazis began their persecution he had an opportunity to come to the United States to start his new school of psychology and psychiatry logotherapy he wanted to do it he had the passport but his father was living and it was sure that the Nazis would begin an intense persecution dr. Franco said he went to the Church of st. Stephen's in Vienna knelt down for an hour he prayed for wisdom what should he do should he go to America or should he stay with his father what's his father maybe undergo the Nazi persecution and watch himself go through it as well he came back to the house without a clear answer but as he sat down to table with his father he said to his father what is that over there and that other table father said a piece of marble I picked it up today the synagogue remember remember the synagogue that Hitler burned our synagogue well I went over there and I rummaged among the dust and the ashes and the bird embers and I found this broken piece of marble Viktor Frankl said to his father did you ever try to figure out what it was no he said I haven't well he said let's look at it it was in Hebrew first three letters of one of the commandments the fourth thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother that was the answer Viktor Frankl wanted and that night he had a dream then a dream he saw tens of thousands of his fellow Jews going into the laboratory and into furnaces to be burned and he will to stay he came out normal and he said everybody else that was in prison with him but had an object that had a goal and a purpose in life was normal to life is not just made up by an experiences that are intense but experiences our intense in relationship to an object this is gold this is happiness this is joy the Scriptures tell us with God all things are possible also our faith can move mountains faith is a wellspring of wisdom that flows within our spirit in this portrait of God's beauty our faith must be taller than the tallest tree it should reach above and beyond the highest snow Peaks our faith is God's best gift to us it is salvation it is peace it is truth Jesus tells us we must have the faith of children to enter the kingdom of heaven Jesus touched people as He healed them and as many as touched him he made whole Bishop Sheen adds that faith is a mystery but it can be found at something as simple as the touch of your hand there was a test may turn on monkeys in which young monkeys that were bought for divided into two classes and one group of little monkeys were had nobody to care for them at all and the other group of monkeys were given a mechanical mother monkey and this mechanical mother monkey was electrically heated and when a monkey would jump up in his arms the arms was mechanically move and embraced the little one what happened all of the little monkeys that had this mechanical mother and were worn by it seeming affection became it became normal monkeys but those other monkeys I wish we had Bert Lahr here to say it became the craziest of all monkeys because they lacked love why are many young people today aggressive they're aggressive because they've never received love study made of juvenile delinquents in England prove that the delinquents that came from divorced parents or there was no love of father another will give you the most serious crimes and also repeated their crimes more than the others so the touch of the hand then brings us not only in communion with with those that are in need of love but it also infects them with our goodness and our kindness murmurs and I had another I have two minutes and 11 seconds to go now I had another point to tell you and I know this is the one now that'll make you curious because I'm not telling you three I don't have time I can't start it and so the problem is you see in television what do you do in two hours in two minutes and or one a minute in 58 seconds and get very nervous you said Oh what am I going to do at the time but we'll say the other point point for you I merely want now to suggest to you that the problem of race and class we'll be solved in part by accepting our abstract questions of rights but it will beep resettled practically and concretely by love and the burden of love falls on those who have after all example God loves me there's no reason in the world why God should love me absolutely none no I don't know whether you think you're very lovable or not they're probably in very honest moment to admit that you two are not very lovable but God loves you just as he loves me well why does he love me why does he love you since there's nothing very lovable in us He loves us because he puts some of his love into us his love into us and that's why we're supremely and divinely loveable so down to the inner-city touch children touch people live with them mingle with them do the divine thing put a little love into them and everyone will become love compassion is like this towering tree it has seen nature storms come of dog it had indoors for all the seasons of our lives compassion is the gentle deer and the small bird but seek their food in the winter snow both seem to know that God's nature when we look into ourselves we seek true compassion in our minds and for the lives of others we find help in the writings of st. Paul I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Bishop Sheen tells us how we can reclaim our true spiritual identity the talk he calls false compassion there's always been a right kind of compassion and it manifests itself in various ways it can be physical it can be financial it can be moral financial compassion would be helping the poor and this really happened to me the other day going to my office some came up to him and he said would you give me $31 for a cup of coffee and I gave him a dollar and then it suddenly dawned on me $31 I said why do you want $31 I said a coffee or breakfast roni cost you a dollar why do you went to 30 he felt he told me he said you wouldn't want me to go on to a restaurant rest in this suit would you well at that point the priest passed him by then there's also a physical compassion - you probably have often seen the picture of a boy that's carrying another boy on his back and someone said isn't he too heavy no he said he's my brother then there's moral compassion suppose the judge sentences a man to death and then says to the criminal I will take the sentence I will be hanged for you well that in some way typifies the great moral compassion God coming down to this earth and taking upon himself our sins and dying for us now compassion always implies what it always implies a moral order namely a distinction between right and wrong between the man who was waylaid on the road and the robbers and the thieves who beat him up and compassion also implies that there's a distinction between a man destroying himself through his own fault and being destroyed by others that's true compassion now what is false and this is what we're in today folks compassion false compassion which is gradually growing in this country is a pity that is shown not to the mugged but to the mugger not to the family of the murdered but to the murderer not to the woman was raped but to the rapist not to the poor girl who's given a shot of dope but to the rich boy who happens to come from a fine family there are some judges some in some of our courts there are some social workers not all there are sob sisters there are the social slobbers who insist on compassion being shown to the muggers to the dope fiends to the throat slashers to the beatniks to the prostitutes to the homosexuals to the punks so that today that decent man is practically off the reservation this is a false compassion ladies and gentlemen His Excellency Bishop Fulton J Sheen [Applause] friends as I stood back there in the wings waiting for the cue to come on there came to me a recollection of a a priest in Washington DC a very short man and whenever he got into the pulpit he always had to stand on a little stool and the particular gospel that he was reading this Sunday was a little while you see me and a little while you will not see me and he fell off the stool last week I said to my angel I said this angel how did you get your wings well he said I am NOT going to tell you how I got my wings but I will tell you how a bird got its wings and this is what my angel said he said God gave birds plumage and saw but no wings and on either side of each bird he put a burden cause care and he said love these burdens care me and the birds did love and they love them not through commandant they love them with all our heart they press these cares more and more to their heart and finally the burdens became wings and that's how the birds learn to fly and the angel said so that's how I got my wings I learned to care ladies and gentlemen His Excellency Bishop Fulton J Sheen [Applause] [Music] [Applause] just before I came out here friends on this program the program director up in the booth shouted down that the third candle on the right was crooked so he asked the angel to come and straighten it which the angel did because the angel hates anything that is crooked but as he was straightening the candle there came back to my mind the memory of a of an old Monsignor in st. Louis he came out one morning for mass and found four candles lighted he should have had only two for a low-mass and he called the altar boy and he said who told you the light four candles the altar boy says mrs. McEntee where is mrs. McEntee she's down in the front pew Oh Monsignor said will you go down and give mrs. McEntee three swift kicks one for Moses one for me and one for Elias you have the title happiness is a rainbow but this does not come in at the beginning of this show only about the middle of it will we find out why happiness is a rainbow but I must tell you at the beginning why we chose this particular subject it's because there's so much gloom in the world I do not mean light frivolous gloom like a poor widow who was visited by the insurance company after the death of her husband and he gave her a check for $50,000 and the insurance agent said I'm sure you're very sad after having lost your husband and she said well I would give $5,000 to have him back I'm not referring to that kind of gloom in answer to the gloomy dramatists novelists who called the Garbage Pail and the excesses of life reality may we say that they have a point but they've exaggerated it there's both in life and that's what makes it wonderful and great just as in weaving there's a warp and a wolf there is a line of sadness and there's also a line of gladness there's the horizontal stitch and there's the vertical stitch and the makers of these great tapestry is like the goblin tapestry never worked from the front as maybe you do your needlework they have before them just the image the portrait of what they want to portray but they work from the back of the tapestry not from the front and they wee one thread after another the tool the light the raindrops and finally when it's all finished then they look at what they've done they started behind where they could not quite understand the mystery but they finished by understand the fullness of light tab put it well describing that manner in which these tapestries are made my life is but a weaving between my god and me I may but choose the colors he worketh skillfully full oft he chooses sorrow and I in foolish pride forget he sees the upper and I the underside so the true philosophy of life then becomes Good Friday and Easter Sunday unless there's the Good Friday in life there will never be the Easter Sunday unless there is the cross there will never be the empty tomb and when I look at the sky I see exactly the same lesson taught happiness is a rainbow [Applause] [Music] this is Joseph Capernaum each year on Good Friday Bishop Sheen spoke in st. Agnes Church in New York City this was Good Friday 1979 his last good Friday like Jesus his last words [Music] the people welcomed their bishop this was his day to again tell a story of love and forgiveness Jesus of Nazareth crucified on a hill called Calvary it was empty barren full of pain and there he hung in misty rain this brave young Hebrew man this man of love aware aware of all I [Music] take as a sign of Thanksgiving for this is the 58th Good Friday in which the good Lord has permitted me to talk about his passion and death 58 years now in case you're counting them back I started before each year I have chosen a different topic and this year our meditation will be on spectators on and about the cross there are three kinds of spectators being different or fallen away the spectators of pain and finally the spectators of law he said he would come like a thief in the night and when he come he will have not rooms but scarves scars on hands and feet inside and that is the way he will judge us show me your hands and he was scar from giving scar of sacrificing yourself for another show me your feet have you gone about doing good were you wounded in service show me your heart even left a place for the lion love and that's the way he will know his own house the point she Leto put it if I had never sought thee I see P now nine eyes burn through the dark our only stars we must have sight of foreign pricks on thy brow we must have the oh Jesus of the scars the heavens frighten us the actual car in all the universe we have no place our wounds are hurting us where is thy power Lord Jesus by thy scars we claim thy grace if then when the doors are shut out Josh neer only reveal those hands that side of that we know today what wounds are have no fear show us their scars we know the countersign the other gods were strong because our last week they rode but thou didst humble to a throne but to our wounds only God's wounds can speak and no God has wounds but ours hello I got off on a subway and gave my seat to a woman who was holding on to his strap she was rather surprised and she said to me why did you do that well I looked at and I saw that she was absolutely in capable of understanding a spiritual reason and I said to work well madam I tell you ever since I was a little boy I've had an infinite respect for a woman with a strap in her hand you are a loyal son of the church the Holy Father told Bishop Sheen you have spoken and written well of our Lord people of all faiths recognized Bishop Sheen as one of the greatest communicators of the 20th century he was born in El Paso Illinois as a young boy he knew he wanted to be a priest he served as an altar boy as st. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria Illinois his education and his debating skills as st. viateur college taught him a major lesson he used throughout his life his unique ability of being natural and at ease in front of an audience he was ordained in 1919 and went on to become one of the best-known and greatly loved priests in our church history when people watched him on television they waited for his goodbye his blessing God love you that gave them joy and hope and to continues to do the same for us an angel is a guardian every person in the world has a guardian angel why well because every individual is worth more than the entire universe our Blessed Lord said what does it profit a man if he gain the world loses whole below us there are only species and nature is careful not to preserve individuals but just species when you come to man each one is of sovereign Worth God has given to each a guardian and hence our Lord said of the guardian angels of children that the angels of children all we see the face of the Father in heaven what is it that protects children when they fall out of second and third story windows one wonders honestly how a child ever gets to be a man you think of the pots and pans they can pull off on themselves and all the harm that they can get into in the fires they start it's a good thing the good Lord has given them guardian angels and parents ought to tell their children about the guardian angels and pray to them in order that the children may be safe during the day and then even in times of war a Jewish soldier told me the story during a battle he was with four men in a trench and it seems as if this particular shell that hit kill the four men he alone was saved he said he heard a voice saying to him get out of this cringe he crawled on his stomach across the mud to another shell hole and as he did sheíll exploded in the one that he left in the second hole the second time he heard the voice and he left that the shell exploded there and that continued five times jus afterwards told me for the first time in my life I began to feel the protection of God through an angel he said I'd read about angels in the New Testament but I never thought and then flying some people are afraid to fly you know I think that's a terrible insult against God to be afraid to fly because people are practically saying to the good Lord as long as I'm here on this earth you can't touch me so they are saying to the good Lord you are a coward you may be lurking behind one of those white clouds and you'll come out and stop the propeller and send me down to the earth every time every day of my life I always say a prayer to st. ray field he's mentioned in the Old Testament as you know as the one who traveled with Tobias I pray every day to st. ratio to guard me when I fly and when I travel TWA travel with angels that's that's that commercial ought to get me a free trip to Newark some [Applause] and the good Lord has turned the beautiful side of the clouds to himself and it's really wonderful to get up above the clouds and glorify God we might do do it here on earth and therefore may I say to you the reason we do not think of angels is because we do not think of God just as soon as we begin to think of God rather cease thinking of ourselves as tiny little gods then we'll begin to believe in spirits that are wiser than ourselves can instruct and guard us there may be a public library around the corner from you but you do not use it and therefore are not liars there may be uranium in your backyard but you do not use a Geiger counter and you are not wealthy there may be a Bible on yourself but you're not reading it and therefore lacking spiritual inspiration and there are angels near you to guide you and protect you did you but invoke them it is not later than we think it is a bigger world than we think stir your soul start away and you will discover it to be the way of an angel of God [Music] [Applause] notions that touch America have many stories one is the crossing of the pilgrims from England to America and a small sailing ship called The Mayflower these people sought a place where they could worship as they wished they settled at Plymouth in Massachusetts winter had just said in their lives became filled with hardships half their company died the others worked for the loneliness of winter until the warm Sun of the New England springtime day the new strength they prayed and their loneliness melted with the winter snows [Applause] friends in a certain city a politician was running for office and the advertised for volunteer workers there were so many young women appeared for the job as volunteers but there was a near riot were they interested in politics no the first question they asked was how many men have appeared they were part of the lonely young women of this great city and then I know of an old woman who stays up every night until 12 o'clock to hear the announcer say we are now signing off good night and have a good sleep that relieves her loneliness there was really and truly a woman wrote to me and told me that my program was the only one to which her cat ever listened so our subject tonight has to do to some extent with loneliness so what's this what's the cause of this loneliness what are we looking for well we say we're looking for God yes then I know what you will answer what does God know about loneliness now that's a good question that's a good question what does he know about loneliness does he know anything about the loneliness for example of a babe in Afghanistan who has no better home the DES straw does God know anything about the loneliness of a mother who has to gather up a child in order to escape a dictator and fly halfway across Africa does God know anything about the loneliness of a man the spawn on the wrong side of the tracks was isolated socially from people simply because his hands are calloused with common labor there's denied decent society sure does God know anything about that kind of loneliness for example in which one is expelled from a city disowned by one's own people does he know anything about the loneliness are being deserted by friends does he even know anything about the loneliness feeling doubts doubts even about religion doubts even which one cries out why us now abandon me does God know anything about these things yes those are good questions now suppose that there was a figure that came into wall of this loneliness and so immersed himself in it that he would not immunize himself from it would not cut himself off from it would you for example be the only one on the battlefield that was whole and not help any of the wounded and so if there was a figure that came into this world of ours and refused to isolate himself from loneliness and felt it so much that blood poured out from his body felt loneliness so much that as if all the robberies of the world were thrust into his hands as if he himself were guilty that felt all those some carnality so much that his flesh was hanging from him like purple rags suppose someone came into this world and went into all of this loneliness took it all and was not overcome by it but conquered it all then what then I may be lonely every now and then but I'll not be overcome by it then I have a captain kind of a captain who did presses not a button in heaven from a celestial command but I have a captain who stumbled to a throne you are a loyal son of the church the Holy Father told Bishop Sheen you have spoken and written well of the Lord Jesus Christ this is Joseph Capernaum Bishop Sheen spoken and written words are a treasure for God's people of all religions the diversity of his words reflect his certainty that it is not a unity of religion that we plead for but a unity of religious people [Music] we may not be able to meet in the same pew but we can't meet on our knees and the light from the shadow of the cross here now Bishop Fulton J Sheen [Applause] friends you heard the subject our two wars but before I get into that subject let me tell you about another war a little boy went to religion in class and when he came home his mother said to him what did you learn today at Sunday school he said I learned about the war of Moses and the Egyptians well what happened well he said the Egyptians he said we're pursuing Moses and the Israelites so Moses telephone to his engineers his engineers laid pontoon bridges all across the Red Sea when the bridges were laid the aircraft saw the tanks of the Egyptians coming on the other side of the Red Sea Moses telephone the airfield radioed the Jets to bomb all of these tanks and the army which they did then when the Israelites were across then they bombed the pontoon bridges and Moses in the army was safe mother said is that what they told funds money school no he said it isn't but he says if I told you what they really said you wouldn't believe me well our country is something that's very dear to your heart and to mine I wonder if it's dear enough no the Greeks had the virtue of PETA's which was love of country and love of country was one of three forms of love one was love of God and the other was love of neighbor and the other was love of country have you ever noticed that all three pass out together and there's no longer respect for parents no longer a sense of divine relationship to Heavenly Father there's no more patriotism and because the country means so much to us and as Lincoln's that we've been blessed as no other country in the history of the world has ever been blessed it makes one feel rather tragic that we are in two wars two wars and one of the wars that we're in is what might be called the protracted war the other war we are in is the insurgent war the protracted war is one that we fight outside our country the insurgent war is the one that is fought inside the reason I mentioned both at the beginning is because I gave you the title of two wars I'm going to leave it for a minute I will come back to it but I want to tell you about a very false concept of war that we still have in the United States the concept of war that we have now is what might be called the theory of the intermittent war this is a 19th century inheritance one might almost say it is something that has been inherited from the centuries but our philosophy of war at the present time is that war is not constant that war is something that disturbs relatively long periods of peace secondly our false theory of war is that every war must stand in victory because we have the theory of intermittent war if you pick up an American history you will find example our history in terms of a war say Civil War World War one with the dates after it say World War one 1914 1918 and so forth World War two and any other war that we happen to be in you see it's intermittent it is not a continuous thing now I wish to suggest to you for a better understanding of our country that this theory of an intermittent war can cause us a great deal of trouble we must understand what is new in the world and what is new is something that was introduced in 1917 for the communist revolution the Communist revolution introduced into the world the notion the jabra figure out how my angel always I never tell my angel when to clean the blackboard ever notice that he always knows when to clean it and if I don't want it cleaned see he doesn't clean it I know sometimes I'll walk away and he doesn't clean the blackboard not because I walk away funny isn't it when the Constitution grants rights and liberties to the citizens it must never be assumed that the people have no other rights than those granted to them by the Constitution in other words simply because we have certain rights we must never a think that there that we have them because they're in the Constitution no we have them because they're divinely given [Music] but it brings a holiday recall Presidents Day in which we honor George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and all the other presidents who have lived in this historic White House in Washington DC our place of national pride and great beauty especially after winter when the cherry blossoms bloom the world is painted with pink day and white and in the dawn's early light our star-spangled banner old Glory's red white and blue still waves over land where we say In God We Trust friends the few minutes before television program begins are always moments of tension there's a countdown and one is always waiting for the cue to start it reminds me of a woman in an Arkansas town very small town she was trying to crash the society in this village but her husband was not very social so she kept him upstairs with instructions that he was not to come down to the tea under any circumstances she invited in the lady isn't she was charming them at tea and her efforts were just about crown with success when a voice was heard from upstairs it was the husband and he was saying ma there are only clean towels in the bathroom is it alright to start one so he get the cue and start a television show and this one is about America sometimes the Europeans make great fun of us this really and truly happened to a friend of mine were studying in Switzerland and it seems this American had gone over for his first visit to Europe and my friend in Switzerland who was an American said well how do you like Europe always said I don't like anything about it he said they're not up to date they do not have the latest gadgets the television not in the hotel rooms and then he said buildings are old these are their churches here there are over a thousand years old and then dirty I don't find anything beautiful here my American friend said well don't you think Switzerland is beautiful he said take away the scenery and what have you got left there are so many things that we take for granted now that could not be taken for granted some years ago for example our next meal when the Pioneers had to go out to shoot it water but now we take everything for granted light heat transportation television trains and planes we take our friends for granted take people for granted and we take America for granted and there is going on at the present time a decline in patriotism in order to revive it let me tell you some of the glories of America I'm going to make some three first is the origin of our rights and liberties secondly the great value that we put upon the human person and then certainly what America's done for the world first of all the source of our rights and liberties where for example do I get the right of free speech here whence comes freedom of press freedom of conscience freedom of religion there's an audience here in this studio they are in assembly whence comes the right of assembly don't you think that our founding fathers had to ask themselves these questions where do our rights come from and liberties as well from the state if the state gave our rights the state could take them away does the federal government give us our rights and liberties if the federal government gave us our rights and liberties the federal government could take them away and March the 15th we feel it takes almost everything else away and might take away our rights and Liberty our founding fathers had to ask themselves these questions and they searched about for some basis and some ground of our liberties and they look to one theory that was being held in Europe at the time namely that rights and liberties come from Parliament founding fathers rejected that then they considered another theory that they come from the will of the majority and rightly they refused to accept that view they wanted a country in which rights and liberties did not come from the will of the majority in an election they wanted a country in which the majority would be the custodian of minority rights and they finally found the source of rights and liberties and they set it down in the second paragraph of our Declaration of Independence it is a self-evident principle that the Creator the Creator has endowed man with certain unalienable rights among which are the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness in other words our rights come from God love is a garden a tapestry of color that gives a radiance to our imagination we delight in the flight of a butterfly who stops for a brief moment to open his wings on the petals of a rose in the garden of our own lives we pray that the leaves will always dance gracefully in the gentle breeze that whisper which is the breath of God on the fiftieth anniversary of his priesthood Bishop Sheen wrote these lines as I work under the love of two hearts one sacred and the other immaculate the road I shall follow it the fun I shall forget it the cup I shall empty it the pain I shall conceal it the truth I shall be told it the end I shall endure it now Bishop Sheen and love is a garden friends you heard the title love is a garden so this telecast has something to do about love it will touch maybe on the fine points of love particularly married love and it reminds one of extremes one extreme about marriage is the story of of Adam out walk in the garden out walking after the fall of the garden of paradise he had his two boys with him one on either side and they passed by the reckon ruin of the beautiful garden of paradise that him looked in full of boys to himself he's his voice that's where your mother raised us out of house and home on that bad side of it too is the story of the wife who went in to get a a collar for her husband and the Turk said what sighs she said about that sighs you didn't get that did you and then on on the more pleasing aspect of marriage President Harding was once asked what at what age do you think women are most beautiful he said the age of my wife and here I'm going to read for you perhaps a poem to know Elizabeth Barrett Browning is poem to her husband how do I love [Music] let me count the ways I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach we're feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal race I love thee to the level of every day's most quiet need by Sun and candlelight I love thee freely as men strive for right I love thee purely as they turn from praise I love thee with the passion put to you put to use in my old griefs and with my childhoods faith I love thee with a love I seemed to lose my lost thing I love me with the bread smile - all my life under God choose I shall but love thee better after death the winds lift the seabirds above the tides ebb and flow son would they fly on silver wings above God's creation this miracle place of our journey the even song begins in a floating sense of light its African glimmers on the ocean's golden waves waves which across time and distance to break in patterns on the shore of your journey they are the Seas motion ever constant by the simple faith of our childhood but the little children come unto me in this moment of life there is a struggle of the human heart that only the soul and God know about but we can soar on wings of light above the silence into the Sun split clouds alone and prayer with God today Bishop Sheen tells us how to keep people tuned in with empathy along with being interested in them as people [Applause] friends I must tell you about two letters that I received about the way I conclude the program a one letter told me that this woman had a parakeet which he trained to say by now and God love you I have a dim suspicion that she trained the parakeet to say that to teach people when to go home and there was another woman a mother who told me that her son aged about four was brought to Mass every Sunday and after the priest left the altar went into the sacristy he would whisper to his mother mummy Mass isn't over yes it is for Sunday's he said that the fifth Sunday he could not stand it any longer he knew how it should end everything should end he stood up on the Pew turned to the congregation says bye now God love you this this telecast you know is he always tombs me out it's not about people who are disagreeable not that class that belonged to the Italian barber that I know of a friend went into his barber shopping announced this Italian barber that he'd want a trip to Rome yes how are you going miss a TWA oh he said don't take that line is that the engines always conk out never arise on time very going to stay when you get to Rome he said the Excelsior Hotel except there's a fleabag go-go there we're going to eat chaser a restaurant oh they put potassium cyanide in the food what else you're going to do said I'm going to have an audience with the Pope oh he said there'll be 20,000 screaming Italians you'll never get near the man six weeks later he came back how was the trip that's the Italian barber fine he said travel TWA just as Bishop Sheen said travel with angels perfect flight Excelsior Hotel excellent fine food the chaser a restaurant and I had a private audience with the Holy Father you did what did the Pope say he said where did you get that awful haircut now this expression he always cuts me out and office is taken from radio and television when here is it so often today I heard that a professor in the School of Medicine use it he said that as soon as he begins to talk to the medical students about the necessity of carrying more for patients than just for disease he said they tuned me up I heard a mother say it of her daughter I said to her why do you stay out every night until three o'clock in the morning she doesn't answer me she Tunes me out fathers have said exactly the same thing about about their sons they just don't listen in in many people today there seems to be a knob that's been taken off a television radio set and they just simply tuned people out so there's a kind of a brokenness in human relationships ages and classes and groups and so forth so the problem is how can we tune people in now there is a psychological answer but I'm going to show later on that that is not quite adequate because I'm going to be concerned with really difficult in almost impossible cases but what is the psychological answer to tuning people in well it is it is establishing by the psychologist or psychiatrist with his client a rapport developing a sympathy and an empathy between the helper and the one helped whenever we love we give power is not a peculiar thing wherever there's love there's almost a surrender so there exists on this earth and so many places in this earth that is the shame the press does not print those who keep the commandments as well as those who break the commandments but somewhere on this earth there is a love that absorbs evil it did not come from evolution I think that that love that absorbs evil exists it in someone who in the face of deafness would sigh someone who in the face of death would shed a tear and someone in the face even of the corruption of a culture overlooking a city in the culture might also weep somewhere there had to be someone who loved so much that he was helpless helpless so helpless more helpless than the mother before the infant so helpless that nails could be pinioned against his hands and against his feet somewhere there had to be an open end somewhere there had to be an open heart an open heart and on one cheek there had to be gathered up all of the sorrows of the world so that down that cheek might flow just one tear this is where such love comes from it is from heaven it is regard [Music] autumn brings us a special day when we fight for men and women of America both living and dead war veterans who have served this country in war and peace with Amazing Grace their service will never be forgotten nor taken for granted as we pass into a new century that is forever repeat the three words that have kept us strong god bless america [Music] [Applause] when we go back to the life of our Blessed Lord we find that the first words of his public life were come come to me and the last words of his public life where go go into the world come first to get an idea strength inspiration motivation then action dynamism fluidity serving the secular world this is the way the tool should be kept together when they are kept together what do you find I think you get modern Saints I'm going to talk about modern Saints not plaster Saints not canonized saints saints that are uncanny NIH's but rather those whom the world not a religion those whom the world regards as Saints and their common characteristic is this it's a it's a phrase from Thomas a client kindness contemplate Oh awliya strata-ray in other words go and give to others what you have already contemplated first to come the idea the con-tem-plat-- then the go deliver it to others now quite apart from any view that you may have concerning these whom I am about to mention about their politics their economics their theology or anything else whom does the world the world generally regard as the four great leaders and saints Gandhi that's one too president john f kennedy three Pope John the 23rd and forth commercial normally of the United Nations each had a great idea each first came they got some contemplate I friends did I ever tell you the story I propose tonight subject the little girl was told by her her mother about all of the family problems Jimmy had the mumps and Susie has the measles and grandma had broken her leg and she was told to pray and she said dear God please take care of yourself because if anything happens to you we'll all be in the soup but the subject is somewhat related to that it's on God is dead I heard of one man who was an atheist for a year and then he gave it up because there were no holidays we'll try to explain to you this much discussed subject God is dead now there are two ways in which this can be understood god is dead it can be understood one one way I don't know how I happen to write that my angel leave it there angel the name God is dead that is one sense in which it is used in other words the name God has no significance today the other meaning of the phrase God is dead is that the reality of God is dead in other words God Himself is dead here it's only the name now this is one of the very popular ideas today why is the name of God meaningless I will give you their argument without going into the names of the philosophers or not mention any of the popular American ones because listen their theory won't be known in ten years from now this telecast would outlast their theory people of all faiths recognized Bishop Sheen as one of the greatest communicators of the 20th century as I look back I know very well that I have never received the punishment that I deserved God has been easy with me he has not laid on me burdens that were ever equal to my failures and if we look into our own soul I think that we will also come to that confusion for God speaks to us in various ways as CS Lewis put it God whispers to us in our pleasures he speaks to us in our conscience and he shouts to us in our pain pain is God's megaphone Pena's heavens loud speaker and like the ripples that are made in a brook mercy when you're throwing a stone the ripples of pain instead of going out of distant shores they narrow and narrow and come to a central point where there is less of the outside of the circle more of the center not the agel with a real person in the real self and one begins to find oneself along with God that is what happens in pay the one on the right saw that and as we look at pain and those and suffering we only wish that they could understand the mystery of it why does it happen say I'm sure that that man on the Left said well God is evil that's why he said if you are the son of God save us while you're you God God does anyways cure when that was a boy and had a toothache I would always go to my grandmother because she'd give me oil of clothes and I was afraid to go to my father because he'd take me to the dentist and he would hurt me one day took me to the dentist and the dentist said you have a very grave infection in your tooth and it's spreading through your organism and that tooth that's to be pulled and it's going to give you some pain the dentist pulled the tooth my father stood there holding my hand which really did no good at all and then even though I was just a boy I somehow reasoned that why doesn't he stop the dentist why does he allow him to make me suffer and because he wanted to prevent that infection through my body and some of the Heavenly Father says to his son on the cross you take on the sins of the infections and all the poisons of the world in the father was with him the father let him suffer because of the eventual good that it would do for us in the resurrection people of all faiths recognized Bishop Fulton J Sheen as one of the greatest communicators of the 20th century he was born in El Paso Illinois in May of 1896 as a young boy he knew he wanted to be a priest he served as an altar boy at st. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria Illinois at st. viateur College his education and debating skills taught him the skills he used throughout his life his unique ability at being natural and at ease in front of any audience was noted early in his ministry he was ordained in 1919 and went on to become one of the best-known and greatly loved priests in church history he wrote ninety-six books and hundreds of articles and columns he broadcast numerous radio and TV programs people from all faiths watched him on television because he spoke to every man they always waited with joy for his goodbyes his blessing God love you it continues to give us joy and memories Bishop Fulton J Sheen went to be with the Lord December of 1979 Fulton J Sheen requiescat in Part A [Music]

Channel: Vision Video

Views: 45,889

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Keywords: Christian Videos, Christian Films, Christian Movies, Religious Movies, Films, Movies, Entertainment, Feature Films, Fulton J. Sheen, Irish, Bishop Sheen, Wit and Wisdom, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Id: Wgk4mdXHsCw

Length: 108min 6sec (6486 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020