Ven Fulton Sheen: Holy Hour of Adoration

dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ there was only once that you ever asked to disciples to do something special for you granted through the Spirit we may answer that question in the affirmative we ask this for your ID and resurrection and even the father of the son Holy Spirit amen many of us priests have made retreats 10 times 30 times 40 times and so I had many of the sisters and perhaps the laity can any priest recall a single resolution that he ever took and retreat that he ever kept in the sister can anyone I'm sure there would not be over one or two and why well because the retreats are like health congress's there's a series of conferences on how you ought to be spiritually healthy but no one gives any concrete definite challenge and proposal and that's what we're going to do now we are going to offer you a sacramental sign and symbol of our victim wood in Christ and we have to have it we just cannot go on and our priest of the way we are this is one of the principle reasons for the mediocrity of the church today we think that well we know our theology we've been sanctified and therefore we continue in routine no no one today is the same as he was a year ago either we're better or we are worse it were the same were worse because we have life in us and we were made to grow and too often in middle age we settle down a routine way of life and almost seem to lack the courage to become young again its regards physical aid you can never get younger but spiritually we have to become younger no old people ever enter the kingdom of heaven unless you become as a little child you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven there are only nurseries in heaven and the reason we level off because there is a principle of degeneration in us there's not only evolution in the world as devolution for example there's an animal in the cave of Kentucky called the Crustacea that seemingly has perfect eyes but if you run a scalpel across the eye you find behind the desiccated nerves it spent its time in the dark and it's lost it lost its capacity to see the mole ones had eyes to see but it chose to grovel and the bowels of the earth nature as if seated in judgment said take the calendar way and so they're blind there's more danger of a person with one event losing it than one with ten the one who had the one talent in the gospel who buried it saying well it's of no use therefore we are face to face with the principle by which we decay if for example a man took poison and the antidote would rot the woman was brought to him it would make no difference whether he threw the poison out of the window or just left it beside his bed because the poison is operating in his system then the poison of sin is operating in Austin we have to act against it well what are we going to do about it now I will give you the reason why I'm here giving a retreat I am proposing to all of the priests and all of the sisters and to a lesser degree the lady in our speak of that in a few moments I am proposing to you one daily continuous hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament daily and in ewis in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament no 15-minute visits adding up to an hour the only thing they would not break the continuity of the owl would be the mass the mass has never included but one could make 30 minutes before mass 30 minutes after this how we make the our I will come to later now this is the only reason that I'm giving retreats the only reason I know this is the only thing that works with the priesthood and those who are doing it now are completely change men in just a short space of time why do the our I'm going to give you three reasons for making it it is the third that is most important first we are to make the hour because we need psychological continuity of Prayer we are living in a distracting world the like of which human hearts never lived in before when we come into the presence of the Lord we drag with us the news cares habits impulses the world is like an octopus reaching up to us and we just cannot put ourselves in the presence of God in five or ten minutes for the lady I'm recommending to you 15 minutes a day and it need not be spent in the presence of the best sacrament you may make it at home reading the Gospels but quiet silence and if you are not weight responsibilities then do the hour as many lay people are doing but for the priests and sisters one hour now let me give you the reason why it takes time I think that prayer is very much like the visit of our Blessed Lord to the disciples on Easter Sunday afternoon there was a seven mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus and only gradually is Christ manifesting himself to his disciples now remember this is Easter Sunday afternoon I shall recall to you this passage of Luke 24 on the hemos visit here were the disciples leaving Jerusalem Easter Sunday afternoon what do you find talk talk talk talk talk discussion discussion discussion when we're not interior we engage in a lot of talk poor talkative Christianity as they talked and discussed with one another Jesus himself came up and walked along with them but something kept them from seeing who it was and he asked them what is it you're debating about on the way it's the third time in two sentences that the word talk and discussion appears and they halt it their faces full of gloom I wonder if that's the way we appear to the good Lord and incidentally we are not as happy a body of priests knowledge we used to be twenty thirty years there's groom setting in to us we used to have a priest portrayed by Barry Fitzgerald being Cosby that O'Brien now what do we have the married priests were beginning to be gloomy and that's the way the disciples appeared to our Blessed Gordon their faces full of gloom and one call Cleophas answered he got kind of nasty with his stranger he said of uni are you the only one in jerusalem was not heard what has happened these days haven't you position to the radio television haven't been reading the press see the world it gets hold of us news news news on the hour we can do nothing about it the matter of fact we very often create the tremendous amount of inability to react to news that we can do something about so are you the only one who's never heard what has happened and see our Lord draws him huh what do you mean the risen Lord what do you mean oh all about this Jesus of Nazareth they replied a powerful prophet in speech and action before God and we had been hoping that he was the man to liberate Israel that's it political liberation to many of us returning theology in the political liberation that was crying that was what was grinding down the disciples of Emmaus that is all our Blessed Lord was to them someone would give them political liberation then our Lord says to them did you not know that the son of man must suffer to enter into his glory but did you think I am just a priest do you not realize that I'm a victim that's why I've come into this world have you forgotten the law of Good Friday and Easter Sunday then our Lord began to unfold to them Moses David and the prophets and what a beautiful interpretation of Scripture that must have been during these seven miles and then finally when they stopped they recognized him at the breaking of the bread which is always the symbol of the Eucharist in the New Testament and then they were reluctant to let him go they said to him Lord remain with them the day's far speak this is prayer this is why we have to have an hour when we begin were like the disciples talking talking discussing bringing the world with us we come in before the Eucharistic Lord though he's a prophet and then we began to look back on his life we understand that he is priest and victim that the law of every Christian is his law unless there is a Good Friday in your life there will never be an Easter Sunday unless there is the cross there will never be the empty tomb unless there is the crown of thorn there will never be the halo of and then as we remain with him the earth begins to fade away and then we are more conscious of the presence of Christ and at the end of an hour very often we are reluctant to leave remain with us dear Lord the day is far spent this my good fathers and sisters is the reason for making a continuous holy hour it's the only way we can pray today takes that long to divest ourselves of the world that's the first reason second reason our victimhood commits us to intercession we have a relation to the world which is that a bitter seeding for it atoning for the sins of the world and therefore we have to pray for the world perhaps one of the cruelest things that any priest can say to a person who comes for consolation is pray if he doesn't pray believe me when people ask us to pray that is a great responsibility and we have to pray for them you remember the occasion not recalling it the best we can a pastor has got sick in the parish your families that have left the church here's young men beginning to take dopes young girls running off in the life of immorality there on his back schoolchildren on the backs of the sisters you good parents members of families relatives and so forth you have to intercede for them John done put it no man no man is an island I think Paul says no man lives alone no man dies although we can intercede for one another just as in the church the blood of a healthy member of society is transferred to an anemic member if the face is burned doctors will graph skin from another part of the body to the face if it is possible to transfuse blood lead as possible to transfuse pressures if it is possible to graph skin it is possible to graph sacrifice and so we have to spend about an hour a day for those who need it under our care remembered when the palsy man was let down through the roof he never asked to be brought to our Lord he never asked for ever since for you he did not ask even to be cured our Lord forgave his sins and healed him why Gospel tells us because of the prayers of the four men who let him down this is something we forgotten the Church's intercession for others and at a time when we become so social minded we have neglected the spiritual influence that we have on one another that's party because our our relationships are restricted too much to the political and sociological order and not enough to the spiritual now in Russia there's a group of people called the Euro TV's Euro TV and Russian means born fool these euro TVs will in a concentration camp they are mostly Baptists there are a number of Baptists in Russia and when a prisoner's about to be beaten euro TV will ask that the punishment be given to him or her their argument is that if that prisoner is beaten he will hate back there were therefore be an increase of hate in the world if however this euro TV is beaten he will forgive and there will be an increase of charity in the world this is intercession and if we took intercession seriously we would spend an hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament and believe me the effects of prayer for the rest of sacrament are tremendous and here I'm speaking only in relationship to others not what it does to ourselves I will speak of that in a moment but these are the two reasons for making an hour one because it takes that long to pray in the modern world and secondly because when we priests go to the altar all the Chinese are hanging on to our chasm the atheists at the end of our stove were dragging the burdens of the entire world the altar and if we consider ourselves as priests we never think of intercession if we're victims ah and we have to prolong the redemptive mission of Christ and that brings us to the third and the most important reason for making the holy are the one inescapable reason the Lord asks for it the only request our Blessed Lord ever made of us was that can you not watch one hour with me Laura thought he had freon whom he could depend Peter he will be loyal song James Oh will job and he brings them into the garden he advances about a stone's throw what an odd way to describe distance and now rested Lord begins his bloody sweat three times he goes out to ask his disciples to continue praying with him and three times he finds them asleep he goes back into the garden and takes upon himself all the sins of the world and what must have been the greatest moment of intense agony in event our passion we do not understand yoke because we are guilty we understand pain but not yet all the innocence can really understand one guilty is he was sinless when he became the victim in all the sins of the world were to be imputed to him then from north and south and east and west came this flood of sin the cane was there purple in the sheet of his brothers blood the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah were there the coarseness of the Gentiles that taught greater costless to the Israelites they were all their sins of the old who should have passed the age of sinning sins of the young for whom the heart of Christ was tenderly pierced sins of the city committed in the cities that it atmosphere of sin sins committed in the country that made on each of life sins too terrible to be mentioned sins too awful to be named CIN CIN CIN until this blood began to lose out from this body drops forming the first beads in the rosary Redemption on the olive roots of the trees of Gethsemane and then the question again can you not watch one hour with me now this is a very profound question the word hour is used in the gospel seven times dr. Lujan in every single instance the word hour means evil the powers of darkness the atheistic will of man the anti God spirit and seven times it used God has his day the devil has his hour and so our Blessed Lord would use it in such instances as these when he attempted to stone him three times he said my hour has not yet come on his way to Jerusalem father shall I ask to be delivered from this hour it is for this hour that I am come and Judas this is your hour all you can do is turn out the lights of the world and when Judas went out our Lord said father the hour has gone glorying and religions so the word hour is always related to the evil of the world now our Lord said to his apostles can you not reverse this will you not spend an hour with me to make up for that hour that's what I'm asking this is not a devotion believing in these days that demonic and I will be telling you about the demoniac in another conference that they are tomorrow in this demonic hour better than day it's always only an hour the Lord wants us to spend in our to make up for it how do we do it and what does it do for us well one thing it will improve our spiritual vision we have a fondness of the religious today becoming involved in social work which is good we have neglected that too much but if one wishes to do effective work in the social order he must begin here believe me when we train our eyes one hour a day to kiss that appearance of bread and find the Eucharistic Lord will propel them to go out into the world and to see in every human being the image of God arrives of entrain this is the classroom of sociologists this is the classroom of politicians and then were not know how we let the other rigorous didn't see the image of God and everyone then it will train our ears to scriptures has speak Lord for thy servant heareth he does not say scripture does not say listen Lord thy servant speaketh we talk too much in prayer the Holy Ark has we made any way you please you put yourself under the spiritual Eucharistic cobalt which is good for the cancer of C oppose yourself to atomic radiation of the Lord and the Lord speaks to us you can say your office almost do anything one pleases it's an hour with the Lord it's at eight at eight comically one thing is certain however we cannot day after day just come in and spend an hour without having the scriptures or some interpretation of scriptures in our hand our prayers are not sufficiently biblical so read the scriptures until something strikes you then meditate it relationship to your own soul into the world the one I have had to decide on just one recommendation for priests and sisters and laity what I'm recommending applies to the lady just as well I recommend to you Bible studies that's the general title by William Barkley be our be a our CoA why Berkeley is professor of scripture at the University of Glasgow he's written about forty two volumes in Scripture his Bible Sirius is about seventeen volumes to on Matthew an unmarked one on Luke two on John he will take three four five at the most 10 verse of the scripture and then comment he knows Hebrew Latin Greek history and he's a believer he's not a Catholic I find among ourselves a reluctance to read great literature on Christ written by non-catholics see no it's a Protestant book glory be to God who put in this feeling a Methodist put it in an atheist lady's carpets Presbyterian install some of these lights then we use them then we will get someone who loves the Blessed Lord will suffer for the Lord they all north of Protestant look sure there'll be a mistake in it but you'll not find as many he'll receive in it as you'll find a some Catholic magazines every week and you'll learn something about the good Lord you need not use barclays between anyone who knows scripture well and who is not interested in just whether or not there's a pro or general Isaiah and then in the end they don't know those knives a ax I picked up a two-volume study on the Gospel of John and there will be forty references to books at the end of each text meter no poetry it's very much like modern sex is all technology how true then there isn't any spirit in it Christ isn't there you cut the pages of many of our theological textbooks today and he groans out not blood so it may not be Berkeley but let it be someone and you you have to have that you need it because we're busy men and we need someone who will interpret scripture for us and believe me Berkeley is the best preparation in the world and when you could lay people here good sermon your from now on Berkeley Berkeley so you can say all Berkeley gave him that idea then that's all right you drink in Berkeley and then later on if you want write to me and I'll give you the names of other of other treatises but there are great classics and many you're writing about about the good Lord who understanding is priesthood and is victimhood and they can give us great inspiration so make the hour to combat the devil day after day yes it's hard not particularly except on days of vacation when we have nothing to do and it's very hard but when we're very busy it's not hard at all because we know we've got to get it in all right it means to get it up an hour early what about it does that hurt us can we be victims just as well as priests sure you'll have to catch a plane some morning six o'clock have to get up at half-past three to make the hour sure but at any rate you're making it sometimes would be so tired you just fall asleep all right I once made it holy hour I remember I was going from Lorraine and Belgium down to Lourdes and I had two hours in Paris and I had to make my hour I went to the Church of San Roque and I went in at two o'clock there are not three days a year that I can sleep in the daytime this was what I sat down I was so tired I went right to sleep I woke up exactly at the end of the hour and I said to the good Lord did I make the hour and my angel said yes that's the way the Apostles made their first one but he said do better next time now the point is you can never never miss it never we have to give up golf some days for those of you who are older or tennis for those that are young you may have to skip cocktails going out to dinner that's part of the commode that's wonderful we're giving something to the Lord are we giving now really then this day after day floor I know we're busy but goodness gracious we gotta have a source of power listen there are a number of you most of you priests some of you're far more intelligent than I am many of you are as intelligent as I am but I have more power than any of you a thousand times more power I stand up and people listening to me and then he'd only talked and I listened he said my power now this impulse is what have you that you have not received and if you have received why do you glow as if you had not what did I get this power there that's where I got it fifty four years of continuous daily adoration of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament anyone can get it's available to our taste and see that the Lord is sweet they would have power Lord to be with us a spirit or a with us we'll be better able to control people we'll have a deeper understanding of the problems of others will be making reparation for the sins of others as well now this is why I came the success of this retreat does not depend upon whether you like the talks that is unimportant just think what would happen to the Diocese of Gary if every single priest in the diocese and what would happen to you sisters if every single one in your convent me to Holy Hour every day if every priest in the diocese made a whole hour every day there would not be a one single piece that would leave there's never been a police move the church who made the daily Oh the hour and persisters that needn't be community no community reading be with the Lord alone give yourselves time to do it for the laypeople if you can spend the hour yes but otherwise silence silence it is only in silence we know God only it was not in the cyclone he is only in this efforts you will hear about this in other conferences about the Holy Hour and I beg you to become strong through him I pray every single day of my life that I will drop dead at 80 I'm 78 9 oh look it's alright I use Palmolive soap I pray everyday that I will drop dead and incidentally this is where physical strength comes to believe me we win when we spend our physical strength maybe or in the morning late at night before the good Lord we get it back nothing at Derby to her so I pray every single day that I will drop dead at 80 in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament on any feast of Our Lady or on a Saturday I don't know whether the Lord will grant my request or not but I do know that if he doesn't after having asked him for so long he's going to be mighty embarrassed when he meets me

Channel: Sensus Fidelium

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Keywords: Catholic, Christianity, God, Jesus Christ, holiness, salvation, truth, trust, prayer, religious, life, society, Emmaus, devotion, religion, Church, adoration, worship, beauty, meditation, silence, lord, lamb, Eucharist, eternity, sleep, sacrifice, bible, gospel, tradition, petition, hope, faith, virtue, charity, Mass, altar, ewtn

Id: YT-vzobvYMg

Length: 41min 46sec (2506 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 05 2016