[stfassisi]

His First Communion book contained a copy of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, which he began to recite every night as a boy and kept the practice up to his death. Later on, when he was ordained a priest, he made a resolution to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass every Saturday—when the Liturgy permitted—in honor of Our Lady. He saw it as a way to renew his love for her and to seek her powerful intercession. As he looked toward the end of his earthly life, he felt that his love and devotion to Our Lady would be an important part of his encounter with Christ at his final judgment. He felt Our Lord would say to him: "I know all about you; my Mother told me all about you!" Archbishop Sheen's filial love and trust in Our Lady is expressed very clearly in the motto he chose for his coat of arms as a bishop: "Da per Matrem me venire," "Grant that I may come to You through your Mother."

[stfassisi]

His famous comparisons of the Western world with the Communist world show this. For him, the West had Christ, but without the Cross—no discipline, no self-denial, no mortification. He called this Western conception "a soft, effeminate Christ Who cannot save us!" In contrast, the Communist world had the Cross but without Christ—oppression, persecution, suffering. The Archbishop posed the question: "Will the West find the Cross before the East finds Christ?" Reparation and intercession were likewise important for every Christian because they are part of our baptismal co-redemptive mission with Christ so that, like St. Paul, we will fill up with the sufferings in our own bodies what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of His Body, the Church (cf. Col. 1:24). He especially stressed reparation and intercession by priests. In his wonderful writings and talks on the priesthood, Archbishop Sheen would remind them constantly that they were called to be both "priests" and "victims" with Christ. This was part of their essential mission of saving souls.

[yldstrk]

Our Lady of Fatima. Pray for the conversion of the Muslim. Lovely.

[Chode]

a Great man. he was our Bishop for Diocese of Rochester and did my Confirmation.

[A.A. Cunningham]