70. What is Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus? Why did Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen admire the Carmelites and St. Therese's "Little Way"? And how to win the Spiritual Battle against the demonic

Happy Blessed New Year, Sisters in Christ!

New Year, New You in Christ!

What if the most radical way to reclaim your soul this year is to look at one face and listen? We sit down with Allan Smith to explore the Holy Face of Jesus Devotion, the "Little Way" of St. Therese, and the deep Carmelite spirituality that shaped Venerable Fulton J. Sheen’s life and witness. Together we map a clear path through digital overload, family stress, and spiritual attack by returning to practices that are simple, embodied, and powerful.

Allan Smith unpacks how Venerable Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, the first Catholic bishop to win an Emmy Award, a master communicator, and tireless evangelist, rooted his strength in a hidden life of Eucharistic Adoration. 

We trace the story of the Veil of Veronica and why the Church renewed devotion to Christ’s countenance after the 1849 illumination. 

You’ll hear how St. Therese joined the Archconfraternity, prayed before the Holy Face, and united small sacrifices to the cross, transforming ordinary frustrations into love. We also offer practical ways to start “Holy FaceTime” at home: place a sacred image where you’ll see it, exchange one scroll for one glance and a short prayer, and teach children to sit in silence before the monstrance with a single posture of the heart: Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.

Spiritual warfare is not abstract. Allan Smith distills Sheen’s three reliable weapons against the demonic: the Holy Name of Jesus, confidence in the Precious Blood, and childlike trust in Mother Mary, who crushes the head of the serpent. 

We also discuss how to talk to kids about good and evil without stoking fear, why fewer images and deeper attention heal fragmented minds, and how a daily Holy Hour formed Sheen’s humility for sixty-two unbroken years. 

If you’ve been longing for a reset that is holy, hopeful, and do-able, this conversation offers a gentle but firm rule of life anchored in the Eucharist and the face of Christ.

If this stirred something in you, please subscribe, share this with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review to help more families find a way back to silence, courage, and prayer.

Allan Smith's ministry spreading the word about Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen can be found here:

https://bishopsheentodaycom

For the Holy Face devotion, please visit

https://holyfacemiracle.ca

Thank you + God bless!

How can we pray for you today?

Chapters

• 0:00 New Year Focus: Holiness Roadmap
• 0:43 Holy Face Devotion In A Digital World
• 1:46 Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen On How to Win vs. the demonic: Why It Matters
• 2:48 Host Welcome And Mission
• 6:06 Guest Prayer And Introductions
• 7:42 Discovering Bishop Fulton Sheen’s Legacy
• 11:20 Carmelite Roots And The Little Way
• 13:49 The New Book: Holy Face And Little Way
• 17:00 Origins Of The Holy Face Images
• 20:30 Saint Veronica, Names, And Tradition
• 22:24 Why Sheen Chose The Carmelite Path
• 26:40 Hidden Life, Motherhood, And Interior Strength
• 29:27 Teaching Children Presence And Silence
• 33:16 Forming Holy Habits In A Noisy Age
• 36:20 Adoration: Speak Lord, I’m Listening
• 39:20 Making Holiness Attractive To Kids
• 41:20 Good Versus Evil As A Teaching Tool
• 44:59 Three Weapons Against The Demonic
• 48:12 How To Teach Kids About The Devil
• 52:15 What Writing The Book Revealed
• 55:30 Where To Find Bishop Fulton Sheen's Books And Missions
• 59:44 How Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Stayed Humble
• 1:03:05 Prayers and Intentions

Transcript

Sheila Nonato: 0:00

Happy New Year, Sisters in Christ. Are you seeking transformation this year? As a Catholic, we can look to carving out a path to holiness in three ways. #1: Humility, adopting the little way of St. Therese, #2: Reparation for our wrongdoings against God and neighbor. And #3: Holy FaceTime with Jesus through silent prayer and Eucharistic adoration. Let's dive into this conversation with Allan Smith and how to arm ourselves in the spiritual battle against the demonic. Let us clothe ourselves in the light of Christ. And let's hear what he has to say about how we can deepen that spiritual relationship and personal relationship with Jesus. Thank you and God bless.

Allan Smith: 0:43

We have evolved to this society that uh runs on social media, runs on this. And I think what the Holy Fface devotion does, it tries to break us of that. And it just says, I want you to turn off these screens. I want you to have FaceTime with the Lord. And I think that's the whole thing. We call it holy FaceTime in our, you know, holy face groups. We always like to say, are you going to do some FaceTime, you know, with our Blessed Lord? And I think that's what I just use the language of the world and then put it towards our uh our efforts, right? Do we spend holy face time? You know, what is it? And again, the key is to have an image of the Holy Face. And I I try to say to people, you know, how many Holy Face cards do you have in your home? How many crucifixes do you have? We probably have plenty, but they're in drawers. They're kind of been uh put into Bibles or books never to be seen. So pull them out and uh put them around.

Sheila Nonato: 1:46

What did Bishop Fulton Sheen, uh, write about of the spiritual battle and the spiritual attack on the family that we have been seeing over the years?

Allan Smith: 1:55

Yeah, I can't tell you how many people ask me for Sheen's writings on the demonic. I order them these books 50 at a time and they sell out quickly because I think people see the demonic. And so now let's let's look back onto Fulton Sheen's talks. And he made many recordings about this, and he always said he was going to write a book on the demonic. It was 1974. He had just finished writing his book on his second book on the priesthood, and he says, "I'm going to write a book on the demonic." And, uh, that book never got written, so we had to kind of find source all of his talks and his um, you know, his many, uh, newspaper articles on the devil. But what I what I found is is, you know, we've made it consolidated with Tomaseki, um, wrote a book on the demonic of Fulton Sheen's writings, and we've we've uh hammered it down to three main points.

Sheila Nonato: 2:48

Happy New Year, Sisters in Christ, and Welcome back to the Veil and Armour Podcast. Sorry, this is a little late, as I'm sure you've also been very busy with your own family celebrations during this busy, busy Christmas time. I always find that, uh, every Christmas comes very, very quickly and then almost leaves very quickly as well, uh, with all the busyness uh of the season. But I hope we were all able to at least have a little bit of quiet time to pray to our Lord, to say happy birthday, Jesus, and to appreciate our loved ones and all the blessings that we've had this year. This week we're going to be speaking with Mr. Allan Smith, and he is a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a man of trade, and also a business owner.

Sheila Nonato: 3:33

And he has served the church for 15 years as a Catholic evangelist, a radio host, a writer, an internet broadcaster, and a retreat leader. He is a gifted speaker giving presentations at seminaries, schools, parishes, and Catholic conferences. And he's often featured on Catholic media such as EWTN Radio and Television and Radio Maria, as well as Relevant Radio and Shalom TV and the Catholic Channel.

Sheila Nonato: 4:00

He is also the founder and director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Mission Society of Canada. He is the creator of the website Bishop Sheen Today, which features the life and works of the venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. Allan Smith is an enthusiastic promoter of the devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus. He is the founder of Holy Face Miracle, holyfacemiracle.com, which is an apostolic outreach that helps to foster a better understanding of this special devotion to the Holy Face that is needed more than ever in these trying times. In this week's episode, Al Smith is going to be looking at how Archbishop Fulton Sheen viewed the feminine genius of Saint Therese of Lysia, The Little Flower and "the little way."

Sheila Nonato: 4:44

What role does humility have in our prayer life, in our spiritual life? And how did Bishop Fulton Sheen see the spiritual battle and how to fight the demonic? Let's pray a Saint Michael the Archangel prayer before we start. In the name of the Father, name of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. Be thou a prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of a souls. A

Sheila Nonato: 5:18

men. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you very much again for joining us this week. Happy New Year, and let's take a look at how we can defend our family through the spiritual armour of faith.

Co-Host: 5:34

Hello and welcome to the Veil in Armour Podcast. This is your host, Sheila Nonato. I'm a stay-at-home mom and a freelance Catholic journalist. Seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of Our Lady, I strive to tell stories that inspire, illuminate, and enrich the lives of Catholic women to help them in living out our vocation of raising the next generation of leaders and saints. Please join us every week on the Veil and Armour Podcast, where stories come alive through a journalist's lens and a mother's heart.

Sheila Nonato: 6:06

Welcome to the Veil and Armour Podcast. And we have a very special guest, Mr. Allan Smith, coming to us from Martyr's Shrine. Is that correct?

Allan Smith: 6:15

It's Midland.

Sheila Nonato: 6:17

Yes, that's right, that's right. Yeah.

Allan Smith: 6:20

Yeah, three minutes away from the Martyr's Shrine. But we tell people the Martyr's Shrine, they know where I live.

Sheila Nonato: 6:26

So, can you please lead us in prayer?

Allan Smith: 6:28

Absolutely.

Speaker 4: 6:29

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Speaker 4: 6:34

Dear Blessed Mother, we come as your children asking for your help, asking for more graces, more blessings. And we ask you to help us to be good sons and good daughters in this spiritual journey here on this earth. And so we ask you to continue to bless our ministries, to bless the apostolic work of our um, you know, just our endeavors, but especially to bless families. And so we pray, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us. Saint Therese, the Child, Jesus, and the Holy Face, pray for us.

Speaker 4: 7:24

Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, pray for us.

Speaker 4: 7:28

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sheila Nonato: 7:32

Thank you for that introduction and introductory prayer. And please can you tell us about your work, uh ,related to Bishop Fulton Sheen?

Allan Smith: 7:42

Yeah, it's, uh, it's a labour of love that uh I guess surprised me. Um, you know, it was the year was 2009, and I was dropping uh my daughter, uh, one of my daughters, uh, off to college. And, uh, my good wife, Isabel, was in the library of the college and found a couple of Bishop Fulton Sheen books, and she read some of those uh books to me on the drive home. And I was just struck by the uh the poetry, but also the power of his message. He, uh, said, "Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved."

Allan Smith: 8:16

And so I was hooked on Fulton Sheen, uh, in 2009, and I had not heard of him for all those years. I was 48 years old at the time. Uh, but just I was on fire for his teachings. I kept reading Fulton Sheen, and the next thing I knew, uh, I was uh then sharing Fulton Sheen's writings with seminarians and priests and uh especially young people. Um and so again, this turned into podcast and lecturing. And, uh, then I was invited to sit on the board of directors of the Archbishop Sheen Foundation in Peoria, Illinois.

Allan Smith: 8:52

And this is the group that promotes the cause of Fulton Sheen's canonization. And uh so I've been very close to the cause and have been following it for many years, and promoting uh just that every generation uh be have made available to them Fulton Sheen's wisdom. Many of our mature audience know Fulton Sheen, they saw him on television, um, listen to his uh radio addresses. But it's nice to invite Fulton Sheen to a younger generation, a new generation. And this is what I do. I try to make sure that Fulton Sheen's books are still in distribution, his videos are being viewed, uh, his audio recordings are being listened to, and so I have developed some podcasts that are on all the social feeds. Uh, of course, I have uh syndicated radio shows uh that are heard on EWTN radio affiliates in the United States, and of course on Radio Maria, that's heard all over the world.

Allan Smith: 9:51

I'm listened to in the Philippines and Australia, of course, the United States of America and Canada. Uh, but again, it's this mission to full to share Fulton Sheen. And, uh ,so my my my role takes on many tasks. It's writing, it's uh talking, it's presenting, uh, but still I think always just to say, let me introduce uh Fulton Sheen to you. I like to say I'm his limousine driver. And I drive him, and we uh, you know, I drove him this morning, we're here at the podcast. We I introduced him and said, here is Fulton Sheen. Uh, but recently I've been sharing a great deal about the holy face of Jesus. Um, as I started to read Fulton Sheen, I found out that he was a third-order Carmelite. Um, and of course, he became a third order Carmelite in 1948, 30 years into his priesthood.

Allan Smith: 10:40

And he loved St. Therese, uh, gave missions on Saint Therese, and, uh, had a lifelong, uh, relationship with the Carmelites. And, uh, so I started to look into Carmelite spirituality, and I saw this great connection between Fulton Sheen, the Holy Face Devotion, and Eucharistic Adoration. And so now I spend a lot of time just sharing the wisdom of um, of course, uh beautiful Saint Therese.

Allan Smith: 11:09

And, you know, I just I keep them both side by side, Saint Therese, Fulton Sheen. And uh so again, it's just a labour of love to say, uh, yeah, what Fulton Sheen was trying to get us to do was to have relationship with God, to spend time with God. And of course, this is what the saints do very well. They show us how to do it. And, uh, Saint Therese's "little way" is the perfect little formula. So, uh, but there that's what I do. I busy myself just sharing these two messages. I said, of course, the messages of the Holy Face devotion, and of course the writings of Archbishop Sheen, which are quite vast and broad and cover a lot of subjects.

Sheila Nonato: 11:49

And so you mentioned Saint Therese and the Holy Face, and you're you have a new book. It just came out, is that correct?

Allan Smith: 11:56

Yes, I did. I I developed a four, uh, book series, uh, based on the parish missions I would give, uh, across North America. Uh many parishes invite me to come and give one, two, three, four talks just to um give people something to uh take home with them. And, uh, of course, uh these mission talks, one of them involves St. Therese and the Holy Face. And so I put together this four-book series, this mission series, and the first book is on the Holy Face and the Little Way. And uh it's just a uh a collection of um reflections that I put together. I I like to, you know, uh, get people to think, just to ponder. I think um this is what you know, Archbishop Sheen said. He says, some things that scare us are silence. Uh, we don't want to be alone with our thoughts, you know. We don't spend enough time just to sit and and read and ponder.

Allan Smith: 13:00

And I think this is what I try to do in this book is I I offer, you know, uh uh a dozen reflections just to get people to think about different things, becoming a Veronica, um, you know, just a little way. And and I think that's what I'm trying to do as I'm trying to provide a retreat at home, to give you some meditations, but to also then give you the prayers that are very essential to the Holy Face devotion. Uh, people always say, well, you know, what do I do?

Allan Smith: 13:34

Well, the devotion is quite simple. Uh, I always just try to say to people, you need to look at the image of the Holy Face. And this is what St. Therese did every day. She spent a little bit of time looking upon the image of our Blessed Lord and just being with him. And, you know, I always think of the story of St. Vincent de Paul. Uh, St. Vincent de Paul, um, had many challenging young people in his life, and uh, he would just give them a simple remedy of just saying, "You know, take this picture of the Holy Face home with you and promise me that you'll look at the picture, uh ,every day just for a few moments." And uh so people the people would look at him and say, "Is that all?" 

Allan Smith: 14:17

He says, "That's all." Just take the image, look at it. And uh sure enough, time and time again, many young people were converted because one night they'd look at the picture and say, I don't really see anything. The next night they'd look at the picture of the holy face and they'd see the wound on the face and say, Ah. The next night the blood, the sweat, the tears, and they start to realize that their sin caused our Lord that suffering. And that's what uh evokes in the soul the conversion. Um, and so many times I've uh heard of young people coming to the priest and saying, "Father, I want you to hear my confession. I realize what my sin did to our Blessed Lord, and uh again, I want to reconcile with the church."

Allan Smith: 15:04

And so this is what I find is so beautiful about this Holy Face devotion. It's easy just to look at the Lord, look upon the Lord, but to say a few prayers too. Uh, there's a collection of litanies in the book, there's a collection of, um, of daily prayers. There's there's so much in this, and a lot of these prayers came from the manual of the Arch confraternity of the Holy Face, which St. Therese was a member of.

Allan Smith: 15:31

And uh there's been hundreds of thousands of people that have signed up for the Archconfraternity, uh, including yours truly. I'm blessed to be a member. And these confraternities and Archconfraternities are available to us as Catholics, and uh many of us are uh, members of the confraternity of the Holy Rosary. So again, there it's a beautiful thing that the church has given us, but uh again, this idea of developing this idea of you know carving out time for prayer, carving out time to spend just having a meditation or two.

Allan Smith: 16:06

And I think this is what I've tried to do is just to make it easy, uh, just put together these beautiful, handsome, uh, and just uh I like to just say very appropriate covers for our time. Uh the image of a holy face, yeah, a younger Fulton sheen, of course, St. Therese, but just to uh just say, Lord, I want to be with you. I want to be with you. And that's the challenge. I think we go through this life going at the end of the day, we sit back and go, Oh, I was busy, oh, so busy. Oh, Jesus, I forgot to put you. Like it's uh if we finally remember, yes, our Lord's there. So it's that idea of remember me. Remember me. Um, and I think of the words of the good thief. Uh, he said to the Lord, remember me. And of course he heard those words this day. So there we go.

Sheila Nonato: 16:57

And um I'm also curious to know where is so that particular image the Saint Therese was gazing upon, um, where does that come from? Is that from the Veil of Saint Veronica? Where does that devotion sort of where did it start?

Allan Smith: 17:13

Right. Yeah, yeah. So it did start um, you know, with the veil of Veronica. I'd like to say that the church venerates uh a number of holy images of the Holy Face. Um, the three that come to mind that people uh hear about all the time. Uh, one is the Shroud of Turin, and that shroud is the burial cloth of our Blessed Lord. And, you know, it's, uh, it remains in Turin, Italy. Uh, it's uh brought out for veneration um every so many years, but uh it's been well studied, and of course it has brought about many conversions. People see the miraculous, uh, miraculous nature of this image. So the shroud of Turn is one of them. Uh the other one is the veil of Manapello. Uh, it's believed to be the napkin that was on the face of our Lord when he was buried, and it's uh available for veneration in Manapello, Italy. But the, uh, object of our devotion, uh ,through the Holy Face movement is the image of the Veil of Veronica. And this Veil was miraculously imprinted upon Veronica's Veil when she broke through the violent mob, presented her veil to our Blessed Lord to compassion him, and of course, he wiped his feverish brow and left his uh countenance on this image. And, uh, Veronica brought that image home with her and realized she had something very special. The blood of Christ was on this image, and of course, she brought this image to, uh, Rome uh for the healing of the Emperor Tiberius. And uh of course, uh Saint Veronica gifted this beautiful relic to, uh, Pope Clement. Um, and, uh, of course he uh guarded this relic for all these years. Uh, every Pope has venerated the veil of Veronica. We see every year during the Easter season, the veil is brought out for veneration. Uh, and it's actually reserved in a beautiful um chapel, uh, a side chapel there.

Allan Smith: 19:21

It's at, uh, the Vatican, at St. Peter's. You'll see a large statue of Saint Veronica with the veil. And, uh, in this uh reliquary or this reserved area is the Veil of Veronica, the Spear of Longinus, and the true wood of the Cross. And so the Vatican actually issued replicas of the Veil of Veronica, but they had a beautiful miracle that made it easy for them. Uh ,the year was 1849. Uh, evil revolutionary men had taken over the papal states. Um, the Pope fled for His life. The evil men had killed the Secretary of State. They killed one of the cardinals. And the Pope was again detained. He went fled. And he asked that the Veil of Veronica be brought out for veneration to pray for peace, to pray for victory.

Allan Smith: 20:18

And beautifully, on January the 5th, sorry, yeah, it was January the 6th, there was the Feast of the Epiphany in 1849. The Veil of Veronica, which was very difficult to make out its features because it's old, of course, the blood, it was illuminated with a great light. And everyone there could see with great detail the images of the just to the almost to the finest detail, his face. And so they rang the bell of the uh of the Vatican to bring in people to tell them the miracle was happening.

Allan Smith: 20:57

And there were thousands that witnessed this miracle. And the miracle has been documented in the day book of the Vatican, so you can look and see what happened. And so after that miracle, and the Holy Father and the canons, of course, um made images. They had the artisans draw what they saw. And so we had these fresh new images of our Blessed Lord's face. And the Vatican decided to print these replicas, touch these replicas to the true word of the cross, the veil of Veronica, and the Spear of Langinus, and distribute them all over the world. And of course, many of them went to France, and of course, um there's the story of Venerable Leo de Pont, who had one of the images in his um his little oratory. Uh, but again, how many of the Carmelites um uh received these images too and uh had a great veneration?

Allan Smith: 21:54

Of course, Saint Therese was a member of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face and had a devotion to the Holy Face before she entered Carmel. So she was already praying the prayers, uh, venerating the image before she even entered the Carmel. And this is why she, of course, said to, um ,her community, of course, when she was making her profession, she says, "I want to be known as Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face." And she said, uh, of course, it was the favorite of the two. Um, so again, she had this devotion even before she entered Carmel. And of course, um, we see pictures of her holding um the Holy Face image.

Sheila Nonato: 22:38

That's that's beautiful. And um, so I might have misread this, but I was um wondering, so do we know the actual name of the woman who wiped his face, or is it, you know, there it's uh Latin for icon and to represent all women? Is that can you dispel the myth or confirm it? I don't know.

Speaker 4: 22:58

Well, I still get mixed messages. So so because again, you you read the mystics, you read the church, you read this. So um, so again, Veronica is not her name, uh, because we we just when we said it's the same Veronica, of course it's Vera Icon, you know. It's um but again, there's some that say that her name was Bernice. Um I've read different things, um, or Bernicia. I've read uh Nike (?), you know, you know, I've read, uh, you know, I so I've read different things. Um and I I don't, you know, so again, I don't know always who to believe or what to believe, but she had a name. And again, I think she's happy to be under the title of Saint Veronica. Um, and we'll find out in heaven just what her real name was. But again, it has been recounted of who she is and what she did. Of course, she was the woman who was believed to be, uh ,she was healed of the hemorrhage.

Speaker 4: 24:00

She was that woman that um um had the issue of blood for all those years. And she came and said, if I just touch the hem of our blessed Lord's garment, I will be healed. Of course, she did, she touched the hem, and Jesus said, "Somebody touched me, power went out of me." And so it's funny how how this is connected with garments, in that Veronica touched the hem of our blessed Lord's garment and was healed, and then she presented her veil, her garment to him, and of course, she gave it back, he gave it back to her, and of course, this veil has been used in healing for many years, and so it's a healing ministry, this touching of these veils and garments, and so it's quite beautiful.

Speaker 4: 24:50

But um, again, that I I read that that she was the woman that suffered from uh the um flow of blood. So uh again, quite neat. But um again,I I'm sticking more with the Bernesia. I like that for some reason, but uh again, we'll we'll leave it for a future debate.

Sheila Nonato: 25:10

Yeah, of course. Um and so go back going back to your book, St. Therese, um, Bishop Fulton Sheen. So Bishop Fulton Sheen is, um, he's a formidable communicator and a formidable intellect. And he was um drawn to the little way. And as we know, St. Therese had a great, uh, love for mission work. She wanted to be a missionary, and unfortunately, um she was um she had developed uh uh sickness that uh did not allow her to go to the missions, and being a Carmelite nun, of course, she was not able to do that as well, given her vocation. But what was the the attraction of this formidable intellect um as in Bishop Fulton Sheen to the little way, the sort of the humble, the hidden away life, cloistered life of um of a humble nun who just wanted to serve God and love Jesus with all her heart?

Allan Smith: 26:07

Right. Yeah. So again, I had to do a lot of studying and digging to find out, okay, I I I didn't understand the connection until I started to uh I guess I want to say put the pieces of the puzzle together. So I started to read in uh Sheen's notes, um, because he did leave notes behind and um in in the archive so you could find these notes, um, his love for Carmel when he was a seminarian. And he would visit the Carmelite nuns and ask them to pray for him, like, "I'm gonna be a priest, please pray for me." And and the Carmelite nuns said, "Oh yes, we'll do that." But he'd spend time with them and he'd say, I love their way of life. It's it's hidden, it's prayerful. Uh, they have these great rigorous penances that uh is uh that are applied to the holy souls in purgatory. Um, just again, nothing's wasted. And so he saw that and he said, "I like this." And then, of course, he went to Europe to study, uh, to receive a number of degrees.

Allan Smith: 27:13

And there he would have visited Carmelite monasteries and started to read the great Carmelite mystics, of course, the great Carmelite saints, uh, St. John of the Cross, Saint Teresa Vavila. And you could just see he was starting to say, Oh, I like this Carmelite history and its program, like to say its program or its way of life, uh, its rule. And then, of course, you knew he had read the writings of Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, who is the Carmelite nun who received the revelations from our Blessed Lord for the Holy Fface devotion. And so he comes back and he's well versed in Carmelite spirituality, and then gets busy in his life of teaching and radio work, always just desiring that hidden life.

Allan Smith: 28:01

Um, I asked Carmelites, um, I asked uh a few Carmelite priests, I said, "Why would Fulton Sheen, a man of his stature, 30 years into his priesthood, become a third-order Carmelite?" And he says, "Well, they realize they can't become Carmelites after they're a diocesan priest." Like you can't change, well, you can change up, but that was not really what Fulton Sheen wanted, but he wanted everything the Carmelites had to offer and uh to live that way of life. And when you think of it, Fulton Sheen, how he's a great promoter of Eucharistic adoration. He just wanted us to contemplate, to meditate, to just be with the Lord, to be in his presence. And so you could see he was kind of living a Carmelite spirituality already.

Allan Smith: 28:48

Um, and so, but then in 1948, he was going to release his book, Communism and the Conscience of the West. And people who know the holy face devotion know that we're praying to defeat communism. It's uh all these revolutionary men, and we've seen what's happened in the world today. And so I think Fulton Sheen was saying, I need help. I need help. And so he went to the Carmelites. And so in that in 1948, he became a third order Carmelite, of course, then brought on to his army, you know, of course, Saint Trez, Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, uh, of course, St. Teresa Vavala, Saint John of the Cross, and of course, a few years later became the head of the Pontifical Mission Society.

Allan Smith: 29:35

Um, he knew that he was going to end up doing that work. And so, of course, bringing Therese, who was the patron of the mission. So uh you can just see it was it was a uh, I like to say a strategic move, but the right one. And of course, uh shoring up his uh his uh team of intercessors to do the work he does. And again, later on in Fulton Steen's life, when he was retired, he gave a number of uh parish missions and retreats on St. Terez.

Allan Smith: 30:05

Uh there's a beautiful book called Um Fulton Sheen and Therese, a treasured love story. It's available through Tann books. And, uh, he recalls the 11 talks that he would give on these missions, uh, talking about St. Terez's life. And so, um, you can just see it was a treasured love story. He loved Therese, he loved the little way, but yet he didn't want to present as a Carmelite. It was just a hidden uh call that he had. And so now I unpackage all this. I I see, ah, there's the secret. There it is. It's the Little Way. It's the Little Way. And and Fulton Sheen knew what rejection was, he knew what disappointment was.

Allan Smith: 30:45

Um, he retired uh as the Bishop of Rochester, uh went to New York City and again was had been maligned and and uh you know just kindly reserved himself to say, okay, the last 10 years of my life will be spent in just preaching on Eucharistic adoration, sharing stories of St. Therese. Like, uh, he kind of was quiet for the last 10 years of his life, um, because his he had a heart issue, he had some health issues, um, but still spent that time just contemplating, meditating, uh, enjoying Carmelite spirituality. So uh that's kind of my you know fact-finding mission that I've now been able to present a little bit with some of these newer books here and to share about the little way in St. Therese's love of the Holy Face.

Sheila Nonato: 31:34

And I just I I can see sort of a connection, you know, the hidden life of a mother. Um, nobody really sees what you're doing during the day. You know, it's not glamorous. Um, and it's you know, not like doing some high-powered deals or anything like that. But Bishop Fulton Sheen and St. Therese, they discovered a treasure that the interior building up your interior life can lead you to holiness, can lead you to Jesus.

Sheila Nonato: 32:03

And I think that's that'll give hopefully some encouragement to some of our listeners who are stay-at-home mothers who may feel like they have a hidden life that nobody knows about, but that there is that treasure um waiting for you, the treasure of heaven, and of, you know, guiding your children towards heaven. And if you can just also speak about that, that what was the I guess if there was one thing that we we could learn from Saint Therese, one or two things, and Bishop Fulton Sheen about building our interior life, what what would these be? How can this how can we be helped in terms of getting to heaven and getting to holiness?

Allan Smith: 32:42

Yeah, uh, you know, I think of when I read "The Story of a Soul" and you read of of uh Saint Therese's life, and you read of some of the challenging sisters in his life, in her life, sorry, um, it wasn't all rosy in the Carmel. You know, there was politics, there was personality conflicts, there was difficult people. Um, and this sometimes happens in family life too. We we have difficult people even within our own uh walls of our home. But yet I think what what Fulton Sheen and St. Therese would emphasize to us again to say, "but it's all for Jesus."

Allan Smith: 33:23

And Jesus suffered these same challenges. And I think that's where they always would never forget about our blessed Lord. They'd always remember him in those everyday situations. And I think that's where that you feel like you're not alone. You know, when you are being challenged through your children or just difficulties. Know that our Lord has experienced those same challenges. And I think that's what's the strength that St. Therese found is to say, yeah, uh, I'm just going to lean on the Lord to let him carry the load. And I think that's what Therese did so well. She just said, I'll just let Jesus pick me up.

Allan Smith: 34:06

It was like this sense of she just knew that there will there will be times where the Lord will leave me to myself. Um like she would use the description, he doesn't want to play with the ball right now. It's like it's kind of a thing. But she understood that she would not leave him totally. She would always he'd always be there. But still it's that idea of the Lord suffered and we're meant to offer our sufferings with him. And I think that's where a lot of people struggle, is they don't know how to apply the sufferings of the day and unite them to the Lord.

Allan Smith: 34:44

And yet Therese and Fulton Sheen show us that beautiful holy example. But the key is to remember him. I think of Fulton Sheen, he was winning an award uh one night. It wasn't the Emmy Award, he won the Emmy Award, but he was winning an award, and they were talking to him backstage, and and of course he had a scrum of people, and he knew he had an opportunity to talk about the Gospel. But he said, "You know, it's funny, I listened to everybody's accepted speech tonight, and you know, a lot of people thank their mothers or thank, you know, their writers, or this and that.

Allan Smith: 35:20

But, you know, how many people thank the Lord?" It reminds me of the ten lepers who were healed that day by our blessed Lord, and the ten of them left and only one came to return to give thanks. Sometimes that's what life is about. There's lots of things where you expect thanks, but only one comes to thank you. And sometimes as a mother, as a father, we don't get the thank yous that we think we should get. Or but uh again, it's still, but again, remember that Our Blessed Lord suffered that humiliation of healing ten, but only one came back to thank him. So again, let us never forget Jesus. And I think that's what St. Therese and Fulton Sheen, uh, do so well. They would always remind us, never forget Jesus.

Sheila Nonato: 36:10

And I guess as you're saying about um remembering Jesus in the age of artificial intelligence, my my kids are growing up in this age, is that there is sort of a de-personalization, sometimes even dehumanization, on these social media platforms that you know you don't see, you're just typing out sometimes people are insulting others with with their words, you know, and they can be hurtful and they're behind a screen. We don't see the face of the person, we don't know, even know sometimes their real name. Um, and I feel like wait with your book and calling us to reflect upon, gaze upon the holy face, um it's very timely because we um we don't want to lose our humanity, you know. We um yeah, how do we how do we get back to what is important, what is real, as you were saying, turning back to Jesus. Can you talk a bit about the holy face and the importance of gazing upon it and reflecting upon, I guess, our suffering and I know our sins.

Allan Smith: 37:14

Yeah, yeah, you know, and I and I just say to people, you know, what do we practice? Like, you know, we we have these rhythms in our life where, you know, we get up, we check our messages, we do this, you know, we we we have to admit sometimes that social media I don't want to say runs our lives, but we now are attached to our tablets, we're attached to our computers. We we years ago, these were this these this was foreign to us. I I remember, you know, of that age that cell phones, we didn't even have cell phones. Like I remember we used to have a pager and we thought that was great technology, and we used to have to put quarters in the phone to make phone calls and things like that. But yet we have to evolved to this society that uh runs on social media, runs on this. And I think what the holy face devotion does, it tries to break us of that.

Allan Smith: 38:15

And it just says, I want you to turn off these screens. I want you to have FaceTime with the Lord. And I think that's the holy thing. We call it Holy FaceTime. Uh, in our, you know, Holy Face groups. We always like to say, are you gonna do some FaceTime, you know, with our blessed Lord? And and I think that's what I just use the language of the world and then put it towards our um our efforts, right? Do we spend holy face time? You know, what is it? Is it and again, the key is to have an image of the holy face. And I I try to say to people, you know, how many holy face cards do you have in your home? How many crucifixes do you have? We probably have plenty, but they're in drawers. They're kind of been uh put into Bibles or books never to be seen. So pull them out and uh put them around.

Allan Smith: 39:13

And I I always go to the dollar store. I have one here uh just by my desk here. I just go to the dollar store and I buy the dollar store frames so that I can have these images um, you know, around uh in different places of the house, my office, uh up in the living room. Uh, but again, go and dig these cards up just to give you that opportunity to just look upon the Lord just for a few seconds. Develop those holy habits. And I think that's what we really need to do is that what is our habits? Um, and again, it's that idea of conversation. Uh, I try to say, you know, we always talk about having a personal relationship with Jesus, but do we have a personal relationship with The saints, our patron saint. Do we have a personal relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary? Do we talk to her? You know, and do we really talk to her?

Allan Smith: 40:12

Do we really talk to Jesus? And and I think that's what the saints would recommend is have those conversations. Yeah. The FaceTime exercise will come in time. And people have always said to me, I I I enjoy this FaceTime. I enjoy just looking upon the Lord. And uh, because that's what we were made for. When you think about what this life is about, God creates us, He infuses a soul into our bodies, and yet we will return to God one day and see Him face to face. We are practicing for the beatific vision. And I think that's what we want to do is practice makes perfect, but it's a holy practice of looking upon the face of Jesus. So again, it's taking that time to break out of these not bad habits, but these habits of just letting technology control us. And sometimes sadly, letting technology trust technology too much.

Allan Smith: 41:16

Um, this is the whole thing with AI and these computer-generated images and different things. What's real anymore? What's real? Well, when I look at these holy seniors, I'd like to say these mature um Christians that are in my life, they just go with the fundamentals of those three or four good books, three or four beautiful holy pictures of Jesus, the sacred heart, the Immaculate Heart, and that carries them. I think we have, you know, the idea less is more, this this is less is more. You know, like there's just too much and maybe too many images. So let's let's kind of downsize and just get one or two really good images uh in our life, and um, that will help simplify. Because I think, you know, I'm not a doctor or a scientist, but they do talk about how we're overloaded with images.

Allan Smith: 42:16

Back in the 1900s, the all the what you would see is just images of trees and nature, and even, you know, we didn't have they didn't have um billboards and flashing lights and everything like that. Because again, the human body and the human mind was built to not have too many um, you know, sensory boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So um, so different things like that. So it makes sense. It makes sense. But I always say we have these beautiful pictures in our homes, but a lot of times they're buried, and we need to uh find them and then put them into good spots and to kind of back off some of the technology and go back to basics, go back to basics, holy face time we call it. So there we go.

Sheila Nonato: 43:00

Yes, I love that uh phrase, the Holy Fface time. And for mothers who might want to introduce, uh, their children to Eucharistic adoration, can you just explain what it is? And then what some because some people don't know really what to do, right? So what what what can they do when they're in front of our Lord? And and also for their children, what can they do? Because sometimes my children also they're like, "What do I do? I don't know what to what to say to Jesus, what am I supposed to do?" So, yeah, if you can just give us some tips.

Allan Smith: 43:27

All right, yeah. Well, it's very similar to, uh ,the Holy Face devotion in that you look upon the image. So when you enter uh the chapel, the church, and Our Lord is there in the monstrance, uh, you know, again, just first of all, be present. Uh, when I read Fulton Sheen's writings on how to make a holy hour, um, he talks about just being with him. You know, it's this idea of um, you know, we we have to just say, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. I think a lot of times we go into adoration chapels and go, Lord, Lord, I got this thing, I got that, I got it, I gotta go like, but no, no, no, we had to turn it around. It's not listen, Lord, your servant speaking. It's speak, Lord, your servant is listening. So I teach children to just listen, to say, just sit there and look and listen. Um, and and and and you know, again, many times these monsters are beautiful. They're gold, they're shiny, they have some so they're attractive to the child. And then, of course, if we can explain the mystery that Jesus is present in the host, he's there, he's with us, and they understand his presence. Um, this is these are all little things. Children do like quiet. They do like quiet. Um, but again, we have to teach them to love the quiet, to love the silence, to just be in his presence and listen.

Allan Smith: 45:02

Um, and yes, they should still bring little prayer books and to get teach them to say, now spend some time just opening your book, reading a little bit, and then closing the book and pondering and thinking and maybe asking Jesus what he thinks. Um so you know, these are all little techniques, but um, again, just being in his presence and listening. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening. That's the hardest, that's the hardest thing to do. Because I usually go to adoration going, I gotta list, I got, I gotta talk to you. And um, but yet I think the most effective or the most beneficial Holy Hours that I have is where I just sit and listen. And and that's where it all comes to you. So there you go.

Sheila Nonato: 45:49

Yes, and I uh I agree. Like I think for myself, uh a lot of the battle within myself when I'm praying is actually to keep out, uh, outside thoughts and just concentrate on speaking or letting God speak to me. I can't do the the blank slate, like it just there's just thoughts and concerns and worries like attacking, you know, and it's very hard. Like having that peace, finding that peace is actually a lot of a lot of work, I think for most people, because like you said, the phone, like I have it here, you know, it's um it can really rule your life if you if you let it. Um, and it's it's designed to keep us really addicted to scrolling.

Sheila Nonato: 46:32

Um, and it can be, you know, a tool for marketing and stuff like that. And we don't even know that that that's what it's doing to us. Um, but I'm just wondering also, um, another uh what what other ways can we teach our children to be holier? To but not in a way that, you know, it's uh it's pushing them away from from it, but making it more attractive. Um how do we make that invitation more appealing to the younger generation that you know that we're competing with the cell phones, right? And with the social media and all that. How do we do that?

Allan Smith: 47:06

Yeah. Um it's it's it's it's difficult because I I think of when I I look at my grandchildren. So, you know, I think sometimes as a as a grandfather, I I get to now I get a second chance at doing it right, you know. Like you raise your children and you kind of go, okay, they turned out. And, you know, like I say, I love my adult children, but I think I love my grandchildren more because they're very pliable, and now I can take what I, you know, I failed to do and all these other mistakes I made, uh, but now really work with this uh group of grandchildren. And and I think what I've done with them is that I I've taught them, I like to teach them good and evil. Good and evil. Like I, it's funny with my grandsons, I have six of them, and we they've really resonated with this idea of good and evil. Um, that we got to go out, we get to go out into the world, we'll go visit, um, we'll go into town or whatever it is, but we are always looking for good and evil to understand good and evil.

Allan Smith: 48:16

And and I think that's where we'll go to the library, the public library, for example, which can be a dangerous spot sometimes. But then we'll we'll talk, you know, we'll go to Tim Hordon's for some timbits after, and we'll talk about the conversations. And the and the my grandsons will say, Oh, yeah, that that boy was swearing, that boy was using God's name in vain. Um, and they start to see it's this battle of good and evil, and they know that the evil side doesn't win in the end. T

Allan Smith: 48:46

hey might have some victories here and there, but again, you want to be on the good side and you know, talk about goodness and virtue and um the benefits, even though it may not seem appealing, but they know the good and evil, this battle of good and evil, and that Jesus wins the battle over evil once and for all. So again, I don't mind talking about good and evil. It's like kids like competitions. Like kids like they'll put little obstacles in their way for hopscotch and this and that. Like they like challenges. So we we really do pick up on that good versus evil theme. And um, I don't know. I'll I just uh throw it out to your audience to say maybe that's the way to go. So we'll see.

Sheila Nonato: 49:33

Yeah, no, I I think that's, uh, you know how Hollywood has capitalized on this good and evil, right? Like the Marvel uh movies, comic books, the superhero, um, and of course the Bible, the story of salvation is the ultimate, you know, good and evil and good winning in the end. Um and speaking of that, um, I was listening to one of your podcasts on the demonic, actually, and the spiritual battle. So what our our podcast is Veil and Armour. So the armuor of faith, the armour of the rosary, um, the armour of God. Um what did Bishop Fulton Sheen uh write about of the spiritual battle and the spiritual attack on the family that we have been seeing over the years?

Allan Smith: 50:14

Right, right. Yeah. I I can't tell you how many people ask me for Sheen's writings on the demonic. Um, I order them uh these books 50 at a time, and they sell out quickly because I think people see the demonic. And so now let's let's look back onto Fulton Sheen's talks. And he made many recordings about this, and he always said he was going to write a book on the demonic. Um it was 1974, he had just finished writing his book on his second book on the priesthood, and he says, I'm gonna write a book on the demonic. And uh that book never got written, so we had to kind of find source all of his talks and his um you know his many uh newspaper articles on the devil.

Allan Smith: 51:03

But what I what I found is is you know, we've made it consolidated. Father ( Dave) Tomaszycki um wrote a book on the demonic of Fulton Sheen's writings, and we've we've I hammered it down to three main points. Uh Fulton Sheen would say, you know, "We have to call on the Holy Name of Jesus." You know, this is again good versus evil. Now, what works? Um, what works is his holy name. It's the name above all names. And of course, in the Holy Face devotion, we say these prayers, Sit nomin domini benedictum. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Allan Smith: 51:39

Every time we hear someone curse the name of God, use his name in vain, we reply with uh a blessing. You know, for every curse there has to be a blessing. You know, is that it's that counteraction. But Fulton Stein would say, the holy name of Jesus, we have to have that name on our lips, in our hearts, and always be able to use it in this spiritual battle. So we'd say that. Of course, the second was the precious blood of our Lord. Um, how one drop could redeem a whole universe. But again, the blood of Jesus. And he gives a beautiful um picture of a priest when he's raising his hands in absolution um to absolve us of our sins in the confessional. There's actually, you can envision drops of blood from his hand.

Allan Smith: 52:29

Again, this redeeming uh blood of Jesus that takes away our sins. Lamb of God, take away our sins. And it's that beautiful blood of Jesus. So we need to just keep uh asking again that the precious blood be shed and spread all over the world to forgive us of our sins, to renew us, and just again, the power of his blood. And the third uh tool that he uses against the devil is our lady, uh his mother. And I think sometimes we forget that she is part of this spiritual battle. She will uh again step on the head of the serpent. I mean, uh she is uh she is our you know, she's our paddle mother, like she's just battle ready and she loves this work, and um, you know, again, we just have to call on her.

Allan Smith: 53:18

And again, it's the Holy Name of Mary. We always think of the Holy Names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. And so we we have to kind of keep, uh ,focused on that again. But these three powerful uh tools in spiritual battle: the Holy Name of Jesus, the Precious Blood of Jesus, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. You have to keep those close at hand and use them every day because the devil doesn't sleep, he keeps coming at us, and so we need this, uh, these weapons in in our armor here to use them well.

Sheila Nonato: 53:54

Yes, absolutely. And um, and finally, I'm also wondering um, how do we teach our children about the devil? Because you could either, you know, be obsessed about it, or you could be indifferent that you know he doesn't exist, or if he does, he's not that big of a deal, and it it's okay to dabble in this and that. How do we explain to them without you know scaring them, but also telling the truth that you know there there is evil in the world, but Jesus is gonna, you know, Jesus is there and he he saved he saved us and he is going to save us. Um, how do we teach them about evil and the devil?

Allan Smith: 54:32

Yeah, yeah. Uh difficult question because sometimes you you have to be very careful. Like um, you know, uh my father was in the military, and um, you know, he my dad uh was in the war, and of course he loaded debt/depth (?) charges. Uh, he was in the Navy and um had a very steady hand and he knew how to execute things uh quietly and calmly. But he would explain this is what this bomb will do, uh, and and the effects of it. And and I think this is what we have to do is to say, this is the effects that if you want to be in a relationship with Satan and you want to give him, you know, your give yourself over to him, this is what you can expect to happen. It's not all party, party, party, fun, fun, fun. You start to show them the effects of sin, the effects of making that choice. And and I think this is what I found in my adult children is they started to see that. Because again, they were tempted to, of course, going away to university and college and all of these things.

Allan Smith: 55:42

And I would just always say, well, look at them and these people that stayed on that train, stayed on that uh program, how they turned out. Um, it it's not good. It's not good. And I think that's what sobers them up. They start to realize, ah, this is what happens to people if I stay with the devil too long. He's very enticing, very inviting. He likes to almost offer cotton candy, but then when your teeth start to rot out and you got holes and there's pain. There's pain. So it's a sweet at the beginning and pain at the end, where Jesus is a little bit of uh challenge at the beginning, but sweet at the end.

Allan Smith: 56:21

You know, you have to kind of show them both sides, again, that good and evil. Again, the devil is all about sweetness and then pain, and Jesus is about a little bit of suffering and challenge and then joy. Um, but I think Fultonschen describes it uh very well, and kids kids respond to sometimes horror movies, and I don't mean to say it that, but they get frightened and stuff like that. And Fultonschane would tell the story, he'd say, just think about this. At the end of your life, there's gonna be two faces, only two faces, and each one of them will only say the same words, and they'll just say, Mine. Mine. Do you want that to be the face of Christ saying mine or the face of Satan saying mine? And of course that just sends shivers down their spine and say, No, no, I want Jesus, I want Jesus. All right, good choice. Keep with that program, but I don't know. I mean, it took a long way to answer that question, but I think uh I think you get the point.

Sheila Nonato: 57:25

So that's actually a great answer because one of my littlest one, he's afraid of Gollum. Because you know he'll he'll you know, the the phrase "My precious," yeah, yeah, he's really he's really afraid of him. And I feel like that that that really illustrates the the choice, right? Good versus evil, and that there are consequences. And unfortunately, people think you can do um witchcraft. Actually, witchcraft seems to be like making a I don't know, uh not a comeback, but it's uh it's having a different um uh what do you call it? Like a revival of witchcraft, meaning that they were actually persecuted.

Sheila Nonato: 58:04

And uh anyway, I just have been seeing different things about it on on podcasts and in the internet and very popular podcasts, uh it seems like. So we sort of have to keep up the spiritual battle, even on your end as well, that you know there are good, there are good things to be learned from social media, and then there are not so good things. And um, and it's hard, the battle can be difficult when you know you don't see um for myself anyway, I don't see results. But even if it's just one mother listening, um that can be encouraged about their vocation, about her vocation to keep going and um to be helped in that way. Um I I think, you know, as Jesus went out to find the one lost sheep, right? It's not just about the 99 who are all saved. Um and you have we have to venture out and go after that one who was lost. Um, what what have you learned from writing this book?

Allan Smith: 59:03

Well, I I've learned that um again, Fulton Sheen's line, unless souls are saved, nothing is saved. I he he wrote that in 1949 in his New York Times bestselling book, "Peace of Soul." And I think it still resonates today, and it resonates in this book. "Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved," but even my own. How do I save my soul? And it's belonging to Christ. You know, when he comes back again, he's gonna look for people that resemble him, that understand him. He's gonna look and see does my mother live with you?

Allan Smith: 59:41

Is the Blessed Virgin Mary with you? You know, uh, he's gonna look for these things. But I think it's that idea of how do I save my soul? Well, again, unite myself to Christ, unite my sufferings to Christ. And I think with Fulton Sheen and St. Therese, they both exhibit this holy innocence. You know, there's something about Fulton Sheen that just he's still childlike and innocent. Even though he had all the world, um, all the attributes and awards and accolades, he still was childlike. He still was uh very much like and had that holy innocence, even though he would rub shoulders with movie stars and uh, you know, uh, you know, all these things, but all the temptations, I'm sure, that were presented to him, but yet he still stayed focused to Christ.

Allan Smith: 1:00:33

And I think what this book teaches is that um intimacy with God, to spend time with him, and to all understand that we're all broken. And you know St. Therese, her health wasn't that great. And she, of course, uh was melancholic in in many ways, but um still that idea that Jesus consoles them, consoles us, and we can console him. So again, I'm trying to build and foster relationships with our blessed Lord. And uh again that little way, that little way, this world with technology kept saying, do it the complicated way, just do this, push this button and all it's too common. No, let's go back to simple, the little way. And I think that's why the book is it was easy for me to title it, The Holy Face and the Little Way.

Allan Smith: 1:01:21

And of course just some uh just beautiful reflections from Archbishop Sheen and St. Therese. So and these are the prayers you know I think one of us um you know said at a group meeting um we were kind of having a little get together just saying you know what's our problem and uh someone said we're not saying our prayers and and and you thought I thought you know you're right you know we're not really saying our prayers we you know and we were not saying our prayers with you know our hearts like a lot of times we're just saying prayers just to get them done. But if we just take time to just say yeah I'm gonna pray in litany today and slow things down and just say the words with meaning we walk away from those experiences saying yeah why wasn't I not doing that earlier.

Allan Smith: 1:02:08

Sometimes we got caught up in that whole idea of saying our prayers but not really praying you know so uh the this book helps us to say our prayers again and to uh just take one or two at a time and you know I think when you have a book you can know that that book's there for the next four years, five years. It's it becomes your friend, your friend and becomes your next you know close friend and teacher. So like again hopefully this book will do that for so many people and you know know that there's companion books that go with this book too I I've been holding up you know the Holy Face in the little way which is volume one of four um but again we just for a little thing this is our second book it's called "Behold Your Mother," and of course uh again a beautiful cover of our Our Lady and Our Lord with a small little cross he's holding uh but again it's Mary the cross and the power of reparation.

Allan Smith: 1:03:06

'So, uh, that will be volume two and maybe we can talk about that on another podcast but um there's four uh books in the series because I want to give people uh different opportunities to meditate on our Lord's Holy Face to meditate on the Blessed Virgin Mary uh of course to meditate on the seven last words of Christ from the cross and how powerful they are and of course eucharistic adoration so uh there's a lot there but um again make them manageable not too big of a book uh but something that's just a a beautiful little treasury of prayers and meditations and that's what we've done.

Sheila Nonato: 1:03:42

So and uh where can we get these books?

Allan Smith: 1:03:46

Yeah there oh of course there's that book score that bookstore called Amazon and, uh amazon.ca amazon.com amazon australia and and so that makes it easy um may not everybody is always a big fan of Amazon but at the end of the day I think we still all shop there from time to time. So Amazon carries the books and in time then we'll have other uh retailers bring in books and stuff like that but at this beginning launch, uh, we're we've just started with Amazon so you'll find it to wherever uh Amazon can be found and it's just a click of a mouse and away you go there.

Sheila Nonato: 1:04:21

Okay. And I uh I heard you speak at my parish St. Anne's um for the Lenten mission. So you talk you go around different parishes to uh to give missions. So if a parish would want to have you as a guest, um, to speak can you can you give us some details? How do they do that? And what what can you speak about?

Speaker 4: 1:04:40

Oh yeah okay so, um, yeah people can find me I have two websites, um, two websites, uh bishopsheen today.com and of course that's easy to remember because we need bishopsheen today so www.bishopsheentoday. com and then www.holyface miracle. com and, uh, again because there's miracle after miracle with the Holy Face devotion so holyface miracle.com bishopsheentoday dot com you can find me there um I I do talk about um you know I do Lenten missions of course where I I talk about the cross the seven last words uh the holy face devotion uh, but I also do advent mission too I do um talk about uh our Lord coming and Sheen's writings about Christmas time um I do a lot of that um but generally again I I speak um you know at different conferences and parishes um on a variety of themes because remember Fulton Sheen wrote 66 books so he's uh there's a great deal like I'll speak at men's conferences and, I'll talk about victory over vice and practicing the virtue um you know I'll talk about apologizing to the Blessed Virgin Mary, you know, I will talk about different things um not just at men's conferences but others, but again ,his Sheen wrote many books on the Cross so I can talk about the Cross and the Seven Last Wwords he wrote books on Sthe sacraments and marriage and I can talk about that he wrote uh on the Blessed Virgin Mary many books and I give reflections on that so uh with the 66 books that Fulton Sheen wrote, uh, there's lots of subject matter for me to speak on and I can do that too so uh and, of course I love St. Therese and the Holy Face devotion I bring the relics of the Holy Face with me to parishes uh for veneration I distribute uh Holy Fface oil uh again a beautiful sacramental of the church and prayer cards and, so I bring my wares uh to uh each parish or each event and I just say to people here it's all here just enjoy and um it's my gift to the church, so uh again you can always find me on those websites: www.bishopsheen today.com and www.holyface miracle.com

Sheila Nonato: 1:06:59

okay and sorry I just wanted to go back one last thing Bishop Fulton Sheen, as you were saying he won an Emmy Award um he's a master communicator he's, uh, met all these celebrities um he was a for formidable man, um, and, uh, as I was saying a great communicator of his time but how did he stay humble and and rooted in what is important?

Allan Smith: 1:07:23

Right. Yeah well he did admit in his autobiography "Treasures of Clay" which is, um, beautiful book by Ignatius Press, uh, he did he says I he wished he had fleed the mobs quicker and uh he did suffer a little bit from pride because again so many accolades so many praises, uh, that he wished he had ran away and was kind of deflected, um, a bit more but I I think still he he remained humble because he would have that scripture in his head you know our Lord has nowhere to lay his head um you know like it it's like he knew that the Lord had to uh be rejected uh many times and that he did receive rejections too like I mean we just you know cherry pick uh the highlights of Fulton Sheen's life but he was malign from his fellow priests there was lots of professional jealousy of course he was embroiled with arguments with his cardinal uh his bishop cardinal spellman um life was not as pretty as you thought and so and then he had health issues right from the get go I mean he always had stomach problems so he couldn't really eat that much he was a very thin man and uh but had some health issues there with the stomach uh then of course his heart issues later on in life and any of our listeners that have these heavy burdens of of health concerns they know how weighing they can be they can rob you of your joy and um again and so Fulton Sheen knew that very well but I think he was humble because he went to the Eucharist every day.

Allan Smith: 1:09:07

He spent that Holy Hour to almost say in a way you're God I'm not I'm here to kneel down and, to be little to be little and so he learned the value of being little and that came through a 62 year unbroken chain of making a daily Holy Hour. He never missed and I think that was the key to his humility was the holy hour. So wow, that's my tip of the day today to our listeners make the Holy Hour and humility will follow.

Sheila Nonato: 1:09:41

And for those, uh, listeners out there who are seeking a miracle they can reach out and pray to pray for through the intercession of Bishop Fulton Sheen because we're still awaiting for him to become a saint.

Sheila Nonato: 1:09:54

Is the prayer uh there on your website if they wanted to pray right, uh, for his intercession?

Allan Smith: 1:10:00

Yeah there is yeah we have we have prayer cards and um of course there's, uh, just one of them that's held up here and it's we always pray for a prayer for a spiritual favour and maybe I could even pray that prayer with our listeners on the air, too. Yeah, let's let's close with that if you want to: In the name of the ,nd the Son, and the Holy Spirit Amen. A prayer to obtain a favour through the intercession of the servant of God, Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen. Eternal Father, You alone grant us every blessing in Heaven and on earth, through the redemptive mission of your Divine Son Jesus Christ, and by the working of the Holy Spirit, if it be according to your will glorify your servant Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, by granting the favour we now request through his prayerful intercession and here we will mention quietly our own intentions and we make this prayer confidently through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, pray for us. In the name of the Fathe,r and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Well, thank you very much for this very fruitful and informative and blessed conversation, and I I look forward to hopefully seeing you again at St. Ann's if you are ever going to come this way to to our humble city of Hamilton. Very good, and I I would uh I would gladly receive the invitation, and come back it's it's always a blessing uh my grandmother had a restaurant, um, uh, just on Barton Street down the street from, uh, St. Ann's Parish, uh, so I do remember have fond memories of the area, uh ,in my childhood that's for sure

Sheila Nonato: 1:11:51

Okay amazing um yeah and so thank you very much!

Sheila Nonato: 1:11:54

OUTRO: Let's say a prayer for the repose of the soul of Micah the son of Paul J. Kim ,a Catholic speaker and content creator whose son unfortunately passed away on New Year's Eve. Please also join me in prayers for a newborn from my parish who was born with an undiagnosed medical condition until after birth which requires her to be in hospital for the next two years before she can come home to her family. And we keep in mind all of your intentions whoever needs healing including John Paul the son of Crystalina and Jason Everet, Catholic apologists who specialize in chastity talks and the daughter of Catholic comedian Jen Fulwiler who is battling brain cancer.

Sheila Nonato: 1:12:33

Feel free to email your prayer requests to veilandarmour@gmail.com or write it, if you are watching us on YouTube, write it below, and we we would be more than happy to pray for you. Thank you so much and God bless and hope you have a blessed blessed new year continued blessings in this coming year. And thank you for taking some time out of your busy day to join us for conversation, and prayer and, let us also pray the prayer for the canonization of Archbishop Sheen.

Sheila Nonato: 1:13:05

Heavenly Father source of all holiness you raise up within the church in every age men and women who serve with heroic love and dedication. You have blessed your church through the life and ministry of your faithful servant Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen he has written and spoken well of your Divine Son Jesus Christ and was a true instrument of the Holy Spirit in touching the hearts of countless people. If it be according to your will for the honor and glory of the most Holy Trinity and for the salvation of souls we ask you to move the church to proclaim him a saint we ask this prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sheila Nonato: 1:13:40

And finally let us pray the Holy Face Devotion Prayer reparation prayer. Dear Lord, through the sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, we offer you these prayers in reparation for the sins which offend God the most in these modern times the sins of blasphemy and the profanation of Sunday and your holy days of obligation. Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come that we done on earth as it is in Heaven, give us your daily bread for give us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us not to temptation deliver us from evil, Amen.

Sheila Nonato: 1:14:15

Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee blessed thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus holy Mary Mother of God pray for us and Sonia for death amen.

Sheila Nonato: 1:14:23

Glory be to Father through Son to the Holy Spirit beginnings now never shall be where will that end? Amen in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sheila Nonato: 1:14:33

Thank you so much again for joining us and God bless you and all the best continued blessings in the new year and we'll see you back here next week., God willing, thank you very much God bless!

Co-Host: 1:14:44

Happy New Year! Please pray for us, step on that like button and smash that subscribe button, please. Thank you for the case of the case of the thing for listening to the Veil and Armor podcast. I invite you to share this with another Catholic mom today. Please subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel and please spread the word let's Be Brave, let's Be Bold, and Be Blessed together.