84. How to pray and find peace in a noisy and distracted world with the inspiration of Blessed Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Hello Sisters in Christ,

I pray you had a restful and joyful summer with your family! Unfortunately, I had to take a break from the podcast to spend more time with my family before school.

I am excited to share this episode with you on the eve of the Beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. I spoke with  Sheen expert Allan Smith to ask why Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen still speaks with clarity in a world shaped by AI, distraction, and attraction to the superficial vs the supernatural. 

We trace Sheen’s path from contemplation to action, and we learn how the Holy Face of Jesus, the Holy Hour with Jesus, and The Blessed Virgin Mary’s “Yes” form the soul of a disciple of Jesus Christ
• Sheen’s lasting appeal as a teacher of wisdom across generations 
• truth that stays timeless even as technology changes 
• the Holy Face devotion and the call to become “Saint Veronicas” who console Jesus and our neighbour 
• why the Church consoles rather than argues 
• “Who wrote it?” as a test for AI and online trust 
• the interior life as the place where the formation of the soul and our relationship with God begins
• prayer measured by fidelity rather than feelings 
• Mary as mother, first disciple, and model of active joyful obedience 
• starting small with silence and building toward a daily Holy Hour praying to God and meditating upon the Scriptures and the events of our everyday
• using The Soul of a Disciple as a family prayer guide with short practices, Scripture, and simple prayers 

Info on the Beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on Thursday, September 24

https://celebratesheen.com

For more info on Allan Smith's work:

https://archbishopfultonjsheenmissionsocietyofcanada.org/

To find Allan Smith's books on Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's spirituality, you can visit https://www.amazon.com or https://amazon.ca

https://tinyurl.com/bishopfjsheen

Transcript

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Welcome, Guest, And Opening Prayer

Sheila Nonato 0:00

Hello, Sisters in Christ. Welcome to the Veil and Armour podcast. And we have as our guest once again Allan Smith, who is a prominent Catholic evangelist, author, and radio host from Midland, Ontario. He serves as the director of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Mission Society of Canada and has been working tirelessly for the canonization of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen for more than a decade. Would you be able to start us off with a prayer, please?

Allan Smith 0:24

Oh, absolutely. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dear Blessed Mother, we come as your children, and we ask your intercession today to help us to share the love of this great man, the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Jay Sheen, his love of souls, his love of the Eucharist, his love of you, Our Lady. And so we pray for blessings upon our family and our apostolic work, and we pray especially for our country and for our leaders, and again we pray for a spirit of evangelization to come over our land. 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. Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, pray for us. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Beatification Plans And Sheen Week

Sheila Nonato 1:28

Thank you very much for coming on today. And there is an event tomorrow for in preparation for the Beatification of Bishop Sheen.

Allan Smith 1:35

Yes, so uh September 24th is the official beatification date that was set, and it's a Thursday. So I think a lot of people always ask me, why a Thursday? Well, because I think a lot of people like to have an extended holiday. Um, there's going to be beautiful prayers before the beatification and prayers after. A lot of celebratory dinners and different masses of thanksgiving. So uh we like to call it Sheen Week. Um, even though the event is officially held in St. Louis, Missouri on the 24th of September, there's events being held in Peoria earlier. Uh, there's events being held in St. Louis, and again, there's events everywhere, it seems. So uh again, let's celebrate Sheen. And we have a website that simply says www.celebratesheen.com, where you can find out more about all the events leading up to the beatification and after. So remember that. Celebrate Sheen.com.

Why Archbishop Sheen Still Resonates Today

Sheila Nonato 2:31

Okay, awesome. I really should remember the date because I did purchase tickets like months ago, as soon as it went online. So anyway, God willing, uh, my family will be there for that beautiful, blessed event. Um, and so, yes, you're here to talk about the soul of a disciple and Bishop Wolden Sheen, he has been well known, um, but not for the generation now, the generation alpha, the Gen Zers, uh, who may not know of him. He was very popular uh back in the day. Millions of people listened to him on the radio, watched his um watched his uh television show, and he won an Emmy, beating out Lucille Ball of all of all the how Hollywood heavyweights. He was very popular, and he um he touched the hearts of many. What what was the appeal of Sheen then that can apply to us now?

Allan Smith 3:27

Right. Well, I think every generation is looking for wisdom. Um, we're starved for wisdom. And, you know, we want people to show us the way. And and this is what Fulton Sheen did in the 1950s with 30 million people tuning into his television show. Uh, I think there was about five million people that tuned into his radio shows. And these people weren't all Catholic. They were Jews, Protestants, and Catholics. And yet they're looking for wisdom. They wanted answers to life's problems and the questions that we all ask ourselves. Why am I here? What's the mission? All of this stuff. And I think this new generation has the same questions, the same hunger. They're hungering for what is true and beautiful. And this is where when they listen to Fulton Sheen, they say, wow, that I that the timestamp on that video says 1953, but he's talking like it's in 2026. And that's the beauty of truth. It's it's not, there's no um timestamp on it. It's eternal. And so I think this is why Fulton Sheen is still resonating so well with this new generation, because he gives the answers to the tough questions where AI can't answer the question like Fulton Sheen would. And I think that's where we're all searching for truth. And this is why I think in you know, 20, 30, 40 years, we'll still be watching Sheen videos and listening to his audio recordings and reading his books, because we're hungry for the truth. And really, the answer to sin and overcoming sin is Jesus Christ. And so the answer worked, you know, 100 years ago, and it'll work today, and it'll work tomorrow. So the formula for success is the same. And Fulton Sheen delivers that in season and out of season. So uh there we go.

Sheila Nonato 5:28

Yes, absolutely. And his message of truth uh and the search for God, um, it's resonating now in this, as you were saying, the age of AI. There seems to be a truth recession, um, if you know, if we want to look at it that way, that you know, who how do we know what people are saying are true? Um, and is that truth rooted in charity? Are we are we simply showing our face? Are we showing the face of Christ in whatever we do, whether we are on social media um or or on in person when we meet somebody uh, you know, at our school, at our home, um, wherever we happen to be in our mission in

Truth In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence

Sheila Nonato 6:13

life. Um, and one of the themes of your book um is contemplation, um, sorry, contemplation to transformation. And I'm specifically looking because our podcast is Veil in Armour, I'm specifically looking at the Veil of Veronica and the Veil of Our Lady. So let's go to the Holy Face of Jesus and Saint Veronica. That encounter, you mentioned it in the book. How did Bishop Bishop Sheen see this encounter?

Allan Smith 6:41

Right. Well, you know, I'll step back a little bit and give you some history of Fulton Sheen as a Carmelite. Um, it was 1948, 30 years into his priesthood, and he becomes a third-order Carmel, um, you know, a Third Order Carmelite. And people always say, why would he become a Carmelite 30 years in? And yet he had a great love and respect for the Carmelite tradition. He had read all the great Carmelite mystics, uh, St. John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Avila, of course, had read Saint Therese of the Child, Jesus, and the Holy Face. And so he he loved that spirit of contemplation. And, you know, Fulton Sheen uh had read, of course, the writings of Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre, uh, who um developed this beautiful relationship with Christ, where, of course, they promoted what I call the Holy Face devotion. And Saint Therese would actually read Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre's writings, and she actually pinned a locket of Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre's hair on herself. Like she carried a relic of Sister Marie de Saint-Pierre on her. And I'd like to say that Saint Therese was a great devotee to the Holy Face. Um, I like to say she's Holy Face Devotion 2.0, um, very uh much in love with the Holy Face.

Speaker 8:05 Speaker 8:05

And Fulton Sheen picked that up from her. And of course, in 1938, uh, Fultztein wrote his um uh, I want to say Stations of the Cross for the World, and he uh uh was really trying to point towards the communists to try to convert them. And he talked about the sixth station of how we're all to become veronicas, we're to uh present veils to compassion the poor, the sick, the marginalized. So that call to become Veronicas. Um, and I think that's what Fulton Sheen is saying in this retreat book is to call us to that response, to make reparation, but to compassion people. And uh, do we see Christ in the poor, the suffering? I mean, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, uh, of course, Saint Mother Teresa now, um, she talked about how she would see the suffering Christ in the beggar on the street. Um, and of course, so she looked for that. Our Lord saying, I thirst, and she would say, I quench. She would quench the thirst of the suffering soul. But it's that call to be a Veronica, and that's what's beautiful about this image of the Holy Face. The eyes are open, the Lord is gazing upon us with love, and we can see just how much love Jesus has for us, the wound on his face, the dust, the sweat, the spittle, all that. And I think that's why, of course, this retreat book, The Soul of the Disciple, begins with the Holy Face devotion. Uh, because, you know, I would say that we don't really hate Jesus. We just forgot him. We we forgot him. It's like we have so many choices now.

Speaker 9:50

How many of us spend time contemplating the holy face of Jesus? Um, you know, and I'm sorry, I think if we did a poll, uh many of us are guilty of not really spending time with his image, this holy image. I I look at the pictures of the saints, they're looking upon the crucifix, they're looking upon the holy face, because in that contemplation of looking on the face of Christ, hearts are moved. Um, I don't know if I told this story on the last podcast, but I'll tell it again uh the story of St. Vincent de Paul and how he would work with troubled youth, and he had what I like to call, you know, his surefire way of bringing about a conversion. And he would take a troubled youth and he would just give them uh an image of the holy face, like a little prayer card, something like this. And he'd say, you know, I challenge you to just take this prayer card home with you and promise me you'll just look at it for three seconds every night. And usually the youth would go, Is that all? I just gotta look at this picture? That's all. And they would take the image home with them, and of course, they'd throw it on their nightstand, and this one young man uh remembered the promise. He says, Oh, I promised that priest I was gonna look at it. And he held it up and looked at it and thought nothing of it and threw it back down. Well, the second night came and he was about to fall asleep, and he remembered the promise to the priest, and he picked up the image and he looked at it and he said,

Speaker 11:18

Oh, he saw the the wound on the face. And it kind of struck him, and he went, Okay, put it down. Third night came, he looked at the image, saw the sweat, the blood, the spittle, and you could see something was moving in his heart. He was making that connection. The fourth night came, he saw that the eyes were open, looking at him. And the fifth night, the sixth night, well, on the thirteenth day, he came back to St. Vincent of Paul with the picture and said, Father, I want you to hear my confession. I realize now what my sin did to Jesus, how much he loves me, how much he cares for me. I want to be reconciled with the church. Please hear my confession. And it's just the power of the image looking upon the face of Christ. Uh, this is what I find. And so this first retreat in the book, The Soul of the Disciple, is really that uh just journey with the Lord to uh gaze upon his face, know that it's a consoling gaze. He looks upon us with love. It's a gaze that um I like to say is sometimes the hidden God, that that is God. Jesus is God, and we need to learn how to love him.

Speaker 12:31

But it's the wounds that heal. Uh, by his stripes we are healed. So there's so much there. And I just take the opportunity to let people contemplate for 10 days the mystery of God's holy face. Uh I know Father Lawrence Carney wrote a book, The Secrets of the Holy Face, where he says that in the scriptures it's mentioned the word face 840 times. And the word countenance is mentioned 101 times. And so you can see God is really talking about his face. Uh, Moses couldn't look upon the face of God or else he would die. But we get to look upon the face of Christ and live. We think of that scripture, Lord, show us thy face, and we shall be saved. And so uh this is the beautiful thing. But it comes back around to the Veronica moment where we get to see uh in compassion uh those who are suffering, and we get to carry towels and uh minister to souls. So uh a very good imagery.

Sheila Nonato 13:34

Um yes, and uh in your book uh on page 23, it's written, the face of Christ is no longer rejected

Holy Face Devotion And Becoming Veronica

Sheila Nonato 13:41

with fists, but ignored with shrugs. And so the church, like Saint Veronica, is called not to argue, but to console. Can you talk a little bit uh with us about what does that exactly mean? Why does Jesus need consolation?

Allan Smith 13:56

Yeah, well, you know, uh you could almost say he doesn't need it, but he desires it. Um, you know, our Lord hides himself, especially in the Eucharist, so that we can find him. I think sometimes it's like a a game of hide and seek. But I think what um I think a lot of us have found is that when we console someone, and I know when I'm sorrowing and someone comes to me and and tries to cheer me up, it's a very beautiful moment. And I think this is where our love for Jesus grows, is where if we just come into his presence and just say, I'm here, I will remain. And just what that does, you know, when you're wounded and someone's with you, there's something very beautiful.

Allan Smith 14:47

And I think this is why we talk about the consoling gaze. Um, and you know, Fulton Sheen makes note of reparation, you know, saying we're sorry. And I think this is where we can come and have these moments where we say, I'm sorry, Lord, please forgive me. I'm here. I want to stay with you, I want to console you. Um, an image my mother gave to me was um uh, you know, we think of we hear of Jesus being our brother, okay, you know, so you hear that term a lot, you know, Jesus is our Lord and brother. And yet, you know, my mom would send me and my brother out to go play. And, you know, nine times out of ten, my brother would come back with me and he'd be all, you know, bruised and scarred. And and my mother would say, What happened to him? Oh, well, he fell off his bike, he did that. Well, didn't you take care of him? Didn't you do this? And and then she'd say, Now spend time with him and and and tend to his wounds and and be with him. And and I think that's what happens to our Lord is he enters into the world, he's mocked, he's deriled, he's rejected, um, and he's spat upon and and and beat up, you know.

Allan Smith 15:58

And so yet we meet him where he's at, a suffering Lord, and we console him. And because he returns the favor when we are suffering, when we are wounded, he comes and meets us and consoles us. So love begets love. We have to practice this, you know. Um, and it takes ta takes practice, it really does. But the just the healing bomb of consolation when mercy looks back on us. That's that was the title of the chapter, you know. He looks back on us. We spend time with him and say we're here, but then he returns the favor and looks back on us. And so it's a beautiful image, that's for sure.

Consoling Jesus Through Reparation

Sheila Nonato 16:36

Yes, absolutely. And I guess when we um in our distracted world, we can choose not to acknowledge people or look at them in the face, which is a very personal, actually, intimate thing to do is to look someone in the eyes. And a lot of people have don't do that. They are actually distracted with their phone, uh walking down the street. They have their phone in their face and um, yeah, they just they're in their own little world. But when we stop to take a moment to actually look at the person or look at the person who is um who may be homeless out in the street begging, if we stop, that means we're kind of invested. We we kind of have to, we kind of have to feel something. But if we just keep walking and just look at our phone and you know, we can block block it out, right? Like blocking out God. But I think that Bishop Sheen is saying, remember that He is here and that He is here. God is here for you and for everyone, but specifically for each and every one of us, that sort of personal, intimate relationship that we forget, that we are now online, right? We we kind of forget about human relationships. How would Bishop Sheen see sort of the AI world today, the social media world, excuse me, today?

Allan Smith 17:52

Yeah. Well, again, he would uh question to us to say who wrote it. Um, you know, Fulton Sheen gave talks about, you know, uh speech writers, and you know, he would he would challenge people to say, you know, we have to be very um leery. Um, you know, and again, we've seen this where people have speech writers, and you know, who is writing our our notes for us? Um, you know, we go back to his Emmy Award acceptance speech, where he said, I want to thank my writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, uh, saying we need to trust the scriptures, we need to trust the saints, but do we trust technology? Do we trust a machine? Like it's it's this whole idea that he asked that question, who wrote it? And I think that's what I'm looking at today now is is who's writing this stuff and how much of it is really the human person? Because that's the key, is that every human has a soul.

Allan Smith 18:55

And again, Fulton Sheen wants to save souls, but if it becomes corrupted by, you know, just that we don't know who's writing anymore, and we're all relying on technology, uh, it's a very dangerous place because we don't know what truth is anymore. And we talked a little bit about that at the beginning. Um, you know, it's funny, the book, "The Soul of the Disciple," uh, it starts off like I always say that the image that's on the cover is um very much pointed to truth. Uh, it's the image of St. Augustine holding uh his heart that is aflame, and he's actually looking at a book, and he's looking at he's looking at ahead, and it says veritas. He's looking at the truth, and then the rays come through his eyes, and of course, go through his heart to his heart, and again, that it's truth that sets his uh heart ablaze with love. And it's this idea of truth. And I think that we're all learning now to say, do I really trust AI? Um, and now at least there's a disclaimer on most AI um generated uh programs that say we make mistakes, you know. Um, so do you want to trust somebody? It's like going into a parachute company and say, oh, our parachutes open 98% of the time. You know, like do you trust that? You know, uh Fulton Sheen's saying, let's trust the word of God, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Let's do that.

Sheila Nonato 20:23

Yes, absolutely. And uh so when you mentioned uh soul, uh on page 26, uh it's written that nothing happens in the external world that is not first happened within a soul. And so how does that sort of relate to the the book itself, like the the soul of a disciple? What does that exactly mean?

Allan Smith 20:43

Yeah, well, I think it's again, it's the soul is inside of us.

Trust And Technology

Allan Smith 20:48

And so when we unpack that, we think inside, we think interior. And you'll hear me say many times, it's about the interior life. And and it's like when we pray, we give God that little spot in our soul, that space that we say, you can have this. Come enter in, rest in my soul. Um, may you increase and may I decrease. But it's that interior, an interior disposition, the interior life. And this is what Fulton Sheen would challenge us, because we live on the surface. We live on the surface, knowing very few things, it seems, and we're afraid of silence because we might hear God say and ask us to do something, you know. But what he's saying is embrace the silence and open yourself to the interior life, you know, the interior life where, again, you have a soul, and that's what God is cherishing. It's it's it's what lives forever. The body deteriorates, it only has a shelf life of 70, 80, 100 years. But the soul is forever. And so let's pay attention to the soul. And I think that's where Fulton Sheen was so successful in converting communist workers and Hollywood movie stars because he presented to them the interior life and said, there's something more than this worldly chase that you're consumed by. There is heaven, there is the soul. And I think, you know, we know it deep in our hearts. There's that saying, you know, God's laws are written in our hearts. It's already imprinted in there. And so now it's to tap into that. So again, interior inside.

Sheila Nonato 22:41

Yes. And uh so, in terms of the interior life, you were writing about how Bishop Sheen was encouraging us to create a small interior space for God alone to help us to, I guess, draw into greater intimacy with Him. And Sheen also said that prayer is not measured by feelings, but fidelity. Now, can you explain to us again? What is that, what does that mean?

Allan Smith 23:05

Yeah. And again, because a lot of times it's like, you've hurt my feelings, and you've, you know, like we just live on this emotion, you know. But a lot of times people will come in and say, stop crying, stop being so emotional, let's be real here. And um, and again, that fidelity is so important. Like, um, you know, it like look at the Blessed Virgin Mary, just an example. She was faithful to the end. Um, she kept not, she gave her yes, you know, to the angel Gabriel, and we know her great fiat, but she continued to give

The Interior Life And The Soul

Allan Smith 23:43

the yeses time and time again. The yes when the prophecy of Holy Simeon was given to her, the yes when she had to flee to Egypt, uh, the yes when she lost Jesus for three days, the yes to uh accompany him uh on Calvary and to be at the foot of the cross. She was always being faithful. She had that fidelity to the mission. And I think this is what Fulton Sheen is saying is that prayer may be dry. You may not be getting anything out of it. We just call it the regular Tuesdays or Saturdays of your life or whatever. But it's about being faithful. And of course, the Blessed Mother gives us that holy example of that saying you might think it's mundane, but if you continue to show up and continue to give God your yes, it's that fidelity that wins you heaven. And uh so be weary of your emotions sometimes, but just be faithful and consistent.

Sheila Nonato 24:45

And when you mentioned Our Lady, she was, I guess, the first disciple of our Lord, and she was the first adorer, as you mentioned in in the book. Um what can we learn from Our Lady, specifically mothers, or women who are afraid to become mothers because of, you know, whatever the distractions or uh misconceptions they hear from the outside world, um, that motherhood is is hard. I mean it is, but you can do it with God's help. Well, what can they what can we take in consolation uh from Our Lady about the the difficulties of being mother, but the joys of being a mother in this day and age?

Allan Smith 25:30

Yeah. Well, I think with uh Fulton Shane, he um and and I've tried to convey this in the retreat book. Um, you know, I give ten meditations on the Blessed Virgin Mary to help people fall in love with her and to trust her. Um, you know, we can only give what we have, and so we need to receive. And and Fulton Shane realized that, that a lot of us are broken, we haven't been catechized, many of us have mother wounds already, um, strained relationships. And so he wants to bring us to this school of Mary, this uh opportunity where we can be loved back into a condition that where we can then serve.

Allan Smith 26:13

Um, Sheen talks about let her mother you. Um, sometimes we always think, oh, you're gonna analyze me. No, no, no. I just want to mother you. And this is what Fulton Sheen does with his writings, is that he shows us how Mary wants to mother us. She is a tender mother. And, you know, there is a passage in the retreat book that talks about just Bethlehem and how it's, you know, just receiving God in simplicity, um, letting yourself be held by her to experience her tenderness. Just as she held Jesus in her arms in Bethlehem, she wants to hold us in her arms. She wants to extend to us that tenderness that we need. And sometimes we can be crusty and resistive uh to love and affection, but to let our lady just love us and tenderly love us as she loved the baby Jesus. She kissed his forehead every night and she kisses our heads. Like, let her mother you, let her, let, let you be open to be to receive her tenderness. And that's what we do in this retreat book.

Allan Smith 27:25

We also think about, you know, Nazareth and what it would be like to just be with her, to have her, you can almost say, in that beautiful homeschool where she formed Jesus, and she can form us. And and I think this is where we have to learn how to be holy. It's in the everyday movements of Nazareth. It's those everyday uh duties of praying as a family, learning a trade, again, contributing to the household, you know, in a way that is productive. But again, living with her and being formed by her. You know, our blessed Lord gave the example. He he chose to be with our Lord, uh sorry, he chose to be with our lady and good Saint Joseph. And of course, he was found in the temple, and he made that decision to go back home with her and to be formed by her some more, up to the age of 30. And so Fulton Sheen said this time and time again: if you want to be like Christ, who better to form you than her? So go to her and learn from her, and so we can pick up so much from Our Lady.

Allan Smith 28:34

And there's, of course, those beautiful words at the wedding feast of Cana. And I think sometimes we forget that, but the example that she shows us and that she saw there was a need. She she she saw that there was no wine. And yet we can do the same thing. Where is there a need in my household, in my friendships, in the community? Uh, and pointing that need and trusting in Jesus for him to assist, but she went to the maids, the servants, and said, Do whatever he tells you. And I think our lady would continue to say that to us today. Remember, do whatever he tells you. Our Lord said, If you love me, keep my commandments. So uh again, this is Our Lady forming us, just watching her and learning from her. And, you know, of course, we have to watch our lady at the foot of the cross. She, I of course, met our Lord on the uh the road to Calvary, and there we see her standing at the foot of the cross, uh, you know, loving our Lord, um, you know, providing, you know, him that consolation that she was there for him. Um, and she stood, she stood. But, you know, she is that contemplative, as you said, but she has that compassion. And of course, she uh forms the infant church. Of course, you see her with the apostles, um, of course, mothering them. She was then completing their training. You know, they spent three years with our Lord, but then they spent more years with her. Um, again, she mothers the infant church.

Allan Smith 30:10

And so um, it's this whole thing of being formed as a mother by the mother. Let her form you. And I think that's where you can have courage to uh embark on this, you know, holy mission of motherhood, and uh, but to learn from the mother. Um, we always talk about being taught at the foot of the master, um, but we can learn a lot from you know sitting at the feet of our lady and letting us teach us. So I think this is what Sheen does so well. And I've tried my best to just kind of collect these thoughts in the retreat on our lady. And I titled it learning to remain. We need to remain with her because she always points to Jesus. Where she is, he is. So if you

Prayer Means Fidelity

Allan Smith 30:57

want Jesus, be with Mary. She'll always um, he's very close by, he's very close by. So there's that.

Sheila Nonato 31:05

Yes, and as you're saying, saying that about Our Lady, I was just um, there's so many beautiful passages in the book, but one of them was uh you had written, Before we are sent, we must be formed. Mission without interior transformation becomes activity without grace. And these are, like I said, uh many beautiful sentences, sayings, phrases. And I was actually reading this to my children as we were having breakfast, and my 12-year-old kept saying, Wow, that's really beautiful. I mean, like I was saying earlier, that I like sometimes I'd be in almost in tears, like reading it, listening, just kind of interiorly listening to God, saying, Come back to me, come back to prayer. You know, we become so busy that we forget, oh, wait a minute, you know, what's the purpose of me doing all this? Right. And I and we forget that, oh, it's it's God. We should, we should always do things, offer things for God, um, and return to his love. And we we often forget. We often might fall into the comfort of, you know, whatever, you know, let's say food or you know, whatever other vice that, you know, you can think of, but instead of going to God, because sometimes it's harder and sometimes it's scarier, if I might want to say that, to be in silence, right? We it's it's hard to be in silence, completely blocking out all, you know, negative thoughts or whatever thoughts and just listening to God. It's it's it's so difficult and so hard. How did Bishop Sheen um approach this um the silence, the silence of prayer? How should we approach that as well?

Allan Smith 32:39

Right. Well, you know, he made a daily holy hour. So he made that environment uh just a way of his life. He wasn't afraid. Like some of us are afraid to say, I've never done a holy hour before. I don't know what it's like. I what sit in a church, uh, sit in an Adoration Chapel? Like, what am I gonna say? What am I gonna do? I I don't know. Like, I mean, there is that fear almost in a way. Um, but it's just this idea of Fulton Sheen um just did it every day and every day and every day. And then what happens is you make that turn where then all of a sudden you desire it. You can't wait to have that silence, to wait to have that uh moment with the Lord. And that's the thing is that the devil doesn't want silence.

Allan Smith 33:29

He wants noise because we can't hear God if there's noise. And that's where you start to see these people that are just gonna move on to the next thing, keep busy, do this, do that. They don't want silence because the devil's got them occupied with just this busy head, lots of noise. And yet, um, what did Jesus do with his disciples? Let's pull away. Let's go and rest, let's be quiet. Our Lord broke away from the group to find a place to be quiet, to listen. So there's the example there in our blessed Lord. And now can we respond to that call? Can we accept that challenge to say, I'm gonna carve out some silence? And I say, it is scary for a lot of us, and so let's just try five minutes. Just five minutes of just no noise and just be. And and I make that challenge in the book a few times, just to just carve out five or ten minutes of silence where we say nothing. We just say nothing and just let God speak to our hearts. So um it's a scary thing, but no, there's always just these two forces,

Mary Forms Disciples And Mothers Us

Allan Smith 34:42

good and evil, our Lord and the devil, and you kind of know his playbook. His playbook is noise, his playbook is confusion, um, and yet our Lord's playbook is silence, love, companionship, uh, true friendship, um, you know, intimacy, all of these things. So um, yet we're just so comfortable with the devil's playbook, it's become the norm. I'm used to this noise. I'm used to my phone blinking every 10 seconds with something, another notification. Um, is it healthy? No. Uh, but do I know what the answer is? Yes. It's that interior life, it's that silence. And I think this is why so many people are being moved as they read this book, because they just know that this is the right place to be. These are the right conversations to have. And the way the book has structured is that it makes it easy in that you say, I'm starting with the face of Jesus, getting to know who he is again, and then I'm going to the Blessed Virgin Mary to learn to be mothered by her, to be taught by her. And then she then brings us to our Lord and the Mount of Beatitudes to just again help us to become, to learn from that great sermon on the Mount of Beatitude of how to live our life.

Allan Smith 36:11

And yet, then after we learn how to become, we go to the cross where we learn to love. And then after that series of meditations, we go to the Eucharist where we learn to abide with the Lord. And it's in those Eucharistic holy hours that hopefully we have some silence and we put ourselves in that disposition to listen to Him. And in Fultenstein's writings on the holy hour, he said, you know, sometimes we want to do all the talking because we're used to filling things with noise. But there's a point where we just have to stop and be silent and listen and trust that the Lord will give us holy inspiration. So uh, like I say, it's scary, but I always recommend start in five-minute segments and then work up to, you know, longer periods of time. But uh, it can be scary, but know the game plan of the devil is to keep us distracted, and yet the game plan of our Lord is to keep our eyes on heaven and the higher loves, our lady, our guardian angel, things that are holy, the saints, all those things. So it's pretty simple.

Sheila Nonato 37:20

Yes, absolutely. And since it's back to school season, um, mothers, probably kids, you know, they're they're very maybe they're a little anxious about all the preparations and everything like that. And I think having, you know, this book, having even, like you said, five minutes, um, maybe read a little bit, uh, and that will help you to kind of inspire you in your prayer. Sometimes, yeah, it's hard to know. Like, what should I do? Should I just sit here? What do I what do I think about? Um, but if you have the holy face image, you know, maybe that'll help calm your mind. Um, maybe even your children, if you want to invite them five minutes to, like I was saying, I was reading a little bit of the of the book and um the children actually were listening and we're getting something out of it. Um, how do you how do you foresee sort of mothers uh using this book uh in within the family?

Allan Smith 38:08

Yeah, well, again, it's they're short, easy meditations to read. Uh, they only take a couple of minutes each day. But what's really nice is that I give what I like to say just a quiet practice for the day. Like I challenge everyone to say, okay, work on this one thing and take that with you. Um, you know, um, and I give example after example. But people like to be challenged. They like to be uh encouraged to say, okay, I'm gonna try to practice this today. And we know there's areas in our life that we need to work on. And so I do that. But then I also give everyone just a scripture verse to carry with them through the day. Again, a short, short passage that you can just kind of take with you and say, ah, because we need to carry the word of God with us. We need to ponder and think about the word of God. And so I give that challenge to carry a verse with you each day. And then I always give just a short prayer. Um, you know, my prayers have always been short. My kids laugh at me all the time because, you know, my favorite prayer is I just always say in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lord, please make it easy. Amen.

Allan Smith 39:20

And then name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. But because I always just ask the Lord to make it easy. Um, but it's a little prayer, but uh a prayer of honesty. And so I'm I compose these short prayers that are from the heart as if I was praying with you, and we pray together. And you know, I think, Sheila, sometimes, you know, when we look back on our life and we think about some of the missed opportunities, I miss so many opportunities to pray with people. And, you know, this is just a nice little way for me to say, let's pray together. And, you know, one comment that I've heard about this book is that they said, you know what, this book is not to be read, it's to be prayed. And so people have been praying with this book. Again, the short meditation, two or three minutes, again, the little quiet practice for the day, the scripture verse to carry with you, and the short prayer. Uh, some people will say the short prayer morning and evening, you know, just to finish their day, or they might read the meditation to see how they did. Uh, but again, it's not too involved.

Allan Smith 40:26

And I think that's where uh people appreciate that. We met them on their busy schedules and we wrote it that families can read it. Um, you know, um, like you say, you're seeing in your young children that uh there's a response there. Because again, as we said at the beginning of the show, Fuldensin is talking to this new generation. He's speaking to them and offering them hope. Um, we think of the title of his television show, Life is Worth Living. Foldensheen would be saying to young people today, your life is worth living. God has a plan for each and every one of you. You may not be a straight A student, you may not be, you know, the most talented uh person in your class, but God has a plan for you. He's going to use your talents for the kingdom if you just cooperate. And I think that's where Fulton Sheen gave so many people hope. Yeah, my life is worth living. Yet God does have a plan for me, and my true home is in heaven. What does the catechism say? Why was I created to know God, to love him, to serve him in this life, and to be happy with him in the next? And that's what Fulton Sheen was teaching in his many books, his television shows, his his radio addresses, all of these things. Again, just telling us that our life is worth living and that God has a plan.

Sheila Nonato 41:49

Yes, absolutely. And finally, just to go back to our lady and I guess women, um, and all of the challenges that women do face today. Um, I'm just thinking about sort of this like this debate about, you know, should women be girl bosses, should you be trad wives? But I feel like I'm gonna insert a new a new term there. I'm gonna say woman of faith, because we need we don't need to divide amongst ourselves. Uh I think we need to unite, unite um to the cross. Um and in the book you were mentioning about Mother Mary, you said she did not begin with action, but with surrender, and her whole existence became a living yes to God, and that this was not passive obedience. You called it active, joyful,

Silence, Holy Hour, And Overcoming Distraction

Sheila Nonato 42:37

and intelligent. Can you tell us more about you know what kind of obedience is this? Obedience of love that you mentioned.

Allan Smith 42:43

Yeah, well, again, it goes back to what was I made for? I was made to adore God for all the eternity. And our lady knew that well. And so she would say, How does that fit into my daily plan? How can I match God's will to my will? And that's where her obedience came, was because it was out of love, not, you know, out of um, you know, being suppressed or controlled, uh, but it was a response in love. Um, you know, you had mentioned earlier, like Our Lady was the first adorer, uh, the first tabernacle. And these are all things that it gives you joy to say, yeah, I want some of that. I want to be an adorer. I want to be a Tabernacle. And I get to be a Tabernacle every time I receive our Lord in the Eucharist, and then go out into the mission field and I visit with people. The Lord is in me. And and I think this is where our lady just says, Do you want to be a part of that? And you go, Yes. Well, let's obey. Let's, again, fall in line and love the Lord by giving him our obedience, but also do doing acts of love. And and again, love is the motive. And that's what changes everything. Sometimes obedience seems to be like a a ball and chain or a a whip or something. No, no, no. It's it's an invitation to love. To say, do you love me? You know, and and I think Our Lady exemplifies that so beautifully. Um, and that's why, again, obedience was easy for her. And um again, it was very active because she knew I have to act and respond and do something. And sometimes love involves an action and uh so inspires us to do the things we we we may not want to do, and that happens often for mothers especially.

Sheila Nonato 44:45

Yes, and as you mentioned, um Our Lady was the first um, I guess the the modern Ark of the Covenant. Um, and I've been reading the Bible uh from the beginning, so I'm very slow, I'm still in Kings, but in in sort of the battles uh that the Israelites would would would uh enter into, they always had the ark first, right? And I feel like today, if that's kind of like Our Lady is gonna is gonna be at the front line of the battle with us. Um and that's why we should invite her. We should invite her into our hearts, into our homes, into our families, because she will help equip us in this spiritual battle. How did um Bishop Sheen see this spiritual battle? I know it's not in the book, um, but how did he see this?

Allan Smith 45:30

Yeah, well, I think what he saw was, you know, our lady was very much a missionary. And, you know, the mission of bringing Jesus to the world, and you know, of course, the spiritual warfare that goes on, we know that the devil fears the Holy Name of Jesus, the Holy Name of Mary, of course, her presence, and you know, the blood of Christ. I mean, these are very powerful in spiritual warfare. But this idea of mission to bring Christ to the world, because he defeats the enemy. When our lady comes, the demons flee. When our Lord comes, they always said in scripture, have you come to torment us? Have you come to wreck our day? I'm paraphrasing there, but you know, they always screamed to say, Don't torment

How Families Can Pray The Book

Allan Smith 46:21

us, you know, don't, but Jesus came on that mission, uh, that mission to bring God's power, his love to the world. And so our lady was the first missionary of bringing Christ and she brought them to Egypt. I remember reading some of the mystics that said, you know, that when our Lord and the Holy Family were walking through the streets of Egypt and some of the temples, they would shake and stuff like that because there was that fear of God, our fear of our lady. Um, but again, they were on a mission to bring God. So um it's this sense of missionary spirit of what we're doing, because it we're made for God, for God.

Allan Smith 47:04

And I think that's what Fulton Sheen uh would encourage us to say. Um, again, if you just continue to have that zeal to bring Christ to the world, I mean, our Lord said, go out, preach to all nations, baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So uh know what we were made for, and that makes it a lot easier, that's for sure.

Sheila Nonato 47:28

Okay, and finally, can you please tell us about the beatification coming up? Are tickets still available?

Allan Smith 47:36

Yeah, yeah, we we we've got room for 90,000 people. Uh we're thinking that probably 75,000 would be comfortable. Uh, we sold 40,000 seats in the first month. Um, and there still are seats available. Like I say, they're uh they're doing well, and we we expect everyone to come into a full building. Um there was 103,000 people that came to the stadium in 1999 when St. John Paul II celebrated Holy Mass in the building. Um, and so uh this we think, you know, 75,000, 80,000 people will come. Uh we are going to, of course, give everyone that comes into the building a world mission rosary. Uh, it's that beautiful multicolored rosary uh that Fulton Sheen made so popular where we pray for the whole world. Um again, there will be a full day of events on the 24th. The doors will open at eight in the morning. Uh we have over a hundred vendors, uh, people that will be, of course, promoting their apostolates.

Allan Smith 48:41

Uh I will be at the Sophia Institute Press booth. Um, you know, I have eight books with them. Uh, and of course, The Soul of a Disciple is a very popular book. And I wrote uh a book just in time for the beatification called America's Apostle. And this is the official commemorative edition, and uh it's got my name on the front cover there, uh Alan Smith. So you'll know who wrote this book. And so it's uh Sheen's life story, uh, some beautiful um meditations from his works, uh, lots of beautiful prayers and pictures, and so uh a beautiful commemorative piece that uh will be available for the beatification. So America's apostle. But um we have what we'd like to say a pre-mass show with uh you know Katie McGrady, uh Bishop Dolan, Matt Marr, um Sister Josephine. Uh some, you know, some beautiful uh testimonies will be given. Of course, then we'll prepare for Mass, and Mass will be at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Uh, they'll process the relics of Fulton Sheen Inn before Mass, and they'll declare him blessed at the beginning of Mass. And Holy Mass will be two to four. And then after four o'clock, there will be the relics for veneration uh till seven o'clock, and the expo will be open with all the exhibitors, and so uh it'll be a great celebration there on the day of the Beatification on the 24th in St. Louis. But again, tickets can be purchased on the website simply titled celebrate Sheen.com, because we want to celebrate Sheen. And we need to prepare our hearts for this great event, and that's why many people have been praying with the book, "The Soul of the Disciple," to give them that mini retreat to understand Sheen's love for our Eucharist, the Eucharistic Lord, Our Lady, uh, that missionary zeal, so much more, the love of the cross. And so this book is getting people to be prepared, but and to use it long after the beatification's over. So uh there's that. And of course, the America's Apostle Book is a very beautiful coffee table style hardcover book that will be enjoyed for years to come. So uh again, the website, celebrate sheen.com, you'll see all the events that will take place before the beatification. Again, we're having holy hours in Peoria. We're having uh in St. Louis Vespers the evening before. Uh, there's going to be a holy hour for young adults run by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal on the Wednesday evening, and then the Sheen Gala dinner, the Sheen Awards being held in Peoria on the Friday, the day after the beatification, um, and of course, many masses of thanksgiving at the cathedral uh will be there. So you'll find out everything on that website, celebrate Sheen.com. And I hope to see many of you there in St. Louis. And if not, we'll be on EWTN television, and um, you know, you can enjoy the uh ceremony at home uh through EWTN, and uh there'll be lots of coverage,

Obedience Of Love And Spiritual Battle

Allan Smith 51:49

that's for sure. So uh lots to celebrate. So looking forward to it.

Sheila Nonato 51:53

Beautiful. And where is that book that you held up? Where can you find that one?

Allan Smith 51:57

Well, yes, so it's also available through Sophia Institute Press and on Amazon. You'll you'll find where fine books are sold. So uh we've got the America's Apostle, and of course, we've been holding up the book The Soul of a Disciple. Uh it's quite uh a beautiful cover. So uh some beautiful endorsements on the back, and um yeah, Bishop Lutilka, um Monsignor Gray, and so many others have uh endorsed this book. They love the idea of Fulton Sheen coming back to give a retreat. Uh in fact, one of the uh uh endorsers, uh Deacon Kandra, said, you know, um, if you can't have Fulton Sheen come to your parish to give a retreat, this is the next best thing. So um, so it's there. So it's our way of saying, here's Sheen coming back to earth to give a retreat. And I've taken my years of knowledge of reading Sheen's many books and tried to uh put his thoughts into a retreat style book. And so that's what we've come up with, the soul of a disciple. Because we're all called to be disciples of Christ. And who better to form us than Archbishop Fulton Chae Sheen?

Sheila Nonato 53:04

Yes, absolutely. And um, yeah, thank you for this very beautiful interview. And as I am learning, the soul of a disciple is a soul that seeks the heart of Christ. I um I'm truly humbled and honored again to have you come and share, you know, all of your wealth and knowledge about Bishop Sheen and looking forward to the Beatification. Um, would you like to close with a prayer?

Speaker 53:27

Oh, absolutely. Well, continue to pray. And we've been praying uh these prayers for many times the prayer cards, and uh, you know, so we're gonna pray for a favor and uh, you know, uh again, Fulton Sheen, so many miracles, uh answers of answers to prayer for years and years now. And so I keep saying to people, pray this prayer, pray for the favor, pray for his um canonization process, pray, pray, pray. So uh let's pray to obtain a favor through the intercession of the servant of God, Archbishop Fulton Jaishin. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. 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 Jaishin, by granting the favor we now request through his prayerful intercession. And here we mentioned our request. And we make this prayer confidently through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Venerable Archbishop Fulton Jache, pray for us in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Tickets, Books, Closing Prayer, Farewell

Sheila Nonato 54:48

Well, thank you very much again, and all the best to you. Blessings, prayers for the preparations. Uh, I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of people and a lot of things for you to do before that big day. Um, but again, thank you very much. God bless you. God bless your work.

Allan Smith 55:03

Thank you, Sheila, and God love you, and uh we'll continue to uh hold you up in prayer and your ministry and your family.

Sheila Nonato 55:10

Thank you so much. Take care. Thank you.