Michael Dubruiel: Free Catholic Book

    

From How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist by Michael Dubruiel - free today

       

    

Jesus told a parable about what happens when a storm comes that lashes out against our very lives (see Matthew 7:24–27). He said that the wise person builds his house (his life) on solid ground,on rock (the image that he used to speak about his church and Peter). The foolish person builds on sand and is destroyed by the storms of life.

The work of building the foundation on which our lives depend takes place every time we participate in the Eucharist. While I was putting the finishing touches on this book I traveled to Florida, right after Hurricane Frances had made a direct hit near Stuart, Florida. I had been scheduled to give a talk in nearby Palm Beach Gardens two days after the storm had hit.The talk was canceled because the church, St. Patrick’s, was without power, but I had the opportunity to meet with the pastor of the parish, Father Brian Flanagan, and some of the parish staff. In the midst of much devastation what remains vivid in my mind is how peaceful everyone there was. I know Father Brian to be a man whose deep faith is rooted in the Eucharist, and what I experienced in those days immediately following Hurricane Frances was a literal exposition of Jesus’s parable — the storm had come,but because the lives of the people I met were built on solid rock, they were not destroyed.

Isn’t this what we all want, a joy that the world cannot take away, no matter what might happen? Our Lord offers it to us at every Eucharist. It is my hope that this small book will help you to better experience this joy, and to discover the richness the Lord’s Eucharistic presence can add to your life.

About Michael Dubruiel

Free Catholic Book

        

From How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist by Michael Dubruiel - free today

I was giving a talk at a Catholic parish in rural Ohio a few years ago about the topic of this book.When I had concluded my presentation someone asked,“Why do people care so little about their faith today?”

I told them of a man, a non-Catholic, I had known who cared little about his faith but attended Mass every week with his Catholic wife because he wanted to make her happy. He did this for years, to the point that several priests tried to convince him that he should convert to the Catholic faith since he had been attending the Eucharist for so many years. He refused.

Then he was diagnosed with bone cancer. His condition deteriorated rapidly. In a few months he went from being robust and strong to bedridden and totally dependent upon others.He called for a priest, who heard his first confession and then offered the Eucharist at his bedside, where he received his First Holy Communion. In the last months of his life, his Catholic faith was all that mattered to him.

This led a woman in the group to recall an incident when a tornado had wiped out her family’s farm and the family had sat huddled together in the storm cellar, praying the Rosary. At that moment their faith had mattered more than anything else in the world to them.

Someone else mentioned that in the weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on this country he had noticed more people in the Church and more fervency in the way people seemed to pray.

Our faith is a matter of life and death and our faith is totally centered on Jesus Christ.The Scriptures reveal that Jesus did not leave us as orphans but founded a Church. He made the very human apostle Peter the first leader of this Church. He left a memorial of his saving death in the Eucharist and commanded his disciples to perform it.

Getting the most out of the Eucharist is an urgent task, then, because our very life depends upon Christ, and Jesus comes to us in the celebration of his passion, death, and resurrection at every Eucharist. Jesus said that he is the vine and that we are the branches. In the Eucharist we receive the very life that connects us to Christ the Vine.

About Michael Dubruiel

Michael Dubruiel on Novenas

       

The Church's Most Powerful Novenas is a book of novenas connected with particular shrines.  Michael Dubruiel wrote in the introduction to this book he compiled:

When Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his Apostles to stay where they were and to "wait for the gift" that the Father had promised: the Holy Spirit.  The Apostles did as the Lord commanded them. "They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers" (Acts 1:14). Nine days passed; then, they received the gift of the Holy spirit, as had been promised. May we stay together with the church, awaiting in faith with Our Blessed Mother, as we trust entirely in God, who loves us more than we can ever know. 

 

More about Michael Dubruiel

Books by Michael Dubruiel

St. Francis of Assisi - October 4

       

St. Francis of Assisi taught his followers to reverence Christ and

his cross wherever they might find themselves. The prayer attributed

to St. Francis that begins, “Lord, make me a channel of your

peace,” was in fact not composed by St. Francis; it was misapplied

to him in a prayer book. The true prayer of St. Francis was one

he taught his friars to pray whenever they would pass a Church

or the sign of the cross made by two branches in a tree. They were

to prostrate themselves toward the church or the cross and pray,

“We adore you Christ and we praise you present here and in all

the Churches throughout the world, because by your holy cross

you have redeemed the world.”

The cross reminds us of the true Christ, the one in the

Gospels who was constantly misjudged by the religious figures

of his day. If we are not careful, he will be misjudged by us as well.

We need to worship him alone.

From The Power of the Cross , by Michael Dubruiel available as a free download by clicking the cover below:

Michael Dubruiel: October is Rosary Month

       Michael Dubruiel conceived and put together the small hardbound book, Praying the Rosary.  Click on the cover for more information.

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Here's an excerpt:

The Gospels show that the gaze of Mary varied depending upon the circumstances of life. So it will be with us. Each time we pick up the holy beads to recite the Rosary, our gaze at the mystery of Christ will differ depending on where we find ourselves at that moment.

Thereafter Mary’s gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14) [Rosarium Virginis Mariae, no. 10].

As we pray the Rosary, then, we join with Mary in contemplating Christ. With her, we remember Christ, we proclaim Him, we learn from Him, and, most importantly, as we raise our voices in prayer and our hearts in contemplation of the holy mysteries, this “compendium of the Gospel” itself, we are conformed to Him.

Also, check out this post from 2003, in which Michael Dubruiel narrates the events of one of his "rosary walks."

Feast of the Guardian Angels - October 2

      

Yours and mine...

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

That every individual soul has a guardian angel has never been defined by the Church, and is,

consequently, not an article of faith; but it

is the "mind of the Church", as St. Jerome expressed it:

"how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has

from his birth an angel

commissioned to guard it." (Comm. in Matt., xviii, lib. II).

Michael Dubruiel 

October 1- St. Therese

      

Therese imagined that in the spiritual life we are all like infants at the foot of the stairs being summoned by our Heavenly Father to climb the heights--which try as we might we cannot do. Finally the Heavenly Father will come down the stairs and pick us up and carry us up the stairs. Which of course is a beautiful child like summary of what the Trinity has done in the incarnation of Jesus.
Are you and I trying to climb the stairs? Is our Faith in Him? Abandon yourself to the God as a child abandons oneself to their parents.
St. Therese, pray for us!







Michael Dubruiel

St. Jerome: September 30

  September 30 is the memorial of St. Jerome.  More from Pope Benedict XVI:

What can we learn from St Jerome? It seems to me, this above all; to love the Word of God in Sacred Scripture. St Jerome said: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”. It is therefore important that every Christian live in contact and in personal dialogue with the Word of God given to us in Sacred Scripture.

This dialogue with Scripture must always have two dimensions: on the one hand, it must be a truly personal dialogue because God speaks with each one of us through Sacred Scripture and it has a message for each one. We must not read Sacred Scripture as a word of the past but as the Word of God that is also addressed to us, and we must try to understand what it is that the Lord wants to tell us.

However, to avoid falling into individualism, we must bear in mind that the Word of God has been given to us precisely in order to build communion and to join forces in the truth on our journey towards God. Thus, although it is always a personal Word, it is also a Word that builds community, that builds the Church. We must therefore read it in communion with the living Church.

The privileged place for reading and listening to the Word of God is the liturgy, in which, celebrating the Word and making Christ’s Body present in the Sacrament, we actualize the Word in our lives and make it present among us. We must never forget that the Word of God transcends time. Human opinions come and go. What is very modern today will be very antiquated tomorrow. On the other hand, the Word of God is the Word of eternal life, it bears within it eternity and is valid for ever. By carrying the Word of God within us, we therefore carry within us eternity, eternal life.

The Power of the Cross  by Michael Dubruiel. 

Accidently Like a Catholic - The Warren Zevon Story

   

(Michael Dubruiel died less than 2 years after writing this post.) 

My introduction to Warren Zevon came in the early 1980's when I was in a record store in Gainesville, FL looking for a new album that had just came out (I don't remember what the album was). While in the store I was caught up with the album they were playing over the PA system..a singer was singing about being in Hawaii and abandoned by his girl to the "Hula, Hula" boys with a refrain in Hawaiian. It piqued my interest. I listened on to the next song which was about going to Memphis, Graceland to be exact and digging up the king and begging him to sing about those heavenly mansions Jesus mentioned and imagining him (Elvis) walking on the water with his diet pills.

I was hooked.

Who was the artist? I asked the guy at the counter.

Warren Zevon.

The album?

The Envoy Which only recently has been made available on CD. Thus I was introduced to Warren Zevon.

I became a big fan, there is something about a certain class of artists, usually more know for their songwriting than their singing that has always categorized my favorite singers. People as diverse as Tom T. Hall, David Alan Coe, John Prine, Matraca Berg, Neil Young, Neil Diamond and Warren Zevon have long been my favorites. In some ways Zevon was the most diverse of all of them. One minute you were apt to hear a classical string piece introducing some twangy anthem to "playing that dead band's song...all night long" (the dead band referring to another of my long time favorites Lynyrd Skynrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" the next some hard rocking tune. Zevon in many ways defies definition.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon in some ways is just as quirky a biography as the singer was in life. When my copy first arrived I was disappointed, because it didn't seem like a biography at all, but rather a collection of interviews, journal entries, reminicences. But like the genius that the book is about, I soon found their was a genius to what Crystal Zevon (Warren's second ex-wife) had put together. Here is the gripping and moving tale of the real Warren Zevon told from every angle, by people who both loved and hated hiim. The details read like a life long confession--mostly of failures, but with glimmers of grace here and there. The stories behind many of the songs co-written by Warren Zevon are here and as this became my lunch time reading over the past month, I found myself going back and listening to the music from the different periods of his life.

I saw Warren perform live once, with Amy and a few friends at Clearwater Beach on the Fourth of July back in the 1990's. No band, just him in some bike shorts and his twelve string guitar belting out all the hits--no mention in the journal entries of that performance, but there are of many--many times revolving around the endless hook-ups with women that he had fleeting affairs with.

One of the most intriguing elements of the bio, that is very minor in the book but is there throughout his life is Zevon's fascination with the Catholic Church. In Spain he tries to convince then wife Crystal that they convert--she's reluctant, so nothing happens. Later when asked by someone what his religion he says, "Catholic." He attends Mass with a woman whom he sleeps with in the same apartment building, another time when troubled in Ireland he finds a Catholic Church and enters during Mass emerging afterwards and writing in his journal of the experience "Peace be with you" which seems to be something that eluded him throughout his life--hence the song title and book title "I'll sleep when I'm dead." Perhaps the worst part of this flirtation with Catholicism happens when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only three months to live and visits a Catholic priest with a friend only to be told that he does not have time enough to convert (for non-Catholics and Catholics out there--this must be some reference to the RCIA process which normally takes about nine months to complete, but the priest was wrong to say this--but may not have understood the situation).

As a Warren Zevon fan I loved this book. As a Catholic I wished that Warren might have fallen into the hands of a saintly priest or Catholic who might have given him the tools to redeem all of the demons that tormented his soul and kept him from committing to anything but death in his life. To paraphrase another author, we all are either living to sleep or sleeping to rise--unfortunately Warren was haunted by death (see the skulls that dominate his album art--complete with dangling cigarette), but somewhere in the midst of it all I think the grace that haunted him might have won out in the end.

Warning for the prudish--this book contains all the gore one might expect from someone involved in rock and roll--but in the midst there are glimmers of those heavenly mansion Jesus mentioned...

OCIA Guide to Confession

  In The Pocket Guide to Confession by Michael Dubruiel: 

This pocket guide is meant to serve as an aid to such a varied group as those who:

• Confess regularly
• Are becoming Catholic
• Are making their First Confession
• Have been away from this sacrament for some time
• Are waiting for a "sign" that God can forgive whatever horrible sin has been committed

You will find:

• Answers to basic questions about Confession
• Help in preparing to make a good Confession by examining your conscience and praying before you celebrate the sacrament
• A walk through the sacrament
• How to use the experience of the Apostle Peter as a model for your own ongoing conversion to Jesus Christ.

St. Vincent de Paul - September 27

     Today is the feast of St. Vincent de Paul. From today's Office of Readings. 

Even though the poor are often rough and unrefined, we must not judge them from external appearances nor from the mental gifts they seem to have received. On the contrary, if you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor.

  Although in his passion he almost lost the appearance of a man and was considered a fool by the Gentiles and a stumbling block by the Jews, he showed them that his mission was to preach to the poor: He sent me to preach the good news to the poor. We also ought to have this same spirit and imitate Christ’s actions, that is, we must take care of the poor, console them, help them, support their cause.

  Since Christ willed to be born poor, he chose for himself disciples who were poor. He made himself the servant of the poor and shared their poverty. He went so far as to say that he would consider every deed which either helps or harms the poor as done for or against himself. Since God surely loves the poor, he also loves those who love the poor. For when one person holds another dear, he also includes in his affection anyone who loves or serves the one he loves. That is why we hope that God will love us for the sake of the poor. So when we visit the poor and needy, we try to understand the poor and weak. We sympathise with them so fully that we can echo Paul’s words: I have become all things to all men. Therefore, we must try to be stirred by our neighbours’ worries and distress. We must beg God to pour into our hearts sentiments of pity and compassion and to fill them again and again with these dispositions.

  It is our duty to prefer the service of the poor to everything else and to offer such service as quickly as possible. If a needy person requires medicine or other help during prayer time, do whatever has to be done with peace of mind. Offer the deed to God as your prayer. Do not become upset or feel guilty because you interrupted your prayer to serve the poor. God is not neglected if you leave him for such service. One of God’s works is merely interrupted so that another can be carried out. So when you leave prayer to serve some poor person, remember that this very service is performed for God. Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity. Since she is a noble mistress, we must do whatever she commands. With renewed devotion, then, we must serve the poor, especially outcasts and beggars. They have been given to us as our masters and patrons.

Books by Michael Dubruiel

Blessed Fulton Sheen

      

Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification  on September 24, 2026. 

Silence (3)

Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling -ZECHARIAH 2:13 (RSV)

Reflection by Michael Dubruiel

Spend some time reflecting on the following: 

1. Meditate on Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I am God" (RSV). Spend the time in silence in the presence of Our Lord worshiping Him

 2. Meditate on Psalm 62:1, "For God alone my soul waits in silence; / from him comes my salvation" In your heart plead with God in silence for His grace.

3. Meditate on Ecclesiastes 3:7, which reminds us that there is a time for every purpose under heaven "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak" (RSV). Ask God for the grace to know when you should be silent and when you need to speak.

Prayer

Lord, in the silence reveal yourself to me and teach me to know who you have created me to be and what I should do. Fill me with your love and drive out all fear that I may feel at this moment. Amen.

Blessed Fulton Sheen

     

Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification  on September 24, 2026. 

Silence (2)

Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling -ZECHARIAH 2:13 (RSV)

Reflection by Michael Dubruiel

Bishop Sheen shows that the practice of silence is in imitation of Our Lord, who spent entire nights alone in prayer. If He, the Son of God, did this, how much more do we need to do it?

We become like Our Lord when we pray be- cause, like Him, we come to know who we are in God's eyes and what our mission is in this life. The Scriptures highlight that Jesus spent the night in prayer before choosing the twelve apostles (see Luke 6:12- 13) and before His arrest and crucifixion.

We know that in His prayer at Gethsemane Jesus prayed from His heart, pouring out what was on His mind to the Father. But we also know from that same prayer that He was silent and waited for a response. An angel was sent to strengthen Our Lord into His waiting.

Too often we can be tempted to do all of the talking in prayer and not leave room for God to respond to us. As Bishop Sheen points out, fear is what keeps us from being silent. We are afraid of what God might reveal to us if we are silent. The Scriptures show us that this is not abnormal but that the message of God's angels is always the same: "Do not fear."

There is a great power in silence, something that is almost palpable. We notice the world around us in a way that we don't when we fill our lives with noise. This awareness leads to our being present to the now. It is the now where God has placed us, and it is the now where we need to worship Him.

Fulton Sheen Beatification: September 24, 2026

    

Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification today,  September 24, 2026. 

Silence (1)

Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling -ZECHARIAH 2:13 (RSV)

Bishop Sheen

One of the really great needs of our own day is silence. Modern life seems to thrive on a fondness for noise, and by noise I mean not only the staccato barbarism of jazz, or the bleating and moaning of saxophone orchestras, but also, and principally, the excessive desire for that which distracts --love of amusements, constant goings and comings, excitements and thrills, and movement for the mere sake of movement. What is the reason of this fondness for noise? It is not due to any inherent love of that which is loud, for people generally prefer that which is soft and refined. Rather the reason is to be found in the great desire on the part of human beings to do the impossible, namely to escape from themselves. They do not like to be with themselves because they are not pleased with themselves; they do not like to be alone with their conscience, because their conscience reproves and carries on an unbearable repartee. They do not like to be quiet, because the footsteps of the Hound of Heaven which can be heard in silence, cannot be heard in the din of excitement; they do not like to be silent, because God's voice is like a whisper and it cannot be heard in the tumult of the city streets. 

These are some of the reasons why the modern world loves noise, and they are all resolvable to this: noise drowns God's voice and stupefies conscience. Dull, indeed, are these distractions, but like the clay used by savages to dull the pain of hunger, they stifle in the soul the hunger for the presence of God. The result is that very few people ever know themselves. In fact, they know every one else better than they know themselves. That is why so few ever see their own faults....

In order to remedy this condition, what is needed is less amusing and more musing; a silence; a going apart into the desert of our souls to rest a while; a solitariness from men, and an aloneness with God; a quiet which permits the soul to be sensitive to the whispers of God; a requiem or a rest from modern maxims and the excuses of new philosophies and the excitements which appeal to the body and dis- turb the soul; a privacy inspired by the example of Him who needed least of all mankind a preparation of silence for a life of activity, and yet had the great- est of them all; a tranquility inspired by Him who in the midst of a busy life spent whole nights on mountaintops in prayer.

Silence is the condition of entering into oneself, which is another way of saying, of finding God.

- From Moods and Truths

Fulton Sheen Beatification: September 24, 2026

   

Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification on September 24, 2026. 

Hope (3)

"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" -LUKE 23:43 (RSV)

Spend some time reflecting on the following:

1. Reflect on those who despair. Why is this not a holy act? Does a person who despairs really believe in a merciful God? Ask God for the grace to always trust in His mercy.

2. Reflect on the sin of presumption. Why is it wrong to presume on God's mercy? Ask God for the grace to see that His will is truly merciful and any time we choose other than His will we are worship- ing something or someone else.

3. Reflect on the virtue of hope. What areas of your life could use this virtue? Do you trust in the companionship of Our Lord? Do you have assurance that He loves you and wishes for you to be with Him for all eternity? Ask for this grace.

-Michael Dubruiel

Fulton Sheen Beatification: September 24, 2026

  

Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification on September 24, 2026. 

Hope (2)

"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" -LUKE 23:43 (RSV)

Reflection by Michael Dubruiel

Bishop Sheen presents us with two extremes that can plague us in our relationship with Our Lord: despair and presumption.

Those who despair, focus on themselves to such a degree that they do not realize how much greater God's love and mercy are than any sin or offense that they are capable of committing against Him. The evil of despair is that the person who may feign humility is really the proudest of people who believes that his or her sins are too great for even God to forgive. The despair that such a soul feels is a wall that never al- lows God's forgiveness to permeate the person's soul and be freed from the chains of egoism.

Those who are presumptuous, on the other hand, are an uncaring sort who treat their relationship with God as if God were indifferent to whether or not they destroy their lives by the choices made. Such individuals keep God in their back pocket as a lucky charm with no real concern in their lives other than to manipulate their genie god.

The true companions of Our Lord are different. They neither take for granted their good fortune of having so great a savior nor do they fear that He will let them down; rather, they are moved through whatever experiences come their way with a fervent hope that in the end they will be with Him.

As in the present moment, so in eternity. We are always in God's presence. There is no place one can go to escape it. The person who prays in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is made aware of God's presence in a unique way and indeed is privileged with a foretaste of heaven.

Fulton Sheen Beatification: September 24, 2026

  

Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification on September 24, 2026. 

Hope (1)

"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" -LUKE 23:43 (RSV)

+

Bishop Sheen

Our concern presently is with two kinds of souls; the despairing and the presumptuous: either those who say, "I am too wicked for God to be interested in me" or those who say, "Oh, I need not worry about my sins. God will take good care of me in the end."

Both these statements are sins of exaggeration. The first is the sin of despair which exaggerates Di- vine Justice; the second is the sin of presumption which exaggerates Divine Mercy. Somewhere there is a golden mean where "Justice and mercy kiss" as the Psalmist puts it, and that is the virtue of Hope.

The virtue of Hope is quite different from the emotion of Hope. The emotion centers in the body and is a kind of dreamy desire that we can be saved without much effort. The virtue of Hope, however, is centered in the will and may be defined as a divinely infused disposition of the will by which with sure confidence, thanks to the powerful help of Almighty God, we expect to pursue eternal happiness, using all the means necessary for attaining it.

The virtue of Hope lies not in the future of time, but beyond the tomb in eternity; its object is not the abundant life of earth, but the eternal love of God.

 From The Seven Virtues

Fulton Sheen Beatification: September 24, 2026

     

 Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification on September 24, 2026. 

Members of Christ's Body (3)

If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. 1 CORINTHIANS 12:26 (NAB)

+++

Spend some time reflecting on the following:

1. Ask God to make you aware of who needs to be prayed for today. Remember both the living and the dead. Call to mind the person as you ask God to bless that particular individual.

2. Reflect on whose prayers may be responsible for your own faith. Spend some time giving thanks to God for the people of faith who have passed on the faith to you. Ask God for the grace to imitate them.

3. Meditating on the image that Bishop Sheen presents in his story of someone needing a skin graft or blood transfusion, imagine that certain parts of the Mystical Body, the Church, might be in need of similar aid. What images present themselves to you? Ask God for the grace of healing to come upon the Church wherever it is needed.

Prayer

Lord, give me a living sense of the Church as your Mystical Body. Help me to feel the pain and the needs of others so that I may respond to them as I would my own. Amen.

Fulton Sheen Beatification: September 24, 2026

 

   

 Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification on September 24, 2026. 

Members of Christ's Body (2)

If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. 1 CORINTHIANS 12:26 (NAB)

Reflection

There is perhaps no greater way to share in the redemptive work of Christ than by praying for others. Using the image of the physical body, Bishop Sheen reminds us of how one part of the body can help another part, so too he says in the Mystical Body of Christ. Our prayer can have a positive effect on others, often in ways that we may never know.

Most people know that Dorothy Day was a pacifist, but I doubt many know why. Her beliefs were based on the Baltimore Catechism, which had taught her that every baptized person was a temple of the Holy Spirit. She reasoned that if that were so, then she could never support the physical attack of places where human beings who were both actual and potential temples of the Holy Spirit resided.

But Dorothy's pacifism was not passive. In fact, she once stated, "If we are not going to use our spiritual weapons, let us by all means arm and prepare." She believed in the power of God's ability to do what was humanly impossible, namely to bring about peace. Do we divide the world into friend or foe? Or do we see all people as actual and potential members of the Body of Christ?

We share in Our Lord's redemptive work when we use the spiritual weapons that He has put at our disposal to combat the real enemy of all - the devil. In the same way that we might donate blood to help someone in desperate need of a transfusion, let us donate our prayers to those in most need of the Blood of Christ.

 

Fulton Sheen Beatification: September 24, 2026

   

 Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Praying in the Presence of the Lord with Fulton Sheen , edited by Michael Dubruiel, originally published in 2002. 

Excerpts from the book will be published in this space over the next few weeks, in honor of Archbishop Sheen's beatification on September 24, 2026. 

Members of Christ's Body (1)

If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. 1 CORINTHIANS 12:26 (NAB)

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Bishop Sheen

In medicine, when a patient is suffering from anemia, blood will be transferred from a healthy person to cure the sick of that condition. Skin is grafted from the back to the face to repair a burn. If blood can be transfused and skin grafted, then prayers and sacri- fices can be transmitted to the sick members of the Mystical Body of Christ. The motivation for a Holy Hour is reparation. We pray for those who do not pray, we make acts of faith in the Real Presence for those who lack or who have lost the faith. In a word, we are their victims, like Christ, innocent but one with their guilt in the progressive redemption of mankind.

From Those Mysterious Priests