MM#466--Fulton Sheen Asks in Three Books "What Will You Do With This Christ, This Holy Week?"

A lot of us meet Fulton Sheen in fragments: a quote card, a grainy clip, a meme. But when you actually sit with his work, something steadier happens. During Holy Week, I reflect on three books that quietly re-ordered my interior life: Peace of Soul, The World’s First Love, and Life of Christ. They feel like three doors into one home, leading from a restless conscience, to a stronger Marian devotion, to a real encounter with Jesus Christ who won’t stay an abstract idea.

We talk candidly about Sheen’s challenge to the modern obsession with psychology and self-analysis. His point is both blunt and freeing: peace does not come from endlessly diagnosing yourself. It comes from owning sin, turning back to God, and receiving mercy especially through the sacrament of confession. If you’ve ever wondered why you feel spiritually stuck even while trying all the “right” self-help moves, this conversation names the deeper ache and offers a concrete path forward.

Then we shift to Mary. Sheen refuses to treat Marian devotion as an optional extra; he presents her as a woman placed at the center of salvation history, able to step into personal and cultural crisis and quietly reorder it around Christ. When the world feels like it’s coming apart, his advice is simple: don’t decrease devotion, double down.

Finally, we walk with Sheen through the Gospels and linger on his striking Eden and Gethsemane imagery, then relive the powerful 1979 moment when Pope John Paul II embraces the aging archbishop and says, “You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus.” With Fulton Sheen’s beatification set for 2026, this is a timely invitation to make Holy Week concrete. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find these Catholic spiritual classics.

Key Points from the Episode:

• discovering Fulton Sheen through Peace of Soul, The World’s First Love, and Life of Christ  
• guilt and sin as the start of healing rather than something to deny  
• peace of soul found through confession, mercy, and conversion rather than self-analysis  
• Mary as central to salvation history and a steady guide in crisis  
• doubling down on Marian devotion when the world feels dark  
• Sheen’s Gospel meditation that makes Christ feel near and demanding of response  
• Eden and Gethsemane as the two gardens framing redemption  
• John Paul II’s embrace of Fulton Sheen as a passing of the baton  
• what beatification means and the details around Sheen’s 2026 Mass  

Be sure to check out our show page at TeamMojacademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources.

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Transcript

Welcome And Holy Week Greeting

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Theory to Action Podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Meeting Fulton Sheen Through Books

Guilt, Healing, And Peace Of Soul

Confession As Real Conversion

Mary As The World’s First Love

Life Of Christ And The Two Gardens

John Paul II Embraces Fulton Sheen

Beatification News And Final Blessing

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Hello, I am David, and welcome back to another Mojo Moment. And happy Holy Week and Happy Easter to each of you. Most Catholics today know Fulton Sheen through grainy black and white clips and memes on social media. For me, it started a lot quieter than that. I was a young Catholic, just starting out trying to figure the whole Catholic thing out. All my questions, some of my guilt, and a lot of my hopes as a young Catholic. And three books by Fulton Sheen met me right there Peace of Soul, The World's First Love, and by far my favorite, Life of Christ. Those weren't just good spiritual reading. They were like three different doors into the same house. The door of the restless mind, the door of Marian devotion, and the door that opens straight into the heart of Jesus. Peace of soul caught me first. In fact, let's go now and grab a first pull quote from that book. Those who deny guilt and sin are like the Pharisees of old who thought our Savior had a guilt complex, because he accused them of being whited sepulchres, outside clean, inside full of dead men's bones. Those who admit that they are guilty are like the public sinners and the publicans of whom our Lord said, Amen, I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you Matthew twenty one thirty one. Those who think they are healthy but have a hidden moral cancer are incurable. The sick who want to be healed have a chance. All denial of guilt keeps people out of the area of love, and by inducing self righteousness prevents a cure. Those two facts I'm sorry, those the two facts of healing in the physical order are these. A physician cannot heal unless we put ourselves into his hands, and we will not put ourselves into his hands unless we know that we are sick. In like manner, a sinner's awareness of sin is one requisite for his recovery. The other is his longing for God. When we long for God, we do so not as sinners, but as lovers. And again, that's Fulton Sheen from Peace of Soul. Now, on the surface, this book is Sheen's answer to the modern obsession with psychology. Freud therapy, the subconscious. But what it did for me was much simpler. It convinced me that my unease wasn't just anxiety or neurosis. It was a moral and spiritual restlessness calling me to confession and conversion. Sheen's point is brutal and liberating at the same time. You don't get to peace of soul by endlessly analyzing yourselves. You get it by turning to God and owning your sin and receiving mercy. Now, for a young Catholic like me, that was huge. Told me that the sacrament of confession isn't a relic. It's an actual, it's actually more effective than self-help programs, especially when it comes to the deep stuff. Now, it would take me five years and a move from Washington, D.C. back to my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and then finding a Dominican parish in Columbus where they offer confessions more than any other parish I've ever seen. All that was a game changer for me. The Sacrament of Confession changed my life, as it has changed countless lives and souls down through all the ages. Now, the second book I read was The World's First Love. If peace of soul settled my nerves, then this book, The World's First Love, rewired my imagination. She just doesn't talk about Mary as a sentimental extra. He presents her as a woman in the center of salvation history, and one God dreamed of from all eternity, the mother who can step into every human crisis, personal, cultural, political, and quietly reorder it around Christ. For me, as a young Catholic, that changed Marian devotion extremely well. Changed it so much from the optional extra prayers to something more like a strategy for surviving confused and very dark world. She made it clear if the world was falling apart, you didn't decrease your Marian devotion, you doubled down. And let me repeat that point because it's so I have to emphasize it so much. She made it clear if the world is falling apart, you don't decrease your Marian devotion. You double down. Double down, I did over the next 25 years and counting. And then there was the life of Christ. You know, if if the other two books help me to trust the church and love Mary, Life of Christ was the one that made me fall in love with our Lord Jesus Himself. Sheen walks through the Gospels from Bethlehem to Calvary to the empty tomb with this blend of scriptural depth and historical detail and almost cinematic imagination. He doesn't just comment on the text, he enters us into it, and he somehow drags us with him. That book did something I didn't fully expect. It made Christ feel more human, more divine, more close and majestic, less like a religious idea and more like a living person to respond to. To this day, Life of Christ is my favorite of all of Fulton Sheen's works because it keeps me, it keeps doing for me what Sheen had done for millions on radio and television. Puts me at the foot of the cross and then at the door of the empty tomb. And it asks that most important question What will you do with this Christ? In fact, let's grab a quote from that book too. As Adam lost the heritage of union with God in the garden, so now our blessed Lord ushered in its restoration in a garden. Eden and Gethsemane were the two gardens around which revolved the fate of humanity. In Eden Adam sinned, in Gethsemane, Christ took humanity's sin upon himself. In Eden Adam hid himself from God. In Gethsemane Christ interceded with his father. In Eden God sought out Adam in his sin of rebellion. In Ghessemane, the new Adam sought out the Father in his submission and resignation. In Eden a sword was drawn to prevent entrance into the garden, and thus immortalizing and thus immortalizing of evil. In Gethsemane the sword would be sheathed. And again, that is Fulton Sheen in Life of Christ. Man, that is so good. Such great theology there. Such great theology all over the book, frankly. Now, one of the great moments of the American Church is this event. Hold these three books in your mind Peace of Conscience, Love of Mary, Love of Jesus, and fast forward to October of 79, 1979. Pope John Paul II is on his first trip to the United States. He comes to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, and somewhere in that crowd is an old frail archbishop named Fulton Sheen. By then, his TV days are long gone, the bright lights, the standing room, only auditoriums, the Emmys that he won, all that's behind him. Physically, he's near the end. Spiritually, he's been preparing for this for decades. But here is the connection that hits me. When I think about Sheen at that moment, old weak, almost finished, I can't help but see him through the lens of those three books that carried me when I was just beginning. Peace of soul and his insistence on confession and the interior conversion, the world's first love, and his Marian devotion and life of Christ, and his relentless focus on the person of Jesus. That day in New York, John Paul II works his way through the clergy, blessing and greeting and moving quickly. And then he sees Fulton Sheen. Witnesses say the Pope's face changes. He recognizes not just a bishop, but a man whose voice and words had evangelized America and the world for decades. One can think of a young Kerolatiwa behind the Iron Curtain in the 1950s and 60s getting bits and pieces of this American bishop on that new TV and radio broadcast. And his message of Christ is being seen worldwide. For Carol Watiwa, it uplifts him. It buoys his spirit, provides a glimpse and moments of grace from this American bishop. Now fast forward and it's 1979 in New York City. Fulton Sheen drops to his knees. This is the part that gets me. One old evangelist kneeling before another, both men who had spent their lives trying to draw people to Christ from pulpits, from classrooms, from TV studios, from stadiums. John Paul II reaches down, embraces him. The cameras are rolling. But the moment is oddly intimate. You get the sense something more than a polite greeting is happening. In my mind that embraces like the church herself. One generation handing on the baton to another, one great preacher affirming another, all under the gaze of the same Lord that they both had served. And then the Pope speaks. He doesn't analyze Sheen's media strategy. He doesn't break down his philosophy. He doesn't list all the books, all the shows, all the converts. Sums up the whole thing. He sums up the radio years, the television years, the late-night writing sessions that produced my three favorite books, Peace of Soul, The World's First Love, and Life of Christ. Even sums up those hidden holy hours of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. And then John Paul II gives us a verdict on the entire life of Fulton Sheen's preaching Christ to the restless modern world. And his words land not just on Fulton Sheen, but in a way on all of us who have had our Catholic life shaped by this man's work. John Paul holds him and says, You have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus. You are a loyal son of the Church. Boy. What profound words. Two months later, Fulton Sheen would pass on to eternal life on December 9th, 1979, and to which the joy of so many of us now in 2026 will be the very feast day of Fulton Sheen. Yes, you heard that right, Fulton Sheen will be declared blessed, one stage away from becoming a full saint in the official language of the church. And it'll be so close to that Marian Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. Now, to be clear, beatification means that he has one miracle that has been approved after all the science can explain it. And that miracle is attributed to the intercession of the soon-to-be Blessed Fulton Sheen. Fulton Sheen's Beatific Mass will be on September 24th, 2026, in St. Louis, Missouri. So for me, that will be a most joyous day. Another American person declared blessed. So in today's mojo minute, let me join Saint John Paul II in saying, Fulton Sheen, you have written and spoken well of the Lord Jesus. You are a loyal son of the church. May all of his books, his writings, and his media bring you closer to our Lord this holy week and for all the weeks going out in the future. For me, Fulton Sheen has always been an inspiration. And God bless Fulton Sheen. And God bless each of you this holy week of 2026. And as always, keep fighting the good fight.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your emojo up.