Reflections on Bishop Sheen from Msgr. Soseman

Msgr. Sosemen of the Diocese of Peoria asks in one of his daily reflections, do you know Bishop Sheen? Why Not?  I have posted it here and for those who haven't yet gotten to truly know him I encourage you to do so. Yesterday Bishop Jenky of Peoria presented the, Positio, on Bishop Sheen to Pope Benedict. This was the next step towards the canonization of Bishop Sheen.

Peter John Sheen. Fulton John Sheen. Monsignor Sheen. Bishop Sheen. Archbishop Fulton John Sheen. Over the years I have gotten to know all the facets of this great man's life, known in various ways by the abundance of people who came into his life.

His family members, who knew him as a studious brother, a kind uncle, a famous relative.

The young engaged couple, struggling financially, he a Protestant, resistant to the Church, she a Catholic. Bishop Sheen met with them frequently, and later performed their marriage ceremony.

Servant of God, Archbishop Fulton John Sheen

The young street sweeper in Baltimore, who, seeing the Monsignor on the street early in the morning asked to speak to him. "Walk with me to the bus station, I am late for a bus," he was told. He wrote to the Peoria office that through 60 years he has thought of these 20 minutes every day, as motivation for his life.

The drunk on the streets of Manhattan who went to Confession to Bishop Sheen, very late one night. Bishop Sheen bought him a train ticket home. His brother called rejoicing: our lost brother, husband and father has been sent back to us!

The man whose infant daughter had suffered a high fever for two weeks in a Long Island Hospital: "your daughter will never come out of this," he was told "but if she does she will be a vegetable." Bishop Sheen, asked to stop in the room when he was visiting the hospital, prayed over her, looked up, and said "Your daughter's fever will break during the night, tomorrow she will be released from the hospital." The girl's father wrote, 58 years later, telling what a wonderful nurse his daughter had become.

The untold thousands who, moved by the words of Bishop Sheen, were moved to encounter our Lord in the Church.

The untold thousands who, even after Archbishop Sheen's death, have been moved by his example, by his words, and have sought his intercession at the throne of the Heavenly Father.

Just recently I heard of a baby, whose heart stopped at birth. 61 minutes in the delivery room the medical personnel worked to restart the heart, to no avail. The parents decided to entrust their baby's life to Archbishop Sheen's intercession, asking for life, asking that there be no brain damage. In the 62nd minute life came. No brain damage.

Do you know Bishop Sheen? Why not?