Dear brothers and sisters in the Risen Christ,
The strife is o’er, the battle done. Christ is risen as He promised. Happy and Blessed Day of the Resurrection to all of you!
As we celebrate this most central mystery of our faith, the Vatican has recently announced the date and time for the celebration of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s beatification. Many of our “more seasoned” parishioners likely remember his radio show and his Emmy Award-winning TV show Life is Worth Living. I encountered him through his book The Life of Christ, which I maintain to be, after the Bible itself, the best and most important writings about Jesus ever set in ink.
Venerable Fulton Sheen will be beatified (declared a Blessed in Heaven, having 1 proven miracle attributed to his intercession) on September 24, 2026, in St. Louis. This will be a tremendous day for the Church in the United States, and we will find ways to participate and celebrate. But for today, I wanted to share with you some of his masterful writing, hopefully to inspire you not only by the glory of Easter Sunday, but also to dive deep into this holy man’s wisdom and insight.
Here’s a passage from The Life of Christ, chapter 54: “The Earth’s Most Serious Wound–The Empty Tomb”.
Those who saw the empty grave were bidden to go to Peter who had tempted Our Blessed Lord once from the Cross and had three times denied Him. Sin and denial could not choke Divine love. Paradoxical though it was, the greater the sin, the less the belief; and yet the greater the repentance from sin, the greater the belief. It was to the lost sheep panting in the wilderness that He came; it was the publicans and the harlots, the denying Peters and the persecuting Pauls to whom the most persuasive entreaties of love were sent. To the man who was named a Rock and who would have tempted Christ from a Cross, the angel now sent through the women the message, “Go tell Peter.”
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
Ven. Fulton Sheen, pray for us!
All you holy saints of God, pray for us!
Peace in the Risen Lord,
Fr. Michael Silloway
Pastor