Fulton Sheen’s love for the Eucharist was the foundation of his life and ministry. He did an hour of Eucharistic adoration every day and he always looked forward to it.
His holy hour had an interesting background, as recorded in Zenit in March, 2018. During the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, Chinese soldiers were destroying Catholic churches and putting priests in prison.
In a country parish, a little girl watched as they tore the tabernacle away and scattered the Sacred Hosts on the floor. She went home and told her parents what she had seen. That night, slipping past the guards, she went to the church where she spent an hour in adoration, knelt down and consumed one of the hosts, and then secretly made her way home.
She did this for 32 nights, consuming one host each night. On the last night, she accidently woke one of the guards, who chased her down and beat her to death. The parish priest, under house arrest, watched helplessly.
The news travelled quickly around the world and eventually reached the ears of the young Fulton Sheen. Years later, when he was ordained a priest, he resolved to spend an hour in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament each day for the rest of his life.
He was ordained in 1919 and kept up the custom until his death in 1979. He once said: “When I stand up to talk, people listen to me; they will follow what I have to say. Is it any power of mine? Of course not. St Paul says, ‘What have you that you have not received and you who have received, why do you glory as if you had not?’
“But the secret of my power is that I have never in 55 years missed spending an hour in the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. That’s where the power comes from. That’s where sermons are born. That’s where every good thought is conceived.” He described this daily adoration as the source of his strength, calling it “the hour that makes my day”.
His success in spreading the Gospel was truly remarkable. He was consecrated a bishop in 1951 and later that year began his famous television series, Life is Worth Living. It quickly grew to reach an estimated 30 million viewers each week, making it the most widely-viewed religious series in the history of television.
He won an Emmy Award in 1953 for “Most Outstanding Television Personality”, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine, and he became one of the most influential Catholics of the 20th century.
During all this time the tabernacle was the centre of his life. He once said: “All my sermons are prepared in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. As recreation is most pleasant and profitable in the sun, so homiletic creativity is best nourished before the Eucharist.
“The most brilliant ideas come from meeting God face to face. The Holy Spirit that presided at the incarnation is the best atmosphere for illumination. Pope John Paul II keeps a small desk or writing pad near him whenever he is in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, and I have done this all my life – I am sure for the same reason he does – because a lover always works better when the beloved is with him.”
Archbishop Sheen placed his desk in a position where he could gaze on the tabernacle in his chapel while he was working, and he described himself as “tethered to the tabernacle.”
He famously said: “The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white host”, emphasising that it was the most profound expression of God’s love and presence.
He saw the Eucharist not only as nourishing the soul but as transforming believers into a living reality of Christ’s love. He said: “There are three intimacies in life: hearing, speaking, and touching… We hear of Christ in the Scriptures, we see him by the eyes of faith, but we touch him in the Eucharist”.
He said of Holy Communion: “As the highest peak of love is union, so the highest peak of Christian life is Communion”, and nothing can satisfy human hunger except this “divine food”.
