Catholic Thought discussion

Summary:

Chapter 11, “The Bishop in a Diocese”:
Sheen discusses his appointment as Bishop of Rochester in 1966, the social philosophy that had emerged in the 1960s, the challenges of being a Bishop of a diocese in those days, and of his retirement upon reaching the age of seventy-five.

Chapter 12, “The Hour that Makes My Day”:
Bishop Sheen speaks of his life-long practice of spending one hour per day in front of the Blessed Sacrament, on the reasons why he did so, and the graces one receives from the practice.

Chapter 13, “Reflections on Celibacy”:
Bishop Sheen provides his reasons why the priesthood should require the discipline of celibacy.

Chapter 14, “Retreats”:
Bishop Sheen provides his methods of leading retreats both for priests and the laity, and tells of several anecdotes during retreats.

I am especially appreciative of Chapter 12 where Sheen describes his involvement with a daily Holy Hour. I spend an hour with the Lord in Adoration once a week and it always brings me a strong peaceful feeling and appreciation of the ways of God.

Celia wrote: "I am especially appreciative of Chapter 12 where Sheen describes his involvement with a daily Holy Hour. I spend an hour with the Lord in Adoration once a week and it always brings me a strong peac..."

Yes that was very good. I really enjoyed all four of these chapters. Perhaps Chapter 14 on Retreats might have been my favorite. More on that later.

I was so impressed that he has kept the promise for an hour of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament for 60 years despite all his travels and obligations. I can't keep a routine for an entire week.

Irene wrote: "I was so impressed that he has kept the promise for an hour of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament for 60 years despite all his travels and obligations. I can't keep a routine for an entire week."

I was very impressed with that too! People in religious groups are told they should try to spend an hour a week. I can't do that. I've told myself I should aim for an hour a month, but even that's impossible for me. I probably go a half dozen times a year.

Yes Celia, you have inspired me to try harder to visit the Lord at His home more often. When I do, it's a time of incredible peace.

First, Manny, I hope you are feeling better!!

Yes, Sheen's words about the Holy Hour and his dedication impressed me too. I highlighted a number of his comments, including about how he always encouraged others to adopt the practice. Like Manny, Irene, and Madeleine, I don't get to my parish's Adoration Chapel often enough. Actually, hardly at all. And it's true, when I go, it's so peaceful. You can feel His Presence. Celia, you are inspiring us all this week.

I also was very interested in the chapter on Celibacy, especially because it's in the news right now. Sheen said: If anyone thinks that celibacy is psychologically harmful to priests, he should sneak into a gathering of priests. I am sure there is more humor among priests than among any other body of professional people in the world.

My opinion is that I respect and appreciate celibacy in the priesthood. And priests know beforehand what they are signing up for. BUT, and there's a big but in my mind ...

Why not allow a respected elder in a remote place such as the Amazon to be a priest at a certain level, a level to be decided by other priests, not by non-priests. Actually, I should shut up because I think only those in the priesthood should have a say.

But I have to add ... :) ..... It can be hard for us to understand conditions under which some Catholics live. One of my sisters-in-law is from a small town in Honduras. A priest reached their town - if they were lucky - once a year. Had she been able to receive Holy Communion and feel the presence of the Lord more often, I feel certain she would still be Catholic today. (I mean, she is, she's baptized, but she is lapsed and has turned to other denominations.)

I feel a precedent was set when married Anglican priests were accepted into Roman Catholicism and allowed to serve as priests.

So although I don't particularly like the idea, I think there are some conditions under which it has to be considered. I wonder what Sheen would have said about what's going on today?

Many ex-Anglican and ex-protestant ministers do wonderful work after conversion. We had one ex-Anglican married priest who occasionally said Mass in our parish And have excellent homilies. And the contributions of people like Taylor Marshall and Jeff Cavins (though not priests) are enormous. True, it isn't up to the laity to decide but married priests and bishops do have a precedent in Church history, with St. Peter a towering example!

That's how I've felt all along too. It's up to the Church to decide. The laity shouldn't have a say.

But I feel the excuse of the remote Amazon is a canard. We have had priests go into remote areas for centuries and evangelize and serve. This is not different. Over the summer we just read Death Comes for the Archbishop about priests serving in remote areas. Jesuits (among others) have gone to the remote places of the world for the past five hundred years. The Amazon excuse is a ruse by people who want all sorts of changes. If they are going to change the celibacy criteria, they should do it by legitimate means, not ruses to get the camel's nose under the tent.

Bishop Sheen begins chapter fourteen, “Retreats,” by re-capitulating all his professional endeavors. It’s worth listing so we can see them all in one place:

If I were asked which of the many activities of my life, outside of the eminently priestly privileges such as offering the Eucharist, appealed to me most, I could not answer.

Teaching would be one response because, particularly in graduate work, it enabled me not only to acquire knowledge, but also to dispense it. Every increase of truth in the mind is an increase of being. One wonders if, among all the professions open to mankind, there is any nobler and purer than that which deals with truth.

The making of converts is also satisfying because, as St. James assures us, “if we save a soul, we help save our own.”

Dedication to the missions has been equally gratifying, for it advances the Kingdom of God and it brings one in contact with dedicated souls.

Editing and writing have enabled me to communicate ideas which are bound up with the more general intention to proclaim truth.

Radio and television greatly satisfy me because they give a larger pulpit than any other activity. But they can also be the most dangerous to a priestly soul; of that I have spoken elsewhere.

I have loved every work to which I have been called or sent. But perhaps the most meaningful and gratifying experience of my life has been giving retreats to priests, not only because they brought me into contact with the priesthood, but because the very review one makes of his own spiritual life in order to speak to others helps oneself too. I really wonder if the priests who made these retreats received as much from me as I did from them.

Isn’t it surprising he considers leading retreats as his most satisfying? After all, he’s taught at a college level, he’s made converts across the world, he’s led missionaries and diplomatic affairs across many countries, he’s written books, and has been the foremost radio and television religious personality of his day. And yet giving retreats is his most satisfying.

I don't know why I loved this chapter so much. Perhaps because I've only been to day long retreats. I've never been to a retreat that lasted several days, where you spent time over night in what in my imagination is a monkish cell of a remote monastery. I imagine it as living the life of a monk for a few days where one sings the office in commune and going to daily Mass and doing some light labor and praying and being silent. Sort of life described in the book we just read, Mariette in Ecstasy. Has anyone actually participated in such a retreat?

Here he describes his method of leading a retreat:

The method I used in preaching retreats was the same as I used in all speaking. I never sat, since enthusiasm can be shown more in a standing position. I never read or used notes, but tried, through meditation, to absorb the ideas to be communicated and then let the actual retreat be the overflow and outreach of that contemplation. Each conference was limited to thirty minutes, except the last conference, which was a Holy Hour, and was sometimes forty minutes in length. The number of conferences was five a day. I need hardly say that all the conferences were in a chapel, never in a prayer hall, so that we priests would always be in the presence of our Eucharistic Lord.

He also goes on to say,

If I were asked what detail of my sixty years of priesthood I would show to the Lord as a sign I loved Him, I would point to the Holy Hours which have been made by priests in the course of their lives as a result of my retreats.

So he was really proud of work on retreats. It’s the signature work he would present to our Lord as his dutiful servant.

Manny wrote: "I don't know why I loved this chapter so much. Perhaps because I've only been to day long retreats. I've never been to a retreat that lasted several days, where you spent time over night in what in..."

Has anyone actually participated in such a retreat?

My recent CRHP retreat was just one night, but very intense. No clocks, watches, or cell phones put us on God's time, we stayed in a small area where the usual meeting rooms were designated for activities, including an adoration chapel where each group had an hour assigned, and where we came together for prayers and songs between activities and meals, and where we had a final Mass which had many of us in tears. For me, it was a time of peace, an incredible different kind of peace, but beautiful. I can't say more about it, except that it was amazing.

That sounds great Madeleine. So where did this take place that it had rooms for the night? I don't know what "CRHP" stands for.

CRHP stands for "Christ Renews His Parish"--it's similar, I think, in purpose to ACTS retreats--in that both aim to deepen our spiritual lives and sense of community. ACTS is a bit more demanding, and a three-day instead of two-day and is usually outside the parish. We have a very large parish which owns an abandoned strip shopping center on the same corner. I believe at one time it was intended for a parish school, but instead expanded the youth ministry (they do an outstanding job of keeping our kids Catholic--I only wish we'd had such a parish when our kids were growing up, but we didn't.

The group that gave the retreat were participants at the previous one, and our team is now in weekly meetings to prepare for our turn to give one in the spring. The program started in 1969, and recently was adopted by Matthew Kelly's Dynamic Catholic movement. Our parish has been doing this for a long time, but this was my first opportunity to do one, after hearing members of the ministries I'm involved in rave about it for years. The last retreats I attended were in high school and college, and this is nothing like those. We slept in a large meeting room on air mattresses and sleeping bags. (the men have their own retreat on another weekend). Our group of 36 women was the 88th CRHP group. We just had our third meeting, and we feel we've made friends of one another for life.

I have done many over night retreats. None of them were a time of living and working with monks. I have made and worked numerous Cursillo retreat weekends. I have made a week-long Ignatian retreat based on the Exercises. I have made many preached retreats that have ranged from one day to 4 days. Some have been silent and some have included sharing with other participants. I try to make a retreat each year, but it does not always happen.

I envy you both. Having a ten year old son limits my ability to take a few days away from home.

I've never attended an overnight retreat but I hope to in the future. My diocese has a retreat center that is about 50 miles from where I live. Occasionally they offer silent retreats with Franciscan monks as spiritual advisors. I'm attracted to that idea but also a bit worried about whether I could handle a lengthy silent period. I'm not usually a big talker, but a silent retreat also means no phone, TV, music, Internet, etc. I'd start with a weekend one but they also offer weeklong ones. Registration for both short and longer silent retreats fills up quickly whenever one is offered.

The center offers other types of retreats and I hope to be able to attend a weekend-long one (with talking!) when family responsibilities permit.

Our talk about retreats reminds me how Sheen said he felt he reached at least some of the prisoners when he gave retreats at prisons. Sheen's love for retreats came through so clearly. I had a sense he too felt closer to God when leading them. Also, he said he always centered his retreats - to priests and to others - on the beauty of spending an hour each day with the Blessed Sacrament. That is so beautiful. Think how many people heard him emphasize that over the years.

I guess I'm not the only Catholic here who has not gone off to an overnight retreat. I thought I was being deficient, but I guess it's more normal than I thought. I'll have the next set of chapters summarized and up this afternoon.

Gerri, we did a lot of talking, story sharing, and group activity at CRHP. We got used to not knowing what time it was and not having the phones or tablets. The peace, that was ample compensation! And talking to people in person and not through a device!