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"Dedicated To The Woman I Love" - Quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Taken from the Marian Centre Newsletter (December 1999) - Printed here with Permission

A talk on Archbishop Fulton Sheen and Our Lady - Reveals much about true devotion to Mary and her role in the Church and God's plan of Salvation. By a Dominican Priest.

" Archbishop Fulton Sheen was a pioneer in the use of the mass media and was known to literally millions who listened to him on radio or watched him on TV during the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's.

Most people know that [he] was a very great writer [dedicating his books] to Our Lady. Just listen to [one of these dedications].

The World's First Love -

'Dedicated to the Woman I love. The Woman whom even God dreamed of before the world was made.; The Woman of whom I was born, at cost of pain and labour at a cross; The Woman who, though no priest, could yet on Calvary's hill breathe, "This is my body; This is my Blood' - for none save her gave Him human life. The Woman who...in a world of Reds, shows forth the blue of hope [blue traditionally the colour associated with Mary]. Accept these dried grapes of thoughts from this poor author, who has no wine, and with Cana's magic and thy Son's power work a miracle and save a soul - forgetting not my own.'

'In the course of history, there have been exaggerations in devotion to Mary, but it was not the Church that made her important; it was Christ Himself. The Church has never adored Mary, because only God can be adored. But she, of all creatures, was closest to God. Without her as they key, it is difficult to discover the treasures in the vault of Faith.

God who made the sun also made the moon. The moon does not take away from the brilliance of the sun. The moon would be only a burned out cinder floating in the immensity of space, were it not for the sun. All its light is reflected from that glowing surface. In like manner, Mary reflects her Divine Son, without whom she is nothing. On dark nights we are grateful for the moon; when we see it shining we know there must be a sun. So, in this dark night of teh world, when men turned their backs on Him Who is the Light of the World, we look to Mary to guide our feet while we await the sunrise.'

'During my life I have made about 30 pilgrimages to the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes and about 10 to her shrine in Fatima. At the end of a particular pilgrimage to Lourdes, at the Grotto I asked the Blessed Mother to send me some kind of trial and suffering or a splinter from the Cross to help a soul. I hurried back to the hotel to pack and catch the 9.00pm train to paris. I ran up the three flights of hotel steps two at a time to my room. I noticed that someone was running after me. I turned around and saw a young Dutch girl of about 21. I asked her, "Are you following me?" She said, "Yes. But I do not know why. I saw you in the procession this afternoon and decided that I should talk to you'. When asked if she was in Lourdes to make a pilgrimage, she said, "No, I am an atheist." "you are not an atheist', I insisted, "Otherwise you would not be here. More likely you have lost your faith'. I then told her, "I believe you are an answer to my prayer. I asked for some trial and suffering to save a soul; you are that soul.'

I purposely missed my train and stayed in Lourdes three days until she made her confession and was restored again to the life of the Church. Then my troubles began. It took me three more days to get back to Paris. Though I could speak the language, conductors told me my tickets were inadequate; they put me off the train at odd stops.; and it was impossible to find a restaurant or inn. After 72 hours and multiplied inconveniences, sleeplessness and inadequate food and rest, I finally arrived in Paris. There is a price tag on every soul - some are cheap, others are expensive. As it is possible to transfuse blood from one member of society to another to cure an anaemic condition, as it is also possible to graft skin from one part of the body to another to restore pristine elegance, so it is also possible for any cell member of Christ's Mystical Body to apply his splinter of the Cross to another soul in need.

Devotion to the Blessed Mother brought me to the discovery of a new dimension in the sacredness of suffering.....If Christ ..had summoned His Mother, who was free from sin, to share in the Cross, then the Christian must scratch from his vocabulary the word, 'deserve'....Why should He not call me?

 "Devotion to Mary is at the very heart of Catholicism, and from time to time we are reminded of this by Our Lady herself. Guadelupe, Lourdes, Fatima and by the apparitions to St. Catherine Laboure`. This devotion is as ancient as the Church itself and is one of the qualities that marks a Catholic. ....[It] is tender and full of confidence, simplicity and trust [and] leads the soul to avoid sin and imitate the virtues of the Blessed Virgin, particularly her humility, her faith, obedience, prayer, mortification, purity, charity, patience, sweetness and wisdom.

All our perfection consists in being confirmed, united and consecrated to Jesus Christ; and therefore the most perfect of all devotions is, without any doubt, that which most perfectly conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ. ...The more a soul is consecrated to Mary, the more it is consecrated to Jesus....This devotion consists in giving ourselves entirely to Our Lady, in order to belong entirely to Jesus..through her."

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