YOUR LIFE IS WORTH LIVING: THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (transcribed by Jon Hallingstad) St. Andrew's Press, 2001 416 pages, $24. 95 To order: (877) 362–0807 or www.bishopsheen.org

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who died in 1979, is a priest for our troubled times. Reading this book, a transcription of a popular set of albums he recorded after the close of the Second Vatican Council, a paraphrase of Simon and Garfunkel came often to mind: “Where have you gone, Archbishop Sheen, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you …”

Here is Sheen on what ails us. “The vast majority of people today are suffering from what might be called an existential neurosis, the anxiety and the problem of living. They ask, ‘What is it all about?’ ‘Where do I go from here?’ ‘How do I find it?’”

He offers two solutions. “First, go out and help your neighbor. Those who suffer from anxiety of life live only for themselves … Visit the sick. Be kind to the poor. Help the healing of lepers.”

The second solution is to “leave yourself open to experiences and encounters with the divine, which come to you from without …

“ I am suggesting you will not just reason yourself into the meaning and purpose of life; you will act yourself into the meaning and purpose of life by breaking the shell of egotism and selfishness, and cleaning the windows of your moral life to allow sunshine in.”

Those who watched Sheen's top-rated television show in the 1950s, or who have seen replays on video, will read with the archbishop's inviting voice and piercing eyes in mind. But any reader will be captivated by the gifted evangelist and storyteller, who draws on his wide experience as director for 16 years of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in New York City. His famous conversion stories are here. A young woman of culture comes to see him and he invites her to view artwork in the church. She agrees on the condition that he will not ask her to go to confession. While showing her the splendid paintings, he “pushes” her into the confessional. When Clare Booth Luce asks in tears why God has allowed her teen-age daughter to die, Sheen declares, “In order that you might be here, learning something about the purpose and meaning of life.”

Not exactly common pastoral practice, but the reader is struck with Sheen's zeal and directness.

Perhaps the best advertisement for this book is the experience of Jon Hallingstad. After listening to the vinyl recording that he later transcribed into this book, the one-time Lutheran converted to the Catholic faith. Archbishop Sheen, famous for making converts in his day, is still at work. In the book's foreword, Hallingstad explains his motive for transcribing the 25-album set first released in 1965: “It was as if Sheen himself spoke to me, quietly encouraging me to spend an hour with him each evening. Over the next five months, before I retired each night, I transcribed this work word by word.” Sheen's ideas are organized into five headings: God and Man, Christ and His Church, Sin, Sacraments and World, Soul and Things. Each chapter is an adequate lesson in itself, so readers can skip throughout the book without losing the train of thought.

This is an excellent book to give to relatives who are away from the Church, to evangelicals who approach you at work, or to teens searching for the meaning of life. No theological knowledge is needed to delve into this surprisingly simple presentation of human nature, the longings of the heart and how only the Catholic faith satisfies the deepest needs of each person.

Brian Caulfield writes from West Haven, Connecticut.