Look at Your Heart

A Christian message on Valentine's Day

The following quote is from Archbishop Fulton Sheen (1895 - 1979):

“Look at your heart! It tells the story of why you were made. It is not perfect in shape and contour, like a Valentine Heart. There seems to be a small piece missing out of the side of every human heart. That may be to symbolize a piece that was torn out of the Heart of Christ which embraced all humanity on the Cross. But I think the real meaning is that when God made your human heart, He found it so good and so lovable that He kept a small sample of it in heaven. He sent the rest of it into this world to enjoy His gifts, and to use them as stepping stones back to Him, but to be ever mindful that you can never love anything in this world with your whole heart because you have not a whole heart with which to love. In order to love anyone with your whole heart, in order to be really peaceful, in order to be really wholehearted, you must go back again to God to recover the piece He has been keeping for you from all eternity.”

Father Sheen came to the The Catholic University of America in 1920 to study for a year before he left to pursue advanced study in philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Five years later he returned to The Catholic University of America to teach. For the next 23 years he honed his skills as a scholar, educator, orator and evangelist.

From 1930 - 1950, Father (then Monsignor) gave weekly talks on the The Catholic Hour radio program.

Monsignor Sheen was consecrated a bishop on June 11, 1951 and in the Fall of that year, he began his famous television series. Life Is Worth Living. It was an inspirational American television series which ran on the DuMont Television Network from February 12, 1952, to April 26, 1955, then on ABC until April 8, 1957. Similar series, also featuring Sheen, followed in 1958–1961 and 1961–1968.

I have memories of my family watching this tv show with great dedication to his wise words and his deep understanding of the Catholic religion.

Later, Pope Paul VI named him Archbishop of the Titular see of Newport, Wales.

Archbishop Sheen remained active, spending his last years writing and preaching.

He never failed to maintain his daily holy hour from the day of his ordination until his death on the floor of his private chapel on December 9, 1979.

On November 18, 2019 Pope Francis called for Sheen to be beatified on December 21, 2019 but the Vatican has indefinitely postponed the ceremony by some U.S. bishops for further investigation of his tenure as bishop of the Diocese of Rochester from 1966 to 1969.

In this moment of writing this, I wish you love on this Valentine’s Day with as much of my heart as possible and to God, I say, “Will you be my Valentine?”