World's First Love

And to me, this is really important.

The first book I ever read of his cover to cover, kind of like you with the tapes, like I couldn't put it down, was The World's First Love.

And I discovered that in college and it just transformed my understanding of Mary, especially as a convert.

Highly recommend to everyone.

I'll start with this.

Sheen in his autobiography, he talks about the history of the church going through 500 year cycles.

And I recommend everybody start with that book.

I go, where do I start with Sheen? Start with his autobiography.

Do you remember Bella Dodd, the communist? Or think about what Sheen did, the millions of dollars raised for the church and charities, about 10 million, especially after he was named head of the US Bishops' Society for Propagation of Faith.

That would be hundreds of millions of dollars today, okay? Or the sales of his popular books, like Life Is Worth Living, Peace of Soul, The World's First Love, A Life of Christ, to say...

And that's just a few.

To say nothing of the millions of people who followed Bishop Sheen on radio and television.

So I started to go to the seminary.

And I said to the rectors of the seminary, can I give away Fulton Sheen's books to these seminarians? Books like Life of Christ, The World's First Love, The Priest on His Own.

And they embraced it and they welcomed me.

They said, we don't care if you're a plumber because our Lord is fishermen, tax collectors, tent makers before you.

This is the story that just is a killer.

"I know three boys who were constantly drawing pictures during the geography classes, another because he was fond of fighting, and the third because he was a revolutionary, books hidden under his mattress.

No one knows the Victorians, the valedictorians of that s- class, but the first boy was Adolf Hitler, the second was Mussolini, and the third was Stalin.

I'm sure that if you, if the superiors of the school had given these boys another chance, they might have turned out differently in the world.

[laughs]

The poi- the point I'm making, Father, is Sheen has these stories that he personally evangelized people.

Now, I know he didn't say this, but I'm gonna presume that Fulton Sheen also mentored that little boy s- somewhat by giving him information or books to read or, uh, formed him.

Sure.