Question Time by Fr John Flader
Question: I have heard that Archbishop Fulton Sheen made a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament every day. Can you tell me more about it, and whether it must be done in a church?
First, in answer to your second question, Archbishop Sheen always did his holy hour before the tabernacle in a church or chapel.
If you cannot pray before a tabernacle, but can pray for an hour in some other place, by all means do it. It will help you greatly and it will be very pleasing to God.
For anyone not familiar with Archbishop Fulton Sheen, he was an American bishop who, in addition to his prolific writings, had an average audience of over 30 million viewers on his weekly television program Life is Worth Living in the 1950s.
Billy Graham called him “the great communicator” and Pope Pius XII “a prophet of the times”.
In his autobiography, Treasure in Clay, published shortly before his death in 1979, Archbishop Sheen says that on the day of his priestly ordination he made two resolutions – to offer the Mass every Saturday in honour of Our Lady to ask her protection on his priesthood, and to spend a continuous Holy Hour every day in the presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
He goes on to say that in the course of his priesthood, he kept both of these resolutions.
As regards the Holy Hour: “The Holy Hour had its origin in a practice I developed a year before I was ordained. The big chapel in St Paul’s Seminary would be locked by six o’clock; there were still private chapels available for private devotions and evening prayers. This particular evening during recreation, I walked up and down outside the closed major chapel for almost an hour. The thought struck me – why not make a Holy Hour of adoration in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament? The next day I began, and the practice is now well over sixty years old.”
He goes on to explain why he kept up the practice and encouraged others to do the same: “First, the Holy Hour is not a devotion; it is a sharing in the work of redemption. Our Blessed Lord used the words ‘hour’ and ‘day’ in two totally different connotations in the Gospel of John. ‘Day’ belongs to God; the ‘hour’ belongs to evil. Seven times in the Gospel of John, the word ‘hour’ is used, and in each instance it refers to the demonic, and to the moments when Christ is no longer in the Father’s Hands, but in the hands of men. In the Garden, our Lord contrasted two ‘hours’ – one was the evil hour: ‘this is your hour’ – with which Judas could turn out the lights of the world. In contrast, our Lord asked: ‘Could you not watch one hour with Me?’ In other words, he asked for an hour of reparation to combat the hour of evil; an hour of victimal union with the Cross to overcome the anti-love of sin.
“Secondly, the only time Our Lord asked the Apostles for anything was the night he went into his agony. Then he did not ask all of them … perhaps because he knew he could not count on their fidelity. But at least he expected three to be faithful to him: Peter, James and John. As often in the history of the Church since that time, evil was awake, but the disciples were asleep. That is why there came out of His anguished and lonely Heart the sigh: ‘Could you not watch one hour with me?’ Not for an hour of activity did He plead, but for an hour of companionship.
“The third reason I keep up the Holy Hour is to grow more and more into his likeness. As Paul puts it: ‘We are transfigured into his likeness, from splendour to splendour.’ We become like that which we gaze upon. Looking into a sunset, the face takes on a golden glow. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain.”
To encourage us to persevere in this practice, he says: “The Holy Hour. Is it difficult? Sometimes it seemed to be hard; it might mean having to forgo a social engagement, or rise an hour earlier, but on the whole it has never been a burden, only a joy.”
What should one do in this hour?
It can be any spiritual activity – engaging in a loving conversation with Our Lord or simply contemplating him, saying the rosary or other vocal prayers, reading the Scriptures or spiritual books… For those who can take up this admirable practice, it will do them the world of good and through them it will help many souls.
