Always do what Bishop Sheen says

A Bishop Sheen show from the 1950s, shown on EWTN the other day, had such a good message for everyone, as usual. I might not do it justice here, but I'll try.

Bishop Sheen drew a head on his blackboard and said a compulsion can't be forced out but it can be crowded out. To crowd out a compulsion, replace it with something much better.

A real-life example of this, Bishop Sheen said, was when a lady came to him and asked for help to get rid of her alcoholism. He told her there wasn't much he could do for her -- did she love alcohol more than anything else? She agreed that she did.

Bishop Sheen spoke to the lady for an hour and a half about Divine Love. And then he asked her to do something for him and come back the next day, drunk or sober, and say what happened.

What he asked the lady to do was, when she approached one of her favorite bars and put her hand on the doorknob, to ask herself, "Do I really love alcohol more than my Dear Lord?"

That was it, said Bishop Sheen -- the end of her alcoholism. She never drank again.

We can and must each apply this golden spiritual counsel to ourselves and our own sins. Do I really love whatever sin it is more than I love my Dear Lord? Our salvation depends on our answer. Dear Lord, be with me! Jesus, Mary, I love you, save souls!

We can apply this in our Catholic moral approach to the political campaign. When a liberal steps into the voting booth and gets ready to mark his ballot, let him ask himself, Do I really love the politicians who facilitate the deaths of millions of preborn babies more than I love my Dear Lord?

That's a stark and absolutely real decision many Catholics will have to make this November. Might as well resolve now to start letting love for Jesus and His preborn babies crowd out the compulsion to love and vote for pro-abortion politicians. Amen.