The Fulton Sheen Book Publishers Skipped for 60 Years - Mike Aquilina - 09/15/2026

Mike Aquilina, author of more than fifty books on the Church Fathers and Catholic history, joins Bo Bonner to discuss The Power of Love, Fulton Sheen's short meditation on love, newly rereleased by Ignatius Press with a foreword by Mike. He explains the book's long absence from print: it opens by assuming the recency of John F. Kennedy's assassination, which made it look dated to publishers — but past that opening, Mike argues, it's one of Sheen's most profound and clearest treatments of what love actually is.Mike and Bo talk through Sheen's method: taking love from its roots in the Greek philosophers and its various forms through to the Christian idea of charity, then applying it to concrete life — how to love in a family, how to love a toddler, how to love a teenager, how to love through a midlife crisis. Mike points to the chapter on "little things" as the heart of the book, where Sheen tells the story of a man tipping his hat to Oscar Wilde at the lowest point of Wilde's life, and connects it to Mother Teresa's insistence on beginning with a smile — an act of love that changes the atmosphere of a home or a workplace, especially when you don't feel like it.Mike also shares his own history with Sheen: a confessor and spiritual director who assigned him one Sheen book after another in his twenties, starting with Life of Christ and Three to Get Married, and, decades later, discovering a room of twenty-something archdiocesan employees who watched Sheen's old television show over lunch every day for inspiration. That story, told to Ignatius Press's Tony Ryan, led to the foreword. Why this book now? Because Sheen, Mike says, is an American original delivering the teaching of the ages in an American idiom.Find The Power of Love at your local Catholic bookstore or from Ignatius Press. Archbishop Fulton Sheen will be beatified Thursday, September 24 at 2 p.m. Central at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presiding as Pope Leo XIV's representative — details at CelebrateSheen.com.Heard on the Catholic Morning Show, weekdays at 7 a.m. Central on Iowa Catholic Radio. More at IowaCatholicRadio.com.#FultonSheen #ThePowerOfLove #MikeAquilina #IgnatiusPress #FultonSheenBeatification #CatholicBooks #CatholicPodcast #IowaCatholicRadio Credits: Produced, Edited, and Mixed by Ayden Pugh, Alexia Baker, and Brady Grimm. ENJOYING THE SHOW? Follow The Catholic Morning Show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you never miss an episode — and if this one was worth your time, please leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating. It takes ten seconds and it's the single best way to help more people find the show. 🎧 LISTEN LIVE Catch The Catholic Morning Show live, weekday mornings on Iowa Catholic Radio. Listen Live · Program Schedule · Our Stations LINKSYou can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Tiktok! More on our website.If you would like to support Iowa Catholic Radio you can donate Here! More from Iowa Catholic Radio:Sunday Dive with Katie PatrizioMan Up! with Joe StopulosCatholic Women Now with Chris Magruder and Julie NelsonThe Uncommon Good with Bo Bonner and Dr. Bud MarrBe Not Afraid with Fr. Fabian Moncada and Fr. Bruce RiebeBe Not Afraid en Español con el P. Fabián MoncadaMaking it Personal with Bishop William JoensenFaith and Family Finance with Gregory WaddleThe Great Men of the Bible with Joe Stopulos Liturgy & DevotionsThe Daily Gospel Reflection with Fr. Nick SmithThe Daily Mass from St. Francis of AssisiThe Daily Mass from St. Pius XThe Daily Mass from St. TheresaSunday Mass from the Basilica of Saint JohnWant to support your favorite show? Click Here Iowa Catholic Radio - Connecting People to Christ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.