(LifeSiteNews) — In a recently unearthed letter postmarked October 9, 1940, to a TWA stewardess undergoing instruction in the Catholic faith while engaged to be married, Fr. Fulton Sheen explained the only foundation for “happiness in married life.”
The letter was shared in a video posted by Saint Joseph’s Battalion on Monday.
Stewardess Helen Mosier met Fr. Sheen aboard a flight from Chicago to San Francisco. Sheen was on his way to California to spend time with his good friend, actress Irene Dunne and her husband.
Sheen’s airmail letter was addressed to Miss Helen D. Mosier, Air Hostess at TWA’s then-corporate headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri.
Below is Sheen’s letter in its entirety:
J.M.J.
My Dear Miss Mosier,
God love you.
I thought it might be of interest to you that last night at dinner at the home of Irene Dunne where I am visiting, your name came up and was mentioned a dozen times.
By midnight, when we returned from a preview, it became nothing short of a symbol.
This is how it started. Dr. Griffin (Irene Dunne’s husband) said he was flying TWA to NY shortly and would book an upper.
I told him that shortly after leaving Chicago an apparition of loveliness introduced herself as a prospective convert and we had a nice conversation. Such is the advantage.
I told him of a lower — Irene Dunne playfully assured me he would take an upper.
A very powerful movie actress said she would scratch your eyes out — she was jealous, and on and on went the fun.
But seriously, I am thrilled to know you are taking instructions. Your “intended” must be a very fine character to have influenced you in the direction of the faith.
And God be thanked, you are responding to God’s grace. Happiness in married life is conditioned upon common denominations, and none is more basic than the faith. It really takes three to make love: Two human hearts and the Sacred Heart who draws them together.
I am flying to San Francisco for the day, and will be back with Irene Dunne and her husband for the week, where there will be more fun about the lovely Helen Mosier.
Be assured of my daily prayers.
May Our Lady throw her mantle about you, and may you and Mr. Burke be happy in the service of Him Who is Our Peace and Our Life.
Faithfully in Christ,
Fulton J. Sheen
Sheen, who would become a bishop a decade later and then an archbishop in 1969, was consistent in his teaching about marriage throughout his life. He taught that the secret to a happy marriage is not better communication or more effort: It is loving God first.
When both spouses place God at the center, their love becomes sacrificial, ordered, and eternal. Without God, love becomes self-centered and fragile. With God, it becomes the foundation that sustains everything else.
Sheen said that the key to marriage is not finding the right person; it is becoming the right person through the grace of God.