Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s popular television show in the 1950s was titled “Life is Worth Living.” Last Friday, several of his surviving relatives and others impacted by the Diocese of Peoria’s candidate for sainthood used what would have been his 114th birthday to joyfully and prayerfully declare that life is also worth celebrating.

Archbishop Sheen taught us “how to live life well and how to live for God and with God,” said Bishop Joseph Perry, auxiliary bishop of Chicago, homilist at an evening Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral. The Mass was followed by a birthday celebration at the Sheen Museum in the new Spalding Pastoral Center complete with two cakes, champagne toasts, and even M&Ms bearing “J.M.J.” or “God love you.”

Archbishop Sheen opened his television programs by writing the initials of Jesus, Mary and Joseph on the blackboard. “Bye now, and God love you” was his traditional ending.

A board member of the Sheen Foundation — which held a series of meetings in Peoria over the weekend — Bishop Perry called the famed media pioneer, orator and author a “spiritual director to the masses” whose words “echo in these times, ringing true.”

In welcoming remarks at the Mass, Msgr. Stanley Deptula — executive director of the Sheen Foundation — noted the cathedral was the site where Archbishop Sheen served Mass, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria, and where he celebrated his first Mass 90 years ago.

The cathedral “is soaked with memories of Bishop Sheen,” said Msgr. Deptula. Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, celebrated the Mass using a ciborium that belonged to the late archbishop, an El Paso native who died in 1979.

More memories were viewed and shared at the reception in the Sheen Museum. Four persons gave brief testimonies to the archbishop’s influence on their lives and families, and in between the talks videos of Sheen programs and homilies were shown on a large screen. Included was his final Good Friday homily delivered on April 13, 1979.

Bishop Jenky asked God’s blessings on Archbishop Sheen’s family members — including niece Joan Cunningham on Yonkers, N.Y., who blew out the candles on the birthday cake — and asked that God “help us to imitate his virtues and be inspired by his writings.”

He also had special words of welcome for Bishop Perry, whom he said “has helped this (sainthood) cause from the beginning.”

Editor’s note — For more information on the Sheen cause, or to obtain a holy card that includes a second class relic (a small piece of one of his vestments), call Jane Peverly at (309) 671-1550 or visit www.archbishopsheencause.org.