Can You Not Watch One Hour With Me?

Bishop Fulton Sheen begins this powerful and challenging address by diagnosing a critical weakness in the spiritual life: the failure to make and keep concrete resolutions for growth in holiness. He argues that many priests and religious suffer from a "mediocrity" that stems from a lack of deep, sustained prayer. To combat this, he lays out his "only reason for giving retreats": a single, non-negotiable proposal for spiritual renewal, which is the commitment to a continuous, daily Holy Hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. This is not a collection of brief visits, but a dedicated hour set apart to escape the noise of the world and achieve the "psychological continuity" necessary to truly commune with God.

Developing his argument, Sheen explains that this hour is not merely for personal piety but is essential to the priestly and religious vocation of intercession. He paints a vivid picture of the priest at the altar, spiritually carrying the burdens of the entire world, from the sins of atheists to the struggles of families in their parish. To say "pray" to the suffering without praying oneself, he warns, is the "cruelest thing" a spiritual leader can do. This responsibility to be an intercessor, like the four men who lowered the paralytic to Jesus, requires a deep reservoir of grace that can only be filled through this dedicated time with our Lord.

The final and most profound reason for the Holy Hour, Sheen reveals, is that it is the one specific request Our Lord made of His apostles. He draws his listeners into the Garden of Gethsemane, explaining that the "hour" in the Gospels consistently refers to the hour of evil and the power of darkness. Christ’s plea, "Can you not watch one hour with me?", was a direct invitation to join Him in making reparation for that hour of sin. Bishop Sheen frames the Holy Hour not as a mere devotion, but as a personal response to Christ's agony, an act of loyalty to the lonely Christ, and the essential key to transforming a life of mediocrity into one of heroic sanctity.