Once I was giving a talk to all of my [Jesuit] order's houses in the Midwest. I was the third speaker on a panel of three. I'm never nervous before I speak--I mean, I have too much mileage on my mouth. At least I was never nervous as we traveled around all the other houses.

We came at last to Loyola University, here in Chicago, where I teach. I'm confronted with my own community. I wanted to impress them. They'd never heard me speak, and I wanted to tell them, "Fulton Sheen is coming out from wraps tonight, brothers, you've had a gem right here in your midst. You may not have known that, but you did."

So I was nervous. My mouth was dry. My hands were cold. When all else fails, you try prayer, right? So I tried prayer. And nothing happened.

I said, "Jesus, I'm asking in your name. You said whatever we ask in your name you're going to give us." And nothing happened. So I said, "You're trying to tell me something?" And he did.

I heard inside me (you can debate my sanity later), "You're getting ready to give a performance. You're getting ready to perform for your brothers so they'll know how good you are, and they don't need that. They need you to love them so they will know how good they are."

I looked out at the community, and I said, "I'm going to love you. I don't know whether I really have in the past, but from now on I'm going to love you."

It is true what they say, that when you love you are not nervous. All nervousness disappeared: the saliva came back into my mouth, the blood came back into my fingers, and I felt very much at home.

And I knew the effect when I love. When we love, God acts. God did act that night through me. I know he did.