For Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the three letters JMJ were more than a pious flourish. They stood for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and they were his quiet way of placing every word, page, lecture, and broadcast under the protection of the Holy Family.
Sheen himself traced the custom back to childhood. In his autobiography Treasure in Clay, he wrote: “As a custom which started in kindergarten, I always wrote ‘JMJ’ at the top of the blackboard, as I do on every piece of paper before I write — and which I hope will someday be on my tombstone.”
The habit began in Catholic school, taught by the Sisters at St. Mary’s Cathedral School in Peoria, and stayed with him for life.
That origin is important: Sheen did not invent “JMJ.” It was an old Catholic devotional practice, especially common in the 19th and 20th centuries, of beginning letters, schoolwork, books, or important writing by invoking the Holy Family.
In Catholic life, it functioned almost like a tiny prayer: May what I am about to write be done in the presence of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
But Sheen made the custom famous. Millions saw him turn to the blackboard on Life Is Worth Living and write JMJ before beginning his lesson.
It was a telling gesture. Here was one of the most gifted communicators of the 20th century, a man watched by millions, beginning not with his own initials but with the initials of the Holy Family.
The message was subtle but unmistakable: his work was not meant to display Fulton Sheen; it was meant to serve Christ.
The Marian dimension was especially deep in Sheen’s spirituality. He grew up praying the Rosary with his family, kept a statue of the Madonna and Child on his television set, called her “Our Lady of Television,” and chose the episcopal motto “To Jesus through Mary.”
His devotion to St. Joseph also appears throughout his writings and prayers; his well-known Spiritual Adoption Prayer begins, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I love you very much…”
There are also charming anecdotes that show how closely “JMJ” became associated with him. Sheen once told the story of a father who accidentally picked up the wrong hat in a restaurant.
When he looked inside and saw the monogram JMJ, the man’s son immediately said, “That’s Bishop Sheen’s hat!” The joke works because, for Sheen’s audience, those three letters had practically become his signature.
In fact, signed copies of his books and personal letters often included both JMJ and his famous phrase “God Love You.” One was his dedication; the other was his blessing. Together they reveal the heart of his public ministry: brilliant but childlike, learned but devotional, famous but not self-possessed.
That is why Sheen’s “JMJ” still resonates. It reminds Catholics that even ordinary work—a letter, a lesson, a product description, a school assignment, an email—can begin as an offering. Before the eloquence, before the audience, before the task itself, Sheen placed everything in the company of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
Learn more about the upcoming Beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
