Shadowing Practice: Wasting Your Life - Blessed Fulton Sheen - Learn English Speaking with Video
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330 sentences
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This little boy came home from Sunday school or catechism class and his father said to him, what did you learn today?
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Oh, he said, I learned how Moses defeated the Egyptians.
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How did he do it?
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Well, the Egyptians were chasing the Israelites and Moses called the airfield
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and the airfield flew in some engineers and they built some pontoon bridges over the sea
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and the Jews crossed over the pontoon bridges.
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Then another fleet of planes came and they bombed the pontoon bridges as the Israelites,
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I mean the Egyptians were on them and they were all killed.
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Father said, is that what they told you?
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No, he said it isn't, but if I told you what they really said, you wouldn't believe it.
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And for those that are 39, I must tell them a story too.
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I was once talking on prosperity and adversity, and I used the example of flowers.
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I said, some flowers prosper only in sunshine, while others seem to thrive only in the shade, like fuchsias.
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And afterward, some woman came to me and she said, that was a wonderful sermon.
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First time in my life I ever knew what was wrong with my fuchsias.
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Now I'm going to talk to you today about working harder,
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studying harder, living harder, being more wasteful of energy,
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being more thoughtful of others.
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and I'm going to begin by telling you that I was once a victim of a roast.
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You probably have seen some roasts on television in which someone is made almost the sacrificial lamb and everyone berates him.
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Well, I was roasted by the Friars Club, and these actors put on a drama on the stage.
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And in this drama, I had just gone to the Diocese of Rochester, and the Vicar General was in the room,
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my secretary, and several priests who had responsible posts in the diocese.
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And the Holy Father walks in, and he looked exactly like the Holy Father, the one who was playing that part.
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And he went over and he talked to the vicar general, whispered to the chancellor, whispered to the other priests,
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never spoke to me once.
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And then he left, and I said to them, I said, what did he say?
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He says, work hard.
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Well, that's what I'm going to tell you.
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to work hard, because really most of us live below the energy, the level of our energy.
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And in order to be happy, we have to do more.
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Now, we can do more, spiritually in every other way, than we are doing, as is proven by hypnotism.
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There were some men hypnotized and told that their strength was greater than it was before.
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And do you know that they lifted weights 40 % more than they'd ever lifted before they were hypnotized?
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They just got a new idea in their minds.
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And then another group of men were hypnotized and told that they...
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No, the same group.
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And they were told they were not as strong as they usually are.
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And the weights they lifted were 40 pounds less, 40 % less.
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So you see how important it is to have in the mind an idea to do all that you can,
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to work to the limit of your ability.
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Our world is really suffering from indifference.
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Indifference is apathy, not caring.
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I wonder maybe if our Lord does not suffer more from our indifference.
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than he did from the crucifixion.
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There was a poet of World War I by the name of Studdard Kennedy
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who gave us a poem in which he compared our Lord coming to Calvary
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and coming to the modern city of Birmingham in England.
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And this is what he wrote.
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And when Jesus came to Golgotha, they nailed him on a tree.
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They crowned him with a crown of thorns.
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Red were his wounds and deep.
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For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.
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When Jesus came to Birmingham, they only passed him by.
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They would not hurt a hair of him.
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They only let him die.
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For men had grown more tender.
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They would not give him pain.
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They only just passed down the street and left him in the rain. And so it rained.
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The winter rain that drenched him through and through.
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And when all the crowds had left the street,
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then Jesus crouched against a wall. and sighed for Calvary.
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In other words, he found the cruelty of Calvary more acceptable than our indifference.
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I'm going to plead with you, therefore, not to be bored in life.
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The reason we're bored is because we don't love anything.
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When you girls get older,
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you're engaged, the man that you're engaged to will do anything for you.
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Why?
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Because he loves you.
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There was a Chicago florist that advertised, does your husband still send you flowers?
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And they had to stop.
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The husband protested.
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Well, there was a reason for not sending flowers after they were married.
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That's very obvious.
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But when you're in love, you'll do anything.
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And you'll find that the young man will do anything for you because he loves.
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So will you.
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You'll wear the kind of clothes he wants.
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If he likes pink, you'll wear pink.
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And you won't find it a bit boring.
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But in order to drive home this lesson, I'm going to take stories out of the Bible.
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And the first story is to induce you to learn to waste yourself, give yourself to others.
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We go back to King David.
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He lived a thousand years before Christ.
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and King David was in a battle against the Philistines, always the enemies of the Jews, the Philistines.
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And the battlefront took him to his own home village of Bethlehem.
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Now, when we get older,
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we sometimes have yearnings for tastes and visions and experiences of when we were young.
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And so when David saw the town of Bethlehem, he said to the soldiers,
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Oh, he said, If I could only taste again the waters from the well at the gate of Bethlehem.
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And the soldiers said, All right, we will get you the water.
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we will drive through the lines.
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And they came back with water.
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And David held up the vessel of water and poured it out onto the ground.
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He said, I am not worthy to drink the water that was purchased at such a sacrifice.
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he wasted it wasted it in the sense that
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if he drank it he would not now be remembered
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and I would not be telling you that story
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when we save certain things for ourselves we spoil them
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when we for example save our flesh use
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it only for our own pleasure then it becomes lost we save money it becomes avarice we save knowledge
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and not use it to train others, it turns into pride.
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And so David poured out the water as a lesson
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that sometimes we have to waste the things of life in order to be remembered.
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Now another story.
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With the same moral, and here we come to the time of our blessed
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Lord, he was invited into the house of Simon, the Pharisee.
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The Pharisees were very self -righteous people.
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And while he was at dinner with the apostles, a woman comes in the door.
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Now, you must remember that in those days, it was very easy to come into a banquet room.
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Anyone could walk into an adjoining house, stand along the wall.
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You would not eat, but you could listen to the conversation.
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It was therefore not very unusual that a woman should come in to overhear the conversation.
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But she brought a blush to Simon's cheek.
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He would not have minded it if anyone else had been there.
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But the Lord, what would he think of it?
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The woman was a sinner.
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And Simon kept saying within himself, if he only knew what kind of a woman she is.
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I wonder how he knew.
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And the woman comes closely to the feet of our Lord.
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My young people must remember that in those days, people did not sit at table.
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They leaned at table, as if we leaned here almost on the floor, and you rested your head on your left hand,
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and then you ate with your right hand from table.
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That's a custom that sometimes I wish would come back.
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So the woman comes to the feet of our Lord, and she has some perfume about her neck.
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In those days, precious perfume was generally carried around the neck.
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And she stands above the feet of our Lord and lets fall upon those sandaled harbingers of peace a few tears,
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like the first warm drops of a summer rain.
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And then she was ashamed that she had wet his feet with tears and she wiped them away with her hair.
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In those days, all women of shame had the hair down. And
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so it was easy for her with her long hair down at the side to wipe the feet of our blessed Lord.
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Then she took from about her neck this small vessel of perfume.
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It was a custom too among the Jews, when they went to a funeral,
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to break this perfume bottle over the corpse,
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and then even to drop the broken bottle into the coffee.
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Now, as she stands above our Lord's feet, she does not do what you and I would do.
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You and I would pour it out gently,
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drop by drop, as if to indicate by the slowness of our giving the generosity of our gift.
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Not those who really love.
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She just broke the vessel, gave everything.
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And the house was filled with perfume, says the gospel.
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So remember, my dear people,
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this was no smell number five. And Judas was there.
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Judas knew the price of everything and the value of nothing.
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He said, Why wasn't this saved and given to the poor? But our blessed
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Lord spoke in favor of the woman.
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he said this woman has done this for my burial because this incident took place ten days before our Lord was crucified.
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And the gospel writers have kept this story in the gospel,
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yes, in order that we might again learn to waste, give, break, surrender.
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As our Lord put it in another occasion, he says, walk the second mile.
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What did you mean by that, walk the second mile?
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Well, because very often in those days was when mail was delivered.
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Suppose they did it here.
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When mail was delivered, the postman would say, listen, I've got a heavy load today.
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Here, you take half these letters.
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And he had the authority to make you walk the extra mile to deliver mail.
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And that's what our Lord meant.
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If anyone, if the postman forces you to walk one mile, walk another.
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And imagine he also said, if anyone takes your coat, give him your cloak too.
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Unlimited giving.
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We would put this in the language of being generous.
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That bell rings very often, doesn't it?
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I have a dim feeling that I'm warned up here.
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So when anyone asks you to do things, be prepared to do more.
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Why, for example, do we get tired?
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Well, we think we are tired because we have a certain limit of energy.
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like we have a certain amount of money in the bank.
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And as that money is spent or as that energy is used, then we have no more, we're exhausted.
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No, that's not it always.
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Energy is renewed if we love.
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As sanctity and holiness declines, energy declines.
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Can you imagine, for example, Mother Teresa ever being tired?
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Here this woman weighs about 90 pounds,
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who has dragged 25 ,000 bodies off the streets of Calcutta and converted 15 ,000 of them.
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She never seems to be tired because she gets new strength because she's broken the vessel, poured out her life as David poured out the water.
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I hope, therefore, that I can impress you,
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not to be selfish, but always to please neighbors even when they seemingly demand too much.
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We might even sometimes do the foolish things.
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And this is the last story that I will tell you about doing foolish things.
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And you might learn from this that if your faith is very strong, you can do wonders.
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The scene I'm to describe was on the Lake of Galilee.
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Our Blessed Lord had just multiplied the loaves and the fishes, and the people were excited about it and they thought,
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Oh, here's a great political king.
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He can feed the hungry.
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And they tried to make him a king.
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And our blessed
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Lord fled into the mountains alone.
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Well, his disciples were caught up in this enthusiasm.
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They liked it.
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And our Lord did not want them to be burnt with the idea that his kingdom was political, so he said, Get into the boat.
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Go over to the other side of the lake.
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Get away from these people this is not the nature of my kingdom.
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So here's our Lord on a mountaintop, the apostles rowing past midnight in the lake.
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A storm comes up.
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They are frightened.
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Our Lord is praying for them and watching them during the storm.
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We sometimes think in our trials and difficulties, economic, physical, moral, that the Lord has no concern.
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That's what they thought, too, that he was watching for the opportune moment.
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And as the apostles were about to despair,
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our Lord is seen walking on the water toward them. And they were frightened.
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They said it's a ghost.
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And our Lord said, be not afraid, it is I.
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Whenever I use that verse, I'm always reminded of a story that was told of Pope Leo XIII.
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Someone asked to paint his portrait, and it was not very well done.
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But it was brought to Pope Leo, and he had to sign it.
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But he signed it in Latin, Noli timere ego sum, do not fear, it is I.
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Our Lord, therefore, is telling his apostles, Now, do not fear, it is I.
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Here we come to a great act of faith.
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Peter loves our Lord and I'm telling you that if you love you will go on doing things not stop
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and Peter loved our Lord he wanted to be with him he couldn't wait until he came to the boat
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and he said bid me come on the waters to you imagine that
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Peter loved our Lord so much that he thought I can walk on water.
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Now, can you imagine what must have happened in that boat at the moment that
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Peter lifts his foot about to step into the water?
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What do you think happened?
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His brother Andrew must have said, Peter, listen, you're always an idiot.
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Thomas must have said, what are you trying to do join a circus dude is it how much money you getting for this
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and on and on they ridiculed get back you idiot get back but he walked he walked on the waters
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And why did he walk?
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Was it foolish?
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No, our Lord had said, Come, come.
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Believe the impossible and you can do the incredible.
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Or believe the incredible and you can do the impossible.
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Believe the things that are almost impossible.
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And if you've got faith, they will come true.
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Our Lord has said, come, and Peter walked on the water.
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But then he began to sink.
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Why did he sink?
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Because Peter knew how to swim.
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Someday when you learn the gospel better, I will ask you the question, How do you know
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Peter could swim?
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As I might ask you the question, who could run faster in a race, Peter or John?
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Did you know that's in the gospel?
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When you get it back to school and you're studying scripture, I hope, I hope, I hope,
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in your catechism, find out who can run faster, Peter or John.
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I'm not going to tell you, but the answer's in the Bible.
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and so here our Lord has said to Peter come and he walked but now he sinks
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Peter could swim because we know that on the Sunday after Easter Peter swam 400 yards
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that's in the gospel too why did he sink if he could swim the gospel tells us the reason
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he took his eyes off the Lord he began to take account of the winds he said all nature is against me.
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Or in our language today,
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in our sociological world, Peter began to take account of sociological surveys. And he sank.
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He took his eyes off the Lord.
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And so the Lord then took hold of his hand and said,
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Oh, man of little faith, why don't you believe.
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And then Peter was taken into the boat and our Lord took them to shore.
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So if you have faith, the impossible things can be done.
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I'll tell you a story about football that was told me by Coach Paterno of Penn State.
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Those of you who don't like football, close your ears, and God have mercy on you.
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Coach Paterno is the coach of Penn State, and a few years ago, his team was playing the University of Kansas.
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Now, Coach Paterno has an old mother, an Italian mother full of faith, knows absolutely nothing about football.
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But she has two sons who coach football.
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One coaching at Penn State and the other coaching the Merchant Marine in Connecticut.
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The score of the football game, 50 seconds before the end of the game,
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was Kansas 14, Penn State 7.
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The other son who coached in Connecticut was with the mother and he said to his mother, Mom, it's all finished.
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Joe is lost.
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She said, No. I'll go in the bathroom and pray.
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I don't know why she went into the bathroom to pray, but at any rate, that's the story.
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She went into the bathroom she's not going to the bathroom
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and pray now this now picture this good good old lady going into the bathroom to pray to the good
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Lord what happens now in the remaining seconds
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Penn State threw a touchdown and the score boys what was the score now with a touchdown 14 to what
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No. 13, right.
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14 to 13.
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To make it 14, what do they have to do?
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Pick a field goal.
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Would there be any other way of making extra points?
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Forward?
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Yes, or run through the line.
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Yes, there'll be another way.
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Well, they decided not to kick the field goal because that would mean a tie, 14 to 14.
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So, they tried a forward to get behind the goal line,
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and that would count two points and make the score 15 to 14.
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They tried it, and they missed.
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But Kansas was offside, so they had to try it over again.
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And the next time they made it, well, her son screamed, and he shouted out, Mom, they've won!
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And she came out and she said, I told you, I told you.
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So you see, you believe, believe the incredible and you can do the impossible.
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And it would seem as if Coach Joe Paterno's wisdom had won the game, but actually it was the mother.
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Now my time is up.
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Oh yes.
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Listen, my good people, it's always better for you to say, I wished he had talked longer than to have you say,
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he had three good chances to quit.
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I hope now that you'll carry away from this talk two lessons.
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First of all, I hope the women will become interested in football.
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That'll help, won't it?
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And secondly, be generous with yourself.
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Just give, give, give.
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And as we give, we get.
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This is the gospel lesson.
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As we pour out ourselves, God gives us strength.
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Now, for example, let me tell you, when I came over here, I was dead tired.
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I didn't want to talk.
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I didn't feel like it.
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So I said to the good
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Lord, I'm tired now, and I'm going to talk on using strength.
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Spend yourself.
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Give me strength.
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Do I look tired?
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No. Thank you.
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All right, now everybody be generous, generous with self.
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I know that when I go now that Monsignor is going to talk about being generous in other ways.
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But I mean being generous with yourself, your energy, your kindness to others, your charity, your helpfulness.
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Because then you will be real Christians.
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This friend of mine that I told you, who was in the prison for 14 years, when he got out of prison.
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In Romania, he was walking along the street and found a boy and he said, Do you believe in Christ?
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And the boy said, No. Why don't you?
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The little boy says, You think
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Christ is God, don't you?
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Well now, if Christ is God, if Jesus is God, he can do what God does.
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God made flowers.
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Flowers made other flowers.
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God made elephants, elephants made other elephants
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and nobody's ever given me anything and if Jesus is God
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then he ought to be able to make other Jesuses
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but I've never found another Jesus my father's an alcoholic my mother takes in washing to live
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nobody's ever given me a toy or a suit of clothes therefore I don't believe that Jesus is God
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because he never made any other Jesus.
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And Dr. Wurmbrand said, but isn't your pastor?
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Well, no, he said, he's not.
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He's not.
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When this pastor was told, he said, oh, that boy is silly.
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He wasn't silly.
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He was right.
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So if Jesus is God, He ought to be able to make other Jesuses.
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That's what you are, other Jesuses.
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And you ought to so manifest him in your lives that as you move among others they will say of you,
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as the maidservant said of Peter, thou hast been with Christ.
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Thank you, and God love you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Wasting Your Life - Blessed Fulton Sheen”. This video has 330 sentences and 3651 words to shadow. The speech runs for 32:00. The speaker talks at a steady 114 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| gospel noun | /ˈɡɑspəl/ | The first section of the Christian New Testament scripture, comprising the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, concerned with the birth, ministry, passion… |
| generous adjective | /ˈd͡ʒɛn(ə)ɹəs/ | Noble in behaviour or actions; principled, not petty; kind, magnanimous. |
| pour verb | /poɹ/ | To cause (liquid, or liquid-like substance) to flow in a stream, either out of a container or into it. |
| pray verb | /pɹeɪ/ | To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc. |
| bless verb | /blɛs/ | To make something holy by religious rite, sanctify. |
| perfume noun | /ˈpɝfjuːm/ | A pleasant smell; the scent, odor, or odoriferous particles emitted from a sweet-smelling substance; a pleasant odor. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| vessel noun | /ˈvɛsəl/ | Any craft designed for transportation on or in water, such as a ship, boat, or submarine. |
| sink verb | /ˈsɪŋk/ | To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance. |
| swim verb | /swɪm/ | To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means. |
| elephant noun | /ˈɛlɪfənt/ | A large mammal of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and native to Africa and Asia. |
| bore verb | /boɹ/ | To inspire boredom in somebody. |
| foolish adjective | /ˈfuː.lɪʃ/ | Lacking good sense or judgement as a general trait; unwise; stupid. |
| roast verb | /ɹoʊst/ | To cook food by heating in an oven or over a fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance. |
| moral adjective | /ˈmoɹəl/ | Of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour, especially conforming to principles of rectitude. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get back verb | Return to where one came from. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come over verb | To affect in a sudden, unprecedented or surprising manner; to overwhelm a person's ordinarily contrary impulse. | |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| cross over verb | To pass from one side or area, physical or abstract, to another. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| get behind verb | To come to believe or support something. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Father said, is that what they told you?
- Why, for example, do we get tired?
- What do you think happened?
- Did you know that's in the gospel?
- Wurmbrand said, but isn't your pastor?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If he likes pink, you'll wear · if he drank it he would not · if you love you will go |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is made · was roasted · is proven |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have seen · has done · have kept |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | one who was · those who really |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 51 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, enthusiasm /ɪnˈθuziæzəm/, thoughtful /ˈθɔːtfəl/, thrive /θɹajv/, apathy /ˈæ.pə.θi/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: foolish /ˈfuː.lɪʃ/, flesh /flɛʃ/, wash /wɑʃ/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, occasion /əˈkeɪ̯ʒən/
- Long words — get the stress right: unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, acceptable /əkˈsɛp.tə.bəl/, unlimited /ʌnˈlɪm.ɪ.tɪd/, enthusiasm /ɪnˈθuziæzəm/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like gospel, generous, pour.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.