Source: Bishop Robert Barron’s, Word on Fire Show via YouTube.com. Friends, we just marked the 60th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, the Second Vatican Council. Six decades later, can we say the Council was a success? A failure? Something in between? On today’s episode of “The Word on […]
Tag: Bishop Robert Barron
What is Synodality?
Friends, many people in the Church, including the Holy Father, have been talking about “synodality.” But what is it? What does it mean? How can it help the Church, and what are possible dangers? That’s what Brandon Vogt and I discuss on today’s episode of “The Word on Fire Show.” […]
God Became a Baby
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via YouTube Merry Christmas, friends! As you gather today with family and friends, it is likely that someone, at some point, will bring in a newborn. And everybody will want to see the baby. The whole room will stop whatever they are doing to see this […]
Why Art Matters
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via youtube.com Friends, why is art important? An uptick in vandalism against famous pieces of art, calling to mind outbreaks of iconoclasm throughout history, has raised questions about art’s value and purpose. On today’s “Word on Fire Show,” I discuss with Brandon Vogt why art matters. […]
What’s Our Church’s Growth Strategy?
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via YouTube.com Friends, in many parts of the world the Catholic Church is shrinking. Parishes are closing or merging, pastors are devising strategies of consolidation. But for the Church to flourish, we can’t just manage decline. We need strategies for growth. That’s what Brandon Vogt and […]
The Reality of Life After Death
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via YouTube.com. Friends, our first reading and our Gospel for this weekend have a special resonance for our time because they both speak clearly about life after death. Our dominant secularist or materialist ideology says that matter in motion is all there is; the world came […]
Christ Can Heal Us
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via YouTube.com. Friends, the Gospel for this Sunday is one of Jesus’ best-known parables: the story of the Good Samaritan. Karl Barth, who learned it from the Church Fathers, taught that every parable of Jesus, at the deeper level, is finally about Jesus himself. The parable […]
The Spiritual Life is a Battle
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via YouTube.com Friends, our first reading for this Sunday is about a battle between Israel and the Amalekites. To many of us today, this appears to be either an irrelevancy of history or an outrageous story about God sanctioning genocide. But Origen of Alexandria helps us […]
Don’t Demonize – or Divinize – the Powerful
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via YouTube Friends, the first and second readings this Sunday beautifully show both sides of Catholic social teaching: the balance between recognizing political, economic, and social power, and criticizing the abuse of that power. We should not demonize our leaders; we pray for them, and we […]
Act Against Your Attachments.
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via youtube.com Friends, at the heart of what St. Ignatius of Loyola teaches in the “Spiritual Exercises” is the idea of detachment. If we are to do the will of God, then we have to become detached from the worldly goods to which we are addicted. […]
Bishop Barron Presents: Shia LaBeouf – Padre Pio and the Friars
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via youtube.com. Friends, in the latest “Bishop Barron Presents,” I’m delighted to be joined by Shia LaBeouf, the actor famous for “Transformers,” “Honey Boy,” and “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” among other films. His most recent role is as the young Padre Pio in a new biopic […]
Let Christ Light a Fire in You
Source: Bishop Robert Barron via YouTube Friends, the readings for this weekend are tough. Here is the principle behind them, one that is simple to state, but difficult to take in: in a world gone wrong, those who come to us speaking and embodying the truth are going to be […]