Sermons - Word on Fire

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, Happy Easter! We’ve come to the high point of the Church’s liturgical year, the reason why we’re Christians at all.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, we come now to Palm Sunday, also called “Passion Sunday” because we read, in its entirety, one of the Passion narratives from the Synoptic Gospels.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, this Lent, we’ve been journeying through some marvelous stories in John: the woman at the well two weeks ago, the man born blind last week, and now the climactic story of the raising of Lazarus.

Bishop Robert Barron As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, on this Third Sunday of Lent, we hear the story from John’s Gospel of the woman at the well—a kind of master class in evangelization.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, on this Second Sunday of Lent, our first reading about Abraham and Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration orient us to a basic biblical principle.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, today’s Gospel tells of the Lord’s temptation in the desert.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, this Sunday, right before the commencement of Lent, the Church is giving us something of great moment to reflect on—namely, the centrality of freedom and choice for the good at the center of the spiritual life.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, a great professor of mine at Mundelein Seminary, Dr. Richard Issel, once said, “If you want to be happy, stop worrying about being happy and get on with becoming fulfilled.”

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, for the next several weeks, we’re going to be reading in our Gospel from the primal teaching of Jesus: the Sermon on the Mount.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends for this Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, our first reading from the prophet Isaiah and our Gospel from Matthew both have a section that’s a little weird.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, we return now to Ordinary Time, and the Church asks us again to think about the baptism of the Lord, this time in light of Saint John’s distinctive account.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, we come to this wonderful feast of the baptism of the Lord. And the first thing to know is that this was a profoundly embarrassing event for the first Christians.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, why has the story of the Epiphany—the three wise man paying homage to the Christ child—so captivated us over the centuries?

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, the great feast of the Holy Family follows immediately upon Christmas—a very interesting juxtaposition with a deep theological significance.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, our readings for the fourth and final Sunday of Advent are all about maybe the central motif of the spiritual life.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, our readings for this Third Sunday of Advent help us understand what to do while we wait for the Lord. An Advent spirituality of waiting is part of Christian life; our entire life, in a way, is waiting.

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, our first reading for this Second Sunday of Advent, taken from Isaiah 11, describes the Messiah’s arrival: He “shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,” and “the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him.”

Bishop Robert Barron Friends, we come to the New Year celebration of the liturgical year: the First Sunday of Advent.