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Bill Maher and Biblical Interpretation
Bishop Robert Barron Another video from Fr. Barron and Word on Fire commenting on subjects from modern day culture.
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John Henry Newman at the Synod on the Family
Bishop Robert Barron The controversies surrounding the recent Extraordinary Synod on the Family have often put me in mind of John Henry Cardinal Newman, the greatest Catholic churchman of the...
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The Development of Doctrine
Bishop Robert Barron How can Blessed John Henry Newman’s idea of the ‘development of doctrine’ frame our discussion about the recent Synod on the Family? And does Cardinal Walter Kasper’s proposal...
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What “Whiplash” Can Teach Us About Spiritual Mentoring
Bishop Robert Barron Over the years, there have been numerous films that feature the character of the “monster-mentor,” by which I mean an elder who forms a young apprentice through the toughest kind...
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Bishop Barron on ”Whiplash”
Bishop Robert Barron Many films over the years have featured the character of the ‘monster-mentor,’ the tough elder who pushes a directee onto excellence. If we see the value of this in regard to other...
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Bishop Barron on Pope Francis and Catholic Social Teaching
Bishop Robert Barron In the wake of the publication of Pope Francis’s encyclical letter ”Laudato Si”, and of the Pope’s recent speeches in Latin America, many supporters of capitalism might be forgiven...
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Her Hymns: A Review of Audrey Assad’s “Inheritance”
Fr. Damian Ference Audrey Assad’s new album, Inheritance, opens with a song that is over 1,000 years old. Granted, the music is new, but the text of “Ubi Caritas” is ancient, although it sounds more...
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Shakespeare and the Fading of the Catholic World
Bishop Robert Barron Last week the world marked the 400th anniversary of the death of the greatest writer in the English language and one of the three or four most significant artists the human race...
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Bishop Barron on Shakespeare and the Fading of the Catholic World
Bishop Robert Barron This month the world marked the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare, the greatest writer in the English language. Whatever his personal religious commitments, the great...
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How Strange is the Cross
Bishop Robert Barron Fleming Rutledge’s The Crucifixion is one of the most stimulating and thought-provoking books of theology that I have read in the past ten years. Both an academic and a...
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Why Marrying the “Wrong Person” Is Reason for Hope
Christopher Hazell A sobering article in The New York Times written by Alain de Botton came out recently, titled “Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person.” As the seemingly pessimistic title states, the...
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The Doctor of the Church Who Was There at My Birth
Ellyn von Huben I’ve shared my conversion story before, but this time I should really go directly back to the beginning. In the words of Charles Dickens: “Chapter 1: I am Born.” I was born in March...
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Advice to Students New and Old
Bishop Robert Barron Last week I offered some remarks at the matriculation ceremony for Thomas Aquinas College in California. Since I would give the same advice to any Catholic students reentering the...
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What Roller Coaster Renovation Can Tell Us About Church Reform
Fr. David Stavarz Lately, there has been a good bit of hype amongst roller coaster enthusiasts about the supposed removal of the wooden roller coaster, the Mean Streak, at Cedar Point Amusement Park....
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Why Bishop Barron Thinks You Should Read “Liturgy and Personality”
Bishop Robert Barron Written in 1932 in the space of just twenty-three days and published in Germany the following year, Liturgy and Personality is one of the most influential and beloved books by...
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Bishop Barron on Netflix’s “The Crown”
Bishop Robert Barron The Netflix original series The Crown, which has to do with the last months of the reign of King George VI and the first years of the reign of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II,...
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Bishop Barron on Making Christ the Center of Your Life
Bishop Robert Barron The massive rose windows of the medieval Gothic cathedrals were not only marvels of engineering and artistry; they were also symbols of the well-ordered soul. The pilgrim coming to...
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Why in the World Do Catholics Celebrate a Chair?
Fr. Steve Grunow Today the Church celebrates a curiously named feast called “the Chair of Saint Peter.” The “chair” references an actual piece of furniture that is encased in a monumental sculpture by...
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Pick Up Your Mat
Jared Zimmerer One of my favorite stories in the Gospels occurs in the Gospel of Mark, known as the ‘Healing of the Paralytic.’ We all know the story. Jesus was inside a home and was surrounded by...
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The Strangeness of Biblical Imagery
Joe Heschmeyer One of the difficulties of accepting Christianity is that some of the things described in the Bible are just… weird. Within the first few pages, for example, you’ve got a talking snake....
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Bishop Barron on Catholicism and the Reformation
Bishop Robert Barron This year marks the 500 year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, which is decidedly the greatest split in Christian Church history. Here, Bishop Barron explains how...
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Every Word from the Mouth of God
Bishop Robert Barron https://wordonfire.podbean.com/mf/play/yihgxy/7_18_2017-Homily.mp3 This Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi in Latin. This...
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Introducing Bishop Barron’s New “David the King” Study Program!
Word on Fire DAVID IS THE PARADIGMATIC KING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT His kingship recalls that of Adam in the Garden of Eden, and yet it points toward the King par excellence, Jesus Christ. Adam was the...
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A Bride and Groom; The Bride and The Groom
Bishop Robert Barron Two weeks ago, I had the great good pleasure of presiding at the wedding of my niece, Bryna. She has been, all her life, a lovely girl, full of joy and good cheer—and eager to give...
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St. Why
Dr. Tom Neal What attracts us to the saints, compelling us to venerate them? Good question. We venerate them because they are exemplars of discipleship. They show us what living “in Christ” looks like...
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“Listen carefully…and incline the ear of your heart” — Rule of St. Benedict
Dr. Tom Neal Someone I know took on as a penance this past Lent a wonderful practice (that, as ever, I got permission to mention here): going out of his way every day to speak to someone that he finds...
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“Game of Thrones” and Its Caricature of Faith
Daniel Stewart When people ask why I read George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, I first mention the complexity and subtlety of both his imagined world and his ever growing cast of...
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Musing on the Teeth of St. Ambrose
Bishop Robert Barron I write these words from Milan, Italy, where I am with my Word on Fire team filming new episodes for our Pivotal Players series. I’ve seen lots of marvelous things on this trip,...
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Seeing Mary as She Is
Matthew Nelson People treat things according to what they think it is. The first test of sanity is whether or not someone sees what is really there. The second test of sanity is whether or not someone...
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Books That Rocked My World: Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics”
Fr. Damian Ference The world of books is as deep as it is wonderous. It’s amazing how books written centuries ago can still start a spark in our modern minds. C.S. Lewis once said, “It is a good rule...
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Bishop Barron on Catholic Relics
Bishop Robert Barron While filming for our Pivotal Players series, I had the chance to view the skeletal remains of St. Ambrose, the great fourth-century bishop of Milan. However, when I posted...
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5 Ironies About Celebrating “Reformation Day” Today
Joe Heschmeyer Today, for most of us, is Halloween. But a lot of Christians are disturbed by the way that Halloween seems to celebrate evil, and many Protestants choose to celebrate Reformation Day...
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Catholic Candlemas and Punxsutawney Phil
Ellyn von Huben Before your neighbors say a single word or throw a little shade . . . let me tell you: you don’t need to have those Christmas decorations down so soon. Well, you have until February 2....
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Let the Past Die!
Dominicans of the Province of St. Joseph (Spoiler alert!) A number of characters from the most recent installment of Star Wars struck me as exemplifying a real source of struggle for many people today:...
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Bishop Barron on Pope Francis, Tradition, and John Henry Newman
Bishop Robert Barron A recent informal statement from Pope Francis about tradition not being a “return to the ashes” has gotten some attention. There are two poles to avoid in this discussion: a...
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Begotten Not Made
Bishop Robert Barron https://wordonfire.podbean.com/mf/play/8be3vt/6_12_19.mp3 Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The Nicene Creed articulates the mystery of the...
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Reclaiming the Second Vatican Council
Fr. Blake Britton You can get Fr. Blake Britton’s book “Reclaiming Vatican II: What It (Really) Said, What It Means, and How It Calls Us to Renew the Church” now in the Word on Fire Bookstore. There...
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“An American Pickle”: A Silly Film for the Seriously Religious
Andrew Petiprin While traveling last week, I was able to use idle hours on airplanes and in hotel rooms to catch up on some recent films I had missed. Of everything I watched, the one I imagined I was...
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The Beauty of the Law
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, the more we revere something, the more we surround it with laws. The most important thing in our lives is to be in harmony with God, and so we follow his divine law. We...
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How to Live a Meaningful Life
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, I had the great good fortune of sitting down for a conversation with Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, and John Vervaeke about the crisis of meaning, especially among...
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“Fiddler on the Roof” Fifty Years Later: A Fresh Take on Tradition
David Paul Baird Half a century since its original film adaptation, Fiddler on the Roof came to our local stage last week. I was seeing it for the first time but was familiar enough with it to...
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Evangelizing on the Road to Emmaus
Bishop Robert Barron The greatest evangelist is, of course, Jesus himself, and there is no better presentation of Jesus’ evangelical technique than Luke’s masterful narrative concerning the disciples...
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Practical Strategies of Evangelization
Bishop Robert Barron Over the years, I have been laying out what I take to be the basics of evangelization. Proclaiming the Good News has to do with announcing the resurrection of Jesus from the dead,...
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A Short History of the Sign of the Cross
Word on Fire The following excerpt is taken from Bert Ghezzi’s book Sign of the Cross: Recovering the Power of the Ancient Prayer (Word on Fire Publishing). During the Reformation of the sixteenth...
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Beauty in the Catholic Tradition
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, at the 2022 Good News Conference, I spoke on the evangelical power of beauty in the Catholic tradition. True beauty leads by steady steps if we allow its power to work on...
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Baptism and a Tradition in the Great Tradition
Dr. Christopher Kaczor A version of these remarks was delivered on the occasion of Arthur Crisfield’s baptism. When baby Arthur was getting baptized today, he was wearing a long white baptismal gown....
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Creating the Next Generation of Literary Avengers
Lindsay Schlegel Thirty-two films exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the production company planning to push that number upward of forty over the next few years. Fans delight in discussing...
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The First UFC, Royce Gracie, and the Embodied Practices of Tradition
Dr. Christopher Kaczor Thirty years ago, on November 12, 1993, eight fighters entered a single elimination tournament to determine who would be the first Ultimate Fighting Champion (UFC). In the early...
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