This is Cardinal Francis George. I invite you to join me for the next few minutes to reflect

with Father Robert Barron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire. Word on Fire Catholic

Ministries is a non-profit ministry at the forefront of Catholic evangelization, using

new media to spread the faith and every continent. Father Barron challenges us to open our hearts

to the Word on Fire, which is God's Word of Love for each of us. If our hearts are open,

the Lord can change and transform us so that we might speak with love about the one who is

love. The global benefactors of Word on Fire with the support of the Archdiocese of Chicago

now present Word on Fire. Peace be with you. Friends, this weekend I want to focus on our

second reading. We just taken from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. You know, Paul

loved the church in Corinth. He stayed quite a time in Corinth and wrote, as far as we know,

two letters. He might have written more, but we have two letters and they're both magnificent

documents. We know them as one and two Corinthians, but think of them as letters that Paul wrote to

this beloved community, which he had founded and established. Well, our reading today is from the

12th chapter of 2nd Corinthians. So it's toward the end of the letter. Paul's been talking about

these extraordinary revelations he's received. Now, keep in mind, this is the same Paul who received

a vision of the Lord Jesus himself. You know, so go back to the experience that wrote to Damascus

when he encounters Christ. But then several other places in the Acts of the Apostles and the letters

of Paul, there are references to mystical experiences, revelations, visitations from the Lord.

He tells us in 2 Corinthians about an extraordinary one when he's caught up into what he calls the

3rd heaven. He says, was I in my body or not? I don't know. What's he talking about there? Well,

look at the mystical tradition in the Catholic Church. Look at figures such as St. Francis,

St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Theresa Vavila, St. Bernadette in the 19th century. But a lot of people who

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