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, the great commemoration of all souls falls this year on a Sunday, which

is a grace because it gives us the opportunity to reflect a bit more deeply on death,

on eternal life, on the nature of the soul. This, of course, is a sort of death haunted time of

year, isn't it? We marked Halloween just a few days ago. And today, many of us will make our way

to cemeteries, to visit the graves of our beloved dead. And, of course, all around us, nature is dying too.

Now, it would be foolish, of course, to deny death or to look away from it, though many things in

our culture encourage us to do just that. I think of that still important book called The Denial of

Death came up many years ago. A lot of things in our culture that encourage us to look away from death.

But, we Christians know it's one of the most fundamental and unavoidable facts of our experience.

You know, this time of year, I'm just about a month away from the first year anniversary of the

death of Father Ed Oaks, my former colleague here at Mundlein Seminary. Ed was one of the most

lively people I've ever known. He was fiercely intelligent, a voracious reader, tireless and

very gifted writer, arguer, conversationalist. He was just a live wire. I mean, the phrase live

wire, I think, was invented to describe him. Well, your Ed was diagnosed with an operable

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