Friends, welcome to Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an

apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization using media both old and

new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with

Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring

the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite

you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each one of us.

Peace be with you. Friends, the readings for this fourth Sunday of Advent are

very dramatic and they place us right in the heart of a central mystery in the

Bible which is the mystery of God's providence that God cares for his world

but often in a way that is confounding to us. Why? Because God plays a subtle and

long game. So God is a God who makes promises. Yes indeed. He's faithful to them.

But they often don't arrive just as we'd expect them to. He plays a long game

which is why we have to wait and that's why it's so important these readings

take place on this fourth Sunday of our waking season of Advent. So the first

reading from 2nd Samuel takes us back to around the 10th century BC. It's about

a thousand years before Jesus 600 years or so before Plato and Aristotle 500

years before the Buddha to the time of King David. We hear of David now in

in Skonston his palace in his new capital city of Jerusalem his enemies finally

subdued and his thoughts now turn to the Lord. Listen, here I am living in a house of

cedar while the Ark of God dwells in a tent. Regretting this, David decides I want to

build a great house for the Ark of the Covenant. I want to build a great temple.

...