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, not

too long ago I was reading a wonderful commentary on the writings of the

Church's greatest mystic, St. John of the Cross. I've got a long relationship

with John of the Cross because my home parish outside Chicago when I was growing

up was called St. John of the Cross. So I just knew it as as the name of my parish

and then later on largely through the administrations of Thomas Merton I came

to understand the importance of St. John of the Cross. He was a 16th century

figure. The spiritual director by the way of St. Teresa of Avila imagine that

little task that you're the spiritual director of one of the great spiritual

masters of the whole tradition. He was a reformer of his Carmelite order and

also here's one for the literary people. One of the very greatest poets in the

Spanish language. So even those who have no interest in religion they just love

linguistics and poetry. Reed St. John of the Cross simply for his literary

prowess. Anyway, John's treatises on the spiritual life are basically lengthy

commentaries on his marvelous poems and that's another thing about him that I

find really fascinating. I don't know any other great poet in our tradition

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