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, on the second Sunday of Advent, the church gives us the

great Advent figure of John the Baptist. Can I give you an image now to meditate

on during Advent? Go online and look up Shark Cathedral North Porch statue of John

the Baptist. When I was a doctoral student in Paris I went to Shark as often as I

could, love the place. And that's one of my favorite images on the outside of

the Cathedral. Something about just the poignancy and the longing and His

expression. You'll see when you look it up that to me always speaks of Advent.

So keep that image in mind. And let's see what the gospel tells us about John the

Baptist because all the details I think are important to enter into a

spirituality of Advent. First of all, he makes his appearance in the desert. How

often great figures in the Bible spend at least some time in the desert. Jesus

himself, of course. What is it about desert? It's a desert people that's true,

but it wasn't nothing but desert. I mean, they made a conscious effort to move

into these places. How come? I've always felt it was Blaise Pascal who gave us the

best explanation. Pascal said most of us most of the time divert ourselves. We

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