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, we

move now through the Advent and Christmas season and with the whole church

around the world we return to ordinary time. What I want to do is pick up my

sermonizing on the Old Testament text and we have a wonderful one now for this

resumption of ordinary time from the first book of Samuel having to do with the

call of the prophet Samuel and Eli his mentor helping him discern the voice of

God. Now we know that story as a as a charming even sentimental story and it

is that but it's much more than that and to see it we have to get a somewhat

wider perspective, know some of the background. I might suggest we start with

Samuel's mother Hannah a pivotal figure by the way in the Old Testament. Hannah is

married to Elkina but she's childless and year after year she goes up to the

temple in Shiloh that's before there was a temple in Jerusalem and there she

prays pouring out her heart before God begging for a child. Well one year she's

praying and her lips are moving as she prays and Eli who is the high priest of

Shiloh Caesar and demonstrating zero pastoral sensitivity says to her why

do you drunk so early in the morning she says no no no I'm not drunk I'm I'm

...