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 and happy first Sunday of Advent to everybody. You know when I

was a high school student many years ago a very wise Benedict and none who was

one of my history teachers gave me a template for understanding Advent that is

very simple but very clear and I never forgotten it. She said Advent's about

three comings of Christ so Adventus just means arrival or coming. Christ came

in history, Christ comes to us today and Christ will come definitively at the

end of time. Simple template but really helpful and I find the readings for our

first Sunday of Advent correspond beautifully to this template. Let's take a

look at the first reading which is from the 33rd chapter of the prophet

Jeremiah and it speaks very clearly now of the historical coming of Christ.

Listen the days are coming says the Lord when I will fulfill the promise I made

to the house of Israel and Judah in those days in that time I will raise up for

David a just shoot. Fulton Sheen one of the heroes of Word on Fire said the only

religious founder whose coming was clearly predicted was Jesus and think about

it. The Old Testament is filled with anticipations of the coming of the Messiah

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