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, all during this year we're reading from the gospel of Mark and Mark is such a

fascinating literary work you know on the one hand it can seem rather primitive the

Greek is not sophisticated and Mark seems to write in this kind of, you know, breathless staccato manner.

But I always find the more you look at St Mark, the deeper you look,

the more it appears iconic. He's presenting scene after scene in a very

concentrated way telling us some rather deep truth about the faith. Well, our

gospel for today, we're still in

chapter one by the way of Mark, is is a good example of this. Let me put this in your

minds first. Pope Benedict, and I have often shared this with you, Pope Benedict said the Pope, the church does three essential things.

It worships God, it serves the poor, and it evangelizes.

Those are the three basic things and everything else in the life of the church is under one of those headings.

I remember Cardinal George, who was a great mentor to me,

and he was a great devotee of Pope Benedict.

He said, think about the institutional commitments

of the church.

When the church wants to build something

or invest money in something, do they do well in churches

...