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. Please be with you. Friends, what

splendid readings were privileged to have on this so-called Galate Sunday, the

third Sunday of Advent. Galate, you know, Latin is an imperative. It means rejoice.

Anyway, it itself that's kind of interesting to think about is you can't really

command feelings, can you? I can't tell you to feel a certain way. The fact that

I'm telling you, the church is telling us be rejoice. Be happy today. It means it

wants us to get really tuned into the very profound truth being conveyed in

these readings. Our first reading is from the prophet Zefania. Now he's someone

from whom we rarely hear during the liturgical year. Older Catholics, by the way,

might recognize his name as Sofronius. If you look at some of the older versions

of the Catholic Bible, but Zefania, who was he? He was an older contemporary,

slightly older contemporary of the prophet Jeremiah. He was operating during the

reign of the righteous King Josiah. It's interesting, of course, most kings of

Israel. Let's face it. And of Judah are pretty bad. Josiah is one of the rare

righteous kings. And during his time Zefania is writing, this means in the

years just before the Babylonian captivity. So just before one of the greatest

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