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, it's a delight to greet you on this wonderful

Feast Day of Corpus Christi, the celebration of the body and blood of Christ.

Now here's what's on my mind today. This is the first celebration of Corpus Christi

after the famous, or I should say infamous, Pew Forum study from several months

ago. I've talked about it a few times. The Pew Forum study that showed 70% of

Catholics, so not just the general population or religious people, but 70% of

Catholics claim they do not believe in the real presence of Jesus. This has been

on my mind all year. So now we come to this wonderful day where we celebrate the

body and blood of Jesus. So I want us to pay very careful attention to the

readings the church gives us for today because you know something pretty

substantial has gone off the rails. Vatican II said the Eucharist is the source

and some of the Christian life that means it's the beginning and the end of

the Christian life. And if 70% of our own people don't believe in the real

presence, something has gone seriously wrong. So let's with that in mind take a

look at these readings for today. Let's start with the first reading, which is

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