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, our first reading for this weekend is from the

19th chapter of the first book of kings. You know by the way when people ask me

you haven't read the Bible for a long time what should I do? How should I start?

I'll often say begin with one and two Samuel or one and two kings. They're both

very lively, narratives full of great characters and the passage today has to do

with one of the great characters in the whole Old Testament namely the prophet

Elijah. Remember in the scene of the transfiguration when Moses and Elijah

appeared to Jesus? Well they represent the two basic forms of the Israelite

revelation, Moses the law and Elijah the prophets. So it wasn't Isaiah, it wasn't

Jeremiah who appeared or Ezekiel the great literary prophets but it was Elijah

because he was seen as the greatest of the prophets in action. So the stories

around him of course are marvelous and the one today has to do with this

splendid scene, this luminous scene of Elijah hearing the tiny whispering voice

of God and I'll get there but to understand that passage we have to know a

little bit more about Elijah and what brought him to that point. So Elijah

...