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, we come today to the great feast of Pentecost with

Christmas and Easter the greatest feast of the Church Year. And what I want to

say on this great feast day is happy birthday to every Catholic listening to

me for we hold in our traditional theology that Pentecost is the birthday of

the Church. It's a birthday of the Church. So it would be who was on this our

birthday I think to reflect a little bit on the nature of the Church. Who are we?

Who are we? Well in the creed we recite every Sunday we find that familiar

phrase we believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church.

All four of these marks can be seen from the beginning. They can be seen at that

first Pentecost because all four are gifts of the Holy Spirit. So what I want to

do in the brief homelies just to look at each of those four qualities as we

celebrate our birthday. We notice first of all as we look at the account of

Pentecost that at the prompting of Jesus the disciples are gathered together in

one place with the Virgin Mary united in prayer. Now keep that image in your

mind. It's like an icon of the twelve apostles with Mary gathered in one place

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