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've

come to the great feast of Pentecost, one of the really great moments in the

life of the church in the liturgical year, the great feast of the coming of the

Holy Spirit. And I must say I've been kind of preoccupied with the Holy Spirit

the last several weeks because I've been running all over my pastoral region

out here in the Santa Barbara region confirming young people. I've confirmed

I think around 1500 young people now. And so I feel this closeness to the Holy

Spirit as I'm now this very unworthy bearer of the Holy Spirit to these young

kids. And I want to share with you maybe some of the themes from the sermon I'm

giving to these young people on their confirmation. I tell them first of all

confirmation from the Latin word kon firmaire means to strengthen. Confirmations

of strengthening sacrament the Holy Spirit strengthens us. And the church says

in three basic ways. First of all, the spirit strengthens us in our relationship

to Jesus. Secondly, in our capacity to defend the faith and thirdly in our

capacity to spread the faith, those three strengthening come from the Holy Spirit.

And that's been true from the ancient church to the present day from the coming of

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