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 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 1,500 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

confirmare means to strengthen.

Confirmation is a strengthening sacrament.

The Holy Spirit strengthens us.

And the church says in three basic ways.

...