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, for this fifth Sunday ordinary time the Church gives

us a wonderful juxtaposition of two readings. I'm talking about this passage from

the sixth chapter of the prophet Isaiah and a passage from the fifth chapter of

the gospel of Luke. They're very much parallel accounts and they speak of the

spiritual life in this iconic way. So I want to spend a little time just looking

at these these wonderful parallels. Chapter six of Isaiah describes the

prophets call how he was summoned to his life as a prophet. Listen, in the

year King Uzziah died. I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne with

the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above. They

cried one to the other. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Here's Isaiah. He's

in the temple. He's praying. He's disposed, you might say, but this happened to

him. He didn't make this happen. He didn't invent this. He didn't follow a set of

exercises to make sure it would occur. Rather, there was a breakthrough of grace.

Now, so it goes everybody in the spiritual order. The spiritual life

authentically never begins with our own exertions. Beware of anyone that says,

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