This is Cardinal Francis George. I invite you to join me for the next few minutes to reflect

with Father Robert Barron on the Word of God, which is the Word on Fire. Word on Fire Catholic

Ministries is a non-profit ministry at the forefront of Catholic evangelization, using

new media to spread the faith and every continent. Father Barron challenges us to open our hearts

to the Word on Fire, which is God's Word of Love for each of us. If our hearts are open,

the Lord can change and transform us so that we might speak with love about the one who

is love. The global benefactors of Word on Fire with the support of the Archdiocese of

Chicago now present Word on Fire. Peace be with you. Friends, we have a great privilege

this weekend. The church gives us some wonderful readings all about marriage. So all those

who are married should listen very carefully to these readings for this weekend. I think

one of the most powerful contributions of Vatican II was a renewed emphasis on the theology

and spirituality of marriage. For too long in the life of the church, marriage was seen

as a kind of oh second rate vocation. Perhaps a state of life embraced by those who weren't

up to the spiritual athletics of priesthood or religious life. Well Vatican II in the

years after convinced us that's pretty much for the birds, that attitude. All people married

and unmarried, celibate, non-celebate, everybody is called a holiness. Marriage is every bit

as much a vocation or calling as the priesthood. And maybe you've heard that language but

it might just sort of flow through your mind like you'd meditate in the course of this

homily on that line that marriage is a vocation. It is a calling vocatio from God.

Married people are meant to work out their salvation in each other's presence. They're brought

together for God's purposes. Now to understand this though more fully, the church brings us

back today to the very beginning, to that symbolically charged language of the book of Genesis,

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