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, one of the most important doctrines of the church is the doctrine of original sin.

The teaching that holds that there is something fundamentally off about us,

something that's just not right.

We're off-kilter, we're skewed, we're mixed up.

We Catholics don't hold to a doctrine of total depravity as though sin has just wrecked us spiritually.

I mean, we think that mind and will are intact as spiritual powers.

But we do indeed hold, if you want the details, by the way, look at the Council of Trent.

We do indeed hold that original sin has worked its way into every nook and cranny of our lives,

into our minds, our wills, our desires, our passions,

even into our very bodies.

G.K. Chesterton argued, oh, a century ago now,

that original sin is the only doctrine for which there is clear empirical evidence.

See what he meant.

We can feel it in ourselves.

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