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, the Church proposes for us this week a marvelous

little passage from the 55th chapter of the prophet Isaiah. Here's one of the

greatest of Israel's prophets and the theme of this little passage is the word of

God. So here you've got one of the great speakers of the Word of God discussing

precisely the topic of the Word of God. So even though it's a short passage,

it's one that packs, I think, quite a punch. Keep in mind that Israel knew

itself to be in this very privileged way the people to whom God had spoken His

Word. I mean, they knew that that truth had been communicated, of course, to many

other cultures, but somehow to Israel uniquely was spoken God's Word. And so we

listen with great attention to this little passage. Let me read just a section

of it. Thus says the Lord, just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down

and do not return there until they water the earth, making it fertile and

fruitful. Social my Word be that goes forth from my mouth. Extraordinary, beautiful.

The relevant Hebrew term here by the way is Da Bar echo's up and down the Old

Testament, the Word echoed, of course, in the Greek of the New Testament as

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