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 once more to the great and holy season of Lent.

Now, Lent by its nature is a desert time, which is to say a time of simplicity, purification,

and asceticism. We notice now in Luke's account of the temptation

that the Spirit himself led Jesus into the desert. It's not some wicked power that leads

him there. It's the Holy Spirit of God that leads him into the desert.

So as we begin, Lent, our desert time, think of that.

It's the spirit that leads you into this holy place.

Notice, please, in so many of the great figures of salvation history,

think of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, David,

and it goes on and on.

A period of testing or trial is required

before they can commence their work.

Watch that pattern throughout the Bible.

Now, you see the same thing in the initiation rituals of primal peoples.

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