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, we

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. That's some

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. 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. Before a young

man is ready to undertake his life's work he has to go through a period of

testing and trial. See the same thing in modern cinematic form in Star Wars. Luke

Skywalker has to go through his own initiation. The desert represents a stripping

away. Listen now. So that the fundamental things might appear. That's the desert.

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