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, our first reading for this weekend is taken from the

wonderful book of numbers. Now the book of numbers is one of the five books of

the Pentateuch or the Torah, the most sacred part of the Old Testament. I might

urge you get out your Bibles and find the book of numbers. It's called numbers

by the way because at the very beginning all of the tribes of Israel are kind of

lined up like an army and they're numbered. They're kind of organized in order.

That's where the name comes from. The book of numbers has to do for the most

part with the journey of Israel through the desert to the promised land. So they've

received the Ten Commandments and all of that described in the book of Exodus and

now they're making their way to the promised land. That's what it's about. And as

is often the case during their 40 years of wandering in the desert the people

complain against Moses. Listen, if only we had more to eat we remember the fish

we used to eat in Egypt for nothing the cucumbers the melons the leaks the

onions and the garlic but now our strength is dried up and there's nothing at

all but this manna to look at. That's a marvelous little thing isn't it? Like most

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