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 this week I want to look at our first reading which is

from the first book of kings and it has to do with Solomon the son of David and

Beth Sheba, the great Israelite king who built the temple, who eventually became

kind of a problematic figure in Israelite history. But our passage for this

week puts us right at the beginning of Solomon's kingly career. So he's a young

man, he's untried and experienced, beset by all kinds of self-doubt most likely

as anyone would be beginning a position like that. The Lord appears to Solomon in a

dream. Ask something of me and I will give it to you. Now can I suggest

everybody that's an extraordinary moment and it's actually a lovely spiritual

exercise to imagine the Lord asking you the same question. So the Lord appeared

to you right now and said I'll do it. I'll give you whatever you want. What would

you say? How do you answer that question actually will tell you a lot about the

state of your soul. It's interesting how often this sort of thing happens in the

scriptures. Think of the moment when Elijah is passing the mantle to Elycia and

Elycia asks or Elijah says to him, you know, I'll give you whatever you want.

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