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 time of year we're getting into late November

when the days are getting shorter and the weather a bit gloomier. It's

appropriate, I suppose, the gospel readings turn toward the apocalyptic. There's

something dark and threatening and a little bit dire about the gospel reading.

Here's how the one for today now is set up. Jesus and His disciples are standing

in Jerusalem before the Great Temple. Now to understand what this would have

meant to a first century Jew, you'd have to imagine, let's say an American

standing before some single building that would be a combination of maybe the

White House, the Capitol, the National Cathedral, what else. We have nothing

comparable really to what the temple meant. It wasn't almost every sense the

term the center of Jewish life. It was seen in almost a literal sense as the

dwelling place of the Lord. And we know from ancient accounts the temple was

spectacular in its size, in its decoration. It was a wonder of the ancient world.

And so here's these pious Jews standing in front of this magnificent and

symbolically charged building. And of course they were filled with wonder and

...