Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I am Brandon Vott. I'm the host and joining us as he does every week.

This time from his residence in Santa Barbara is the great Bishop Robert Barron.

Bishop Barron, welcome to the show. Hey Brandon, always good to see you.

Now Bishop, several years ago, there was a young kid, I think in fourth grade,

maybe a little older, but he was sitting in a classroom at a Dominican high school. So yeah,

a little bit older. And the professor there presented these arguments for the existence of God.

Now you say, reflecting back on that experience that probably every other kid was just tuning out,

like wanting, thinking about what they're going to do after school. But for some reason,

those arguments struck you and it changed your life. And recently, you got to go back to that

school, spend with high school in Chicago and receive a prestigious award. So tell us about that.

Well, it was lovely. They offered this award. They give every year and they invited me.

And I like the opportunity to come back to Chicago to see my family and I was honored to get this award.

I also was eager, as you say, to speak to the students there about my own experience.

In fact, I had, as I began my speech, I had the freshmen stand up. And they were all,

they're way in the back of the room. They have a very hierarchically arranged. But I said,

could all the freshmen stand? And I said, when I was exactly your age in this very building,

that's when my whole life changed. So I just wanted them to get that sense of how dramatic

grace can be in our lives. So it was a great joy to go back. And my mother,

who's assisted living now and it's difficult for her to get around. But she,

Fenwick is only a few minutes from where she's living now. And she came to it, which was lovely.

You should have just targeted one of the young freshmen, like Bishop Spalding did,

Fulton Sheen, and say, just as I am one day, you will be two. You're going to be the next Bishop,

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