Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Brandon Vaat, the host and the senior publishing

director at Word on Fire. Today we share with you the second half of Bishop Barron's

presentation entitled Breaking Through the Buffered Self, which he offered for the prestigious

2022 Albert Cardinal Meyer Lecture Series, which was hosted at Mundeline Seminary back

in March of 2022. A couple weeks back on this podcast, we shared the first lecture in

that series. And today we wrap it up with the second part. Last time he looked at the

true and in this lecture, who look at the good and the beautiful as ways to draw back

people who have lost touch with the transcendent world. He proposes a way to break through

the buffer itself and help people to open their restless hearts to the things of God.

So if you didn't listen to part one, go back and listen to that one first. That was episode

three, four, two. But today we'll pick up where we left off there and continue with

the second half. So sit back and enjoy Bishop Barron talking about breaking through the

buffered self.

Well, good morning, everybody. Good to see you back. Most came back from West. That's a

good sign. How many are here for the first time today? I'm just curious. Oh, there are

a lot of you here just for the first time today. So what I did is a bit different than the

usual Meyer Lecture procedure, which is to give two discrete talks. Mine really is just

one talk that I subdivided. So let me just spend about a minute and a half for the benefit

of those who weren't here last night, kind of studying the stage. What I'm talking about

is what Charles Taylor, the philosopher, calls the buffered self. That means the self that's

cut off from contact with the transcendent. And I identify that as very typical of a lot

of people today, especially young people. And a reason why there's so much disaffiliation

...