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Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons - Catholic Preaching and Homilies

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Bishop Robert Barron

A weekly homily podcast from Bishop Robert Barron, produced by Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

#999

The Marriage of Divinity and Humanity

Friends, we return now to Ordinary Time, and this Sunday, we hear the marvelous story of the wedding feast at Cana from the Gospel of John. It's as though, as we commence the ordinary liturgical year, we're meant to see everything through the lens of this reading. The Church sets it up with our first reading from the prophet Isaiah, who speaks of God’s desire to marry his people. Jesus, in his own person, is the marriage of divinity and humanity, and therefore it’s appropriate symbolically that the first of his signs would take place at a wedding. ... Read more

14 Jan 2025

14 MINS

14:34

14 Jan 2025

#998

Why Was Jesus Baptized?

Friends, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is exceptionally important. All four Gospels talk about it, and John the Baptist is a kind of door we have to go through to understand Jesus properly. What was John the Baptist doing in the desert? Why did the Messiah, the Lord, go to him for a baptism of repentance? And why do we still spend time with this strange, puzzling, and even embarrassing event? ... Read more

07 Jan 2025

13 MINS

13:26

07 Jan 2025

#997

Science Points to God

Friends, we’re all familiar with the story of the three wise men, which has been depicted in thousands of Christmas cards. And there is something romantic and charming about it. But on this great Feast of the Epiphany, I want to develop an important angle of the story very much on the minds of many people today—namely, the whole problem of religion and science. ... Read more

30 Dec 2024

14 MINS

14:34

30 Dec 2024

#996

Freeing Your Family for God

Friends, I always love preaching on the Feast of the Holy Family because I think the biblical message here is very surprising. We say the Bible is associated with family values, and indeed it is, but they're probably not the ones we would automatically think of. We see this in the two stories that the Church brings to our attention today: the story of Hannah leaving Samuel at the temple in Shiloh, and the story of Mary and Joseph finding Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem. ... Read more

18 Dec 2024

14 MINS

14:29

18 Dec 2024

#995

Why Mary Matters

Friends, on this Fourth Sunday of Advent, we come to the Advent figure par excellence: the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. What I want to do in this homily is to look at some of the Church’s classical titles of Mary. These are not simply pious exclamations, but rather very substantive insights into her role in bringing Christ to birth—both in history and in us today. ... Read more

18 Dec 2024

15 MINS

15:12

18 Dec 2024

#994

The Peace that the World Can’t Give

Friends, on this Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday, I want to draw attention to our second reading, which is from St. Paul to the Philippians. These lines about joy, anxiety, prayer, and peace can run right through our minds, but they’re actually breathtaking, and they open up something at the very heart of the spiritual life. ... Read more

10 Dec 2024

15 MINS

15:00

10 Dec 2024

#993

Have You Wandered Away from God?

Friends, in our readings for the Second Sunday of Advent, there is a lot of talk about building highways. In the Bible, both Old Testament and New, we find the theme of exile. Very often, Israel finds itself sent away from its own Promised Land, and a great hope is that one day, the exiles will return home on a highway that God has built. This is a symbol of spiritual exile—and to meet the highway that God has prepared, we have to do some preparation ourselves. ... Read more

03 Dec 2024

14 MINS

14:44

03 Dec 2024

#992

Three Dimensions of Advent

Friends, we come to the First Sunday of Advent, which is the commencement of the new liturgical year. “Adventus” in Latin means arrival or coming, and one way to look at Advent is to see three comings of Christ. There is the coming of Christ in history in Bethlehem, the coming of Christ now as he approaches our hearts, and the coming of Christ someday in the future. All three of these dimensions belong to our Advent preparation. ... Read more

26 Nov 2024

14 MINS

14:48

26 Nov 2024

#991

Which Kingdom Are You In?

Friends, we come to the end of the liturgical year with the Feast of Christ the King, where we meditate upon the kingly reign or rule of Christ. Now, we in the modern liberal West have a hard time with kings; we like democratic polities. The United States emerged out of a great rebellion against the king. But we should get over this modern hang-up, because kingship—from Adam all the way up to Christ—is a basic biblical idea. And the importance of today’s feast is that it forces a decision about which king we follow. ... Read more

20 Nov 2024

14 MINS

14:47

20 Nov 2024

#990

A New World Unveiled

Friends, we're coming toward the end of the liturgical year, and as is typical, the Church gives us readings of an apocalyptic nature dealing with the end times. “Apocalypse” means “unveiling,” and what’s being unveiled in our readings is the emergence of a new world—not so much in the literal, cosmic sense as in the sense of how we navigate and understand the world. Something has fallen apart; the old world has given way. ... Read more

12 Nov 2024

14 MINS

14:30

12 Nov 2024

#989

Trusting God in Dire Straits

Friends, our first reading is that wonderful story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, which is a kind of hidden gem in the Old Testament. Like so many of the stories in the Bible, it is very understated, but chock full of spiritual meaning. And it has to do with how we respond—and the strange and surprising ways God might respond to us— when things are toughest. ... Read more

05 Nov 2024

14 MINS

14:28

05 Nov 2024

#988

The Highest Good Is God Alone

Friends, the readings for this Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time take us to very holy ground. In the first reading, taken from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, we hear the “shema,” a prayer fundamental to Jewish theology and spirituality. And in the Gospel, when one of the scribes asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment, the Son of God, the Torah made flesh, recites the same prayer. We can’t get any more sacred or any clearer indication of how we should govern our lives. ... Read more

29 Oct 2024

14 MINS

14:51

29 Oct 2024

#987

Answering God’s Call

Friends, all three readings for this Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time have a golden thread running through them, which is the idea of the call—of the primacy of God’s action in the life of salvation. Whenever we start thinking that this is our own ego project and that we are in command, we are ipso facto on the wrong path. ... Read more

23 Oct 2024

15 MINS

15:22

23 Oct 2024

#986

What Real Power Looks Like

Friends, our Gospel this Sunday is taken from the tenth chapter of Mark, and it is high-octane spiritual business. Something pivotal is being laid out for us in this passage, and it has to do with power, suffering, and a willingness to go where Jesus goes. ... Read more

15 Oct 2024

14 MINS

14:37

15 Oct 2024

#985

What Do You Ask God For?

Friends, for this Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, our first reading from the marvelous book of Wisdom presents an old biblical trope: If you were to ask God for something, or if God were to come to you and say he will give you whatever you want—what would you ask for? This is a really clarifying question. And while many things might come to mind, the answer of the paradigmatic wisdom figure is instructive. ... Read more

07 Oct 2024

14 MINS

14:55

07 Oct 2024

#984

The Biblical Vision of the Family

Friends, the first reading from Genesis and the Gospel from Mark this week are of great importance. They have to do with what we call Christian anthropology—the biblical understanding of who we are—and most specifically, in relation to marriage and family. This question of how we define ourselves is of course on the minds of many people today, and the readings, in a beautifully compact way, bring out the Christian answer. ... Read more

01 Oct 2024

14 MINS

14:43

01 Oct 2024

#983

Whoever Is Not Against Us Is For Us

Friends, the first reading and Gospel this Sunday have to do with the Church at war with itself. The devil is the scatterer, the divider, and one of his favorite tricks is to take the Church—which is meant to be an instrument of the Gospel in the world—and to turn us against one another. ... Read more

25 Sep 2024

14 MINS

14:01

25 Sep 2024

#982

The Ladder Doesn’t Matter

Friends, why was the story of Jesus with the little children, versions of which appear in the three synoptic Gospels, so vividly remembered by the first Christians? I think they intuited that it got very close to the heart of Jesus’ teaching. The way Mark sets up his account of this story in our Gospel for this weekend is frankly funny, and it’s an example of the disciples completely missing the point of everything. ... Read more

17 Sep 2024

14 MINS

14:39

17 Sep 2024

#981

Faith Without Works Is Dead

Friends, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”—and this week, I am going to go once more into the issue of faith and works, which has been dividing Western Christianity since the Reformation. Our second reading from the Letter of James is a key text on this issue, and its metaphor of healing—together with Paul’s forensic metaphor—orient us to the Catholic view of justification. ... Read more

10 Sep 2024

14 MINS

14:52

10 Sep 2024

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#999

The Marriage of Divinity and Humanity

#998

Why Was Jesus Baptized?

#997

Science Points to God

#996

Freeing Your Family for God

#995

Why Mary Matters

#994

The Peace that the World Can’t Give

#993

Have You Wandered Away from God?

#992

Three Dimensions of Advent

#991

Which Kingdom Are You In?

#990

A New World Unveiled

#989

Trusting God in Dire Straits

#988

The Highest Good Is God Alone

#987

Answering God’s Call

#986

What Real Power Looks Like

#985

What Do You Ask God For?

#984

The Biblical Vision of the Family

#983

Whoever Is Not Against Us Is For Us

#982

The Ladder Doesn’t Matter

#981

Faith Without Works Is Dead