The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture

Bob Dylan is one of the most spiritually interesting songwriters of our generation. In today's episode, Bishop Barron reflects on some of Dylan's best-known hits to show how they subtlety put Biblical themes on display. A listener wonders if Bishop Barron has any tips on how to evangelize in a secular workspace.

• 0:17 - Bishop Barron at the Bob Dylan concert last weekend
• 2:40 - Can Bob Dylan serve as a gateway to God?
• 4:45 - Who is Bob Dylan?
• 8:32 - Why Bob Dylan is best read as a spiritual poet
• 10:11 - Bob Dylan's religious views
• 12:17 - Biblical elements of Blowin' in the Wind
• 15:39 - Bishop Barron on Like a Rolling Stone
• 21:41 - Bob Dylan and the Resurrection
• 22:10 - All Along the Watchtower and the Book of Isaiah
• 26:41 - Finding Jesus in Dylan's Make You Feel My Love
• 28:43 - Question from listener: How can we evangelize in a secular workspace?

• Videos
  • Reflections on Bob Dylan (Bishop Barron)
  • Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" (Bishop Barron)
  • Reflections on Bob Dylan in China (Bishop Barron)
  • Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, and the New Evangelization (Bishop Barron)
• Articles
  • "Bob Dylan in China" (Bishop Barron)
• Bob Dylan Songs
  • Blowin' in the Wind (read lyrics)
  • Like a Rolling Stone (read lyrics)
  • All Along the Watchtower (read lyrics)
  • Make You Feel My Love (read lyrics)

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron.

What is Catholic social teaching and what does it have to say about the economy, business, and our everyday work lives? That's what Bishop Barron explains in this episode. Surveying the insights of popes and saints, he shows why the Catholic Church rejects socialism and embraces a nuanced, careful endorsement of the market economy.

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron

Venerable Fulton Sheen is remembered as one of the greatest Catholic evangelists of the twentieth century. A master of both television and radio, he shared the Gospel with millions using his unique blend of wit, humor, and insight. Bishop Barron reflects on Sheen's legacy and the lessons he offers us. A deacon listener asks how Bishop Barron prepares his own homilies each week.

• 0:56 - Bishop Barron's summary of the New Evangelization Conference in Latrobe, PA
• 1:45 - Who was Archbishop Fulton Sheen?
• 4:54 - One thing we must do before we evangelize
• 6:42 - The significance of a Catholic priest on primetime, network TV
• 8:47 - How Sheen reached 30 million viewers through his TV show
• 11:02 - Sheen's strategy for evangelizing a broad audience
• 13:05 - Would Fulton Sheen be on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram?
• 14:32 - The importance of Sheen's book, The Mystical Body of Christ
• 17:29 - The common thread connecting Ronald Knox, G.K. Chesterton, and Fulton Sheen
• 18:26 - How Sheen's "Holy Hour" grounded all his writing and preaching
• 20:40 - Sheen's commitment to do a "Holy Hour" every day during his priesthood
• 22:42 - Bishop Barron's experience giving the "Tre Ore" talks at St. Patrick's Cathedral
• 24:38 - Question from listener: How does Bishop Barron prepare his homilies?

• Audio Talks
  • Tre Ore: The Seven Last Words of Christ (Bishop Barron)
• Videos
  • "Life is Worth Living" episodes from Fulton Sheen (YouTube)
• Books
  • Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen
  • The Mystical Body of Christ by Fulton Sheen (Foreword by Bishop Barron)
  • God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy by Fulton Sheen (Foreword by G.K. Chesterton)
• Websites
  • FultonSheen.com - Library of MP3 audio of Sheen's talks
  • ArchbishopSheenCause.org - Updates on Sheen's cause for canonization

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron

It's been widely hailed as the greatest sermon ever preached and a masterpiece of religious and social ethics. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5-7, commences with the "beatitudes", a series of eight blessings that Jesus gives to those who suffer, mourn, and express purity of heart. Bishop Barron walks through each beatitude and unveils its deeper meaning. A listener asks whether, according to Thomas Aquinas, God loves everyone the same or has a special hatred for sinners.

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• 0:26 - Bishop Barron's new film series, CATHOLICISM: The Pivotal Players
• 1:34 - What does "beatitude" mean?
• 4:35 - How the beatitudes of Jesus are different than other religious teachings
• 6:25 - How can the "poor in spirit" be blessed?
• 7:32 - How will those who mourn be comforted?
• 9:15 - The future promise of comfort for those who mourn
• 10:06 - What does it mean to be "meek"?
• 11:21 - How will the meek "inherit the land"?
• 12:12 - How God satisfied those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness"
• 13:49 - What "blessed are the merciful" means
• 15:09 - How the mercy we express is tied to the mercy we receive
• 16:55 - How do we become "clean of heart"?
• 18:39 - Pornography and the "clean of heart"
• 19:37 - Why peacemakers will become children of God
• 20:55 - Cardinal George and the eschatological dimension of peacemaking
• 22:51 - Why religious persecution can be a form of blessing
• 25:27 - Question from listener: Does God love everyone the same or hate sinners?

• DVD
  • CATHOLICISM series, Episode 2 - "Happy Are We: The Teachings of Jesus" (Bishop Barron)
• Books
  • Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith (Bishop Barron)
  • And Now I See: A Theology of Transformation (Bishop Barron)
• Homily
  • The Beatitudes: A Spiritual Program (Bishop Barron)

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron

We all face the Big Questions of life—it doesn't matter whether we're religious or not. We wonder about God, identity, meaning, morals, and death. Bishop Barron tackles some of the Big Questions and compares how the world generally answers them with how the Catholic Church responds. A listener asks about the relationship between God's providence and our free will.

• 0:14 - The power of spiritual fatherhood
• 2:44 - Father Barron, Bishop Barron, or Grandpa Barron?
• 2:54 - Question #1 - Does God exist?
• 6:19 - The big "why?" question
• 8:40 - Question #2 - Who am I?
• 12:05 - What about those who reduce all life to "genetic machines"?
• 13:11 - Question #3 - What is the meaning of life?
• 17:21 - Do we just make up meaning for ourselves?
• 18:54 - Question #4 - What is moral?
• 23:00 - How do we discover what's right and wrong?
• 26:18 - Question #5 - What happens after death?
• 30:22 - Bishop Barron's one-sentence answer to each Big Question
• 31:27 - Question from listener: Where does God's providence end and our free will begin?

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron

There's a common tendency to read the opening chapters of Genesis as scientific texts. But is this the best way? Or even the right way? Bishop Barron offers guidance on how to properly understand the Biblical creation story. A listener wonders how we should manage the relationship between Church and state.

• 1:05 - The most surprising part about being a bishop
• 2:29 - How do people often misread Genesis?
• 5:01 - Why the Genesis narratives cannot be scientific
• 6:23 - What genre is Genesis 1-2?
• 7:43 - The main theological insights in Genesis 1-2
• 9:41 - How Genesis 1-2 points forward to the non-violence of Jesus
• 11:29 - The objects of creation are not worshiped
• 14:39 - Why it's important that the world is created, not divine
• 16:49 - What it means that man was made in God's "image and likeness"
• 18:25 - The first man as the first philosopher
• 20:24 - How the Church Fathers read Genesis
• 21:58 - What Genesis 1-2 is ultimately trying to teach us
• 23:16 - Question from listener: how do we balance the relationship between Church and state?

• Articles
  • The Genesis Problem by Bishop Robert Barron
• Videos
  • Misreading Genesis by Bishop Robert Barron
  • Bishop Barron on Creation

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron

As Bishop Barron shows in his new book, Vibrant Paradoxes, Catholicism is both/and, not either/or. It celebrates the union of contraries—grace and nature, faith and reason, Scripture and tradition, body and soul—in a way that the full energy of each opposing element remains in place. In this episode, Bishop Barron explores several examples of this both/and embrace. A listener asks about the difficult passage in Acts 5 involving Ananias and Sapphira.

• 0:22 - Exciting upcoming events for Bishop Barron
• 2:04 - What does it mean to say Catholicism is "both/and"
• 5:29 - G.K. Chesterton on red, white, and the Church's healthy hatred of pink
• 7:42 - Why Catholics "want it all"
• 8:38 - The extreme demands of sin and mercy
• 11:25 - Why reason and faith are no mutually exclusive
• 15:58 - Faith/reason in the realm of science
• 17:59 - Bruce Jenner and the dichotomy of matter and spirit
• 21:59 - How discipline leads to real freedom
• 25:53 - The path from suffering to joy
• 27:59 - Question from listener: how can we reconcile the loving, non-violent Jesus with the angry God who kills Ananias and Sapphira?

• Books
  • Vibrant Paradoxes: The Both/And of Catholicism by Bishop Robert Barron
    • Use VIBRANT coupon code to save 10%!

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron

Thomas Aquinas not only shaped the Church, but influenced much of Western civilization. Who was this great saint? What are some of his important writings? And how should we begin to read his masterful Summa theologiae? Bishop Barron offers some answers in this week's episode. A bright 14-year-old listener asks about Bertrand Russell's famous criticism of Aquinas, and how to respond.

• 0:27 - Updates from Bishop Barron's life
• 1:53 - How did Bishop Barron discover Thomas Aquinas?
• 3:23 - Who was Thomas Aquinas?
• 4:45 - Surveying Aquinas' major works
• 7:42 - Best entry-level books on Thomas Aquinas
• 10:03 - Aquinas' unique disputatio style
• 13:07 - How Thomas Aquinas would engage the New Atheists
• 15:36 - Why is it worth reading Thomas Aquinas?
• 17:16 - How should we begin reading the Summa theologiae?
• 19:40 - The landscape and structure of the Summa
• 21:44 - Why Aquinas is a spiritual master
• 24:40 - Question from listener: how to respond to Bertrand Russell's crtiqiue of Aquinas?

• Books
  • Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master by Bishop Robert Barron
    • Use THOMAS coupon code to save 10%!
  • Summa of the Summa by Peter Kreeft
  • Aquinas by Frederick Copleston
  • The Christian Philosophy Of St Thomas Aquinas by Etienne Gilson
  • St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox by G.K. Chesterton
  • The Silence of St. Thomas by Josef Pieper
  • On First Principles by Origen
• Websites
  • Summa theologiae online (free)
  • Summa contra Gentiles online (free)
  • Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard online (free)

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron

Normally, in each episode we take one listener question. But today, we've devoted the entire episode to questions from listeners like you. Bishop Barron answers several questions, rapid fire, on many different topics.

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron.

What does God want me to do with my life? And how can I discern God's will for my day-to-day decisions? We all ask these questions and today Bishop Barron offers his advice. A listener also asks how Bishop Barron discerned his own call to the priesthood.

Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron.