Bishop Barron on Not Dumbing Down the Faith: Answers to Young People's Pressing Religious Questions
Friends, at the Regional Congress 2.0 Teach event, I presented on the importance of not dumbing down the faith as we engage in religious education. Young people enjoy asking about and discussing the big questions, from God’s existence, to how to be a good and moral person, to the problem of suffering. A disconnect takes place when we meet these intellectual questions with watered-down catechesis. Instead, we must remember the central teachings of Christianity. We must present the fullness of truth, the reality of the Incarnation, and the good news of grace.
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I know Bishop Barron gets a lot of blowback from some traditionalists, but whether or not one agrees with his opinions, I do find him honest, forthright, serious, and holy. He is a force for good in the Catholic Church and the world at large.
Here here!
I appreciate you for saying this. I had pulled away from his talks because I feel I am more of a traditional catholic but I was so inspired by his interview/talk with Shia LeBouf about his conversion during his role as Padre Pio, and that has brought me back to watching/listening to him. I agree that Bishop Baron is honest, forthright, serious and holy.
@@TheAAnne123 k Kim hi lkmkk I’ll hi j hi kikkk pop p I i guy Fr h B no $ Hi hi
Even though I do like a lot of the traditional catholic wing of the faith, there is also a lot of hate and bad mouthing being tossed around, specially by Taylor Marshall. He’s always quick to point the finger at Bishop Barron but pretends to ignore when Bishop Barron takes a stance more in line with the traditionalist - case in point his recent comments on our president and abortion. Bishop Barron has done more for Catholicism than the vast majority of traditional Catholics that choose to live by their bitter tongues and sow division in the church.
I attend the traditional mass. Taylor does not speak for me. He is bad news. He straight up deceives. It’s unfortunate. Many traditionalist need to be heard and are correct. People like Bishop Barron needs to stop being an enemy of them. Should be room for all. We don’t have to be held hostage by the extremists
As a young person who was raised Catholic, became atheist, and is now on the fence. This is what we need more of. If the church wants to get us back, they need to engage with us.
I was raised Catholic, left the faith and returned. It seems you would like come back, but are snagged on something. If you desire to be engaged, all I could engage you with is my own experience. I was very faithful and joyful in the Church growing up, but I saw many of my friends turn away and scorn the church, and also saw the rise of the New Atheists like Dawkins and Harris. There were many criticisms levelled at the Church, which I could not answer. And I could not see a forceful defence of the Church. So after a thousand cuts, I lost my faith, and felt compelled to ascent to atheism, almost in a sense of humiliating defeat, like the faith had been beaten out of me. The rationalistic worldview seemed unassailable. It was true because "it worked" and "science flies man to the moon, while religion flies planes into buildings." i believed those slogans. I knew them to be true in my mind. I am an Australian and spent a year in my early 20s living in England and touring Europe. When I returned to Australia I lamented the lack of beautiful traditional architecture we had compared to Europe. This sounds random, but is important. I asked friends if they loved the traditional architecture they saw in Europe, and they all raved about it, but when I said "Dont you think we should build like that today" they all said, "no, we can't, it's in the past." This didn't make sense. I watched lectures and debates about traditional architecture and the modernists, who claimed a mantle of rationality and realism, always deferred to an arbitrary idea of obsolescence, that some styles were in the past and some were not, for some very important reason that no one ever said. And that is the thread I pulled that would eventually unravel the entire modern worldview, which is dependent on notions of sterility, mechanics, obsolescence and a self delusion of objectivity. As if the future was obviously right and the past was obviously wrong, because the iPhone 5 was obviously better than the iPhone 4, 3, 2 and 1. One day Sam Harris (who I was a fan of) posted on FB that of course we can have objective morality if we only *assume*A morality means the well being of all sentient life. I almost chucked my phone out the window. "If Sam! If! IF! IF! IF!You demand all these proofs for God, but expect us to just grant you an entire worldview on an assumption!" It was evident Sam Harris had no reasonable basis to suggest morality was a legitimate concept, but was okay with that. The comments erupted with an argument over the issue, with one side pointing out this obvious flaw, while the other side couldn't even perceive it. I realised the new atheist phenomenon was based around a kind of blindness to the most important aspects of human existence. The kind of rationalism that claims to answer all questions does so by blinding itself to any question that doesn't fit neatly into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Our rational faculties are a vital gift, but the rationalist ideology is a self soothing myth by which man convinces himself he can be his own God. At this point I felt something really off. I can't say I believed in God then, but felt his presence, like feeling cold because I was standing in God's shadow. A year or two later I listened to CS Lewis "The Abolition of Man" audio book. He so thoroughly described and predicted the modernist/rationalist kind of blindness I was seeing, and explained the raising of Technocracy. He articulated how our effort to reduce things to mere rationalist algorithms results in us cutting away anything that can't be articulated through that lens, and that man's conquest for power over nature will always lead to mass human enslavement, since power is always held by a few, and men are a part of nature. In that moment, I admitted to myself that I had a felt a presence for a while and that presence was God. I was bumbling and fairly uninformed, but began to read more. The more I looked into the more I saw how blatantly and shamelessly the new atheists had distorted reality in their arguments against religion. I found that Dawkins denial of the existence of an actual historical Jesus is a rather sad and petty attempt to accept that yes, the evidence is very strong for that. I saw Christopher Hitchens despicable defamation of Mother Theresa was just absolute garbage, and probably motivated by his Marxist leaning to strike back at the catholic Church for helping topple the soviet union in the 90s I saw how so many historical crimes of the Catholic Church are absolutely distorted, such as the crusades, inquisitions, persecution of Galileo and a million other things. I have to take my gorgeous 1 year old daughter to a farm now so she can pat animals and ride a tractor. I can say my return to God and the Church has given me a strength and grounding that is invaluable. Beat wishes to you. God Bless. And Happy Easter.
Oh, and don't get me started about the sex abuse scandal in the Church. I'm happy the failings of the church have been exposed and abusers are being purged... ... But if you do even a small amount of research it becomes clear the catholic Church has been falsely singled out as a hot bed for sex abuse when even at the worst times sex abuse in the church was similar or even lower than levels found in other institutions. The Catholic church, being serious about purging abuse, has engaged in a lot of self study to expose as many cases of abuse as possible. Many of the things you read in the media criticising the church actually is sourced from the churches own efforts to tackle this problem. The Church is the single institution that has most transparently confronted sex abuse in its ranks. It airs its dirty laundry in public and is rewarded with relentless demonisation by hypocritical bystanders who are happy to remain in their own soiled underwear.
@@pattyb6003 Man, that was a long read but a good read. I was baptised this Easter, entered the Catholic Church and Faith with no Christian or religious background. I whole heartedly agree. I feel that much of contemporary atheism is something like an intellectual-trend. And a lot of it presents a type of pseudo-profundity. True, that there is a lot of failings and issues within the Faith and Church, but the modernist line between honest critique and errant deconstruction never becomes a point of focus or method. Overtime, what people “think” Catholicism, Christianity, or even religion itself resembled more of a caricature then true understanding. It’s easy to dismiss something if all they know is that superficial caricature. It’s a sad and pervasive type of misunderstanding. God Bless, from a fellow Australian 👌👍
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink
People need to stop thinking their intellect is superior to that of God.
Thank you for this video father Barron! I’m a 21 year old girl who was raised with religion but eventually started dismissing it like many of my friends. In recent years I’ve noticed myself being drawn back in again, but I still had (and have) a lot of questions like the ones you mentioned in this video. I go to university and I’m trained to think analytically and critically. No religious leader or teacher that I’ve encountered in my life has ever put in the effort to explain these sort of things to me, which is probably one of the reasons why I ‘stopped’ believing in my teenage years. But since I’ve been searching for God again, your videos have been a great help to explain things I’m already feeling on an intellectual level 🙏🏻
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I think you brought up a very interesting point. I left the Catholic Church when I was 18 because our religion classes were terrible, and the whole thing didn't make any sense to me. I've been working in science for 25 years, and always been very analytical too. Only now, decades later, I found back to the Catholic Faith, after a lot of work put into wrapping my head around it. I'm actually not quite convinced that religious education for children is really helpful; I think Catholic YT-channels (like this one), blogs and sites targeted at adults are doing a better job at conveying the Catholic message.
Ask questions! It’s essential for spiritual growth.
@@jean-baptistedupont5967 it’s not. I’ve picked up material for kids, and it’s absurd to me what they teach children. I left the church and went to Judaism for about 10 years. I didn’t see Orthodox Jews dumbing down Torah or Halacha to children. As soon as they could read, they were teaching these kids the real deal. I was impressed when a group of children could ask better questions than I could, and I was in my 20s with a college degree! So absolutely…I’m all for this. No dumbing down the faith. To anyone. Give them the richness.
@@ntmn8444 Excellent point! Cheers.
In my 81 years of living this faith, I treasure it beyond everything. The power of prayer is for all the youth and adults to find this treasure in the field.
Hello Jeanette, I saw your comment on this Bishop Barron video and God compelled me to reply to you. We have a Playlist on our KZhead channel to give you insight in The Meaning of Life. We would appreciate if you would visit our channel by tapping our name or using the link below. Please give us a thumbs up/down on the videos and comments/questions are always welcomed! What will help us to spread our message is you sharing the video too! kzhead.info/channel/PLThGAQIV8ca3SvOtBZ6BoxacwkU37-lYb.html Thank you and may God bless you and your family always!
I agree with Jeannette, power of prayer for these young ones.
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Prayer is everything
I do remember asking my mother questions when I was young and yes, she did give me the line of "Don't ask questions, just have faith." As an adult, I now wonder if that was because she didn't know the answers herself and was told the same thing as a child. At the age of 52, I am now flipping over many rocks in the pursuit of my faith once and for all. Bishop Barron, you have been a great source of information for me and I'll never be able to thank you enough.
I hear you Theresa. Thank God for the Catechism of the Catholic Church because now we have a reference for the basics of our faith. Faith and Reason do not contradict each other. We do have reasons for our faith.
She didn't. Period.
I dont mean to be so off topic but does someone know of a method to log back into an Instagram account? I was stupid forgot my password. I love any assistance you can give me!
@Johan Joseph instablaster :)
@Armani Ibrahim i really appreciate your reply. I got to the site thru google and I'm waiting for the hacking stuff now. I see it takes a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
I am a protestant and have been learning a lot from your talks. God bless you!
Hi Ana. I invite you to come home to the Catholic Church when you are ready. Jesus started the Catholic Church despite the failures of some of its members. I invite you to pray about it.
B
@@TodayNowAlways Jesus didn't start the catholic church Constantine did. Jesus preached the kingdom is at hand the Apostles started the universal Church catholic comes from the Greek phrase καθόλου katholou ' Meaning whole(universal)
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@@seanorourke5137 please check your answer again🙏🙏🙏
Protestant here, thank you Bishop Barron for your continual thoughtful insight. God Bless you sir !
So, you aren't protesting ANYTHING really, that's awesome GOOD news☆ Just joking☆ *Thanks for comment.*
@@marypinakat8594 hahaha ; )
@@sjappiyah4071 ☆Stay blessed☆
You are welcome here. Enjoy
@@sjappiyah4071 Everyone, just anyone has a place in the Catholic Church☆
The man has a gift.
@Bishop Robert Barron Thank you Bishop Barron for this explanation. I really needed to hear this , please pray for my 3 sons young adult boys 27,21 and 18 years old. I do pray for the youth, it is a challenge time, but I believe God is faithful and good always 🙏💒.
Your mother reminded me of Vererable Mama Margarita, Don Bosco mother 🙏💕😃
@Bishop Robert Barron please do not pretend to be the Bishop! Thank you.
protestants will tell you otherwise just because he is catholic....sad
I really needed to hear this right now. I'm a combat vet who had these exact questions. Thank you Father. I truly think God sent me here.
The Holy Spirit has such an amazing way of leading each one of us to where we need to be. I can’t imagine what it’s like to see combat, so today, I pray a special prayer for you. 🙏 Fr Mike Schmitz often talks about the brokenness we all have and the healing of God’s love for us. 🙏💙
Keep searching, Bro. God be with you and keep you in the journey of faith.
Thanks for your service brother, God bless you
Since Ash Wednesday, about 50 /60 of us meet every morning at 7am to study the Catechism of the Catholic Church for an hour. It has been one of the greatest experiences I have ever done. We are just a quarter of the way through but already have learned so much. We need the Bible in one hand and the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the other.
Love this!!! God bless you as you grow in faith and knowledge. 🙏🏻
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How Lucky I am to be a Catholic after 45 years of being a non-denominational type and finding you Bishop barron. My faith is renewed and I share you with everyone I can thank you thank you thank you God bless you.
The intelligibility of the universe point was presented to me as "the traveler's argument" in Philosophy 201 in college. Soon as I figured out that the argument was an elaboration of Anselm's and Aquinas' work, I KNEW Catholicism was the only way for me. Also, shout out to the Dominican Priests who helped me see clearly.
Is there a link to this that you can share, sounds interesting. Thank you
What is the "the traveler's argument"?
Hallelujah 🙏
The Thomistic Institute presentations are wonderful. The Dominican's Aquinas 101 is a gift.
I had a very rough few years, where.. I lost everything, and everyone important in my life.. I watched my parents and grandparents pass away, and working in Emergency Medicine, saw so much Trauma and Death.. I wrestled with God, and had that very sinking feeling, why would an all loving God, allow that.. and, He was able to use those experiences, to fuel a fire in me, to care for those who are dying, to work in Hospice.. and, find joy, in caring for those in their darkest moments, and just loving them, and making sure they know that they are not alone..
Keep up the good fight.
So you rejected God?
It has to do with everyone of us has a free will and that has consequences; I too had that question; then I stumbled upon a movie called “The Shack” (Netflix , I think) ; It really clarified this very clearly- it was the most spiritually empowering movie-please watch it if you can- good characters and truly beautiful
And , of course , the teachings of Bishop Barron , who is using his gift from God to teach us every day!!
as a first responder and and a chaplain, I totally hear you. What happens in emergency services challenges faith. So glad you chose to use the experiences for your service to the dying. blessings to you and your work.
I am a Protestant and just happened onto this video, I just want to say that it was very good, and I really appreciate your honest responses to these big questions. Very, very helpful. :) God bless you.
Ok
RachelAShalen and thank you👏🙏🙏
i went to catholic school and i feel like they didnt do a good job of explaining the faith to us. there was so much we didnt learn about. i dont know why they didnt, but i think it is extremely important to arm young catholics today with information about their faith today so they can combat the secularism that is so pervasive in the culture.
Same here. It was really watered down. I think it's a combination of a few things - the interpretation of Vatican II, the Land-o-Lakes agreement, teachers themselves were not well-formed, and many students in Catholic school aren't even Catholic so teachers have to tread carefully.
Catholic school teachers don't make a lot of money, so maybe they left you wanting more. That's okay, you have the rest of your life to learn what you are missing.
I got dumped in catholic school for about 2 years and i hated it. Did not agree with me, especially when they tried suppressing my art talent (I drew monsters and such and they saw it as disturbing). Was happy when I finally went to a public school.
I experienced the same thing growing up as a Catholic. I felt my knowledge of my faith so inadequate after high school that I almost left the church. Thank God I didn't but instead, by the grace of God, I started reading Catholic Apologetics and theology books to learn more about my faith including reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, Summa by St. Thomas Aquinas, Yes or No by Peter Kreeft, Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Bible, etc. Now I am happy to tell you that I am a practicing Catholic and that I would not leave the Catholic Church.
Yup, when need more evangelization and to teach more people about the faith
I am so blessed and fortunate to discover Bishop Barron on KZhead. I have been a believer in Christ since I was a child of maybe 8 or nine. Went to church here and there but honestly, I followed the culture. I turned my life into a disaster. Fortunately by the grace of God I stumbled into AA. Long story short I have slowly began embracing my faith and life is getting better. Bishop Barron has been an excellent conduit for Gods mercy through his son Jesus. I really really appreciate his efforts.
God bless you, Ron.
Bishop Baron, I awoke in the night and your video was playing. I listened. I am almost 79 and a catholic all my life but never have I been able to answer the questions you posed and answered so well. My family have fallen away from their Catholic faith and I do not know what to say or do in response to their education which has taught them to question and deny the act of faith but you have shown how science (modern day thinking) and faith in almighty God exist together. Thank you: and slowly, slowly I pray for a breakthrough. God bless you for your faith and teachings. Sincerely, Linda T
Clearly, I have a wee bit of a tardiness problem, lol. I just saw this and thought, I hope he is doing well! May I presume, just in case you, Ron, or anyone else, Jesus is always with us, you're not alone.
Been having a rough time teaching Catechism, clearly my prayers have been answered! God Bless!
Hello fellow Catechist, We have been teaching for 10 years now and have had the same challenges as you have with teaching the Catechism. That is why we created the Catechism Corner to explore all that we have learned and to present different viewpoints to consider regarding God. Come check out our channel and view the Meaning of Life Playlist! You can tap on our name in this comment or use the link below. Please like/dislike any videos, comments/questions are always welcomed, and share our videos to get this important message out to the world! We are hoping to open the eyes of humanity and bring people back to God. kzhead.info/channel/PLThGAQIV8ca3SvOtBZ6BoxacwkU37-lYb.html Thank you and God bless you and your family always! Tony
Thank you. Please don't apologize for talking"too long" about anything. You are a great teacher.
I'm a convert to the faith and I talk with my child about the faith all the time. She is very devout and not even a teen yet. We enjoy watching your talks, Chris Stefanick, Fr. Calloway, and The Chosen. We usually attend daily Mass and never miss a Sunday Mass. Thanks for sharing about your conversations with your mom!
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Bishop Barron, I live in Hong Kong. I love listening to your talks and am blehssed to learn so much from you. I am a covert to Catholicism and an active member of the church. We run a Lifeteen program foor our teens and use your materials in teaching them. Thank you. You are great blessing to the Church and us. May God continue to bless you in your ministry.
Need to start doing this with my kids
8:35
I have found myself pouring in listening and living the gospel in this spontaneous and Christ-centered person and Bishop of God in this very critical times, after the loss of our beloved Pope Benedict, Ratzinger and the stepping in of our beloved Pope Francis (The loving Bergoglio). Bishop Barron is a great discerning companion I need, and I will be happy to share this gift from God to mankind in this world wherever I am. Thank you God for his person.
Heya Bishop Barron. I'm a recent convert (baptized at the end of June), & was an atheist of the condescendingly smug variety for roughly 30 years. There is something Carl Sagan wrote which struck me a few years ago when I began seeking in earnest. "For small creatures such as we, the vastness is made bearable only through love." Here was a physicist I deeply respected (& still do) telling me physics didn't have all the answers & instead I had to turn to an intangible I always regarded as nothing more than a trick of human brain chemistry, love. A friend from the internet pointed me to a lecture by the blessed Fulton Sheen on how to evaluate world religions. The KZhead algorithm led to more and more Catholic content, including yours (loved the Doctor Strange movie response, btw), & the next thing I knew I was attending Mass, RCIA, & am now enrolled in classes to deepen my understanding of Catholic teachings. Anyway, the tl;dr core of the above comment is simply, thanks.
Well, God bless you, John. The Holy Spirit has been guiding you in this process.
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Thank you so much, Bishop Barron. Discovering the Word on Fire during the most challenging time of my life - disaffiliation, pandemic - was a 380 degree turnaround, I praise and thank God for not giving up on me when I was giving up on me. The Covid 19 pandemic has plunged me to the darkest valley there could be (suicidal thoughts, eating disorder, abrupt weight loss). And then God hoisted me up and send me people like you Bishop. You ignited the thirst in my heart to know once more my God through my Catholic faith which I came to love and appreciate now because of you. My prayer is, may people who are now in the same dark pit where I was last year, be guided to you and to many other Catholic pastors and access. Sending my joy and love and prayers.
Praise God for your testimony, my suffering was imitated perfectly in your message, literally at the fiery gates I had come to the end, then out of the most terrifying hopelessness I found the strength to completely surrender everything to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I was transformed by the Holy Spirit overnight, I felt I was plugged into the electric grid, the world lost its darkness and was now technicolor, every addiction and its compulsion ceased, after decades of destruction, my sobriety was gifted to me, forgiveness, compassion and Love beyond all comprehension, 8 years on my journey continues getting more Glorious with time, I thank you Brother for sharing and may we continue through testimony to bring all whom we meet to the Truth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ x 🙏💜✝️
Apologies, I'm the husband of Mary Clare who's account is shared. Yours in Christ, Paul xx
Your talks have rekindled my faith and helped me through some very hard times where I felt the disappointment with myself was almost too much to deal with.
Bishop Barron, God bless you! Your videos, reddit AMA, etc. are desperately needed in these times. I was raised Catholic, fell away from my religion in college, and returned to Catholicism when my children reached their teens. I can honestly say that my life was never better than the times (including now) that I was close to God, and was never worse than the time (far too long) that I had fallen away.
So nice to listen to this and turn off all the election insanity.
The election insanity was the fight between God and the Devil , a large number of Catholics vote for pro abortion candidates and it doesn't bother their conscience a little bit .
I don’t know the audience age you were targeting to but this is now my favorite video by you (which I love everything you put out). I was very impressed by the organization, the tempo, the thoughtfulness. Thanks Bishop and Word on Fire.
You are the shepherd. I am the lost sheep. You always bring us back to the faith. May God bless you always 🙏
This is the right way of engaging with intelectually minded people. Keep on please and thank you
That's what happened to me, i.e. why I left the Church for 45 years. It's really thanks to you and a couple of other is priests who entered the seminary after having worked in commerce, taught high school or could not be ordained without a few Masters degrees or even PhDs, as Jesuits. When I be returned a couple years ago, I was hungry for some real teaching. I get it from you, Bishop and my current pastor. Hallelujah! There are some intelligent priests who are prepared to teach more academically and not speak down to us, nor exclude us from good RCIA classes which can include such people as myself. I want to develop some program suitable for Returning Catholics.
Enjoy this Bishop's sermon. kzhead.info/sun/isiFlpeCmImPq2g/bejne.html
@@peroercegovac1973 Friend. What proof do you have for your statements regarding Bishop Barron? Also, how can you say that Tam is not Catholic when he clearly states that he is?
The patience the good Bishop teaches is so inspiring... God bless you and your ministry, Your Excellency.
Many thanks. I became a Christian at 68 and was always frustrated when Christians failed to engage. I had to seek out apologists.
God bless you Bishop Barron
God bless you fellow Army 💜
Thanks Bishop Barron for everything you’re doing for Christ’s Kingdom 😊
Bishop Barron will be running GodTube in heaven.
IF EVERY CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS THIS HOMILY, THERE WOULD BE REVIVAL.
Great idea!
I appreciate an excellent homily from priests. So I go to the Mass when Jesuit Priests here in our small Island, Saipan. say the Masses. Our Bishop Ryan here in Saipan is an excellent Homilist. Pope Frances encouraging all priests to prepare n give excellent homilies.
@@chailangpalacios1768 Chesterton WASNT a priest but there are SOME HOMILIES" HIDDEN" in his writings.
mmm no, in fact latin america priests use those arguments to justify injustices perpretated by themselves. He sounds ironic to me.
@@franciscopalacios4638 On the child abuse? Im sorry to hear that. There must be a little politician inside the clergy
I love the arguments of the personal god who comes in pursuit of us
I was told by my sister in Virginia of Bishop Barron and the Word on Fire Institute (she emailed me your link) and while I am not yet Catholic , I'll be taking the RCIA here in Winnipeg ,Canada when the Covid restrictions lessen ( my family in VA is Catholic, I'm evangelical) I do attend the Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church here , and I have told friends there, and all my friends of Bishop Barron and the World on Fire Institute , which has transformed my thinking and outlook from negative to God's positive love ! Thanks Bishop Barron and everyone at Word on Fire Institute for sermons like "The Cure for Cynicism", and your sermon that I cherish, Refuse Scapegoating ! , and How to Forgive People.... My brother in Christ Earl here , says : "Jim , love on them ! " Your friends in Christ Our Saviour , Jim Perch and Family.... Have a blessed Easter as we celebrate The Risen King Our Saviour Jesus Christ ! The Glory He has given us ! Hallelujah in the Highest !
The new evangelization is a breathe of fresh air! This is what we need in this modern age. More guys teaching Tradition like this
Thanks to our God for your gifts of preaching
You're one of the reasons that I'm discerning priesthood. Even though the question "Does God really exists" also pops into my mind from time to time and I dont know if this is a sin or not, of doubting His existence, I really want to learn more and also teach it on others. Also, @Bishop Robert Barron, can you make a video with some "Top 10 books" that you recommend? (I'm trying to find now some good books on Thomas Aquinas). Thank you and pray for me please. God bless!
If I may give my humble opinion, I think that is an important question to ask yourself, so don't feel bad about it. Even St. Paul says "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves." in 2 Corinthians. The Father wants you to seek Him so He can reveal Himself to you.
I've heard Bishop Barron recommeding Thomas Merton´s Seven Mountain Story. Also, you might want to take a look a Joseph Ratzinger´s Introduction to Christianity and listen to what he has to say about religious doubts
Wow! We need more people like you! I was once like you with the same question and much more! I was even close to what they call an “Atheist” but have come to find the truth! I came back to my Catholic roots after studying various Religions throughout the world and eventually realizing what was the REAL question on my mind. It has been THE question of the time and God revealed the answer to me through the Holy Spirit! Please come and check out my playlist of short videos on the Meaning of Life. If you like it, please share it! kzhead.info/channel/PLThGAQIV8ca3SvOtBZ6BoxacwkU37-lYb.html
@DMT Core www.wordonfire.org/wp-content/media/bishop-barrons-recommended-books-copy-2.pdf
materdeiseminary.org
Bishop I love how you laughed off and casually dismissed all the obscene posts you received on reddit. A valuable lesson in and of itself I think.
Our obedience to God is only way to overcome trials @ hardship in life... be patient, humbly before God . Trust in His mercy love of God ..
I love that science statement. I had to take 4 statistics classes in my My Master's degree for Psychology in Organizational/educational leadership. Without scientific reasoning, and really truly looking for God in the Scientific evidence of Life, Humanity wouldn't see God. Thank you for teaching us today, Bishop Barron. I love these lectures, and classes. God bless you. I'm looking forward to enrollment in my second Master's degree....
Good wishes to you☆ and God bless you heaps☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Bishop Barron I am so thankful your parents gave you to our God hungry world to teach us to know our loving Father.
Am your long-time fan, Bishop Barron. It's from you that I have come to understand well and most intellectually our Catholic faith. Though I have been a Catholic theologian myself, I had not understood much those theology courses that I had taken up, until your Word on Fire began. My questions had been answered and I have been able to go back to those academic questions that I had raised, and could now explain it my own way, of course without straying from the objective course of our Catholic faith, doctrine and theology. Thank you so much. Because of you, I have fallen in love more with Christ, with His Church which of course is the Catholic Church, with due to respect to the Protestant Christian deonominational churches. Thus, my "faith and reason" complemented but also blended into the singular objective truth of our faith in God. Finally, you, Bishop Barron, appear to me like Christ Himself. To me, you are chosen and loved so much by Jesus. Despite surely your weaknesses, I of course don't know them, you look like a saint to me. Keep it up, Bishop Barron. God bless you more and more!!!
By far the best questions answered in the best and most easily understandable and relatable way ever. Thank you Bishop!
For my self what ever we have is from God .. Intelligent also from God, that's why I told to my children, what ever you have is from God, so you must return to God, with serve if God... Praise to the Lord my 2 boy serves altar boy from 7 years old until 19, and my daughter in youth Catholic and now help catechism for Sunday school....am so blessing...
I AGREE we learn when the priest gives us info on new insghts in reading of the day connects to our day to day living, and how the sacrifice at Mass adoring ,loving , receiving Jesus in our heart, into are whole body is so necessary in order to remain close to our creator and our purpose in life truly all should and can experience daily whenever possible.
The one thing i know is that I'm going to share this video with my people, i feel blessed
An outstanding discussion by Bishop Barron. Thank you from this Catholic theology student.
God bless you, Bishop Barron!
Thank you for you and may God bless you mightily and protect you 🐤💗🙏.
God bless you, Bishop and the Word on Fire community!
Imo I think these kinds of messages are what the church needs the most. A friend left the faith because he couldn’t get the answers he needed.
The Lord blessed you Bishop Barron💚
Thank you Bishop Barron, please make more of this type of content.
Great Job Bishop Barrón, I seen a couple of your talks and love them Thank you for your talks and May God keep blessing you always. Your student in Jesus our Savior Dcn. Paul R. Hinojos
Thank God for Bishop Barron 🎉
Thank you Mommy Mary! Thank you to God! Thank you Bishop Barron! I promise you and all i least remember a bit what dreams i had. and i'm too tired. I don't do anythings. Maybe who' s tigger i don't knows only i ask to God i give you all mine and around. I leave all people and things. I can't understand so much. I'M trying to leave all. God's decision. 😇😇😇👼🔥☄️🕊️💐💗
His AMA *was* popular and he actually responded to mine, which was super exciting!
AMEN BISHOP BARRON :)
I’m grateful for you and pray for you.
I am a Catholic High school teacher in Saskatchewan and I struggle with young people’s indifference to God.
Thank you again Bishop Barron! Without you coming forward to the media, there would be a depravity of understanding of our faith and how to move with it through the world, and share it with the world. God bless you with all his Grace, that you may know the buoyancy of His love and the Holy Spirit upon you when you speak. It's evident to me that you are thus Graced. Thank you for all your efforts toward us.
I am so glad to run into your talk Bishop Baron. Thank you so much. I am going through this challenge with my children these days. Please pray for us.
thank you Bishop Barron. I do door to door visits in my parish and we encounter many atheists. You really helped me to help them “know God”
Loved how you worked with the analogy of the different perspectives of suffering: yours vs Tiger's, the father's vs his son's, God's vs ours
Right???!!😊 love that too
Thanks Bishop and greetings from Ireland 🇮🇪 . I’m 59 , and on my journey through the.. great adventure.. bible podcast after years of indifference to my catholic upbringing. I’ve listened to examples one and two so far from your video and look forward to 3 . Keep up these incredible teachings. This helps me a lot
I was tempted to open the KZhead before saying my Laudes and voila, Good morning, Bishop Barron! You are the very first to greet me today. I think this is one of the tiny 'apparitions' that accompanies me everyday and keep me smiling. God bless!
Thankyou Bishop Barron
This man is such a great gift to the Church. Greetings from México. ¡Qué Viva el Obispo Barron!
Thank you Bishop! Those talks are really great!
Bishop, I so enjoyed your story of the. brother and sister. I have been teacher of special needs children in public schools. I had been privileged to see this frequently. I completely believe your perspective of God’s plan. I am now 65 and sorely missed the daily wonderful miracles I saw as a teacher, Your ability to articulate MY thoughts. I need that training as we are all teachers to each other from birth to death. Finally, you and Jordan Peterson have helped me travel through my recent faith crisis. I am daily grateful for you two and God. Enjoy life!❤️
I spent most of my life identifying as a Christian and I am soon to be 65. I now call myself an atheist. I found waking up to be "enlightening" not a "crisis".
Amen! Which thanks to Christ's Body and Blood being offered to us daily in the thanksgiving feast of the Eucharist, we know we can enjoy life forever if we receive Him worthily! 🥰
Ok, that was awesome! Thank you Bishop Barron.
On suffering/evil: The best explanation that I’ve ever heard on this topic comes from a quote in the film “A Hidden Life” by Terrence Malick. Franz Jagerstatter, sitting in a Nazi prison for his refusal to serve Hitler, stated, “If God gives us free will, we’re responsible for what we do, what we fail to do”. My interpretation of that profound quote: Good/evil is a continual choice throughout our lives, from moment to moment, that originates from our consciousness and free will granted by our Creator. The line between good/evil runs through every human heart (Solzhenitsyn) throughout history. The choice is ours to make. Such choice can lead to the salvation of souls or to their eternal destruction. Suffering, unlike evil, appears to us as random tragedy. A murder is a consequence of evil, whereas death from cancer is a seen as tragedy. Here too, in suffering, we have a choice. That choice lies in our ability of how we confront such suffering from tragedy. Do we lose faith, become cynical, and close our souls off to God and love from fellow human? Or do we take the path of Grace by embracing our mortality, maintaining our faith and love for God, and open our hearts to the glory of everything and everyone around us? Cynics question the outcomes of free will but never (that I’ve seen) ponder the alternative - what would humanity look like if God did not grant free will?
I appreciate your response and wish I could save it.
Amazing...just touched my soul and thank you Lord for the sufferings so that I may be satisfied by you 🙏
This is excellent and thank you so much Bishop Barron!
Just remember that even when you’ve given up on God he will never give up on you! 🧡
Thank you Bishop Barron....I always enjoy listening to you and learning more about the Catholic Faith.
at 6 I am searching for meaning in the church and in its writings, I hope to find peace of mind and heart and thank you for your interpretation of the word.
Remember this, not everyone agrees with Bishop Baron. It is far more important in life to learn how to think and come to decisions that are truly yours, than to simply accept without question that what you are taught as a child is true. I will say this to you, I, like you, do not walk the streets consumed by a fear of being eaten by fire breathing dragons because I don't believe in fire breathing dragons. I also don't walk the streets consumed by a fear of hell because no one fears something that they don't believe is true.
I LOVE YOUR TEACHING HOW AS CATHOLIC TO STAY AND UNDERSTAND THE LORD . AMEN BLEES ARE THOSE WHO COME IN THE NAME OF THE LORD FOR HELPING ME IN MY FAITH
Well, thank YOU, Bishop Barron!
I really like your videos. I am not catholic I am actually Methodist but I love hearing you talk about important issues and I think your message could carry over different doctry. I think you just have to listen with an open heart.
Glad you are still drawing 😊 the young and refreshing the faith in older hearts and minds.
Very interesting. I am a Catechist, volunteers in several spaces among other roles. I am inspired by the intellectual ability of Bishop Barron to explain matters of faith. I know friends and even relatives who are not Christians and thus belong to nones. I can share this with them. Primordial truth though about sexism that the church has not addressed is that the priests are men so in a way the church favors men. In prayers, there is a masculinity and the Scripture shows masculine language. The secular world really is born with a secular languages where the use of male pronoun is very dominant. How do we then explain our stance with our Catholic Social Teachings that the church is not sexist? Thank you.
The priesthood is not sexism because it only allows men to be ordained. Sexism can also be the secular feminist attitude that it is a denigration for women to embrace motherhood. I love God's design of choosing men to be priests because at the heart of it is the image of the Father's love for us.
Let me praise the massive importance of your information and your talks to us Bishop Barron thank you
About 70 years ago, when I was about 4 years old, my father explained apartheid to me. My reaction was "That's not fair". At 4 years old? The moral good seems to be innate
Indeed. However, it's not fine tuned and has no objective standard. What objective standard did you have at 4? An interesting book on the subject was a "Lord of the flies" by William Golding which describes what can happen while innate morality exists but without an objective standard.
What about those children in which the morality is not present? I as a child regularly hurt my younger brother for seemingly no real reason, I was around the age of 4 as well. The only way I knew this was something I shouldn’t do is because I was punished. There was not, as far as I can remember, an innate sense of wrong doing. In fact I shall use myself again as an example as in my early life I was a little bit of a thief. I would only feel guilty when caught, or when someone had noticed that something was missing. This, I believe, is because I recognized that when someone noticed something was missing, harm was caused. But when someone didn’t notice, there was no real harm done and I didn’t have any guilty conscience. In essence I was only guilty when the harm I had caused was visible and made apparent to me.
@DannyGirl in essence this is what I said yes, I guess just have a quite roundabout way of getting to the point.
Thank you Bishop Barron
I am so happy to listen to the word on fire and to listen to Bishop Barron thank you so much
Thank you Bishop Barron, for your lovely interesting talk. You are such a great and clever man, ready with answers to any kind of questions. GOD bless you abundantly. ➕❤
I went through well over 10 years of cathechisi as a kid (was born in 1993) and do not recall once learning anything about or from the Bible. Which is one of the ways that Vatican 2 was not implemented properly. "The study of the sacred page... should be the very soul of Sacred Theology" (Vatican II, Dei Verbum 24)
Thank you so much bishop it enlightened my faith
This is so interesting ! Thank you so much for such clear explainations Bishop Barron.
I took four pages of notes! Thank you Bishop Barron. I learn so much from your talks!
Just love this guy. Amazing explanations. I have 4 sons and 7 siblings I will share this with.
Vital teaching, great approach, highly motivating! Thank you so much!
As always your talks gave me so much enlightenment and strenght as a catholic. Thank you so much Bishop Barron.
Father Barron, you are absolutely peaceful to listen to, excellent delivery and we are blessed to have your constant guidance for all of us towards our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you. God Bless
God bless you Bishop Barron, I just listened to your talk that I felt very enlightening & powerful. I truly enjoy your spiritual talks. Sending many blessings 🙌 & 🙏 to you & your ministry.
Thank you, Bishop Barron. God bless. Amen.
Thanks for sharing this Bishop Barron! We always enjoy your lectures, sermons and discussions!
Respectfully, this dumbing down seems to have began the same time the Mass became "dumbed down". We need the transcendental beauty of the Latin Mass to reinvigorate the youth, because that's where they are Fr. It was difficult to imagine how the saints had a devotion to the sacrifice of the Mass but it all made sense when my wife and I went to the TLM more regularly.
Amen 🙏praise to the Lord, thank you very much your Grace.....🙏🙏🙏