Friends, welcome to Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.

Word on Fire is an apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization,

using media both old and new to share the faith on every continent

and to facilitate an encounter with Christ and His Church.

The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring the

transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today, we invite you to join Bishop Robert

Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the warmth and light of Christ with each one of us.

Peace be with you. Friends, we come to the Holy Season of Lent. I don't feel like me, but

gosh, how many Lentz have I lived through? And when I come to the end of most Lens, I say,

gosh, I probably could have done that better. That probably could have been a richer spiritual experience.

But okay, the church, once again, the year rolls around and gives us another opportunity

to live this holy season well.

You know, I always think of Blaise Pascal when I begin Lent.

Pascal is one that said, most of us go through life diverting ourselves.

He uses in his French diverticement. We have diversions. And it's all the different forms of

play and distraction that we use so that we don't come to terms with the big questions.

Pascal said, look, we all have to deal with God, meaning, purpose,

what's my life all about, my own sin, eternal life, heaven, hell, purgatory, salvation,

the big questions. But what most of us do is those questions come to mind and we say, okay, that's too much for me right now.

I can't really deal with that.

So I'm going to divert myself with games and play and my work or whatever it is.

What we have to do, Pascal said, was take the time sitting quietly in your own room by yourself

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