On the Patheos Blog yesterday, Heather King wrote about her experience at last weekend's "Los Angeles Religious Education Congress," at which she attended Father Barron's presentation on the YouTube Heresies. Read her blog post here, watch a video interview with Fr. Barron from the conference weekend, and view a host of other web links featuring Word on Fire content.
Lion of Judah, Lamb of God
Last weekend I attended the annual, huge, Religious Education Congress in Anaheim (California). I'm such an introvert that even to drive to the Anaheim Convention Center and stand outside would have been a stretch. But I gamely made my way through the crowd and marched inside to meet a dear, kind editor friend who'd arranged several meetings with potential publishers.
The throng can apparently top out at 45,000 and the hall was enormous. Booths and booths of candles, rosaries, vestments, and, mainly, mostly, books: Monastic wisdom, catechetical instruction, breviaries, Bibles. Books on prayer, healing, grace, vocation, forgiveness, action, and contemplation.
The Congress's other big draw is a roster of stellar, big-name lecturers. Fr. Robert Barron, founder-director of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, was giving a talk called "The YouTube Heresies" and next I made my way there.
Several years ago, Fr. Barron began posting a series of video lectures on YouTube. From the voluminous comments he receives, 90 percent are negative, and he laid out what he sees as the four great patterns of resistance/heresies:
1) God. There is deep confusion about what we mean by God. "How nice for you, that you have your little fairy god who gives you everything you want," people will say.
One way to get across that this is not our God, Fr. Barron observed, is to realize that God is not one being among many. God is not the highest being: God is the sheer act of "to be." God is the ground where we are being created. God is to be "to be."...


Read the entire article on Patheos.
In addition, Father Barron was interviewed at the LA Religious Education Congress. Watch the interview here:
Finally, Word on Fire content has been featured around the web on these wonderful blogs and websites. Be sure to visit them at the links below.
Father Barron’s article on Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, and the New Evangelization:
Review of “The Adjustment Bureau”:
The Necessity of the Cross:
Misreading Genesis:
Review of Pope Benedict XVI’s book, “Jesus of Nazareth, Part II: Holy Week”:
Video reflection on Lent and Ash Wednesday:
“Why Go to a Priest for Confession?”
The Last Acceptable Prejudice:
Commentary on John Dominic Crossan:
Outlawing the Death Penalty in Illinois:
Events: