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eBooks

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Proclaim Christ in the culture.

This wide-ranging collection of Word on Fire’s most popular free, downloadable eBooks offers everything from life-changing book recommendations, to ways to discern God’s will, to a discussion of the truth of the Resurrection.

As you may know, Bishop Barron is a voracious reader. This eBook contains lists featuring his five favorite books of all time, favorite contemporary books, and his favorite classical and modern systematic theology books, moral theology books, biblical theology books, spiritual theology books, and apologetics books.

Happy reading!


HAVING A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS

Evangelization is the introduction of someone into
a friendship with Jesus Christ, into a personal relationship with
him. But as the old adage says, “Nobody gives what he does not have.” So how do we develop a personal relationship with Jesus?

This eBook is an edited transcript from a talk given by Bishop Barron. You will discover the important of walking personally with Jesus in your life and thereby evangelize effectively.


Bishop Barron on tHE PROSPERITY GOSPEL

The “prosperity gospel” is the view propagated by a lot of people today, such as Joel Osteen, that holds that if you follow God’s will, great things will happen to you in the material sense.

This eBook is an edited transcript from a talk given by Bishop Barron in which he explains that following God’s will rightly orders the soul and thereby rightly orders us toward our proper end. That is the prosperity we can infallibly expect from following God’s
commands, not necessarily prosperity in this world.


How to Share Your Faith

Jesus’ call to his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations went out not simply to the leaders of the church then and now, but to all of us, to all the baptized, to every one of the people of God.

Whether it’s at your office, gym, social circle, or within your own home, God has given you opportunities to share your faith with someone in need. The key is learning how to evangelize effectively in our increasingly secular culture.

This eBook is a transcript of an episode of the “Word on Fire Show” for you to read slowly—at your own pace—and reflect on how you can share the good news of our Lord with the people nearest and dearest to you.


HOW TO DISCERN GOD’S WILL FOR YOUR LIFE

As a priest, and now a bishop, Bishop Barron often hears from people searching for God’s direction in their lives. They wonder, what does God want me to do with my life? How can I be faithful to God in my day to day decisions? How can I hear God and be sensitive to his promptings?

We all ask these questions. They are a normal part of the
Christian life. This eBook contains an edited transcript of an episode of “The Word on Fire Show” exploring these questions.
Read it slowly—at your own pace—and reflect on how God is leading you in your life. All discernment boils down to one ultimate
goal: finding the path of greatest love. Let’s seek that path
together.


BISHOP BARRON ON THE DEVIL

This eBook is an edited transcript from a talk given by Bishop Barron about fallen angels. What is a devil but a fallen or morally compromised angel? He also discusses the demonic in the Bible and, the good news and central point to Christianity, the power of Christ to conquer these powers.


Creating A rule of Life

This eBook is a transcript taken from an interview between Haley Stewart, Managing Editor of Word on Fire Spark, and Tsh Oxenreider, an author, podcaster, travel guide, and a recent Catholic convert.

The discussion dives into the rule of St. Benedict and how to make it come alive in our lives as Catholic lay people in the modern world.


HOW TO DISCERN THE SPIRITS

How do we discern the spirits, or more generally, how do we discern the things of God and know how and where God’s moving
in our lives? How do we make decisions in alignment with
God’s will?

This eBook is an edited transcript of an interview between Bishop Barron and Brandon Vogt in which they discuss these questions and their practical application.


THE SIGN OF THE CROSS: RECOVERING THE POWER OF THE ANCIENT PRAYER

The sign of the cross finds its roots in the earliest centuries of the Church and is used today by millions of Christians worldwide. But it is all too easy to make this sign in a routine and superficial way at the beginning and end of a prayer, failing to recognize its true significance.

In this eBook, Bert Ghezzi reminds us that the sign of the cross is a prayer in itself—one that bears great spiritual power. This simple but profound gesture opens us to God, renews our Baptism, and acts as a mark of Christian discipleship, one that repels the devil and helps us to resist our self-indulgence and tendency toward sin.


Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?

The Resurrection of Jesus is the be-all and end-all of the Christian faith. As St. Paul himself put it: “If Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain.” But if he did rise from death, then Christianity is the fullness of God’s revelation, and Jesus must be the absolute center of our lives.

This eBook contains an edited transcript of an episode of “The Word on Fire Show” answering this question: “Did Jesus really rise from the dead?” May you pause to reflect on this fulcrum of Christianity and come to a renewed appreciation for the novelty, centrality, and power of the Gospel.


THOMAS AQUINAS 101

Bishop Barron has said that his whole life changed when he discovered St. Thomas Aquinas at the age of 15. A Dominican friar introduced him in high school during a lecture on the arguments for God’s existence.

Drawn into the complexity and wonder of his work, this encounter helped Bishop Barron fall in love with the things of God and ultimately led him to the priesthood.

This eBook contains a transcript on an episode of “The Word on Fire Show” devoted to St. Thomas Aquinas, introducing his life and the best ways to start reading his work. May you also come to know
the genius and spiritual lessons of this marvelous saint.


IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES: THE PHILOSOPHERS WHO HAVE SHAPED OUR CULTURE

Bishop Barron proposes that four thinkers—two Germans from the
nineteenth century and two Frenchmen from the twentieth century—have been extraordinarily influential on the way we think and the way we act today. Understanding these philosophers will help us understand what’s happening in our time.

This eBook contains an edited transcript of a talk that Bishop Barron gave about Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Michel Foucault.


VIOLENCE IN THE BIBLE

This eBook is an edited transcript from a talk Bishop Barron gave surrounding passages of the Bible that even many devout Christians find difficult. Many wrestle with them, calling them “hard passages,” especially in the Old Testament.

How do we read these famously difficult passages, where God does seem to be pretty violent and cruel? Origen says that we should
read these passages in a metaphorical, allegorical, and
symbolic way, as about the spiritual struggle.


BISHOP BARRON ON ORIGINAL SIN

Bishop Barron calls the start of Lent a time of spiritual “spring training.” It’s time to get back to fundamentals.

This eBook is an edited transcript from a talk Bishop Barron gave to discuss the first reading for the first Sunday of Lent has to do with the creation of human beings and the fall from grace in the garden. There is no better place to look for the fundamentals
of spirituality than that story.


STEPHEN HAWKING AND ATHEISM

In 2012, Stephen Hawking, one of the best-known scientists at the time, weighed in on the existence of God. He argued that the universe required no creator.

This eBook is an edited transcript from a talk given by Bishop Barron to address Hawking’s position. He discusses the inability of science to adjudicate questions that lie outside of its proper purview, which is precisely why scientists end up saying a lot of silly
things when they talk about philosophy and religion.


Letter to a Suffering Church

Letter to a Suffering Church

This eBook is a cri de cœur, a cry from the heart. The sexual abuse scandal has been for millions of Catholics—and especially for the victim-survivors—lacerating. Bishop Barron has written this eBook for fellow Catholics who feel, understandably, demoralized, scandalized, angry beyond words, and ready to quit.

Bishop Barron urges his brothers and sisters in the Church to stay and fight—and to do so on behalf of themselves and their families, but especially on behalf of those who have suffered so grievously at the hands of wicked people. Hopefully, those outside the Church will find some illumination in this message as well.


CATHOLICISM IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS

For Catholics who were already struggling with the abuse crisis and a dramatic rise in disaffiliation, the COVID-19 pandemic is not only economic, social, or medical—it is spiritual. Plunged into a time of darkness and separated from the sacraments and their parish communities, the faithful are feeling isolated, disheartened, and uncertain about what the future holds.

This eBook from Dr. Stephen Bullivant is an insightful and encouraging analysis of the coronavirus, looking at the impact on the Church from both the spiritual and secular perspectives, weaving in his own personal reflections as a Catholic convert and a husband and father.