by Bishop Robert Barron . November 8, 2020 .

Our first reading for this weekend from the book of Wisdom might easily slip past or through your mind, but it shouldn’t. It articulates what is arguably the central principle of biblical revelation: what I would call the primacy of grace. As I have often said, the Bible…

by Bishop Robert Barron . November 1, 2020 .

All Saints Day emphasizes the universality of the call to sanctity. If you isolate a given saint—Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas—they can seem so far beyond us. But All Saints Day emphasizes not only canonized saints but also all the ordinary people, forgotten to history, who God has…

by Dr. Tod Worner . October 27, 2020 .

by Bishop Robert Barron . October 25, 2020 .

A careful reading of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, reveals that Israelite identity was determined through three sets of laws: liturgical, ritual, and moral. In Catholicism, the liturgical laws have been sublimated and the ritual laws largely set aside. But what about the…

by Bishop Robert Barron . October 18, 2020 .

Our first reading for this weekend is taken from that wonderful middle section of the book of the prophet Isaiah. This particular passage is fascinating and conveys a very important but often unremarked upon biblical truth: Israel is God’s chosen people—of all the nations of the world, God…

by Bishop Robert Barron . October 11, 2020 .

Throughout the book of the prophet Isaiah, there are references to God’s holy mountain. In the twenty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, we have still another reference to the holy mountain, and this is our first reading for the weekend. The mountain in question is, of course, Mt. Zion—which is to say,…

by Bishop Robert Barron . October 4, 2020 .

Our first reading presents a classic trope within the Israelite tradition: the image of the vineyard as a representation of the people Israel.

by Bishop Robert Barron . September 27, 2020 .

Our first reading for this weekend is taken from the eighteenth chapter of the book of the prophet Ezekiel—one of the four major prophets, along with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel. This chapter is worthy of careful attention, for it represents a sort of breakthrough in the moral consciousness of the…

by Bishop Robert Barron . September 13, 2020 .

Our first reading—taken from the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth chapters of the marvelous book of Sirach, called in older Bibles the book of Ecclesiasticus—has to do with anger, vengeance, and forgiveness, themes that will figure prominently in the preaching of Jesus. “Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs…

by Bishop Robert Barron . September 6, 2020 .

The Gospel for today addresses an issue of tremendous practical importance—namely, whether and how we ought to engage in fraternal correction. This is the traditional term for constructive criticism of our brothers and sisters. Over and against the modern liberal etiquette of “live and let live,” the Bible does indeed…