VEYM LEAGUE OF CHAPTERS
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, today’s Gospel is the story of Martha and Mary. I’d like to offer a fresh take on this famous little story. One of the principal marks of Jesus’ teaching and ministry is the overturning of social conventions. And one of the most striking and surprising of Jesus’ moves was a radical … Read moreTuesday, October 4, 2022
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, our Gospel today is one of the best-known of Jesus’ parables, the story of the Good Samaritan. Every story, parable, illustration, and exhortation is, at the end of the day, a picture of the Lord. In one of the great windows of Chartres Cathedral there is an intertwining of two stories, … Read moreMonday, October 3, 2022
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in our Gospel, Jesus tells us that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea. What is being communicated here is something simple: faith is power. When our lives are aligned to God we become conduits of … Read moreSunday, October 2, 2022
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls his disciples and us “childlike”: “Although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” How so? Children don’t know how to dissemble, how to be one way and act another. “Kids say the darndest things,” because … Read moreSaturday, October 1, 2022
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus passes judgment on towns who have failed to believe in him and his signs: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth … Read moreFriday, September 30, 2022
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, today we celebrate the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. When the existence of God is widely doubted, it just seems unscientific to believe in spiritual beings. And yet, they are prominently mentioned in the Bible; they are amply discussed by the Church Fathers; and the Catechism of the Catholic … Read moreThursday, September 29, 2022
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, today’s Gospel invites us to follow Jesus above all. The heart of the message is the claim that he is everything, the one for whom a totalizing decision has to be made. I want to consider in detail how one man in our Gospel responded to the Lord’s call to discipleship. … Read moreWednesday, September 28, 2022
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus rebukes James and John for their desire for vengeance. We are walking with Jesus and his disciples as they make their way to Jerusalem. As they pass through Samaria, they are refused hospitality, for their destination is Jerusalem and this annoys the Samaritans. Bothersome? Stupid? Racist? Sure, … Read moreTuesday, September 27, 2022
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus presents a child as the model for his disciples. Jesus has just laid out for his disciples what is going to happen to him in Jerusalem, how he will be rejected, tortured, and killed. Oblivious to this, the disciples are discussing who among them is the most … Read moreMonday, September 26, 2022
Bishop Robert Barron Friends, today’s Gospel focuses on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man “dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day,” while lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, “who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from … Read moreSunday, September 25, 2022