During this Advent, we will be sending these Advent reflections and resources from Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire apostolate, once or twice a week, to those who want to receive them. To receive future reflections, click on the red button below.
As a bonus, you will also have access to the complete digital library of premium Word on Fire videos available on Word on Fire Digital.
I hope you'll register to receive them, because we have some great content to help you spiritually prepare for Christmas!
God bless,
Father Keith
As a bonus, you will also have access to the complete digital library of premium Word on Fire videos available on Word on Fire Digital.
I hope you'll register to receive them, because we have some great content to help you spiritually prepare for Christmas!
God bless,
Father Keith
Friends, today’s Gospel reminds us to be prepared as we await the Lord’s coming again.
I don’t think it is the least bit accidental that when Paul wrote back to the community at Thessaloniki (the earliest Christian document we have), his major motif was the end of the world as we know it and the longing for Christ to come to remake the cosmos.
When Paul speaks in that text of Christ arriving on the clouds and the Christians going up to meet him in the air, he is not predicting a great escape from the world of matter; rather, he is envisioning a welcome committee of believers moving out to escort into the world its new King.
The entire Bible ends on a note not so much of triumph and completion as longing and expectation: “Come, Lord Jesus.” From the very beginning of the Christian dispensation, followers of the risen Jesus have been waiting. Paul, Augustine, Chrysostom, Agnes, Thomas Aquinas, Clare, Francis, John Henry Newman, and Simone Weil have all waited for the second coming and have hence all been Advent people.
During this season, let us join them, turning our eyes and hearts upward and praying, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
Bishop Robert Barron
