Category: Word on Fire

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Bishop Robert Barron

‘iGen’ are perhaps least religious in U.S.

Jean Twenge’s book iGen is one of the most fascinating — and depressing — texts I’ve read in the past decade. A professor of psychology at San Diego State University, Dr. Twenge has been, for years, studying trends among young Americans, and her most recent book focuses on the generation born between 1995 and 2012.

Since this is the first cohort of young people who have never known a world without iPads and iPhones, and since these devices have remarkably shaped their consciousness and behavior, Dr. Twenge naturally enough has dubbed them the “iGen.”

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Bishop Robert Barron

Mass begins as an encounter with Jesus

As many Catholics know, the Second Vatican Council famously referred to the liturgy as the “source and summit of the Christian life.” And following the prompts of the great figures of the liturgical movement in the first half of the 20th century, the Council Fathers called for a fuller, more conscious, and more active participation in the liturgy on the part of Catholics.

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Bishop Robert Barron

Mother! and the God of the Bible

Spoiler Alert! This column reveals details of a newly released film.

Darren Aronofsky’s latest film Mother! has certainly stirred up a storm, and no wonder. It features murder, point-blank executions, incinerations, and the killing and devouring of a child. I know: pleasant evening at the movies.

Mother! will seem just deeply weird unless you see it as a fairly straightforward allegory. Once you crack the code, it will make a certain sense, though the message it is trying to convey is, at best, pretty ambiguous.

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Bishop Robert Barron

George Weigel’s Lessons in Hope

George Weigel’s latest book, Lessons in Hope: My Unexpected Life with St. John Paul II, is the third panel in a great triptych he has composed in honor of the most consequential Catholic figure of the second half of the 20th century.

While the first two books — Witness to Hope and The End and the Beginning — are marked by careful analysis and thousands of footnotes, this last volume is more personal, filled with anecdotes and stories about the author’s many encounters with John Paul over the years.

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Bishop Robert Barron

Church ministers to body, mind, and soul

One of the greatest heroes of the social justice wing of the Church is, quite rightly, the 17th century “slave of the slaves,” St. Peter Claver.

Born in Barcelona, Claver joined the Society of Jesus and was known, even as a young man, as a person of deep intelligence and piety.

Spurred by what he took to be the direct prompting of the Holy Spirit, the young Spaniard volunteered to work among the poor in what was then known as “New Spain.” Arriving in Cartagena, he saw the unspeakable degradation of the captives brought in chains by ship from Africa, and he resolved to dedicate his life to serving them.

Letter tells of Claver’s work

We have a wonderful letter that Peter Claver wrote to his Jesuit superior in which he vividly describes apostolic work that he did among the slaves, just after they came ashore in Cartagena. He speaks of hopeless people staggering off the ships, stark naked, starving, and disoriented.

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Bishop Robert Barron

The importance of ‘real’ friendship, intimacy

Matt Spicer’s dark comedy Ingrid Goes West is a telling and penetrating critique of the iPhone culture that has swallowed up so many young people today.

Now I know: I have an evangelical ministry that uses social media and reaches out through iPhones and other similar devices. Moreover, I have been known from time to time even to use such instruments personally.

So I’m not going to use this review as an excuse for a broad brush dismissal of social media. But I will indeed use it to encourage you to see this film, which artfully explores the shadow side of living in virtual reality.

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Bishop Robert Barron

Worldly approaches to religion: karma or grace?

Just a few weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Stephen Davis, retired professor of the philosophy of religion at Claremont University.

In preparation for the meeting, I read Dr. Davis’ book called Christian Philosophical Theology, which includes a chapter contrasting two basic approaches to religion throughout the world. The first — which can be found in much of the East — is a religion of karma, and the second — prominent in the Abrahamic religions of the West — is a religion of grace.

Religion of karma

The first approach has a lot to recommend it — which explains its great endurance across the centuries. A karmic approach says that, by a cosmic spiritual law, we are punished or rewarded according to our moral activities. If we do bad things, we will suffer, either in this life or a life to come. And if we do good things, we will be rewarded, again either here or in the hereafter.

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Bishop Robert Barron

Charlottesville and America’s ‘original sin’

I vividly remember my first visit to Charlottesville, Va. It was about 20 years ago, and I was on vacation with a good friend, who shared with me a passion for American history and for Thomas Jefferson in particular.

We had toured a number of Civil War battlefields in Maryland and Virginia and then had made our way to Jefferson’s University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Finally, we ventured outside the city to the little hilltop home that the great founder had designed and built for himself, Monticello.

It was a glorious summer day, and the elegant manse shone in all of its Palladian splendor. We took in its classical lines, its distinctive red and white coloration, the understated beauty of its dome, its overall symmetry, balance, and harmony.

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Bishop Robert Barron

The mysterious church on the edge of the world

Even though I lived in France for three years while doing my doctoral studies, I never managed a visit to Mont Saint-Michel, the mysterious, mystical, and hauntingly photogenic abbey situated on a promontory just off the Normandy coast between Caen and St. Malo.

But last week, in connection with the filming for my Pivotal Players series, my team and I made the pilgrimage.

I first spied the mount from the backseat of the van, when we were still many miles away. It looked like a great ship, moored on the line of the horizon. As we got closer, the place became increasingly impressive, sometimes looming like a fortress, other times seeming to float on the sea.

When we entered the gates this morning to commence our work, we stepped out of our world and into the Middle Ages. Our climb to the top —arduous and steep — mimicked that of thousands of pilgrims and monks and spiritual seekers over the centuries.

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Bishop Robert Barron

Veneration of relics and bodies of saints

I write these words from Milan, Italy, where I am with my Word on Fire team filming new episodes for our Pivotal Players series.

I’ve seen lots of marvelous things on this trip, including the ruins of the ancient baptistery under the Milan Cathedral where, in the spring of 387, St. Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose.

But the most fascinating sight I’ve taken in is the vested and mitered skeleton of that same Ambrose, which rests in the basilica that bears his name, not far from the cathedral.

Skeletal remains

Behind a grille, just under the main altar, lie the skeletal remains of Ambrose and two martyr saints, Gervasius and Protasius, whose bodies were recovered during his lifetime.

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