The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. The evolutionary behavioral scientist and public intellectual Gad Saad recently published an influential book entitled Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind. In it, Saad argues that much of the West has, unfortunately, come to embrace a perversely deficient understanding of empathy, twisting the natural and otherwise noble human capacity to feel and respond to other peoples' sufferings into a moral license to upend the moral, economic, and political order. According to the dictates of suicidal empathy, for example, society should prioritize criminals over victims, illegal immigrants over citizens, lawbreakers over law abiders, racial identity over competence, adult sexual expression over childhood innocence, and trans women––that is, men pretending to be women––over real women. Suicidal empathy's endgame, Saad warns, is nothing less than societal ruin and the eventual totalitarian eclipse of the individual. How, from a Catholic perspective, should we assess these claims? Is Saad's characterization of suicidal empathy and its dangers accurate? If so, how should we, as Christians, constructively respond? What role, in particular, should the biblical conception of love play in defining what it means to show true compassion and care for those in need? Here to discuss Saad's book and to explain how authentic Christian charity is—and is not—related to empathy, is Bishop Robert Barron.
Topics Covered
00:00 | Introduction
01:40 | Bishop Barron interviews JD Vance
02:45 | How Saad defines "empathy"
04:45 | Saad's argument on the exaggeration of empathy
06:31 | Exploring the concept of "forbidden knowledge"
09:30 | "It will destroy the West"?
11:05 | Connecting wokeism and self-destructive empathy
12:33 | Can we square wokeism's moralizing mandates with its amoral claims?
13:40 | Tracing the movement's origins
16:27 | Mistaking empathy for love
22:01 | Recognizing the fallenness of our emotional lives
27:39 | Does love equate to niceness and kindness?
28:50 | What about "love thy neighbor"?
30:42 | Distinguishing a proper preference for the poor from its unhealthy overemphasis
32:46 | Addressing the Christian impulse beneath the wokeist trappings
34:42 | Listener question: Where was God before time?
36:33 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
Links:
Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/

NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. The Liturgy of the Hours, or the "Divine Office," is often associated exclusively with the spiritual practices of priests, monks, and nuns. To be sure, praying the Hours is an essential part of the lives of those who have formally taken religious vows. However, the prayer of the Church, as the Liturgy of the Hours is also called, is precisely that: a way of sanctifying the day for the whole Church, both laity and clergy alike. With so many forms of prayer already available, however, why should lay Catholics also consider praying the Hours? What, substantively, is distinctive about it? What are its origins? Moreover, given the size and complexity of the Hours—the full liturgy occupies four thick volumes of text with multiple ribbons to mark different sections—how, practically, can we get started? Here to explain the enduring theological and spiritual richness of the Liturgy of the Hours and how it deepens and enriches all Catholics' lives, is Bishop Robert Barron.
Topics Covered
00:00 | Introduction
01:11 | Bishop Barron's diocesan travels
02:35 | Why the Liturgy of the Hours matters to Word on Fire
03:57 | Leading with beauty
04:57 | Prayer and the importance of embodiment
08:06 | The origins and practice of praying the Divine Office
12:13 | How the Liturgy of the Hours shapes priests
13:26 | Understanding the Liturgy of the Hours as the Divine Office
14:22 | Relating the Liturgy of the Hours to the liturgy of the Mass
15:11 | What makes a prayer liturgical?
15:52 | Why the Psalms feature so prominently in the Divine Office
20:06 | How the laity benefits from praying the Divine Office
21:46 | "Pray without ceasing"
23:17 | Getting started with the Liturgy of the Hours
27:32 | Persevering through fatigue in prayer
30:51 | The Divine Office and evangelization
31:44 | Listener question: What effect does our prayer have on others?
34:18 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
Links:
Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/

NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. We're delighted to announce that a new feature film by Bishop Robert Barron will be hitting theaters—yes, theaters—soon. The full-length documentary, entitled Heaven in Stone and Glass, draws on the collective shock and sadness the world experienced watching Paris's Cathedral of Notre-Dame burn in 2019 to explore the enduring philosophical, theological, aesthetic, moral, and evangelical significance of the great Gothic cathedrals of France. Recognizing the potential destruction of Notre-Dame—happily, it has since been restored—as much more than the loss of a historic building, Bishop Barron personally walks us through Gothicism's soaring architecture and richly detailed symbolism to explain everything from the unity and diversity of creation, the nature of the human person, the objectivity of beauty, the meaning of the incarnation, the living communion of saints, and the hope of the beatific vision, and how all of this matters more than ever for a rapidly secularizing West at risk of losing its Christian civilizational identity. Here to share the story behind the making of the film, and what he hopes audiences will take away from it, is Bishop Robert Barron.
Topics Covered
00:00 | Introduction
01:24 | Bishop Barron ordains new priests
02:57 | The role of film in the early days of Word on Fire
06:04 | Connecting Heaven in Stone and Glass to Word on Fire's other films
07:26 | Why a new film on cathedrals?
09:00 | Personal origins of the new film
11:23 | Unpacking the film's title
15:18 | Explaining the full meaning of a church and cathedral
19:20 | Theological reflections within a cathedral
24:11 | Medieval times and the so-called Dark Ages
25:51 | The objective reality of beauty
28:44 | The role of the profane in the Gothic cathedrals
32:33 | Overcoming blindness through appreciation and emulation
33:36 | Evangelical opportunities for Heaven in Stone and Glass
34:56 | Listener question: How can the laity advance beauty today?
36:53 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
Links:
Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/

NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. From Bishop Barron's very first social media post close to 20 years ago, he and Word on Fire as a whole have recognized that the online world is a rough-and-tumble place. While most, over the years, have interacted with our content with charity and respect, even if they disagree, there's always been a gallery of trolls who traffic in insults and profanity and are only interested in taking potshots at the ministry rather than engaging in conversation. So it goes—that's just part of the price of entry into the digital world, especially when evangelization is your goal.
The internet culture, however, seems to have taken a dark turn recently. Whatever limited restraint people used to show in their online interactions seems to have evaporated in a toxic cloud of mob-fueling—and mob-fueled—rage, replete with distortions, deceptions, and sometimes even explicit calls for violence. Exacerbated by the rise of the use of AI, bots, and anonymous accounts often based in foreign countries, it is increasingly difficult to know with whom you are engaging online or what their motives are. And sadly, physical threats from online sources are now also something we must take very seriously. So how should we move forward from here? Is it still possible to make evangelical headway in this increasingly noxious online environment? If so, what principles should guide the way? Here to discuss the challenges and possible solutions to the current state of the online world is Bishop Robert Barron.
Topics Covered
00:00 | Introduction
01:46 | Bishop Barron celebrates 40 years
02:50 | Bishop Barron's early days online
06:58 | Online changes in recent years
12:16 | Anonymity online
17:42 | Applying the cardinal virtues: 1) Temperance
22:23 | 2) Fortitude
24:05 | 3) Justice
26:15 | Recognizing sins of speech
29:23 | 4) Prudence
31:23 | How we move forward
34:23 | Listener question: How would you define respect?
36:23 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
Links:
Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/

NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.

Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. The United States is celebrating its 250th birthday, marking two and a half centuries since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That a country as expansive and diverse as ours has remained united under a single Constitution for two and a half centuries—passing through multiple existential wars, including a civil war, and numerous periods of traumatic political and economic upheaval—is a monumental achievement by any historical standard. How might we assess this moment from a Catholic perspective? What is it about the United States of America that is politically and morally distinctive? What binds us together as a people? Is it accurate to say that we are a Christian nation? If not, what conception of "God" is operative in the founders' references to the divine? If so, what should we make of the future of America given the dramatic decline of Church attendance among both Catholics and Protestants in recent decades? Perhaps most importantly for this moment, what can we learn from our collective past as Americans to guide us into the future? Here to address these questions, and to share his experience participating in the recent Rededicate 250 event on the National Mall in Washington, DC, is Bishop Robert Barron.
Topics Covered
00:00 | Introduction
01:28 | Bishop Barron visits Orlando (The US bishops consecrate the nation to the sacred heart of Jesus
02:50 | Rededicate 250 in Washington DC
04:01 | Is this a Christian nation?
07:10 | How did the Founding Fathers view God?
08:51 | Mere Christianity or Protestant theology?
12:30 | The founding documents and God
14:38 | The Declaration of Independence: a declaration of dependence on God
16:07 | Connecting freedom with human dignity
22:33 | Relating equality with freedom
24:21 | Can patriotism and piety agree?
27:04 | Responding to the post-liberal critique of the American experiment
34:01 | Evangelism and the American Republic
35:28 | Listener question: Is praying for politicians effective?
37:49 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
Links:
Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/

NOTE: Do you like this podcast? Become a Word on Fire IGNITE member! Word on Fire is a non-profit ministry that depends on the support of our listeners . . . like you! So become a part of this mission and join IGNITE today to become a Word on Fire insider and receive some special donor gifts for your generosity.