Our Lent Begins - Bishop Robert Barron

Sunday Sermon by Bishop Robert Barron

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Love Makes Everything Better

I think St. Thérèse is saying that love makes everything better. Even if we mess up sometimes, or do something we shouldn’t, love doesn’t just give up and sit there feeling bad. Real love for Jesus takes our mistakes and turns them into something good. It makes us sorry in a gentle way and helps us try again. And when we truly love Him, that love sort of “burns up” the bad feelings and selfishness inside us, like a little fire in the stove. What’s left is a quiet heart — humble, not proud — and very peaceful.

So she is teaching that love is stronger than our faults, and if we keep loving Jesus, He will leave us with a deep, calm peace inside.

Love Kathy, 

Littlemore Farm

Our Mother Brings us to Jesus

The words at the bottom are in Italian and say, “Sacro Cuore di Maria, siate la salvezza mia.” That means, “Sacred Heart of Mary, be my salvation.” It shows the Blessed Virgin Mary pointing to her heart, which is glowing with love and surrounded by flowers. To me it means her heart is full of pure love and care, and she wants to help bring us safely to Jesus.

Kathy at Littlemore Farm

Mother of Beautiful Love

The Latin words under this picture say, “Ego Mater pulchrae dilectionis,” which means, “I am the Mother of beautiful love.” It shows the Blessed Virgin Mary with her heart showing on her chest, and her hands open like she is inviting us to come close. To me it means Mary wants to teach us a clean, gentle kind of love that leads us straight to Jesus. 

 

Kathy at Littlemore Farm

A Very Deep Sentence

That is a very deep little sentence — and very much St. Thérèse

St. Thérèse is saying that she doesn’t need warm, sweet feelings to prove she loves Jesus. Even if prayer feels plain or dry, she will still choose Him, because loving Jesus is the right and sensible thing to do. It’s like doing a chore out of true love—you keep going, not because it feels special, but because your heart means it.

Celebrate Our Lady of Lourdes Feast Day!

The Sunday Sermon by Bishop Robert Barron

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The Litany of The Blessed Virgin Mary

While the Door Was Still Open

Kathy and I were engaged only about six months, and even then it didn’t feel like we were hurrying so much as finally saying out loud what we already knew—that we belonged to each other and we were ready to begin. The length of the engagement never worried me. It felt settled. Calm. As though the decision had already been made, and we were simply waiting for the formalities to catch up with the truth.

But if I had known what was happening in Zeitoun in 1968, I believe even those six months would have felt long.

Not because love should be rushed, but because some moments in history are unmistakably time-bound. The reports from Zeitoun describe something that did not happen once and disappear, but returned again and again—beginning in the spring of 1968 and continuing, on and off, for several years. Night after night, sometimes multiple times a week, people gathered simply to wait. And what they waited for was not a message, not a demand, not a program—just presence.

In that other life, I imagine Kathy and me recognizing that clarity for what it was. We would have married simply, without delay, and gone to Zeitoun together. Not forever. Not dramatically. But deliberately. We would have stayed until the apparitions subsided, which would have meant quite a while. Long enough that the beginning of our marriage would be shaped not by hurry or ambition, but by patience, shared attention, and reverence.

What holds my imagination there is that Zeitoun was not experienced as a spectacle. It was experienced as something quietly real. People didn’t only come to look; many came burdened, tired, hurting. Alongside the widespread reports of the apparition itself, there were also reports of healings—physical and interior—spoken of almost incidentally, without fanfare. Some people claimed relief from long illnesses or disabilities after being present or after praying there. There was no system built to catalogue these things, no medical tribunal, no encouragement to advertise them. They seemed to occur the way grace often does: quietly, unexpectedly, without instruction.

That detail matters to me. It suggests that Zeitoun wasn’t about chasing miracles. It was about standing near something holy and letting whatever might happen, happen—or not. In that atmosphere, I can see Kathy and me learning early what marriage really asks of two people: to wait together, to hope without demanding, to receive without trying to control outcomes.

The scale of what happened there only deepens the seriousness of the choice. The crowds were not small. Tens of thousands gathered on ordinary nights; on peak evenings, estimates ran into the hundreds of thousands. Christians and Muslims stood side by side. Skeptics came. Journalists came. The events were photographed and filmed, and images were shown on Egyptian television, meaning the circle of witnesses extended far beyond those physically present. Even Egypt’s president at the time, Gamal Abdel Nasser, is widely reported to have taken an interest and to have witnessed the phenomenon himself, or at least to have investigated it closely. Whether every detail can be nailed down with documentation isn’t the point. What matters is that this was not hidden, not private, not marginal. It unfolded in full public view.

So when I imagine quitting college in that moment, I don’t imagine irresponsibility. I imagine choosing a different responsibility first. College is valuable, but it is not sacred. A career can be rebuilt, rerouted, delayed. But the chance to begin a marriage while grace was visibly at work in the world—shared, unforced, freely given—that is not something you can return to later by reading about it.

If I had known then what was happening at Zeitoun, I believe the wiser course would have been to shorten an already short engagement, marry the woman I loved, and place the first chapter of our life together where faith was not an abstraction, but something people gathered to witness in silence. We could have stayed as long as Mary stayed, and let that season quietly set the direction for everything that followed.

I don’t say this to diminish the life I lived. I say it because some opportunities are not about advancement, but about orientation. And if I had recognized that in 1968, I think I would have chosen Kathy, our marriage, and a season at Zeitoun—while the door was still open.

Feast of Epiphany

We Hail thee, strong child, who didst put to flight all hell and the powers of darkness. We give thee our homage, and with all our hearts we pray thee to vouchsafe in thy goodness to be born again in spirit in our souls, that, led captive by thy loveliness and sweetness they may ever live united to thy most sweet and loving heart.

Mary, Help of Christians
Benziger Brothers 1909

The last words of Advent were those of the Spouse, recorded in the prophecy of the Beloved Disciple: Come, Lord Jesus, Come! We will close this first part of our Christmas with those words of the Prophet Isaias, which the Church has so often spoken to us: unto us a Child is born! The heavens have dropped down their Dew, the clouds have rained down the Just One, the earth has yielded its Saviour, The Word is Made Flesh, the Virgin has brought forth her sweet Fruit, our Emmanuel, that is, God with us. The Sun of Justice now shines upon us; darkness has fled; in heaven there is Glory to God; on earth there is Peace to men. All these blessings have been brought to us by the humble yet glorious Birth of this Child. Let us adore him in his Crib; let us love him for all his love of us; and let us prepare the gifts we intended to present to him, with the Magi, on today's Epiphany. The joy of the Church is as great as ever; the Angels are adoring in their wondering admiration; all nature thrills with delight: Unto us is born a little Child!

Post Communion (if you received)

May this communion, O Lord, cleanse us from sin, and by the intercession of blessed Mary, the Virgin-Mother of God, make us partakers of thy heavenly remedy.

Andrea Bocelli & Mary J. Blige - What Child Is This