Shadowing Practice: Trust in God’s Plan - Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Peace be with you.
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Friends, for this Sunday, I want to talk to you once again about faith.
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I know I probably talk a lot about that, but as I've said before, it's the most misunderstood word in the religious vocabulary.
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So here I go again.
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I want to follow the Bible as it walks around this phenomenon of faith, because faith is so central, but also so misunderstood.
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In our time, the way it's most misunderstood is faith is a kind of superstition.
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Faith is a stupid acceptance of things on the basis of no evidence.
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Faith is believing in any old nonsense.
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That's not what faith means.
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It never means that in the Bible.
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That's the sort of modern rationalism that has caricatured religious faith.
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But look in the Bible as it talks about it a lot.
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It never ever means
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that by faith you know whenever it talks about abraham pay attention to those stories
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because abraham is our father in faith
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so those are always about it remember a few weeks ago we had
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that wonderful passage from the letter to the hebrews
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that talks about faith as a kind of pressing ahead toward things
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that we cannot see it's a kind of spiritual adventure right
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well both reading one today and the gospel shed very interesting light i think on the nature of faith.
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So, reading one is from a little -known minor prophet called Habakkuk.
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Habakkuk is a wonderful figure, actually, and the book is brief, but really punchy and interesting.
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Writing at a time, I'll simplify it, when Israel is going through a lot of struggle, the people are wondering what God is up to, where is God?
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Listen now to this language.
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So, he's channeling the voice of the people of Israel.
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How long, O Lord?
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I cry for help, but you do not listen.
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I cry out to you violence, but you do not intervene.
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Why do you let me see ruin?
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Why must I look at misery?
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Destruction and violence are before me. That sound familiar?
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That's a cri de coeur, right?
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A cry of the heart that you could, almost any moment in human history, You could credibly hear that.
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How many times have we said that in our lives?
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You know, something's going wrong.
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We're going through times of great pain and suffering, failure, violence.
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Where are you, God?
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What's the problem?
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When are you coming?
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When are you going to keep your promise to us?
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So it wells naturally up out of the human heart, this kind of question.
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Well, where's it coming from, this sort of attitude?
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Can I suggest this?
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It's coming from the very narrow place,
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the very narrow compass of what we can understand and perceive.
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Think for a second, you know, we have these bodies with this little sensorium of eyes and ears and so on,
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so we can take in what these senses are capable of taking in.
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Our minds, you know, can roam around reality, yeah, to some degree, but what we understand of the present,
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much less the future, it's almost nothing.
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We have a little tiny swath of reality that we're able to control or understand.
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And so from that perspective, yes, we tend to say, what's going on?
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I don't get it.
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God exists.
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They tell me God exists, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything.
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Well, yeah, within this very, very narrow compass.
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Think of if a page of a great novel was ripped out, and then it was thrown to the wind,
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and then many months later you happen to stumble upon the single page, and you pick it up, and it's in English, and you can read it,
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and it's giving you a little tiny snippet of the story.
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But if you were to say, well, Well, wherever that book comes from, it doesn't make a lick of sense.
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This book is ridiculous.
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Well, no, you're reading one page out of a thousand -page story.
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See, what's required, everybody, now we're going to shed some light on faith.
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What's required is a surrender in trust to God's perspective,
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God's plan, God's purpose.
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I can't see it all I see is violence and destruction, and you're not doing anything.
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Yeah, yeah, I know.
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I know.
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That's what you can see of my creation.
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Faith is an acceptance in humility and trust of God's vision, plan, purpose.
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Now, listen to how God answers this cry of the heart that's That's in all of our hearts.
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Listen.
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Then the Lord answered me, and he said, Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets so that one can read it readily,
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for the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint.
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If it delays, wait for it.
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It will surely come.
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It will not be late.
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The rash one has no integrity, but the just one, because of his faith, will live.
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All right, so, Lord, where are you?
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Doesn't make any sense.
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Have faith, and it means what?
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That the vision has its time on God's time.
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God's work is being done.
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Trust in it.
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It presses on to fulfillment.
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Maybe you can't see how it's happening, but it's happening.
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It will not disappoint.
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God is never going to give up on his creation.
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That's a basic biblical truth.
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God is not about a failed work.
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No, no. And if it delays, yeah, from my perspective, it's delayed.
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I don't see it.
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I don't get it.
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If it delays, wait for it.
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See, what is that, everybody?
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That's the attitude of faith.
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waiting in trust for what God will do.
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The rash one has no integrity.
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Well, that's most of us in our sin.
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I'm rash.
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I want an answer now.
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Put it to me on my terms.
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Well, that person has no integrity.
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But the just one, because of his faith, will live.
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Right.
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How do we live spiritually?
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by faith, by an attitude of humble trust in the ways of the Lord.
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Okay, that's Habakkuk reading number one, and it's preparing us for the gospel, which is, to me, a really interesting text,
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the way it's pieced together.
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So, just before our gospel from Luke, what we have is Jesus' command to forgive extravagantly.
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You know, 70 times, seven times.
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Forgive, forgive, even your enemies.
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Forgive, forgive.
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And the disciples, here's where our gospel today commences.
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Disciples say to the Lord, increase our faith.
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They're saying, okay, I get the command, but it's so impossible.
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Can you at least increase our faith so we can move into the space that you're offering to us?
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And Jesus replies, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
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you would say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.
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Now, what's he saying here, everybody?
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Faith is this humble trust in the power of God.
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Hey, forgive your worst enemy well i can't do
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that on my own like i can just muster the psychological strength to do it but
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listen the tiniest bit of trust of humble trust little seed
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little mustard seed that's all you need to unleash all the power in the world
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because faith is an openness to god god who makes the universe
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so the tiniest little look crack in the carapace the the the shell of your own egotism
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that the tiniest little crack in
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that will let in enormous amounts of light shift the metaphor
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will unleash enormous amounts of energy the just person will live
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by faith right right that's what makes your life wonderful and rich, worth living.
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Okay, but now watch how this teaching of Jesus is juxtaposed to a little story.
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I must say, for many years, as I meditate on this gospel, it always struck me as a bit puzzling or a bit of a non sequitur,
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like, well, how do you get from that statement about faith the size of a mustard seed to this parable?
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Well, now, listen to the parable.
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Who among you would say to your servant, who's just come in from plowing and tending the sheep, come here immediately, take your place at the table?
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No, I mean, wouldn't he rather say to him, prepare for me something to eat, and then after we're all served, then you can eat something.
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So, he's talking about a master and a servant of some kind.
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The servant's been out in the field all day, laboring, hot sun.
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And after this long day of labor comes in.
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Well, wouldn't it be nice if the master were to say, come on, come on, you're having a hard day to work.
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Come sit here and let me reward you with a nice meal.
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No, no, no, says the story.
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No, you've been working out there in the field all day.
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All right, now come in.
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It's now your turn to work inside.
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Wait on table and serve me and my friends.
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And afterwards, you have something to eat.
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Boy, it seems kind of rough, kind of unfair.
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Shouldn't you give this guy a little reward?
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Mm -mm.
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Why not?
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When you've done all that you've been commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants.
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We have done what we're obliged to do.
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Now, here's the point.
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I think then you'll see how it's connected to the first statement.
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What's being urged here, everybody, is this stance of humble service.
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In our egotism, we think God owes us an explanation.
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God owes us some reward.
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Hey, I've been at this all day.
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I've been serving you, Lord, all day.
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I've been doing your will.
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Don't I get a little something in return?
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See, if I'm in that space, where am I?
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I'm still in that little, tiny, egocentric world where I'm expecting recognition, reward, acknowledgement.
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Spiritually speaking, that's a waste of time.
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The humble person is the one who says, no, Lord, I exist to serve you.
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And in fact, in serving you who need nothing, remember, I've told you that many times, everybody, and it's very, very important in the spiritual order.
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If we think God needs something from us, then we're all going to be playing this silly game.
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God doesn't need anything from us,
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which is why By serving him lifts us up and makes us more alive.
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Don't think of it as I'm laboring in the hot sun.
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Think of it.
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No, by obeying you, Lord, by doing what you want, by breaking out of this little narrow space of my egotism,
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I now live for the first time.
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The just man will live by faith.
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Right, right.
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break out of this little narrow space where you're playing games with the ego and recognition and who deserves more.
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And if you're serving God in that way, you're not in the right space.
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You're still in a kind of servile relationship to God.
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But what did Jesus say?
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I no longer call you servants but friends that's what god wants that's what's what's enlivening to us spiritually
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when we become the friends of god now link these two things together increase our faith
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if you had the faith of a mustard seed you'd have
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all the power in the world what's faith It's breaking out of egotism.
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It's trusting in the power and the love and the plan and the project of God for us.
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It's surrendering to God's purpose that we might really be alive.
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That's where Where power comes from, where light comes from.
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Humility, everybody, and faith are urged upon us by all the spiritual masters.
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Bernard, you know, was asked, what are the three greatest virtues?
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He said, humilitas, humilitas, and humilitas.
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Thomas Aquinas, what opens the door to the spiritual life?
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Faith, faith.
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The Bible, without faith, we can't be pleasing to God.
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Right, right.
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Faith, everybody, is the way in.
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A trusting surrender to the love, purpose, and plan of God.
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And God bless you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 197 sentences and 2010 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:00. The speaker talks at a steady 144 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- forgive /fɚˈɡɪv/ (verb) — To pardon (someone); to waive any negative feeling towards or desire for punishment or retribution against.
- narrow /ˈnæɹəʊ/ (adjective) — Having a small width; not wide; having opposite edges or sides that are close, especially by comparison to length or depth.
- gospel /ˈɡɑspəl/ (noun) — The first section of the Christian New Testament scripture, comprising the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, concerned with the birth, ministry, passion…
- humble /ˈhʌmbəl/ (adjective) — Not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming.
- delay /dɪˈleɪ̯/ (noun) — A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity.
- spiritual /ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəl/ (adjective) — Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul.
- reward /ɹɪˈwɔɹd/ (noun) — Something of value given in return for an act.
- servant /ˈsɝvənt/ (noun) — One who is hired to perform regular household or other duties, and receives compensation. As opposed to a slave.
- mustard /ˈmʌstəɹd/ (noun) — A plant of certain species of the genus Brassica, or of related genera (especially Sinapis alba, in the family Brassicaceae, with yellow flowers, and linear…
- integrity /ɪnˈtɛɡɹəti/ (noun) — Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.
- surrender /səˈɹɛndə(ɹ)/ (verb) — To give up into the power, control, or possession of another.
- rash /ɹæʃ/ (noun) — An area of inflamed and irritated skin characterized by reddened spots that may be filled with fluid or pus. Also, preceded by a descriptive word (rare or…
- recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/ (noun) — The act of recognizing or the condition of being recognized (matching a current observation with a memory of a prior observation of the same entity).
- crack /kɹæk/ (noun) — A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material.
- destruction /dɪsˈtɹʌkʃən/ (noun) — The act of destroying.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- come from (verb) — To have as one's origin, birthplace or nationality.
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
- come in /ˌkʌm ˈɪn/ (verb) — To enter.
- come on /ˌkʌm ˈɒn/ — Come along with me; join me in going.
- go through (verb) — To travel from one end of something to the other.
- take in /teɪk‿ˈɪn/ (verb) — To receive.
- wait for (verb) — To wait until the specified event occurs.
- go on /ˈɡoʊˌɒn/ (verb) — To continue in extent.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 47 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, we're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rash /ɹæʃ/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, destruction /dɪsˈtɹʌkʃən/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, shell /ʃɛl/
- Long words — get the stress right: integrity /ɪnˈtɛɡɹəti/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, humility /hjuːˈmɪlɪti/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like forgive, narrow, gospel.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | you've been working · I've been serving · I've been doing |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was ripped · being done · be uprooted |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've said · has caricatured · servant's been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | gospel, which is · one who says |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.