John Barron: Today, we wanted to introduce you to some of the key players in the creation of The Word on Fire Bible. Everybody has talked about how beautiful it is and how wonderful the design is. We wanted to focus on that. And first up, I wanted to introduce Rozann Lee, who is the Senior Creative Director for Word on Fire.

Rozann Lee: Hi, John. Thanks. Happy to be here.

JB: Congratulations on the Bible, but really, congratulations on all that your eye for design has brought to Word on Fire over the years. Word on Fire is known for all of its beautiful productions and beautiful products, and Rozann has had a hand in overseeing and creating virtually all of those. You've done everything from flyers to designing emails to designing books to helping with the graphics on all of the films—the overall look. But there probably was never a project like the Word on Fire Bible. How did this idea come about? Give us the genesis of it.

RL: Absolutely. The Word on Fire Bible definitely is definitely our magnum opus in the design department and I think probably in the Publishing team too. With the whole ethos of the ministry and evangelizing the unaffiliated, there was the obvious necessity of introducing people to the great story of salvation history.

And Bishop Barron, obviously, is very gifted in explaining that story. And with every Bible we saw on the market that looked beautifully produced, there was lacking that evangelical element. There were all kinds of scriptural exegesis, and definitions of words, and the history of different passages, but there wasn’t that enlightening preaching style of commentary.

So we’ve always, always wanted to present that: from Word on Fire, through Bishop Barron, to the unaffiliated as a way to encounter Christ.

So that was always on the back burner, but it was something that seemed so Herculean in nature that it was very difficult to put together. But about five, almost six years ago now, the Publishing team really started combing through all of the publications Bishop Barron has produced—from his books, to his sermons, to his articles, to his commentaries—and aligning them with the different scriptural passages. And he’s also produced new content. And so they really put together that content, and we finally decided we've got to do something with this. So that’s the genesis.

JB: And then as you said, between Bishop Barron and our Publishing team—Brandon Vogt and Matt Becklo, in particular—they put together all of the content and commentary. This thing was coming together, but then it was all sort of dumped on you to figure out how we make this beautiful, how we make this readable, how we make this useful. And that must have been a daunting prospect to think, “Oh my gosh, I’ve got to do a Bible!”

RL: Sure, absolutely. And I think we’ve talked about this before, but looking at the Bible, especially in retrospect, I didn't know what I didn't know. So as the chapters would become complete and we got a sampling of the content from the Publishing team, we would mock up some chapters and styling and see what it looked like for approval.

And the other designer on staff Cassie and I would look at each other, and we didn’t know what we were doing but assumed we’d learn as we went. But we were petrified of the task of designing the Bible because it’s something that lives on forever.

And there are so many elements of the scriptural text that go along with the commentary. You have to make sure they all fit on the right page. If you change anything, it bleeds to the next page. There’s so much to learn, and it’s a whole different area of design than we’d ever experienced, even doing some book design. So obviously we were overwhelmed as that final document came into our hands.

JB: Well, you know what we wanted to accomplish with this Bible: that it would be evangelistic, that there might be an audience who had never really encountered the Bible in a meaningful way before, and that this would be a great way to introduce them to it. So what has turned out here—and I guess it's no surprise, really—is that everybody wants this Bible. It’s not just for a small segment of the audience. Everybody is interested in how this has played out, how the commentary brings new richness to the Scripture. But what did we want to accomplish with this Bible? And do you think we’ve pulled it off?

RL: Yeah, according to the ethos that Bishop Barron and Word on Fire have set into motion, we wanted, just like you said, to lead with beauty. We wanted the Bible itself, the Word of God, to be captivating, but we wanted to present it in a way that elevates that captivation with beauty. And we aimed at the unaffiliated, but as believers and as practicing Catholics, we wanted it to appeal to everyone and be a rich spiritual experience for even the most devout Catholic who knows all of the biblical exegesis. And so we’ve gotten a lot of positive responses from customers in that line, and we’re very grateful, obviously, to the work of everyone on staff and to our generous donors but most importantly to the Holy Spirit and to the intercession of our patron saints, because this couldn’t have been accomplished without them. There’s some miraculous things in place for sure.

JB: Rozann, you talked about how we had assembled all this content. We knew how big a project this was going to be. You didn’t know what you didn’t know. Suddenly the entire onus was on you to bring this thing to fruition. You mentioned the working of the Holy Spirit, so you would probably characterize a phone call we got out of the blue from a couple of guys in Omaha that really set the final lap of this project in motion as such?

RL: Yes, I’d love to talk about that. I feel that with every project we’ve had in Word on Fire’s history, when we have run up against not knowing what to do next or a lack of understanding or skill, God provided the people and the team. That’s been my experience as creative director. Almost everything that’s turned out well has been the result of fantastic people that God has just put in our place.

But, yes, two weeks before the final content document for the first volume of the Bible was presented to us, we got a very providential email from two young men in Omaha that were both designers and had attended Bible study all throughout college together. They had this impetus, on the side of their design careers, to create a beautiful, well-produced, visually engaging, and content-engaging Bible for the Catholic world—like a lot of the Bibles you see in the Protestant world. And they had the requisite design skills to produce it but didn’t have the content. So they had been listening to the Word on Fire Show, and they knew that they could potentially gain that content from Bishop Barron, and as a shot in the dark, they sent us an email. And like I said, the timing was incredible.

We got the email, and we were all so excited. I had to lower my excitement a little bit to write back and say, “Can we see your portfolio? What’s your vision for this? What’s your timetable? What’s your availability?” And everything just snowballed into motion from there. And those two young men are Michael Stevens and Nicolas Fredrickson.

JB: Rozann, I want to just congratulate you on the Word on Fire Bible, and good luck with all of the future volumes and all that you do at Word on Fire. Thank you so much.

RL: Thank you, John.