St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

In this podcast, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha shares a reflection on the Holy Trinity and how we are called to respond to God’s invitation of self-giving and love. He explains that “God, who is all perfect and self-sufficient, has no need of us. But, because he is love, he reaches out and draws us into his divine life, into the Trinity.” Our life, therefore, is transformed through the grace received in baptism which propels us forward to lead a life of love as we seek to be a reflection of Christ in the world today. St. Josemaria explains: “We do not exist in order to pursue just any happiness. We have been called to penetrate the intimacy of God’s own life, to know and love God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and to love also–in that same love of the one God in three divine Persons–the angels and all people” (Christ is Passing By, no. 133).As you pause and reflect on the mystery of the Holy Trinity, how will you respond to God’s invitation to participate in this relationship of divine Love?View Tran

“Make friends with the Holy Spirit. Don’t speak to him; listen.”Drawing upon this simple direction given to St. Josemaria in regard to his devotion to the Holy Spirit, Msgr. Dolan prompts us in this week’s podcast to deepen our personal friendship with the Holy Spirit and encourages us to strengthen our conviction that the Holy Spirit is as active and as powerful as ever. We, therefore, must cultivate the virtue of docility to follow His lead and practice the virtue of hope as we seek to fulfill the will of God on Earth.View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: www.stjosemaria.org Also, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!

Are you attune to the work the Holy Spirit is doing in your life? Is it hard to tune in sometimes?In this podcast, Fr. Eric Nicolai shares a reflection on the Risen Christ and his time with the disciples between the Ascension and Pentecost. During these days together, the disciples were learning everything they needed to know for their profound mission on Earth. Christ was entrusting them to “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).Following in the disciples’ footsteps, we too are called to proclaim the Gospel message in the world today. Fr. Eric encourages us to turn to the Lord in prayer and seek the grace of the Holy Spirit so that we can be filled with apostolic zeal to spread the light of Christ among those we encounter each day.As we listen to this reflection and pray, let’s take up the challenge to make one resolution this week through which we can give witness to the presence of Christ among those around us.View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on embracing Mary as our spiritual Mother. He illustrates the idea that Mary is a great miracle worker through whom we can identify with our Lord and conquer the struggle to become holy by drawing inspiration from the Marian devotions of St. Josemaria Escriva, St. John Paul II, and Bl. Alvaro del Portillo.As St. Josemaria Escriva explains: “I would recommend that, if you haven’t already done so, you find out for yourself by personal experience the meaning of Mary’s maternal love. It is not enough just to know she is our Mother and to think and to talk about her as such. She loves you as if you were her only child in this world.” (Friends of God, no. 293).View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: www.stjosemaria.org Al

In this podcast, Fr. Javier del Castillo celebrates the Marian month of May and reflects on the importance of turning to Mary’s powerful intercession, especially through the Holy Rosary. He offers suggestions of how to honor Mary during this important month and reminds us to seek out the graces from Our Lord through the intercession of our Blessed Mother.Looking at the theology of intercessory prayer, Fr. Javier explains that we must “think bigger than favors just for [ourselves]; think of the Church, think of souls, think of conversions, think of vocations… for people who desire to take their baptismal call seriously. We need a lot of those people, the laity. We need to ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers through the intercession of Mary.”View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our we

In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan brings our attention to the days between the Ascension and Pentecost where we join Mary, the holy women, and the Apostles in the Upper Room as they eagerly await the coming of the Holy Spirit. As he explains, “Thinking of those in the Upper Room, there was nothing static about their daily life during those days between Easter and the Ascension. After all, they had spent three long years being constantly nourished by the Master. And so, during that time in the Upper Room, each of them had to dig deep into their interior life in order to grapple with their new situation, in order to seek strength.”As we continue to contemplate the events surrounding Christ’s death and Resurrection, Msgr. Dolan reminds us that Christ is not merely a distant figure of the past but that he is truly alive and present among us! So we also can find strength today in the same charisms that strengthened the Apostles during this pivotal time: contemplation, the Eucharist, and Our Lady’s maternal love. V

Is Christian life growing in and around you?Concluding our Easter Mini-Series: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a meditation on the relationship between contrition and our effectiveness as an evangelizer, in which both are dependent upon the other. Fr. Peter explains that contrition of our sinfulness propels us in a positive direction for we are admitting to the Lord we cannot go forward on our own but instead need his grace and love. By drawing closer to Christ through repentance and contrition, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and, like Peter, we are called to feed the sheep in the flock of Christ through giving witness in word and deed.St. Josemaria explains: “Whenever sanctity is genuine, it overflows from its vessel to fill other hearts, other souls, with its superabundance. We, the children of God, sanctify ourselves by sanctifying others. Is Christian life growing around you? Consider this everyday” (The Forge, no. 856).View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Le

Continuing our Easter Mini-Series: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio turns our attention to the Apostles’ encounter with the Risen Lord along the shore of Galilee in which Peter jumps out of the boat and swims to shore out of his urgent desire to be with Christ. Peter’s actions surrounding the events of the Paschal Mystery show us that we all have the capacity to fall from the grace of God. However, Fr. Peter reminds us that the devil is always conquered if we freely turn to Christ through the sacraments and our life of prayer.Reflecting on the interaction of Peter with Christ on the shore, we see that repentance and contrition is the foundation of holiness. Jesus is inviting Peter back into a loving relationship with him, just as he continues to invite us into a deeper relationship each day. As we seek the Lord through the sacrament of confession, we freely express our love for him and encounter a more profound experience of his mercy.View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let

Are you eager to run to Jesus this Easter season?In this podcast, the first in a three-part series on St. Peter and the Resurrected Christ, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the life of St. Peter and the circumstances surrounding his selection as the first Vicar of Christ. Leading up to the events of Good Friday, we encounter Peter in a moment of temptation as he denies his association with Christ. As the events unfold, Peter realizes his offense and runs to the Lord seeking his love and mercy.Peter’s steadfast hope and trust in the Lord gives witness to the importance of placing Christ at the center of our lives. Fr. Peter encourages us to run to the presence of Christ in the tabernacle, setting apart time for prayer and contemplation, and placing our spiritual life as the high point of each day.View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on

"Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" (John 8:4-5).Join the St. Josemaria Institute each week of Lent as we open our hearts to Jesus and wonder at His love, especially as we listen to His word in Scripture and reflect upon and live the Lenten practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.View Resources:Lent 2022: Jesus is Passing ByMeditation TranscriptSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: www.stjosemaria.org Also, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!

"Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours" (Luke 15:32).Join the St. Josemaria Institute each week of Lent as we open our hearts to Jesus and wonder at His love, especially as we listen to His word in Scripture and reflect upon and live the Lenten practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.View Resources:Lent 2022: Jesus is Passing ByMeditation Transcript Support the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: www.stjosemaria.org Also, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!

Hand in Hand with Mary: A Spiritual Retreat guides us in the season of Lent to prepare, “hand in hand with Mary”, for the glorious Resurrection of her Son, Jesus Christ. By her life and intercession, Mary brings us to an encounter with Jesus Christ to experience true sorrow and repentance of our sins, true abandonment to God’s will, and the humility and strength to accept His will always and in everything.“With immense love Mary looks at Jesus, and Jesus at his Mother. Their eyes meet, and each heart pours into the other its own deep sorrow. Mary’s soul is steeped in bitter grief, the grief of Jesus Christ. O all you that pass by the way, look and see, was there ever a sorrow to compare with my sorrow! (Lam 1:12). But no one notices, no one pays attention; only Jesus. Simeon’s prophecy has been fulfilled: thy own soul a sword shall pierce (Luke 2:35)” (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Way of the Cross, 4th Station).Hand in Hand with Mary: A Spiritual Retreat is a collection of three meditations preached by Rev. Gav

"The first step to conversion is recognizing our own sins. God, in his Mercy, is always ready to forgive our sins, but He needs to find a repentant heart" (Fr. George Boronat).Join the St. Josemaria Institute each week of Lent as we open our hearts to Jesus and wonder at His love, especially as we listen to His word in Scripture and reflect upon and live the Lenten practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.View Resources:Lent 2022: Jesus is Passing ByMeditation TranscriptSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: www.stjosemaria.org Also, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!

"Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his countenance was altered" (Luke 9:28-29).Join the St. Josemaria Institute each week of Lent as we open our hearts to Jesus and wonder at His love, especially as we listen to His word in Scripture and reflect upon and live the Lenten practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.View Resources:Lent 2022: Jesus is Passing ByMeditation TranscriptSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: www.stjosemaria.org Also, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!

“And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1-2).Join the St. Josemaria Institute each week of Lent as we open our hearts to Jesus and wonder at His love, especially as we listen to His word in Scripture and reflect upon and live the Lenten practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.View Resources:Lent 2022: Jesus is Passing ByMeditation TranscriptSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: www.stjosemaria.org Also, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!

As we begin a new season of Lent, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on the importance of connecting with the Lord through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. It is a season to look inward and assess what the Lord is asking us to deny, offer up, so that we can share in his self-emptying and experience the joy of everlasting life.St. Josemaria Escriva reminds us that “conversion is the task of a moment; sanctification is the work of a lifetime” (Christ is Passing By, no. 58). The Lenten season is an opportunity to begin again, to continue laying the foundation of your spiritual journey, and to grow in holiness in your everyday life. By accompanying Christ in the desert, we can put into practice the spiritual tools needed to become a saint in the world today.View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the role of marriage and family as catalysts in revitalizing Christianity in the world today. Contemplating the gospel of the Wedding Feast at Cana (Jn 2:1-12), Fr. Peter explains the significance of the sacramentality of marriage which facilitates a bond of fidelity, love and self-giving between a husband and wife. Through this bond, the home is able to become a school of prayer, joy, contemplation, dialogue, and love. Mother and father are able to share the light of Christ with their children and form their children in society. As St. Josemaria said: “I always look upon Christian homes with hope and affection, upon all the families which are the fruit of the sacrament of matrimony. They are a shining witness of the great divine mystery of Christ’s loving union with his Church. We must strive so that these cells of Christianity may be born and may develop with a desire for holiness” (Conversations, no. 91).View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU

In this podcast, Fr. Leo Agustina reflects on the family as a school of love where we learn to use our freedom, and where we learn the meaning and value of life, sexuality, friendship, weakness, forgiveness and love. “Love is a powerful word,” says Fr. Leo, “and this is our legacy as Catholics… It is a treasure that we have received from Jesus Christ. Love is ultimately what brings people back to the truth.” Drawing upon the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-13), Fr. Leo reminds us that “we don’t love our families because they are perfect, we love our families precisely because they are imperfect… Family is the place where you’re welcome no matter what. And this is something that we need to convey to the world.” If we want to build solid families and relationships, we must learn to love everyone as sons and daughters of God by fostering trust, freedom, and understanding in our homes.As St. Josemaria explains: “What a son or daughter looks for in a father or mother is not only a certain amount of knowledge

Is your family a happy family, filled with love and mercy?In this podcast, Fr. Eric Nicolai reflects on what it means to be a family, following in the example of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In this Year of the Family proclaimed by Pope Francis, “we are called to rediscover the educational value of the family unit… being founded on the love that always regenerates relationships, opening up horizons of hope.”Fr. Eric challenges us to look inward within our family to find consolation in the moments of joy and happiness so that we may be filled with the strength to persevere in moments of trial. Looking to the Holy Family as our model, we can learn how to: forgive, be affectionate, and care for others, accompanying one another in our journey toward Heaven.[ Transcript ] [ Visit Show Page ]Support the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to ou

In this podcast, part of our Day of Recollection resources for the month of February, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha reflects on the importance of the Holy Mass in our daily life. He explains that in every Mass the healing work of Christ becomes present and effective in our world. Fr. Donncha offers encouragement for those times when we may not feel like going to Mass, for it is then when we absolutely need the Mass as it is an encounter with God’s love and a catalyst for our work of evangelization.[ Transcript ]Support the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes with others and leave us a rating or review. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: www.stjosemaria.org Also, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!