St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on joy as an essential characteristic to our participation in the new evangelization. Throughout the Advent season, we seek to remove the obstacles that separate us from God and prepare to receive the outpouring of joy so that we may become a witness to the love of God the Father.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!

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the connection between joy and our personal encounter with Jesus Christ, and how that connection overflows and influences our ability to bring Jesus Christ to others. He also emphasizes how our Lady, the first evangelizer, teaches us how to lead with joy when she visits her cousin, Elizabeth, and announces her Magnificat.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!

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio leads us through steps we can take to help prepare our hearts to welcome God Incarnate this Christmas season. These steps include: contact with Christ by making a commitment to speak with Him and seek Him in our daily prayer; contemplate the mystery of the birth of Our Savior, Jesus Christ; and conform our life to the way of Christ.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!

As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day in the United States, Fr. Javier del Castillo reminds us in this mediation, as St Josemaria Escriva often did, that we ought to thank God always by habitually making frequent acts of thanksgiving, acts of gratitude.Fr. Javier explains: “We were never asked by God to come into existence. Everything we have–our talents, our virtues, even our defects–all have been foreseen by God, allowed by God, and given to us by God so that we can fulfill the single mission that we have received from before the foundation of the world.”As we strive to maintain a constant spirit of gratitude in our lives we will realize that thanksgiving enlarges our hearts to receive even greater gifts from God.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

Drawing inspiration from the Feast of St Andrew celebrated on November 30, the first day of the Novena to the Immaculate Conception, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on our role as witnesses to the love of Christ and participants in the work of evangelization. Following in the example of Mary, who put Christ first and journeyed alongside Him throughout her life, we too must place Christ at the center of our lives. Once we surrender ourselves to the will of the Father, we allow for His grace to work through us and attract others to the Gospel message.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!

On Sunday, November 24, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King. It is a day to celebrate and remember that “Christ, true God and true man, lives and reigns. He is the Lord of the universe. Everything that lives is kept in existence only through him” (Christ Is Passing By, no. 180). On this feast we also end the liturgical year and begin to prepare for Advent and Christmas.In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan reflects on St Josemaria’s approach to the spiritual life in which we must be open and willing to begin again. At the start of a new liturgical year, we are encouraged to look inward, assess our spiritual life, and identify the ways in which we can renew and strengthen our relationship with Christ.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 pod

Throughout the month of November, the Catholic Church commemorates all the faithful souls who have departed this life but have not yet attained the joy of heaven. The Church encourages us to pray for the souls in purgatory, so that they may be freed from the bondage of sin and admitted to their eternal reward in heaven.In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan shares how we can approach our responsibility to intercede for the holy souls in purgatory. Keeping in mind those who have gone before us leads us to contemplate our own spiritual journey and encourages us to look inward and assess how our actions today will affect the demands of eternal life.As St Josemaria reminds us, “The Holy Souls in Purgatory. Out of charity, out of justice, and out of excusable selfishness – they have such power with God! – remember them often in your sacrifices and in your prayers. May you be able to say when you speak of them, ‘My good friends the souls in purgatory’” (The Way, no. 571).Support the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us kn

The Catholic Church in the United States is celebrating National Vocation Awareness Week from November 3-9, 2019. The celebration is dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life through prayer and education, and to renewing our prayers and support for those who are considering one of these particular vocations.In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on the call to live out our baptismal vocation to be a saint. The path to sainthood begins with our response to the grace we receive through Baptism and is nurtured by our participation in the Eucharistic liturgy, prayer, and Marian devotion. Our openness to the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit helps us to realize our mission as a disciple to live the Gospel, to bring the Gospel to others, and to attract others to Christ.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 w

On November 1, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints and, in the Gospel for the day, we hear Jesus’ teaching on the beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12A). In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan shares a reflection on how Christ gave us the beatitudes as an explanation of what it means to be holy and to help us navigate our personal journey towards holiness. We reflect on how striving for holiness is influenced by our correspondence to God’s grace as we see in the example of the saints. In contemplating the lives of the saints, we can be inspired to discover new ways of living out the beatitudes as we pursue holiness in everyday life.[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 fo

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on the spirituality of St. John Paul II, whose feast day is celebrated October 22. St. John Paul II rooted his papacy in the Eucharist and devotion to Mary, inspiring holiness in people of all backgrounds from across the globe. There are many aspects we can learn from the papacy of St. John Paul II, but most importantly he taught us: how to pray, how to love, and how to serve.As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote: “Everyone knows John Paul II: his face, his characteristic way of moving and speaking; his immersion in prayer and his spontaneous cheerfulness. Many of his words have become indelibly engraved in our memories, starting with the passionate cry with which he introduced himself to the people at the beginning of his pontificate: ‘Open wide the doors to Christ, and be not afraid of him!’ An entire pontificate is condensed in words like these. It is as though he would like to open the doors for Christ everywhere and wishes to open up to people the gate

St. Teresa of Avila, whose feast day is celebrated October 15, is a Doctor of the Church known for her work in the movement of spiritual and monastic renewal within Spain during the Counter-Reformation. Her written works are highly regarded among mystical literature in the Catholic Church and continue to inspire readers today.In this podcast, Fr. Javier del Castillo shares insight into the life of St. Teresa of Avila and reflects on an important lesson we can learn from her: the necessity of prayer. Saint Teresa of Avila understood that people are not born saints but can achieve sainthood through cooperation in God’s divine plan. Her time of prayer was most frequently spent in quiet contemplation upon the suffering of Christ, allowing her to become more aware of her own sinfulness which led her to rely more fully on God. In following the example of Saint Teresa of Avila and turning away from sin, we too can walk the path toward sainthood.Support the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is

In celebrating the month of the Holy Rosary, we share a reflection from Msgr. Fred Dolan on the importance of Marian devotion. This reflection leads us to consider our own relationship with Mary, through whom we are led closer to the heart of Christ.As St. Josemaria Escriva wrote: “Today as in other times, the rosary must be a powerful weapon, to enable us to win in our interior struggle, and to help all souls. Exalt holy Mary with your tongue: God asks you for reparation, and for praise from your lips. May you always want to know how to spread peace and happiness throughout the world, through this beautiful devotion to our Lady, and through your watchful love” (Holy Rosary, Author’s Note).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 hel

October 2 marks the anniversary of the founding of Opus Dei by St. Josemaria Escriva in 1928. St. Josemaria saw and understood that the laity, not only priests and religious, are called by God to a life of holiness through their work, family, and personal interests, married or single. He set out to found Opus Dei as a means to offer a spirituality for the laity and the means to help them persevere in their calling to live and work as one more in the world.In this podcast, Fr. Javier del Castillo talks about Opus Dei—its beginnings and mission—and explains the essence of the vocation to holiness, specifically the vocation to Opus Dei. He also explains what it means to have a secular outlook—a characteristic of the lay faithful who are called to sanctify temporal affairs in the world by bringing Christ into that world.Today Opus Dei has thousands of members around the world and many more who are just discovering it and want to know more about it. If you would like a brief introduction to Opus Dei, what is is an

Throughout the month of September, the St. Josemaria Institute is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the first publication of The Way by St. Josemaria. For thousands of people today, The Way is a beloved guide to prayer that helps readers in their effort to get to know Jesus Christ and to strive for holiness in everyday life.We end our four-part podcast series on The Way with a talk by Fr. Javier del Castillo who reflects on the top four points shared and referenced across social media in the past year. Fr. Javier helps us to explore these points offering insights as to why they continue to challenge readers to holiness today.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 listen

The Way is a practical guidebook for our spiritual life that offers insight into real life experiences. The points found in The Way came about from the fruit of St. Josemaria’s interior life paired with intense spiritual direction. He wrote frequently about what he was experiencing, and although the points touch on many facets of life, the core of St. Josemaria’s message is that we are all beloved children of God.In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan offers a reflection on key points from The Way that are useful for consideration in prayer. He brings a deeper appreciation to these points by explaining the meaning behind each point and shares what St. Josemaria was experiencing during that particular period in his life.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 pod

Continuing our celebration of the 80th Anniversary of the first publication of The Way by St. Josemaria Escriva, we share a new podcast on utilizing The Way as a spiritual resource during your time of prayer. Throughout his life, St. Josemaria stressed the importance of maintaining a strong prayer life and used it as the foundational element of his apostolate, Opus Dei. He explained that if we are to be holy and centered on Christ, we must first contemplate Him in prayerful recollection and silence.In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the spirituality of St. Josemaria and shares practical tips for how to utilize The Way during your time of prayer. Acting as a compliment to Sacred Scripture, the 999 points in The Way serve as a stepping stone in starting a dialogue with the Lord and a practical tool in forming your spiritual life.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 con

Published in 1939, The Way by St. Josemaria Escriva has become a spiritual classic that has been translated to over 40 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. In this podcast, Fr. Javier del Castillo introduces listeners to The Way: what inspired its content and how it continues to provide spiritual wisdom and counsel to readers today.Unlike most spiritual works, St. Josemaria compiled the book to be used as an aid in prayer and it is not intended to be read straight through from cover to cover. When using this book with its original intent in mind, readers can find it to be a useful resource in starting a dialogue with the Lord, making the Gospel relevant to our lives, and leading others to the Truth. As you listen to this podcast, you will learn the context in which The Way was written, gain insight into the spirituality of St. Josemaria, reflect on key points written in The Way, and make firm resolutions in responding to the work of the Holy Spirit.Support the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us kn

"Mary seated herself at the Lord's feet, and listened to his word." (Luke 10:39)"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; but only one thing is necessary." (Luke 10:41)A Spiritual Retreat on the Raising of Lazarus walks you through the Gospel account in which Christ demonstrates his power over death by restoring Lazarus to life - a prefigurement of our own resurrection to new life with Christ. As you listen to this retreat, you will be able to journey with Christ as he experiences the death of his friend, consoles Mary and Martha, prays to the Father, and reacts to the people gathered at the tomb.Taking time to quietly reflect with the meditations, we can pray and ask ourselves:- What can we learn from this Gospel account today?- What does this account tell us about the friendship of Christ?- Are we aware that it is only our friendship with Christ that can truly raise us up from the challenges of daily life and from the heavy burdens of sin?- Are we constantly s

In this podcast, Fr. Javier del Castillo shares a meditation inspired by the phrase, “an hour of study, for a modern apostle, is an hour of prayer” (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Way, no. 335). Approaching academic learning as a form of prayer is not a way of life designed solely for students. Rather, it is a way of life that all Christians should adopt as it helps us develop a stronger worldview.Fr. Javier discusses how to approach Scripture, the lives of the saints, and the writings of the Church Fathers as a form of prayer. He also explains how to overcome three common obstacles –– lust, curiosity, and falsehood –– that inhibit our desire to study.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 accessib

On August 15, the Church celebrates the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Mother. She is the woman clothed with the sun, the moon is beneath her feet, and is crowned with twelve stars. We love her tenderly and through her actions she shows us what a life of faith looks like. What it means to become filled with trust and a joy that unable to be disturbed by difficulties.How does this life of Faith begin?Follow Mother Mary’s example:- When the Blessed Virgin Mary was in contemplative prayer she listened and received the Angel Gabriel’s message from God.- She was open to the Holy Spirit allowing herself to be totally abandoned to the truth of the word of the living God.- She listened to the word of God and responded with complete trust, giving God her life to do with as He pleased.We ask our dear Mother Mary to help us to become souls of faith as we nourish our faith through daily prayer and meditating on the Gospels.Support the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to yo