St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Leo Austin reflects on the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary in every step of the way of our lives and vocation. Marking the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the Shrine of Torreciudad (Spain), Fr. Leo  draws from the Gospel of Luke, the life of St. Josemaria Escriva, and the Church’s mission to recall and praise Mary’s role in guiding us with strength, peace, and joy.Listen now to reflect on:• Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth as a model of divine initiative and joyful urgency• St. Josemaria’s miraculous healing and enduring gratitude to Our Lady• Torreciudad as a visible expression of Marian devotion and mission• Pope Leo’s call to renew the Church through dedication to our interior lives• How Mary strengthens our interior life and vocation with peace and purpose• The assurance of Mary’s presence in temptation, sorrow, and daily lifeAs mentioned in the meditation: Pocket Crucifix, Marian Shrine of Torreciudad - Official Website View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the

In our meditation of the week:Msgr. Fred Dolan explores the spiritual and societal impact of our growing dependence on digital devices, particularly among the young. Drawing on insights from Professor Jonathan Haidt’s "The Anxious Generation" and recent cultural trends, the meditation helps us bring to our prayer the devastating effects of our digital age on our attention, mental health, and spiritual life.Listen now to reflect on:• The transformation from play-based to phone-based childhood and its devastating effects• The physical and psychological harms linked to Gen Z's digital habits• How constant screen exposure fragments attention and weakens human connection• Four practical norms to reclaim childhood: delay smartphones, limit social media, phone-free schools, and encourage free playView 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 connecte

In our meditation of the week: On the 50th anniversary of St. Josemaria Escriva’s entrance into heaven (June 26, 1975), we reflect on the enduring legacy of his life and message. Msgr. Dolan explores the central theme of divine filiation - the foundation of Opus Dei’s spirit, and how it empowers ordinary Christians to become contemplatives in the middle of the world.Listen now to reflect on:• The moment in 1931 when St. Josemaria grasped his identity as a beloved child of God• How divine filiation filled his heart with joy and shaped the spirituality of Opus Dei• The meaning behind “Omnia in bonum” and “Ad maiora natus sum”• Why a personalized “plan of life” helps us turn each day into a symphony of prayer• St. Josemaria’s impact on those around him - from young students to scientists and engineersView 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

In our meditation of the week: On the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Fr. Javier del Castillo leads us in a profound meditation on the central mystery of our faith: the Blessed Trinity. Through Scripture, Church teachings, and insights from St. Josemaria Escriva, we are invited to deepen our relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.Listen now to reflect on:• Why the Trinity created us out of a desire to share eternal love• How each Person of the Trinity is distinct yet inseparable• What the Church Fathers and early Councils taught against heresies like Arianism• How Jesus Christ is our gateway into communion with the Trinity• St. Josemaria’s devotion to the Trinity—and his image of “1-0-3” as a sign of humility• Why intellectual humility is essential for contemplating this mystery• How baptism initiates our filial relationship with each Person of the TrinityView TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio invites us to contemplate the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Queen of Apostles—our model of total self-giving and the one who brings us to Jesus through her “yes.” He highlights Mary’s quiet but powerful presence from Genesis to Revelation and the vital role she plays in our vocation to holiness and evangelization.Listen now to reflect on:• Why Mary’s “yes” is the model for every Christian apostolate• The connection between Mary and the Eucharist as “Woman of the Eucharist”• Mary’s presence and role in the spiritual battle for souls• How her example teaches us to give ourselves totally to God• St. Josemaria’s confidence in Our Lady in times of suffering and discouragementView 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.o

In our meditation of the week: Msgr. Martin Schlag guides us to contemplate Jesus as the Good Shepherd who knows, loves, and leads each of us personally. Drawing from Scripture, as well as the writings of St. Josemaria Escriva, Fr. Martin explores the meaning of faithfulness in ordinary life, learning to recognize the voice of Christ the Good Shepherd, and surrendering our own plans in trust.Listen now to reflect on:• How to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd in daily life• Why “letting go and letting God” is an act of deep faith• St. Josemaria’s devotion to Christ as the Good Shepherd• The healing Christ brings when we allow him to lead us• What it means to be both sheep and shepherd in our vocationsView 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

In our meditation of the week: Drawing from St. Luke’s account of the Visitation, Msgr. Frederick Dolan invites us to contemplate Mary’s interior life—her overwhelming joy, her urgency to serve, and her radiant presence as she brings Christ to her cousin Elizabeth’s home. This encounter, filled with prayer and self-giving, offers us a model of what it means to make ourselves a sincere gift to others.Listen now to reflect on:• Mary’s interior life and spirit of joyful service• The meaning of self-giving love with our families and friends• How to cultivate presence, kindness, and joy like Mary• Bringing Christ to others with warmth, care, and encouragementView 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

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on Mary as the model of discipleship. From the Annunciation to Cana, Mary shows us that God’s plan unfolds through human cooperation. Her presence and intercession at the Wedding Feast of Cana not only initiates Christ’s public ministry but also reveals how our trust and obedience allow God to act. Fr. Peter invites us to see how every saint who learned to say “Yes” to God did so with Mary at their side. Listen now to reflect on:• Mary’s role in the Incarnation and evangelization• Her presence at Cana and the miraculous catch• Why she is the model of discipleship• How the Rosary and persistence in prayer strengthen us• The power of her maternal love in our spiritual battleView 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

In our meditation of the week for the feast of Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, Fr. Javier del Castillo reflects on the life and virtues of the faithful successor of St. Josemaria Escriva, whom he affectionately nicknamed Saxum or rock in Latin.Fr. Javier shares how the gift of fortitude, a fruit of the Holy Spirit, was powerfully present in Blessed Alvaro’s life and how we too are called to become “rocks”--dependable building blocks for the Church wherever God has placed us.Listen now to reflect on:• The meaning behind Blessed Alvaro’s nickname “Saxum”• How the Holy Spirit strengthens us through the gift of fortitude• Why faithfulness in ordinary life shapes us for holiness• What Blessed Alvaro’s example teaches us about spiritual resilienceTo learn more about Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, visit: www.alvarodelportillo.orgView 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.

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on how the Risen Christ remained hidden from the disciples on the road to Emmaus so they would learn to recognize him with the eyes of faith. Drawing from St. Luke’s Gospel, Fr. Peter shares how we too are called to encounter Christ daily—especially in the Bread and the Word—through a life of prayer and faith.Listen now to reflect on:  • Why Christ willed to remain hidden after the Resurrection  • How Christ wants to be encountered today through faith in the Eucharist and Scripture  • The importance of prayer as a daily rendezvous point with Christ  • How St. Luke emphasizes interior prayer life and perseverance in his Gospel  • Why spiritual strength and apostolic fruitfulness depend on this kind of prayer  View 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.

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the mystery of the Resurrection and our mission to proclaim the joy that Christ is alive. He explains that we are not called to announce that Jesus is risen through dramatic gestures or grand proclamations but through the example of our faith and our joy.Christ's resurrection is not only a past event but a living reality made present to us in the Eucharist and in the Word. Therefore, Fr. Peter reminds us that we can talk to Jesus and love him even though we don't see him. Through our prayer and conversation with him, we'll receive the grace to know him who is alive and continues walking with us. Like the disciples along the road to Emmaus, we pray that our hearts will be energized and changed, and our faith and hope restored and increased, in order to announce the Risen Christ with our lives.View Transcript Visit Show Page Support the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite ep

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha reflects on the overflowing joy and wonder of Christ’s Resurrection and the living presence of the Risen Lord in the Church, in creation, and in our daily lives. Fr. Donncha invites us to rediscover the Church as the living presence of Christ among us - a gift that is not the result of human effort, but the action of the Risen Lord in history. He reflects on how the Church, sustained by grace and alive through the sacraments, is not something we create but something we receive. It is through this divine life - pulsating in our vocation and in the ordinary moments of daily life - that Christ continues to reach the world.We are reminded that the Resurrection is not only a historical event but the very lifeblood of Christian existence. Through grace, we are divinized - participants in the vibrant, risen life of Jesus. Therefore, each moment of love and faithfulness becomes a channel of Christ’s life into the world. As a result, we are called to rejoice, to evan

In our meditation of the week for Holy Thursday: Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha offers a profound reflection on the enduring, limitless love of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. Entering the Upper Room with the Apostles, we are invited to contemplate the eternal love of Christ, who “loved them to the end,” and who gives us not a symbol but his very self in the Blessed Sacrament.Fr. Donncha reminds us that Holy Thursday draws us into the heart of divine charity—the love of Christ poured out in the Eucharist and in the humble gesture of washing his disciples’ feet. Also being the feast of the priesthood, intimately bound to the Eucharist, we are reminded that priests are “the love of the heart of Jesus,” called to bring his presence into the world. The events of Holy Thursday call us to imitate Christ’s self-giving love, which brings lasting joy and peace.View TranscriptVisit Show Page Support the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you:

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on the Gospel passage of the Passion of Christ (Luke 22:14-23:56) which is read on Palm Sunday. During this holiest time of the year, the Church invites her people to focus directly on the suffering of our Savior, Jesus Christ.The longer Gospel readings help us to honor Christ’s request to “keep watch and pray” with him as he asked the Apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane. In this scene, we prayerfully rediscover God’s love for us expressed through his humanity and sacrifice on the cross. Through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we see his love poured out for us and discover the meaning in the crosses that he invites us to bear each day. View 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 our weekly newsletter: www.stjosemaria.org Als

In our meditation of the week: Reflecting on the Gospel of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1–11), Msgr. Fred Dolan invites us to contemplate the gift of mercy—a central theme of the Christian life. In this powerful scene, Christ reveals the heart of the Father, not through condemnation, but through compassion and forgiveness. It is a call to each of us to examine how quickly we pass judgment, often without even realizing it.Msgr. Dolan reminds us that the devil seeks to divide—within families, communities, and society at large. But mercy, as a free and generous gift from God, restores unity and healing. It enables us to overcome division and to recognize one another as children of God.Drawing from the teachings of Pope St. John Paul II, Msgr. Dolan emphasizes that every human being is a neighbor to be loved. The question is not “Who is my neighbor?”—which already implies limits—but rather, “To whom should I become a neighbor?” Mercy calls us to expand our hearts, to love as Christ loves, and to reflect h

Note: This meditation was recorded in front of a live audience.In our meditation for the Fourth Week of Lent, Fr. Peter Armenio invites us to renew our commitment to the three pillars of Lent: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. As we reach the midpoint of this penitential seson, he reminds us that Lent centers on Christ’s self-giving sacrifice on the Cross—the greatest expression of love. To follow Christ is to embrace the Cross and come to know him through our own acts of self-emptying.Fr. Armenio emphasizes that almsgiving is the animating force behind prayer and fasting. Without charity, the other two lose their vitality. He encourages us to begin with love for our families and extend it outward—living the works of mercy and witnessing to Christ’s love in our daily interactions.Prayer and fasting, too, are essential. Fr. Armenio encourages us to carve out moments of silence in our days to encounter the Lord. In this quiet, we receive his love and are strengthened to share it with others. Through fasting, we

In our meditation of the week: Msgr. Fred Dolan reflects on the 100th anniversary of St. Josemaria’s priestly ordination on March 28, 1925. He invites us to consider the extraordinary fruitfulness of St. Josemaria’s life and his desire to be a genuine priest with a genuine and serious concern for souls that led him to love everyone without distinction.Drawing from personal anecdotes and historical accounts, Msgr. Dolan highlights three defining traits of St. Josemaria’s priesthood: his passionate love for the Eucharist, his burning desire for souls, and his constant search for God’s will. He recounts St. Josemaria's deep humility, his desire to serve without recognition, and his conviction that everything is done by God.Msgr. Dolan reminds us that central to the spirituality of St. Josemaria is the call to place the Holy Mass at the very heart of our lives. For St. Josemaria, the Mass was not a daily obligation, but the center and root of his interior life—something he urged all his spiritual children to

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the readings for the Third Sunday of Lent and how they teach us to see that God approaches us first because he eminently wills our happiness-- a happiness that begins here on earth because of his liberation.Fr. Peter begins by recounting the familiar story of how Moses encountered God through the burning bush. We see God reveal himself as a liberator, seeking to free the Israelite people. God reveals himself to Moses by stating his name, ‘I AM,’ which is the first time God reveals this in Scripture. God desires a personal relationship with us, and like all relationships, this relationship begins with an introduction. This interaction points us toward Christ, as God will become man through whom he will have a personal relationship with his people. Through Moses, God seeks to defeat the Egyptians and save the Israelite people, prefiguring what Christ will do on the cross — defeat Satan and free God’s people from sin.Fr. Peter also recounts the parable

In our meditation of the week: Msgr. Dolan reflects on the Transfiguration of Christ and how this scene reminds us that a major goal of the Lenten season is to create an interior silence that allows us to enjoy God's presence. Msgr. Dolan shares how the scene of the Transfiguration echoes the words of the Psalms: "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:11). The disciples who witnessed this moment "fell silent," understanding that words would have diminished its significance.   Silence is essential for encountering God. Msgr. Dolan quotes Pope Francis who explains that, "We simply cannot do without the silence of prolonged prayer, which enables us to perceive God’s language and to see the whole of our existence afresh in His own light" (Gaudete et Exsultate, no. 171). Lent calls us to cultivate this silence, shifting our focus from distractions to God’s will. How will you embrace silence this holy season to grow closer to God?  View Transcript Visit Show PageSupport the show

In our meditation of the week: we reflect on the virtue of fortitude as the driving force to overcome temptation. St. Josemaria Escriva reminds us, "A task which presents no difficulties lacks human appeal – and supernatural appeal too. If you find no resistance when hammering a nail into a wall, what can you expect to hang on it?" (The Forge, no. 245). To win the prize, you cannot avoid the struggle—it is the very path to victory.  Fortitude is essential for both the spiritual life and human development. Msgr. Dolan reflects on the importance of deferred gratification—choosing to set aside immediate desires in favor of what must be done. He explains that this discipline goes hand in hand with gumption, the ability to recognize the right course of action and take decisive steps forward. A key danger in the spiritual life is abandoning the fight altogether. We can either face challenges with fear and stress or embrace them with excitement and trust.  The Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent recounts C