St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

In our meditation of the week, Fr. Peter Armenio explores the profound significance of the Blessed Virgin Mary's role in bringing Christ to others. Fr. Peter emphasizes how Mary, our mother and queen, is the shortcut to Jesus Christ. She's not just for comfort, but also a force against evil and for evangelization. In Scripture, she's our hope, revealed from Genesis to Revelation as the one who crushes evil. Just as she appeared to humble shepherds at Fatima, she calls us to spread her son's kingdom, no matter our size or influence.Fr. Peter reflects on how our apostolate is a war of love and peace, fought with prayer as our primary weapon. Mary's intercession has led to victories over communism and countless conversions. With faith and humility, let's join her in changing the world through prayer and action. 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

 In our meditation of the week, Fr. Leo Austin contemplates the transformative experience of the Holy Spirit beginning at Pentecost and the command to go out into the world and transform it with the fire and love of our faith. Fr. Leo asks us to imagine the emotional and spiritual journey of the apostles, placing ourselves in their shoes, grappling with the profound implications of Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension. Like the apostles, we will discover that anything that is spiritually relevant in our lives is seen only through prayer. It is through prayer, acquired by recollection, patience and perseverance, that we can transform and enjoy the world way better--that's the grace of our sanctification.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

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Fred Dolan beautifully reflects on the period between Easter and the Ascension, transporting us to the Upper Room where Mary, the holy women, and the Apostles awaited the promised coming of the Paraclete.Through his insightful words, we envision their emotional journey from the despair of the Lord's apparent defeat to the elation of Easter Sunday and the miraculous moments of Jesus' appearances. Their unwavering faith and hope in the Resurrection serve as an inspiration for us 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 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 our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio delves into Christ’s new commandment to love one another as he has loved us emphasizing the “vertical” and “horizontal” aspects of this commandment, likening it to the shape of a Cross.Fr. Peter also explains how strengthening our prayer life empowers us to live out this commandment and how embracing a life of piety serves as the foundation for our spiritual journey.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!

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio delves into the profound significance of the Resurrection challenging the notion that the Christian’s life is one defined by suffering alone. Instead, Fr. Peter emphasizes how Jesus’ Resurrection offers us a beacon of hope, turning our focus from pain to the promise of transformation when we unite ourselves to the Cross. 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!

In our meditation of the week:  Fr. Peter Armenio inspires our prayer this Easter season reminding us that the heart of our calling as Christians is to always be credible witnesses to the Resurrection by making the living Jesus real in the world.But how do make the Resurrection of Jesus credible today? If we're going to announce the Resurrection, like our early Christian brothers and sisters, we have to aim for intimate union with Christ. As Fr. Peter explains, we have to "constrain Jesus to stay with us" like the disciples on the way to Emmaus. And, as St. Josemaria said, "Christ is passing by, don't let him go. Be attentive to him when he's coming by."We must constrain Jesus, therefore, with our desire to be with him, to speak with him, and to implement his words. We must recognize him in the breaking of the bread and be centered on the Eucharistic table; we must learn to listen and talk to Jesus through Scripture; and we must be faithful to our designated time of prayer.

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio offers a reflection on Easter-- the highest celebration of Our Lord's life and victory. But, we must never forget that we wouldn't have that victory without the Cross. To believe in the Resurrection, we have to believe in the power of the Cross. As Fr. Peter explains, every day is a good day to bring the Cross to our prayer and to meditate on the dynamic of the Cross. Our union with Christ through our contradictions and sufferings--the little crosses that we have to bear--produce a Resurrection of Christ in our own hearts and souls.Fr. Peter also reflects on the feast of the Annunciation, explaining how everything is a spinoff from Our Lady's "yes." By work of the Holy Spirit, her "yes" allowed us to enjoy the gift of God's humanity and the dynamics of the Cross and Resurrection.View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite epis

In this meditation for Easter Sunday: Fr. Javier del Castillo invites us to contemplate the Resurrection of Christ and how the Resurrection is an event that can only be accessed by people of faith who have had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. Why is the Resurrection such a mysterious event that is not public, but is only accessed through a personal encounter with Our Lord? Because, as Fr. Javier explains, God preordained that the news of his Resurrection be spread through witnesses that had the credentials of having seen, heard, and touched Our Lord. This is the nature of a witness. Jesus appeared to the apostles, so that they could spread the great news of the Resurrection.Our personal encounter with Jesus today comes from meeting him in our baptism, in holy communion, and in confession. The sacraments make him present here and now. Thanks to the priesthood, we have Jesus Christ present in the Church so that every generation can have the same encounter that the Apostles had. Therefore, as Christians,

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Javier del Castillo explains the great lesson Jesus teaches us in the gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Lent (John 12:20-33), which is that we have to die -- to self and in this world-- in order to really see who he is.From a Christian outlook, death is a passageway to eternal life where we get to see God, face to face, if we have lived according to the faith. Because of Jesus, we can no longer think that our death in this world is the end or something to be feared, it is actually now a new beginning.Therefore, as Fr. Javier explains, the consideration of death is needed to help us to precisely put our heart in the right place. Not knowing when we're going to die is actually something that has has to help us be more faithful every day and to always be prepared for whenever God calls us to himself. And Jesus came to also teach us that all we need to prepare for eternity is love, everything else is superfluous.Today is is what we have; we don't have tomorrow yet. We nee

In our meditation of the week:  Fr. Javier del Castillo reflects on the revolutionary teaching of St. Paul who preached that Our Lord who is rich in mercy will always forgive us (Ephesians 2:4-10). It is a message that is intended to make our hearts rejoice on this Fourth Sunday of Lent or Laetare Sunday.Salvation is a gift. God became man for this purpose, to have mercy on us. We don't forgive our own sins. It is not a conquest of our own. We can't take our spiritual life in our own hands. Where our struggle lies is in opening up our soul to God and having the humility to recognize our sins. Even if we live good lives, as Fr. Javier explains, we must never assume that we are without sin. Our lives will find peace and joy only when we continue to ask for forgiveness: "Lord, I want to hold on tighter to your hand, because I see myself in danger all the time, as long as I am in this world. And I want to be very close to you, really change, try to change my lifestyle, that's what I want to do

In our meditation of the week:  Fr. Javier del Castillo helps us to contemplate the Gospel of the Mass for the Third Sunday of Lent— Jesus cleansing the Temple (John 2:13-25). This is a rare moment in the Gospel when Jesus gets angry because the worship that was due to his Father was being mingled with human motives and was not worthy of his Father God. As Fr. Javier explains, when it comes to the sacred, Our Lord makes no allowances for competition. The same is true for us as the temples of the Holy Spirit. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19) The virtue which allows us to love God and to worship God rightly with an undivided heart is holy purity. Purity is not simply a virtue for the single person but for everyone—married, single, priest, and religious. It is a virtue that allows us to see God behind everyone and every situation in our lives. And it allows us to be a contemplative, to

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Javier del Castillo helps us to contemplate the scene of the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, which we read in the Gospel of the Mass for the Second Sunday of Lent (Mark 9:2-10).Fr. Javier explains how Jesus took the Apostles up Mount Tabor to show them the full truth about himself, about his divinity, so that they could have hope in eternal life and remember this experience of bliss and eternity, especially when it comes time to suffer through the Passion. That is, Jesus took them aside to show them the glory that is a consequence of the Cross and that can only come after the Cross: the Tabor behind the Calvary.In considering this scene at Tabor, we also try to go to Jesus, to look at him, so that we may be enlightened and have our hopes placed correctly in that which is eternal. When we try to discover the Tabors behind the Calvaries, we are freed up of any worry and from thinking about ourselves, and that allows us to recover our peace and our inner joy in order t

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio helps us to enter into the season of the Lent with a desire for becoming good repenters. And he shares the easy steps for coming back to Christ and beginning again. Although we might believe that God must be sick of us for doing the same sinful things all the time, Fr. Peter reminds us that Our Lord never gets sick of us because he loves us infinitely. That is why his favorite penance is a humble and contrite heart, not to shame us but to get us back. Therefore, a spirit of self-knowledge--sincerity and self-honesty--is the raw material for repentance, not to wallow in our defects and sins, but as a springboard to begin again. A humble and contrite heart releases those barriers between ourselves and Jesus Christ. Fr. Peter also highlights numerous examples of good repenters in Scripture, from King David to Peter, from Matthew to the Samaritan Woman and Dismas (the Good Thief). Their stories remind us that all saints begin as very good repenters, and Our Lord is

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio helps us to pray about the sacrificial and redemptive true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and how we should make the greatest treasure of the universe the center of our life.The source and summit of the Christian life is the Eucharist. Therefore, as Fr. Peter explains, "everything hinges on the Mass. In a certain sense, every devotion is an extension of the Mass and must lead to the Mass." And, how much we get out of Mass depends on our presence of God throughout the day, and how well we embrace the Cross. Jesus' crucifixion and death were a culmination of his life of self-giving through his work and through his public life. We have to join Jesus in his death and resurrection, through the cross, expressed in our work and expressed in our suffering. St. Josemaria Escriva referred to the workbench as our altar, not sacramentally or liturgically, but that everybody's altar is in whatever they do. And he says that what really counts

In this meditation: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on how holiness is like the seeds that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel. Holiness grows in each one of us, but it grows by being in a constant state of converting; that is, we are all a work in progress.Conversion requires an overhaul of our lives and a complete change of heart. And, as Fr. Peter explains, step number one is to speak with Our Lord and ask him to enlighten us, so that we see ourselves with the idea of changing, repenting, and becoming more like Christ. Our Lord desires a humble and contrite heart. Step number two, we need faith. We must take to heart every word Jesus enunciated—his example, his witness, his sentiments, and his teachings. Our faith is not where it should be until we embrace everything the Lord says. When we look to Our Lord and ask for his grace, we will discover the tiny ways (or seeds) that allow the natural growth of our Christian life and our progress in holiness.As St. Josemaria Escriva said, "Conversion is the matter of

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Javier del Castillo reflects on the lives of the early Christians and martyrs and the way they gave witness to their faith through the simple actions of everyday life. He explains how we should also foster an awareness of our personal sanctification and strive to be heroic in and through our ordinary circumstances. The call to holiness is a real gift from God, there's nothing we have done to deserve it. As Fr. Javier says, "it's not about us doing anything as much as us getting out of the way so that God can do everything. Every ordinary thing that we do, if we look at it with supernatural colored glasses, can be a little step on our path to holiness." Therefore, as we respond to the gift of holiness with the same faith of the martyrs, we become cooperators in God’s divine plan and witnesses to the love of Christ.View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite epi

In our meditation of the week: Msgr. Fred Dolan speaks to us about our love for a good vocation story-- that amazing moment when someone's life is changed radically. There is something very special about people who have discovered what it is that God has in store for them. Msgr. Dolan explains that the mission that Jesus offers us can change our life and fill it with light. It all comes down to that conviction that we were created, each one of us, in the Lord's image. We were called personally into existence and given a personal name. And, very compellingly, God has dreams for our life.Therefore, during this time of prayer, Msgr. Dolan helps us make the resolution to maintain a vocational sense of life every day. Our prayer can help us to see how much depends on our response, day after day, hour after hour, to the realization that God is there, following us always with his tender love and with his tremendous interest in our lives.View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the greatest gift that we have from God-- the supernatural virtue of charity. Many of the Mass readings during Christmas, Epiphany and the following days, remind us that God really wants us to think about charity. We are especially reminded of Jesus's desire that we, his disciples, should be known by the love we have for one another. Fr. Peter explains that through our baptism, all of us have charity, together with faith and hope, written in our supernatural genetic code or DNA. God gives us what it takes to love with the heart of Christ.As his disciples, no matter what the culture is like, we know that charity is more powerful than resentment, hatred, and coldness. The light of charity always dissipates darkness, just as life overcomes death and grace overcomes sin.So, as we listen to this meditation, Fr. Peter guides us to pray and ask ourselves: When I'm with my family, my friends and my colleagues, how do they detect that I'm a di

In this meditation for Christmas Day: Fr. Leo Austin helps us to contemplate the first nativity scene. Entering into Bethlehem and the stable, he invites us to look first of all to Mary and Joseph and to learn from them. All they had were each other (unity), poverty and happiness.In their simplicity, Mary and Joseph are telling us that we don't need anything but each other. We don’t need anything else but to look at the baby Jesus and focus on him. Look at Jesus-- this is what all the saints have done throughout history. He will clean our eyes and our hearts. He will make us simple in a good way. This also makes it possible for us to just stop and look at each other as human beings. Bethlehem, the city of bread. Bethlehem, the place where Jesus was born. The Eucharist is Jesus coming to us, the person of Jesus Christ taking possession of our hearts and the Blessed Trinity dwelling in our souls. And then, after realizing the love that we have received, looking at each other and at every single human being

In this podcast for the Fourth Sunday of Advent: Fr. Leo Austin guides us in our prayer as we near the end of the Advent journey that is bringing us closer and closer to the day of Jesus's nativity and to the day that changed history forever. Our Lord, in his providence, has been leading us towards the destination that is the encounter with him. There are 7 billion people on the planet right now, more or less, and God is actually coming to us personally. He knows our past and our limitations. The good news is that he is coming to change us and not to inform us about your limitations. He is coming to tell us that we can change and that's what vocation means: a calling to a better situation and happiness in life. Jesus invites us to be open to divinity and to divine intervention in our history. In her humility and purity, the Blessed Virgin Mary did not understand such an honor. But we learn from Mary her readiness to use all her talents, with freedom, to adapt herself to the plans that God has for he