St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

In this podcast for the Third Sunday of Advent, Fr. Leo Austin encourages us to continue our interior journey this season -- a journey to (re)discover our vocations by asking ourselves the deeper questions of life: Who am I? What's my identity? What's the reason of my existence?St. John the Baptist was asked a similar question to which he immediately answered, “I am not the light, but came to testify to the light” (Jn 1:6-9). We will discover that our vocation is also to testify to the light and to be glowing witnesses of Christ who walks by our side and calls us to happiness. Pope Paul VI said, "In our world today, we need glowing witnesses who know how to break open the dark skies of the world, not with words, but with the witness of their lives."  As witnesses to Christ, we can look around at the world and at every single human being as tabernacles-- all of our friends are dwelling places of the Blessed Trinity.In this meditation, therefore, Fr. Leo helps us to consider the importance o

In this podcast for the Second Sunday of Advent, Fr. Leo Austin reflects on the invitation we receive this season to go to the desert-- a mysterious and quiet place where we can meet Our Lord face-to-face without distractions and without hiding to contemplate our lives and specifically our vocations.Even if he already knows everything, it is good for our relationship with Jesus Christ to open our hearts to him and tell him the story of our lives. This is always a little bit scary, as Fr. Leo explains, but God does not come to accuse us or threaten us. He comes to walk with us and offer us his light. This Advent, therefore, can be a great opportunity to open our eyes and allow Our Lord to point out things that maybe need to change or scars from the past that are not completely healed. Through an examination of our lives and through confession, we experience God's healing and the peace of having him inside us. A bonus of being forgiven is being able to forgive and to bring that peace and dignity to the wor

In this podcast for the First Sunday of Advent, Fr. Leo Austin offers an inspiring meditation to help us focus not necessarily on what we are going to give to Jesus, but on the gifts that Jesus gives to us. He is not asking us to be perfect. He is inviting us to a relationship with him saying, "Come to me."Advent is a preparation for an encounter. It's not about being scared or tense because God is going to show up at any moment and catch us. Advent is a time for us to realize that Our Lord is coming to this world to call us to happiness. As Fr. Leo explains, "It's God coming to see you, to be with you." This is our vocation: God coming into this world, creating us, and then giving us freedom to develop, to unfold, to discover, and to explore. God is telling us, "I love you before you were aware of that and I'm preparing for you something special--an encounter, a friendship, that is unconditional." Yet, if sometimes we don't trust God, the funny thing is that

In this podcast, Fr. Eric Nicolai reflects on the authority of Christ as King of heaven and earth to help us renew our desire for Christ to reign deeply in our hearts and to proclaim with the saints and martyrs, "Long live Christ the King!" The Solemnity of Christ the King was established in the 1920s by Pope Pius XI in response to the great rise of secularism in which people increasingly lived their lives as if God didn't exist. It is not unlike the battles and crises that we are confronting today that also fuel our desire to spread God's kingdom on earth. But for that to happen, Christ has to reign in our hearts now. Fr. Eric reflects on the ways in which we see Christ depicted as king in scripture and in art. Among those images is Jesus's entry into Jerusalem on a humble donkey. "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest” (Mt 21:9). What is an hosanna? Hosanna is a word that was used in the Hebrew liturgy, and then later in the Christian liturgy,

In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan guides us to pray and ask God to help us to stand back to take a look at our life on earth and to realize that our time here is very short.The great project of our life is gradual transformation into another Christ, explains Fr. Fred. We long to change and to be transformed. Therefore, a sign that we truly and passionately want to be fully alive is our willingness to be mindful of every moment and day of our life. We don't want to be sleepwalking or flying blind through life. We want to reflect on deeper things and focus on things that are important, asking ourselves often: Why do I give so much importance to things that just do not matter in the bigger scope of things? This gives us perspective and peace. And it allows us to give ourselves and our souls space to take time to do things calmly and in the right order. Fr. Fred also shares strategies that can help us to live heroically every minute of our life, including not allowing ourselves to waste time trying to undo t

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reminds us of our invitation as disciples of Jesus Christ to connect with God through the humanity of Jesus, especially through the Gospels and through the geographic area revealed by the Gospel itself. Like Christian pilgrims throughout the ages, Fr. Peter shares how he had always dreamt and aspired to the possibility of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and how the experience exceeded his expectations. It is a very profound spiritual experience and an extraordinary privilege to walk among the sites and landscapes where Jesus lived. The Holy Land is the only place on earth that also has an eternal dimension to it because of Jesus Christ, God made man. These places are not just sites from a historical period of time, but they are sites made holy by the Eternal Word made flesh who lived there, worked there, socialized there, worked miracles there, died there, and redeemed us there. The redemption of the world took place there in a given place and set of circumstances. Ther

In this podcast, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha guides us to pray about the gift of the month of November. It is a great gift because it gives us the opportunity to focus on reality, to focus on the truth and love of God, and to recover our perspectives on our own journeys through time and to eternity. This is important, as Fr. Donncha explains, because when we elevate and perfect all the bits and pieces that make up our day, seeing them within the horizon of eternity-- one universal horizon-- we will find the integrity and maturity that give meaning to all the aspects of our being. In the month of November, especially with the Feast of All Saints and then the Commemoration of All Souls, we're also reminded straight off that when we consider time and eternity, we're not alone before this mystery; we're not alone before this journey. In life and in death, we're always accompanied, loved, and supported by our brothers and sisters who have gone before us, who love us, and intercede for us. The saints a

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on how our faith and fidelity can increase through our genuine self-giving to the will of God. Faith is more than just believing or trusting. An ongoing faith or fidelity requires us to go beyond the limitations of our experiences and of our intellects in order to give ourselves more to the will of God and to our vocation as Christians. And, as Fr. Peter explains, our collective vocation as Christians is to evangelize and to attract people to Christ through our friendship, through our charity, and through our counsel. Our Lord is asking of us to bring everyone to him which requires a fidelity and partnership with him. And, we enter into a partnership and into the heart of Christ through three entrance ways: the Eucharist (the vine), the Cross (pruning), and the Word of God (nourishment). Under no uncertain terms, therefore, Jesus says we will be fruitful and we will work miracles. But without that kind of fidelity, we can do nothing. Even as an instrument, we could

In this podcast, Fr. Eric Nicolai leads us in a time of reflection and prayer to check up on our spiritual health. He explains that when we are spiritually healthy, we are grateful and cheerful. But when we are not, even the smallest thing drives us crazy. All those times when we're kind of irritable, restless, disconcerted, really worried about how things are going to turn out, what people might say, that's a sign we need a checkup and we need to get more spiritually healthy. Our spiritual health will come, he explains, if we are men and women of prayer; if we are men and women who turn prayer into a real dialogue with God. Prayer puts us in contact with God, with our purpose and meaning, and therefore has the profound effect of giving us hope. There is nothing more essential for us than hope, to live by hope. We can't really live without hope. We can't even pray without hope. The hope that comes from our prayer is also a reminder that we're never alone-- that's how some of the

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio challenges us individually to answer the question, Why must I pray the Rosary? October is the month dedicated to Our Lady through the Holy Rosary. Our Lady herself has asked us to pray the rosary in the battle against evil and to win sinners back, ourselves included. She wants our prayers because they connect us with her Son-- she is the shortcut to him. As Fr. Peter explains, when Mary takes our prayer and brings it to her Son, it has more effectiveness. And Mary, what does she want more than anything else? She wants to bring everlasting life to every human being. And how does her Son want this done? Through his children--his saints and witnesses. We must be inspired to pray the rosary, meditating on the life of Christ through the mysteries, so that Mary can facilitate our growth in holiness and charity and so that we can take on this war of love and peace, drowning out evil, with an abundance of good in the world.Note: This podcast was recorded live during an Evening of Re

BONUS EPISODE OF THE WEEK - In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the commemoration of the canonization of St. Josemaria Escriva (October 6, 2002).  The commemoration of feasts and anniversaries are designed for conversion and inspiration from the Holy Spirit to connect with Jesus Christ in a closer way. As Fr. Peter says, "although we may feel like a zero or insignificant, if Christ is dwelling in us, Christ is unstoppable." He will use us as that divine pathway to spread the Gospel "to every corner of the earth,” as he did with St. Josemaria.A canonization is an infallible declaration of the Church, which means there is no possibility of error in this determination or judgment of the Church that this person is a saint. This person has lived the Gospel to a heroic degree, which does not mean that the person didn't have defects or weaknesses or sins. Cooperating with the work of the Holy Spirit, he or she has allowed Christ to reach a culmination in their life that they could say,

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio shares how God desires everyone to be a recipient of his message to become saints in the middle of the world and to change the world. This message probably sounds familiar to us today, but it was an unprecedented message in the Church in the early 20th century.In 1928, St. Josemaria Escriva was a young priest in Spain who since seminary had developed a reputation for special graces and holiness. However, as Fr. Peter explains, he was not a mystic or visionary, a missionary, or a founder of a religious order, like St. John Bosco, SS. Jacinta and Francisco, St. Teresa of Avila, or Mother Theresa. Yet, God chose to show St. Josemaria a specific pathway through which he wanted to be in the world in a way that he had never been there before. It was a reiteration of what Our Lord did with his disciples when he ascended into Heaven. God didn't show St. Josemaria a specific institution or organization; he showed him how all the faithful, especially the laity, are called to chan

In this podcast, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha reflects on how the universal call to adoration is the source of our happiness and the source of our true human flourishing and maturing. We can achieve our fullest human and spiritual potential insofar as we worship and adore God with our whole being and with our lives. The universal call to adoration, to give all the glory to God, especially through our ordinary, secular, daily, and sometimes mundane/repetitive realities, in no way demeans the human person, but rather raises us up, embellishes all that we have, and enhances all that we are. As we celebrate the Feast of the Archangels (September 29), Fr. Donncha reminds us that the first function of the angels is to give glory to God. St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael are adorers of the Lord! It's not surprising that the saints, like St. Josemaria Escriva, would have great devotion to the Archangels, who stand before the throne of God and who kneel before the throne of God in adoration. The Book of Job tells

In this podcast, Fr. Leo Agustina invites you to imagine inviting Jesus to dinner as he passes by you at home, your dorm, your office, your kitchen, or your desk. Would you welcome him and listen to him? Would you allow him to open your horizons and give meaning to your whole life? This was the way of St. Matthew (also called Levi) as we read in the Gospels.Jesus was sending a huge message by passing by people at their jobs and at work. He is present, he is aware, and he really cares. But you must be humble enough to accept that your vocation means you inviting Jesus to meet you first, to talk to him, and to follow him. Jesus says “follow me,” if you want to. The calling of St. Matthew reminds us that our vocation is a combination between our freedom and the grace of God--our freedom and his invitation--and that's the beauty of every vocation. In every vocation, there's a story to be told and to be unfolded. And, Jesus is happy to be creating that story together with the protagonist. Our vocation is

In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan reflects on Our Lady, the Woman of Sorrows, and how contemplating her during the Passion of her Son and at the foot of the Cross helps all of our worries and sufferings to pass away.Our Lady of Sorrows places us at her side before Jesus on the Cross to help us mature in our share in the mission of her Son. Bringing us to the Cross means helping us to face up to the difficulties of life, since learning how to deal with suffering is a major step in our personal growth. And, it means sharing in the mission of the redemption of Christ, which gives great depth to the purpose of our lives.As we celebrate the feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14) and Our Lady of Sorrows (September 15), Fr. Fred invites you to also place yourself at the foot of the Cross:Ask yourself: How do I handle difficulties? Do I dig deeper to find its deeper meaning?Contemplate the great miracles of Jesus and see how most of them were messy.Consider: If we don't have the Cross, what ar

In this podcast, Fr. Leo Agustina helps us to prepare our hearts for the feasts of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 8) and Mary's Holy Name (September 12). Her feasts remind us, like St. Joseph, that God is also telling us, “Do not be afraid to take Mary” (Mt 1:20). Mary is a wonderful reality that makes us want to do like St. Joseph, like St. John the Apostle, and bring her into our lives and into everything.In human history, there is a deep line that divides it into two: before and after Jesus Christ. Because of divine providence, we happen to be in the afterwards of His birth and life; and that happened, in part, because of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is wonderful to think about the unity between Mary and Jesus: both hearts beating at the same rhythm, both eyes looking at the same people with the same love, both of them connected in a beautiful symphony of thoughts, loves, and desires. They both look at us individually, wanting to help us in every step we take and in every situation

In this podcast, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha offers a profound reflection on St. Josemaria Escriva as a great teacher of prayer to help us renew our awareness of the essential nature of prayer and how transformative it is.In society, we tend to measure things by people's doings and achievements. But what ultimately gives value to any life is communion with Christ. Without prayer, nothing! With prayer, everything! Prayer produces the fine wine of Christian holiness in and around us. Prayer fills ordinary life with the greatness of God.Our Christian faith teaches us that it is God who seeks man out. He does everything to seek us out and to win our hearts. Therefore, we don't want our prayer to be purely formal, routine, or superficial. We want our prayer to be a genuine conversation, an expression of love, and real communion.To learn how to do this well, we have the example of Our Lady, because there is nobody who surpasses her in the life of prayer. She also reminds us that a person who prays, who seeks an

In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan reflects on how the secret ingredient of contrition gives our spiritual life tremendous dynamism and keeps us joyful, youthful, and approachable because we no longer give excuses for our improper behavior and it restores our proper place in God's eyes. Contrition plays an important role in helping us shake things up and renew our quest for holiness. Contrition also leads us to seek the Sacrament of Confession, which restores and rejuvenates our friendship with the Lord. We allow Jesus to enter our life and give us the grace to be freed from our tendency to simply do the things as we've always done them, simply because we've always done them that way. To be a contrite soul is to recognize the heights to which we are called and the result is that we then fight harder to root out the obstacles that prevent us from experiencing true joy. View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share yo

In this podcast, Fr. Eric Nicolai reflects on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and how this feast is a cause for joy and hope for all of us.Whenever we see the Assumption depicted in art, it's always joyful and beautiful! Why? Because it is a reminder of the ancient teaching that Mary knew no corporal decay, but entered into Heaven and was received by God in body and soul. It fills us with peace to know that she is waiting for us and wants us to come to be with her Son.The Assumption is a feast that we're encouraged to not let just pass us by without really, truly being affected in some deep way. One way to be affected is to enter into a deeper joy, regardless of our situation in life, as we contemplate that something really wonderful happened to Mary because she let herself be guided by God's Divine Logic.  We are sons and daughters of Mary-- St. Josemaria took this deeply to heart, and we should try to do this too. On this beautiful Feast of the Assumption, St. Josemaria reminds us t

In this podcast,  Fr. Peter Armenio reflects upon joy as the foundation for all evangelization and how living joy in our daily lives can lead others to encounter Christ, because He is joy. The particular role of the laity in bringing Christ to the world, especially in the places we live and work, requires that we not only bring the truth of the Gospel to all those who we encounter, but that we always lead with joy and witness to the happiness found in our friendship with Jesus.Fr. Peter shows that authentic joy is not artificial, but is a happiness which results from having the fullness of joy within you.  This joy is easily perceived by others and is fueled by our friendship with Jesus. In order to increase our joy, we can more intentionally abide with the Lord through the Eucharist, mental prayer, the rosary, the cross, and through our effort to love others.View TranscriptVisit Show PageSupport the showTHANK YOU FOR LISTENING!Let us know that our podcast is important to you: Share your favorite episodes wi