St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

In this podcast, Msgr. Dolan reflects on how “our spiritual life is a school of happiness where we learn how to be happy, no matter what.” The Christian way of life involves great difficulty and sacrifice, yet as the Apostles understood, “nothing could compare with the joy of a life with Jesus.” Jesus teaches us what it means to be really and truly happy.Msgr. Dolan also explains that our life of prayer sharpens our vision of the things that really matter and helps us protect that happiness that the Lord wants for us. Therefore, the more clearly we set our sights on goals that move our heart, the better our chances of forging ahead without minding the difficulties.As St. Josemaria said, “To be happy, what you need is not an easy life but a heart in love.” (Furrow, no. 795). A strong heart always fixed on the goal can struggle for Love until the end. In this podcast, you will also hear how:▪The more clearly we set our sights on goals that move our heart, the better our chances of forging ahead without paying attention to the difficulties.▪Ensuring our joy and peace depends more on what we truly want and less on the petty tyrannies of the moment.▪Patience is neither naïve optimism nor resignation. It is the attitude of the free person whose love is unfailing and whose sight is always set on the goal.View Transcript Visit 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 this podcast, Fr. Leo Agustina helps us realize that no matter how much we prepare, spiritually or materially, Christmas comes, and we never feel ready. There is always a contrast “between the purity and the beauty” of Christ’s coming and the “inadequacy” of our hearts to receive Him.Therefore, Fr. Leo invites us to adopt the humility and openness of the “broken figures” (or characters) who we find and imagine at the first nativity scene. They show us how all that is needed to welcome Christ is the willingness to receive the Good News. And, regardless of our brokenness and imperfections, Our Lord is always happy to welcome us when we approach him."As you kneel at the feet of the child Jesus on the day of his Epiphany and see him a king bearing none of the outward signs of royalty, you can tell him: 'Lord, take away my pride; crush my self-love, my desire to affirm myself and impose myself on others. Make the foundation of my personality my identification with you'" (Christ is Passing By, no. 32).In this podcast, you will also hear how:• Our Lord uses “broken figures” to deliver the most revolutionary message in human history, a message of hope and joy, a message that will change our history forever.• With our imperfections, wounds, and scars, we are gracious before God, and He comes to us whether we’re ready or not. He takes the lead and anticipates when we need His love.• Dorothy Day wrote that: “I believe that if Jesus can be born in stable, he can also be born in me…”• Wherever you are, God is knocking on your heart. He is not interested in external things and that gives us a lot of peace.• We need to learn from Christmas that God is always happy to come to us and to welcome us—that is the Epiphany.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 this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan invites us to reflect more deeply on the Nativity of Our Lord. “In the Incarnation,” he says, “God has come not only to unleash our power of loving and adoring God but also to give us a model on how to become more fully human."Recalling a famous short story from 1906, titled, “The Gift of the Magi,” Msgr. Dolan gives us the “antidote” to that attitude of commercialization that often accompanies the Christmas season. He helps us ponder the fact that what matters most is “the amount, the extent to which we love each other.” We are reminded that the greater our love, the greater our freedom. And so we want our love to remain open to absolutely everyone; we want the willingness to befriend others in imitation of Christ, who made friends with “tax collectors and sinners.”We pray and ask the Holy Family: “Do whatever it takes to give me that same degree of love [you have]. Help me to contemplate. Help me to develop the capacity to be still, to see that you, Jesus, are God. Help me to grow in love so that I can grow in freedom. Help me to grow in detachment so that I can be happy regardless of the circumstances. And help me to become a better and more understanding friend of all those around me.”Visit Show PageView 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!

In this podcast for the Fourth Week of Advent, Fr. Peter Armenio helps us continue our preparation to "be ready" for Christmas—the celebration of our transcendent God breaking into our own world in the fullness of time—by contemplating Jesus Christ as the true source of peace and joy.St. Paul preached not that Jesus is peaceful but that He is peace; Isaiah calls Him the Prince of Peace; and Jesus tells us: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you" (John 14:27). God wants everyone to be recipients of this description of Jesus. This great joy is for all people and it fills all people with hope.Fr. Peter directs us, therefore, to ask God’s help to penetrate this definition of peace so that we can "always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope" (1 Peter 3:15).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 this podcast for the Third Week of Advent, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the readings for the Mass of the third Sunday of Advent also known as “Gaudete Sunday” or “Rejoice Sunday”.The very first description of Jesus in the Gospel is that he is "good news of great joy" (Luke 2:10). Great joy always surrounds Him and there is always a joyous reaction in the presence of Our Lord. Therefore, one tell-tale sign that we are in the right disposition for Him to come to us is the prominent fruit of the Holy Spirit: joy.Fr. Peter explains that permanent, deep joy exclusively comes from Christ and is the fruit of a close relationship with Him. Joy outside of Christ is just a good mood, a thrill, or a momentary pleasure. Our true joy comes from being that good soil where we habitually seek Our Lord with our whole heart.And, if we are lacking joy, this is the time to examine ourselves: Am I looking for Jesus with all my heart? Is He number one in my life? Do I want Him to be number one?We pray to Our Lady, Cause of Our Joy: "Help me to be less crazy busy so my prayer becomes a habitual activity and my day revolves around Our Lord, and so that I can rejoice in Christ and more effectively transmit His life to my family and friends."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 this podcast for the Second Week of Advent, Fr. Peter Armenio directs our attention to the metaphors of conversion found in the gospel description of St. John the Baptist: "A voice of one crying in the desert, 'prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His paths.'" We, too, want to be imitators of John the Baptist, "albeit in a flawed and imperfect way," as Fr. Peter explains. He points out, "It’s not about my talents, my gifts, my skills; but it is about letting that Christ who lives in me through Baptism, to let him grow so He reveals Himself […] through myself, being an imperfect vessel, but a vessel of Jesus Christ, nevertheless.”During these days of Advent, our calling is to "put on Jesus Christ" more intentionally so as to let His life and His love be revealed through us. Only in this way can we make Christ "real" to those who earnestly seek Him. And, as St. Josemaria wrote, we have two points of entry available to us: "the Bread and the Word." By constantly nourishing ourselves with Scripture and the Eucharist, we will be better equipped to abide in Him amid the busyness of our daily lives.View Transcript Visit 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 this podcast, Fr. Fred Dolan reminds us how this time of meditation and prayer is so important to preparing ourselves for the feast of Christmas, especially because Our Lord wants us to make the resolution "to have our eyes wide open in order to discover all the growth that must be taking place on the inside" during this season of Advent.Fr. Dolan explains how our interior growth greatly depends on our acknowledging our dignity as God's beloved children. The core of our identities and our deepest realities comes from the fact that we are children of God. And, our personal worth depends on God's love who has created us and who has big dreams for us.Therefore, one of the consequences of reflecting on our divine filiation will be "supernatural vision"--learning how to see God's providence in everything. Because, as Fr. Dolan says, "we do not know what is good for us... but we think we do. We have our own plans for happiness and too often we merely regard God as somebody who will help us accomplish them. The true state of affairs is just the opposite. God has his plans for our happiness. And, he is waiting for us to help Him accomplish those plans."As we wait for the coming of the Christ Child, let us ask Him in our prayer today: What are you up to in my life and the lives of all those in my household? We cannot improve on God's plans because His path is the only path leads us to the greatest fruitfulness and joy. 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 this podcast for the First Week of Advent, Fr. Fred Dolan helps us to reflect on this time that we are given to prepare for that central moment in history when God took on our flesh and began to walk among us. Advent is a time to ready ourselves for our eventual meeting with the very person whom we are awaiting and trying to imitate, Our Lord Jesus Christ.Advent, therefore, is a time for conversion. We should not be content with making a few small adjustments that really don’t make much of a difference in our transformation in Christ. Instead, we should aim for the stars seeking the kind of transformation and conversion that the Holy Spirit longs to bring about in our souls so that we can become what he wants us to become. We want a conversion that reaches every aspect of our being.Through the intercession of Our Lady, we can ask for growth in the contemplative spirit so that we decide freely and lovingly to find Our Lord in everything we do and to allow us to see everything from God’s point of view.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 this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the fact that "we're not called to make it [to Heaven] by the skin of our teeth." We are called to make use of all of our time on earth to become saints. But, as St. Josemaria Escriva said, "Time is short, too short to love!" Therefore, Our Lord wants us always to have an overarching goal, which is holiness.This doesn't mean that we don't have other interests, explains Fr. Peter, or that we must become indifferent to everything else. What it does mean is that we are called to make this phrase our mission statement: "I'm going to put the love of Christ into everything I do."Rather than fearing the judgment of God at the end of our lives, Fr. Peter counsels us to be afraid of not having loved enough. "The meaning of human life, and especially Christian life," he says, "is to fill [our] day with deeds of love." And, in this way, to become saints.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 this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio explains an important aspect regarding the Communion of Saints: "the holier you are, the more you help the Church, the more you help the world; it's that simple, that challenging as well." If we want to help the Church, we need to become holier, so that by our deeds of love and charity we will draw many souls to Christ.St. Josemaria Escriva said, "The Communion of Saints. How shall I explain it to you? You've heard what blood transfusions do for the body. Well, that's what the Communion of Saints does for the soul" (The Way, no. 544). The Lord calls us to sanctity, and illustrates the meaning of sanctity by preaching to us about the corporal works of mercy. Our Lord's heart contains everyone, the whole Church, such that whatever we do for the least among us, we do for Our Lord, Himself. And our works of love can also go so far as to merit great spiritual benefit for the holy souls in purgatory, who will in turn help us by their prayers."The results of the Communion of Saints are real," says Fr. Peter, "and they surface, not immediately, but surely [...] the ones who extend the Kingdom are those intimately united to Christ."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!