St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

In this podcast, Fr. Leo Agustina reflects on the family as a school of love where we learn to use our freedom, and where we learn the meaning and value of life, sexuality, friendship, weakness, forgiveness and love. “Love is a powerful word,” says Fr. Leo, “and this is our legacy as Catholics… It is a treasure that we have received from Jesus Christ. Love is ultimately what brings people back to the truth.” Drawing upon the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15:11-13), Fr. Leo reminds us that “we don’t love our families because they are perfect, we love our families precisely because they are imperfect… Family is the place where you’re welcome no matter what. And this is something that we need to convey to the world.” If we want to build solid families and relationships, we must learn to love everyone as sons and daughters of God by fostering trust, freedom, and understanding in our homes.As St. Josemaria explains: “What a son or daughter looks for in a father or mother is not only a certain amount of knowledge or some more or less effective advice, but primarily something more important: a proof of the value and meaning of life…” (Christ is Passing By, no. 28).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!

Is your family a happy family, filled with love and mercy?In this podcast, Fr. Eric Nicolai reflects on what it means to be a family, following in the example of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In this Year of the Family proclaimed by Pope Francis, “we are called to rediscover the educational value of the family unit… being founded on the love that always regenerates relationships, opening up horizons of hope.”Fr. Eric challenges us to look inward within our family to find consolation in the moments of joy and happiness so that we may be filled with the strength to persevere in moments of trial. Looking to the Holy Family as our model, we can learn how to: forgive, be affectionate, and care for others, accompanying one another in our journey toward Heaven.[ 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 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, part of our Day of Recollection resources for the month of February, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha reflects on the importance of the Holy Mass in our daily life. He explains that in every Mass the healing work of Christ becomes present and effective in our world. Fr. Donncha offers encouragement for those times when we may not feel like going to Mass, for it is then when we absolutely need the Mass as it is an encounter with God’s love and a catalyst for our work of evangelization.[ 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 for all our listeners: Give today!

How can you create a family environment in which each person can thrive?In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan concludes our series, Marriage: A Christian Vocation, by reflecting on the virtues and ideals necessary to build up a strong, Christian family. Looking to the Holy Family as our example, Msgr. Dolan encourages all men and women to go about parenting in a thoughtful way, ready to invest the time and effort necessary to foster the following virtues in the home: faith, trust, patience, resilience, and joy.As St. Josemaria explains: “Every Christian home should be a place of peace and serenity. In spite of the small frustrations of daily life, an atmosphere of profound and sincere affection should reign there together with a deep-rooted calm, which is the result of authentic faith that is put into practice” (Christ is Passing By, no. 22).[ 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 Also, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!

Continuing our series, Marriage: A Christian Vocation: In this podcast, Msgr. Dolan reflects on safeguarding the holy sacrament of matrimony through the trials and temptations that may arise. He explains that couples are called to continually seek the good of the other and to give of oneself just as Jesus gave himself to the point of death for each one of us.St. Josemaria reminds us: “We would have a poor idea of marriage and of human affection if we were to think that love and joy come to an end when difficulties arise. It is precisely then that our true sentiments come to the surface. Then the tenderness of a person’s gift takes root and shows itself in a true and profound affection that is stronger than death” (Christ is Passing By, no. 24).[ 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 Also, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!

Through June 2022, in union with the whole Church, the St. Josemaria Institute podcasts, reflections and programs will be celebrating the topic of the Joy of the Family. This month, we will begin with a three-part series from Msgr. Fred Dolan offering a deeper reflection on the sacrament of marriage as a Christian vocation.Msgr. Dolan begins this series by sharing considerations from Pope Francis’ recent Letter to Married Couples for the “Amoris Laetitia Family” Year. Drawing upon the example of Mary and Joseph, we are given an example of how to respond to unexpected circumstances with faith and confidence in God’s loving providence.Pope Francis reminds us: “Marriage, as a vocation, calls you to steer a tiny boat across a sometimes stormy sea. Let us never forget, though, that by virtue of the sacrament of matrimony, Jesus is present in that boat; he is concerned for you and he remains at your side amid the tempest.”[ 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 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, part of our Day of Recollection resources for the month of January, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on our call to be sowers of peace and joy in the world today as we seek to lift up one another in charity. We see in Scripture that Christ comes to us as the good news of great joy, coming to Earth to save each person from sin. Fr. Peter reminds us that we are called to be an extension of Christ, reflecting his light and love to all people, living out the mission of the universal Church.St. Josemaria explains: “Christian apostolate is not a political program or a cultural alternative. It implies the spreading of good, infecting others with a desire to love, sowing peace and joy. We have the obligation of leading a fully Christian life, of becoming saints, of not betraying God and all those who expect a Christian to be an example and a source of truth” (Christ is Passing By, no. 124).[ 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 for all our listeners: Give today!

Do you have the aspiration, the desire, to give yourself completely to God? What is holding you back?In this podcast, as we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (January 1), Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha reflects on our vocation as children of God and our calling to begin again as we give witness to the incarnate love of God the Father. Fr. Donncha explains: “The Lord wants to become incarnate in us, to live in and through us. You and I are called to live out our vocation as beloved daughters and sons in Christ and to become identified with Christ.” As we begin the New Year, we turn to the example of Mary and contemplate her docility to the Holy Spirit as she freely responded to the will of God in her role as our Blessed Mother. We can, therefore, seek the grace of the Holy Spirit in our own life and renew our desire to say yes to God more each day as we set forth in the New Year.[ 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 for all our listeners: Give today!

The Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family on December 26, marking the halfway point for The Year of the Family: March 19, 2021 - June 26, 2022.In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan reflects on keys themes from Amoris laetitia, an Apostolic exhortation on love in the family written by Pope Francis. This exhortation sets forth the goal for us and our families to resemble more and more closely the Holy Family of Nazareth so that we become, as Msgr. Dolan encourages us, “leaven of a new humanity and of a concrete and universal solidarity.”[ 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 for all our listeners: Give today!

To conclude our Advent series:  In this week’s podcast, Fr. Javier reflects on the last of the cardinal virtues: temperance. The holiday season, in particular, is a good time to reflect on this virtue as we battle the temptations of partaking in so many pleasurable things and activities all around us! Temperance, the “virtue which allows us to regulate those things that give us pleasure here and now”, helps us “to use them, but not abuse them—to use them temperately insofar as they lead us to our ultimate end.” From his humble birth to later in life, Jesus Christ lived a spirit of temperance which allowed him to use the created world in order to save souls and bring them closer to God. As Fr. Javier explains: “For Jesus, the world is good— we have to know that. In fact, everything is created in the Word, everything is created in Him, and unto Him, and for Him. And so, there are no bad things that exist. But all those good things that exist need to be thought about very carefully, because the way we use those things in the world that are good, could lead us closer to God or could lead us away from God.“This last week of Advent, as we prepare to welcome Jesus, we ask ourselves: What am I looking for? Am I looking for safety and security in material things? How can I let go of those things that pass away?Download the companion to our Advent series and go deeper to enrich your prayer throughout the week: Be Ready![ 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 for all our listeners: Give today!