St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

The St. Josemaria Institute has partnered with iPray with the Gospel to bring the popular daily Gospel reflections to life on our podcast. iPray with the Gospel is helpful for those who want to use the Gospel for their daily conversation with Jesus Christ.[ 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!

On the Fourth Sunday of Lent, also known as Laetare Sunday, the Church marks the half-way point through the season of Lent. In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio renews in us a desire to grow in almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Lent revolves around the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, which is the greatest form of self-emptying and self-love. We, as followers of Christ, must embrace the cross and come to know Christ through sharing in His self-emptying.We come to know Christ more deeply through almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Although all three components go hand in hand, Fr. Armenio explains that without almsgiving, prayer and fasting will not work as almsgiving is the animating force behind prayer and fasting. We must live out the works of mercy and seek to love those around us, beginning first with our family and expanding to our friends and those we encounter each day. We must always be able to give a witness to the love of Christ.Fr. Armenio also explains the importance of prayer and fasting, drawing upon the time Christ spent in the desert. Following in this example, we must create a time for silence with our Lord which allows us the opportunity to be refueled in the love of Christ. By spending time receiving the love of Christ, we are then able to go out and share the love of Christ with others. Similarly, we must look inward at our life and ask: how can we deny ourselves to draw closer to the Lord? By taking up fasting, we receive the grace to fight temptation and turn our attention toward the heart of Christ.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 St. Josemaria Institute has partnered with iPray with the Gospel to bring the popular daily Gospel reflections to life on our podcast. iPray with the Gospel is helpful for those who want to use the Gospel for their daily conversation with Jesus Christ.[ 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 St. Josemaria Institute has partnered with iPray with the Gospel to bring the popular daily Gospel reflections to life on our podcast. iPray with the Gospel is helpful for those who want to use the Gospel for their daily conversation with Jesus Christ.[ 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!

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent. He recounts 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. Armenio also recounts the parable of the fig tree. We see Christ personified as the gardener and God the Father personified as the owner. The gardener is advocating to save the fig tree, explaining to the owner that he can cut it down eventually, but it has not yet had its time. Applying this parable to our own life, we see a sense of urgency in the Gospel. Our time here on earth is finite — at some point, it will end. This Lenten season allows us the opportunity to look inward and to begin again: to take advantage of reconciliation, to seek after Christ in prayer, and to reach out in charity toward others.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 St. Josemaria Institute has partnered with iPray with the Gospel to bring the popular daily Gospel reflections to life on our podcast. iPray with the Gospel is helpful for those who want to use the Gospel for their daily conversation with Jesus Christ.[ 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!

In this podcast, Msgr. Dolan shares a reflection on the importance of silence as exemplified in the passage of the Transfiguration of Christ. This Scripture passage reminds us of a popular verse from the book of Psalms, “be still and know that I am God” (Ps 46:11). The disciples who witnessed the transfiguration embraced the silence; they did not tell anyone what they had seen. They understood that anything other than silence would have ruined everything. Instead, they held on to the fresh memories they had made. Throughout the season of Lent, we are encouraged to create an interior silence that allows us to enjoy the presence of God.Pope Francis shares that “the Lord speaks to us in a variety of ways, at work, throughout others, and at every moment. Yet, 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). It is our role as Christians to see the whole of our existence the way that God sees it—to see our role in the history of the world and to discover the will of God. As we make these discoveries, we should have the confidence to joyfully live out this way of life.Lent is a time of purification. The more we take time to think and pray about it, the more we realize the many distractions that are stirring within us. When we embrace silence in prayer, we can get away from the thoughts of what interests us and begin to see what interests God. Silence not only helps us understand the will of God but it also helps us to appreciate those around us and helps us to be charitable. Ultimately, the Lord will judge us on how we use our gifts, and as St. Josemaria shares in The Way, “after seeing how many people waste their lives…silence seems preferable to me, and more necessary than ever” (The Way, no. 447).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 St. Josemaria Institute has partnered with iPray with the Gospel to bring the popular daily Gospel reflections to life on our podcast. iPray with the Gospel is helpful for those who want to use the Gospel for their daily conversation with Jesus Christ.[ 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!

Explore the virtue of fortitude in facing temptation and challenges. Learn about deferred gratification and gumption in making decisions. Discover the importance of not giving up in the spiritual journey. Be inspired by the example of Christ in overcoming temptations. Strengthen your fortitude this Lent season.

In this podcast, we reflect on self-denial as a way to increase our faith and relationship with Christ. If we are to follow Christ, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. Self-denial allows us a certain freedom in which we can live out the Gospel message. The goal of becoming a saint takes a serious commitment, one of prayer and Eucharistic piety. We cannot let laziness get the best of us or hold us back from becoming the person we were created to be. Saint Josemaria tells us, “if you don’t deny yourself you will never be a soul of prayer” (The Way, no. 6). We need self-control to be prayerful, loving, kind, generous, and to live a life of holy purity.Living in a world where we are faced with temptation at almost every turn, self-denial and taking up our cross is of the utmost importance. We are faced with the temptation of the seven deadly sins - anger, pride, gluttony, envy, greed, lust, and sloth. In order to combat these sins, we must not put off holiness indefinitely. Paraphrasing St. Josemaria, he says, “Do it now! Now is the only shot you have. The past is gone, and the future doesn’t exist.”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!