St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

As we prepare for the upcoming season of Lent, in this podcast we turn our attention to the life of Saint Paul. Paul, who once led the persecution of the early Christian church, had a profound conversion after encountering the love of Christ and in turn, began to lead the spread of the Christian faith. Paul shows us that we evangelize by giving others a similar experience to what we had when we first encountered Christ. Paul preaches ‘Christ crucified’, that we must ‘put on Jesus Christ’.During his visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, Saint Josemaria Escriva shares that we ‘need more heart’. Josemaria explains that we have become a society in which we idolize work and the creature comforts of this world, when in reality, we must seek to put people first over work. He encourages us to invest in a small community in which we can share in the love of Christ. Josemaria explains that “sometimes you find serious shortcomings in Christians’ lives, but the important thing is not ourselves and our shortcomings. The only thing that matters is Jesus. It is Christ we must talk about, not ourselves” (Christ Is Passing By, no. 163).During his public ministry, Christ shares with us the analogy that “[we] are the light of the world” (Mt 5:14). As Christians, we are always ‘on’. In a popular phrase commonly attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, he emphasizes Christ’s point in that we must “preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words”. In every analogy Christ uses in the Gospels, he never uses speech as an example: “you are the light of the world” (Mt 5:14); “you are the salt of the earth” (Mt 5:13); “I am the vine, you are the branches” (Jn 15:5) - these are just some of the examples. Christ shows us that presence takes precedence over preaching.In his letter to the Philippians, Paul tells them, “rejoice in the Lord always; your kindness should be known to all (Phil 4:4-5). We see that joy is an expression of charity. The more we experience the love of Christ, the more contagious our joy becomes. If we are to ‘put on Christ’, we should receive the Eucharist frequently, spend time in adoration and mental prayer, and pray the rosary. We must let people see our joy and kindness which will lead them to the love 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!

In this podcast, we reflect on the greatest gift of all: charity. Charity is the foundation for all virtues, for if a virtue does not come from a place of love, then it is for nothing. Saint Paul shares in his letter to the Corinthians that “if [we] speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, [we] are a resounding gong or a clashing symbol. Likewise, if [we] have a faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, [we] are nothing” (1 Cor 13:1-2). The gift of charity is instilled in each one of us throughout childhood. Parents must witness the love of Christ for their children. They must walk the walk so that their children may come to know and experience the love of Christ. In his letters, Saint Paul tells the early church to ‘put on Christ’ as a symbol of their faith. Just as a person can tell if someone is a cop, a nurse, a firefighter, etc. based on the certain uniform they wear, living out the virtue of charity is our sign that we live for Christ. Others need to see Him in us through the way we love.We foster the virtue of charity by spending time with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. As we spend time with Christ through prayer, our goal is that our “behavior and conversation be such that everyone who sees or hears [us] can say: this man reads the life of Christ” (The Way, 2).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!

As we celebrate National Marriage Week, we reflect in this podcast on the Holy Family as the foundation and model of the love of Christ. We are reminded of the greatest event in history - God becoming human, becoming part of this universe. God came into this world through a family, spending the majority of his life in his home in Nazareth. It is through the hidden life of Christ that we come to understand the great commandment, “love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). Christ spent the majority of his life putting this commandment into practice at home before spending his final years teaching it to others. Our ‘arena’ in which we can put the love of Christ into action is at home. The home of a family is a natural setting in which prayer, service, joy, and love, among other virtues, are first taught and lived out. If we seek to change the world, we must first begin at home, in our own corner of the world, exhibiting a love that fosters a family atmosphere. We must also be rooted in prayer. Saint Paul tells us that through prayer, the love of God is poured into our heart. We can not love like Christ if we do not know Christ. And thus, we turn to the words of Saint Josemaria Escriva, “My God, teach me how to love! My God, teach me how to pray! (The Forge, no. 66)”.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 this podcast we reflect on beginning a new year and what it means to begin again. During this time of prayer, we want to ask ourselves: What can I do to make these twelve months ahead spectacular?First, we want to accelerate to the finish, which means hastening towards our goal of Heaven. This brings up the topic of strategy: How do we go about doing it? Jesus Christ shows us the way. He said to be perfect like His Heavenly Father is perfect and He gives us the gift of forgiveness of sins— the sacrament of confession. The Lord is telling us that when we begin again, when we give Him a chance to forgive us, He is filled with joy because we allow Him to exercise His mercy. As a result of the sacrament, we will reflect joy and serenity because of the marvelous gift of mercy. St. Josemaria called it the sacrament of joy because it guarantees our turning back to God and restores our divine friendship with Him.This reflection should inspire us to make the resolution to do whatever it takes to go to confession regularly. It should also inspire us to ask Our Lord to help us find the right time and way to bring up the topic of “beginning again” among our friends and coworkers, especially a friend who is hurting. We want to be like the faithful friends who carried the paralytic man to Jesus; his sins were forgiven and he was brought to life (Mark 2:1-12). We want to pray about that friend (or friends) during the coming weeks, knowing that our friends will never forget us for having helped restore them to life.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 this podcast we reflect on our personal journey to follow Jesus Christ. To follow Jesus is a journey and this is why he says he is the way (John 14:6). And, the geography of this journey is the human heart--our hearts. Like the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), our journey begins by contemplating the love of the Father, how good we have it at home, and we repent for underestimating the infinite mercy of God. Like the son, we feel his heartfelt sorrow for alienating himself from his father. Repentance leads to faith. In the Gospel when we hear the word faith or belief it means a whole change in lifestyle. To have full belief means that we incarnate everything that Jesus Christ says. And, following the example of Jesus, our faith is inspired by deeds of love--the more love the more faith. Then, like the young rich man, Jesus asks us to keep the commandments. As Pope St. John Paul II explained, we live the commandments in order to own ourselves and have a threshold of self-control and freedom in order to live a higher law of holiness. And the raw material of holiness is the total gift of self, like Our Lady and St. Joseph.We need to live holiness the way Mary and St. Joseph did amid the ordinary. The Lord is asking us to have the disposition for putting Him first, by taking concrete steps--baby steps--in the direction of the center. And, He is the center. "Why don't you give yourself to God once and for all... really..., now?" (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Way, no. 902).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!

Today on the podcast a reflection on the words of Jesus : “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me" (John 15:1-4).Jesus reserved these words for the Apostles within the intimacy of the Last Supper before His death. And, being a perfect teacher, He reserves these most profound and moving words for His last evening as a workshop for the first evangelization.With this imagery, Jesus is saying that there are three points of entrance into His Heart: the vine a Eucharistic symbol, pruning a symbol of the Cross, and His actual words. These three points are an instruction on the interior life.Jesus doesn't just say "remain in me". He says: "I want you to bear fruit" and "I appointed you". Our Lord is asking us to put the interior life first so that we develop the capacity to give others in a consistent way the experience of the Heart of Christ.As we reflect and pray with this meditation, we ask Our Lady: "Convert me to the need for a robust interior life where I abide in your Son so I bear the fruit of the Heart and Love of your Son."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 this podcast we are invited to contemplate the apostles' first encounter with Jesus Christ and how that experience was an encounter with the love He had for them. Jesus is human love with a human nature--the Word made flesh.After Jesus' first conversation with Andrew and John, Andrew left the Lord's house a new man and he want out to find his brother, Simon Peter, and brought him to Jesus. From the get go, Jesus asks them (and us): "Are there other people you can bring to me?"Part of this following Him is to detect how much He loves us and that's a key part of the spirituality of St Josemaria Escriva. The truth that we are children of God is the backdrop to everything--that this God of mine loves me infinitely.Language is a medium of love. To get to know and love someone is a consequence of conversation--a disclosure of each person's inner self. This is why Jesus is Word because words are a medium of love.When Jesus Christ taught the apostles how to pray he told them that when you pray begin by saying God loves you, by calling Him "Father".How do we experience that God loves us? We have to put Him first and unite ourselves to Him. Only when we walk with Jesus Christ can we experience the love of the Father. "Before God, who is eternal, you are much more a child than, before you, the tiniest toddler. And besides being a child, you are a child of God. — Don't forget it" (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Way, no. 860).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!

This time of year is an especially spectacular and special time to penetrate the question: Who is God? What can we know about God?On this podcast we are invited to reflect on the mystery that our God has become one of us and how every prayer and reception of the Sacraments focuses on this incredible Truth. We [could] begin answering these questions by focusing on the suffering and solidarity of Jesus’s humanity and the fact that Our Lord shared in every component of human life. And, in turn, our contemplation of Jesus's humanity becomes an example for our lives. As St. Paul wrote: "Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:5-11).Continue reflecting on Our Lord's humanity by carving out time for mental prayer and adoration in front of the manger of the tabernacle. You will be transformed and you will be refueled. With His sentiments, you will be able to forgive; you will have the strength to bear your cross; and, most of all, you will be a light to 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!

As we prepare for the season of Advent, we share a reflection on the fruits of the Holy Spirit: peace and joy. And how with these gifts we are called to create bright and cheerful homes and environments like the home of the Holy Family in Nazareth.“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22,23).  The gifts of peace and joy are also expressions of the Heart of Jesus which he promises to give to us: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27). Therefore: “May no one read sadness or sorrow in your face, when you spread in the world around you the sweet aroma of your sacrifice: the children of God should always be sowers of peace and joy” (St. Josemaria Escriva; Furrow, no. 59).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!

St. Josemaria Escriva wrote that: “A very important characteristic of the apostolic man is his love for the Mass” (The Way, no. 528). Today on the podcast, we listen and reflect on the Sacrifice of the Mass, the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and how it is the center and summit of our spiritual lives.Our belief in the Eucharistic Sacrifice comes from God. We don’t achieve that belief through technique but through God’s grace. Our task is to correspond to the faith that God gives us and to ask Him to intensify it so that in our heart and in our gut we believe that the Eucharist is our center. We also want to tap into the spirit and fervor of the saints. We can learn from their reverent examples and love for the True Presence. Every saint is valuable for our own edification and for helping us labor in our "yes" to God. "There he is: King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, hidden in the Bread. To this extreme has he humbled himself through love for you" (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Way, no. 538).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!