St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Javier del Castillo reflects on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and how she helps us to rise up to Heaven in our daily lives. For St. Josemaria, the Assumption or the Dormition of Our Lady played a vital role in his life as a young boy in Barbastro, Spain. St. Josemaria’s devotion to Our Lady became so great that he wished to “rise up” to Heaven with Mary by clinging to the tassel of her cloak in an effort to bring a piece of Heaven to Earth.Fr. Javier invites us to look to Mary who teaches us that the essence of bringing Heaven to Earth lies in our ability to rise above challenges and adversities. By following her example, we can forgive even the unforgivable, serve others selflessly, and rise above our own tiredness and hardships. Mary's life exemplifies humility and the power of faith, showing us how to bring Christ's presence into our daily actions. As we emulate Mary's virtues and focus on the needs of others, we can transform our lives and actions, creating a piece of Heaven on Earth. VIEW 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 our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio leads us to listen and reflect on the meaning of the Transfiguration of the Lord and how it should transform us today.The Transfiguration of Jesus encourages us in our commitment to discipleship. When we commit to protracted prayer - deep, silent, concentrated prayer - we can see God through our eyes of faith and deeds of love. The mystery of Our Lord’s Transfiguration helps the apostles to trust in the Cross and to believe that there is no such thing as a failure when we follow Christ. By deeply meditating on the scene of Transfiguration, we begin to see him, to take on his capacity for self-giving love, and we become more empowered to give of ourselves with the heart of Jesus. 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!

St. Josemaria Escriva wrote that, “A very important characteristic of the apostolic man is his love for the Mass” (The Way, no. 528). In this meditation, 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.As Fr. Peter Armenio explains, 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.VISIT SHOW PAGE VIEW 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 our meditation of the week, Fr. Leo Austin reflects on the gospel of St. Luke, particularly the scene of Jesus’ visit to Bethany. At Bethany, Our Lord was able to find refuge in his friends Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Fr. Leo reminds us that similar to Bethany, Christ longs to take refuge in our heart, to find a place where he can rest as our friend. In this way, we are called to make our hearts a place of warmth and sincerity, inviting Our Lord into our lives as a dear friend. St. Josemaria reminds us, “For me the tabernacle has always been a Bethany, a quiet and pleasant place where Christ resides. A place where we can tell him about our worries, our sufferings, our desires, our joys, with the same sort of simplicity and naturalness as Martha, Mary and Lazarus” (Christ is Passing By, no. 154).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 our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio sheds light on the mystery of redemption and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In the life of every saint—and here he draws upon personal encounters with John Paul II, Mother Teresa, and Alvaro del Portillo—there is an intimate connection with Christ and his Eucharistic sacrifice.  Through the Holy Mass, our work and sufferings can also take on an infinite value when we unite them to our Lord, because it allows us to say, along with St. Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).Therefore, as St. Josemaria encourages us: “Keep struggling, so that the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar really becomes the center and root of your interior life, and so your whole day will turn into an act of worship — an extension of the Mass you have attended and a preparation for the next. Your whole day will then be an act of worship that overflows in aspirations, visits to the Blessed Sacrament and the offering up of your professional work and your family life…” (The Forge, no. 69).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 our meditation of the week: In this meditation, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the importance of detachment in our spiritual lives in order to make a generous gift of ourselves to our Lord and to others.  He reminds us that while the comforts of this world can be good in themselves, they are ultimately fleeting.  Drawing upon the story of the Rich Young Man, Fr. Peter urges us to give all that we have so that we obtain Jesus. In the words of St. Josemaria, “I want you to be completely convinced that, if we really want to follow our Lord closely and be of real service to God and the whole of mankind, then we must be thoroughly detached from ourselves, our intellectual talents, our health, our good name, our noble ambitions, our triumphs and successes” (Friends of God, no. 144).As you pray and reflect upon this message, what attachments can you begin to “hack away” at today that will make the joy of Christ shine through your life more clearly?Visit Show Page View 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!

Explore the legacy of St. Josemaria Escriva as an 'evangelical sacramental' reflecting Christ's heart. Learn how personal holiness can change the world and bring Christ to the center of our lives. Emphasizes the importance of cultivating devotion to St. Josemaria for evangelization and striving for perfection in love, as we are all destined by God to be saints.

In our meditation of the week, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha reflects on how the saints are those who best radiate Jesus Christ in the world. It is through their humanity and personalities that we can see and touch the humanity and the personality of Jesus. The whole gamut of human experience-- health, work, rest, marriage, friendship, joy, sorrow, humor-- everything can be full of Christ, can radiate Christ, and make present the beauty of the person of Christ. Fr. Donncha reflects especially on St. Thomas More, the great saint, patron of politicians and lawmakers. He explains that when we think about St. Thomas More, we celebrate especially the humanity of holiness. He was a person who achieved great holiness in and through ordinary everyday things, which is what St. Josemaria particularly enjoyed and savored in St. Thomas More, his secularity. From St. Thomas More we learn that it is not necessary to isolate ourselves from the world or from professional or family or married life, or our country. We must be totally immersed in all those realities. And, in and through those realities, we find Jesus Christ. We love Christ. We speak with Christ. And we bring Christ to those around us.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 our meditation of the week, in preparation for Father's Day, Msgr. Fred Dolan shares a reflection on the important and necessary role fathers have within the family unit and in society today. Drawing upon anecdotes and heartfelt memories from his relationship with his own father, Msgr. Dolan shares seven points that can help fathers renew and strengthen their relationship with their spouse and children.Msgr. Dolan explains that children have a need for authentic care, love, and affection in order to develop into responsible, morally and religiously mature, and psychologically stable persons. He encourages fathers to treat their children in the same way that God treats each one of us: with high standards, loving protection, great hopes for the future, affectionate understanding, a readiness to forgive, and never failing love. In doing so, children will be drawn into a deeper relationship and will seek to imitate this love among their friends and family for generations to come.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 our meditation of the week: Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha helps us to understand how God's immense love is revealed to us in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart each year, we are reminded that the Sacred Heart is not just a profound symbol, but an invitation to experience the immense, tender, and life-giving love of Christ. Therefore, Fr. Donncha invites us to allow the Sacred Heart to renew and strengthen our hearts so that we might embrace the love of Jesus by seeking Christ, loving him, and sharing his love with the world through our daily lives.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!