St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

The Gospel for the Mass of the First Sunday of Lent (Mark 1:12-15) tells of Jesus' forty days and temptation in the desert. In today's meditation, Fr Javier del Castillo asks us to contemplate Jesus' temptation as we begin the first week of Lent "to learn how to say yes to our Father God and to renounce Satan." And, we can learn to do that by understanding temptation and recognizing our personal struggles with temptations.In particular, Fr Javier draws our attention to three important characteristics of temptations:1. Temptations are tailor-made for us, made to fit us individually.2. Temptations never appear in their ugliness; they always appear attractive.3. We should never dialogue with temptation; we must run away from temptation.As we learn in the meditation, "we have to take time to think about and decipher those temptations, whether it's a pleasure or fear, because then pride comes in and takes over, and then we commit the greatest sins."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 February 7, 2015, over 100 guests participated in the St. Josemaria Institute’s 2015 inaugural conference “Pope Francis: His Life and Papacy and the Synod of the Family”, which was held at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois.Our speaker, Father Mark Manion, presented three talks on Pope Francis:First Conference-- Francis: A Brief Biographical Sketch in the Context of John Paul II and Benedict XVISecond Conference-- Unpacking the Joy of the GospelThird Conference-- Post-Synodal Air and the Upcoming Synod of the FamilyFr. Mark Manion is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei and the chaplain of The Willows Academy in Des Plaines and Midtown Educational Foundation in Chicago. He preaches recollections and gives spiritual direction in Chicago. The conference talks are now available on the St. Josemaria Institute Podcast to help us remain close to the Holy Father in preparation for his historic visit to the United States for the World Meeting of Families, September 26-27, 2015.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 February 7, 2015, over 100 guests participated in the St. Josemaria Institute’s 2015 inaugural conference “Pope Francis: His Life and Papacy and the Synod of the Family”, which was held at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois.Our speaker, Father Mark Manion, presented three talks on Pope Francis: First Conference-- Francis: A Brief Biographical Sketch in the Context of John Paul II and Benedict XVISecond Conference-- Unpacking the Joy of the GospelThird Conference-- Post-Synodal Air and the Upcoming Synod of the FamilyFr. Mark Manion is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei and the chaplain of The Willows Academy in Des Plaines and Midtown Educational Foundation in Chicago. He preaches recollections and gives spiritual direction in Chicago.The conference talks are now available on the St. Josemaria Institute Podcast to help us remain close to the Holy Father in preparation for his historic visit to the United States for the World Meeting of Families, September 26-27, 2015.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 February 7, 2015, over 100 guests participated in the St. Josemaria Institute’s 2015 inaugural conference “Pope Francis: His Life and Papacy and the Synod of the Family”, which was held at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois.Our speaker, Father Mark Mannion, presented three talks on Pope Francis:First Conference-- Francis: A Brief Biographical Sketch in the Context of John Paul II and Benedict XVISecond Conference-- Unpacking the Joy of the GospelThird Conference-- Post-Synodal Air and the Upcoming Synod of the FamilyFr. Mark Mannion is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei and the chaplain of The Willows Academy in Des Plaines and Midtown Educational Foundation in Chicago. He preaches recollections and gives spiritual direction in Chicago.The conference talks are now available on the St. Josemaria Institute Podcast to help us remain close to the Holy Father in preparation for his historic visit to the United States for the World Meeting of Families, September 26-27, 2015.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 begin the holy season of Lent, Fr Javier del Castillo invites us in this meditation for Ash Wednesday to reflect on the readings and Gospel of today’s Mass and on the works we are called to fulfill during this time for our conversion: fasting, praying and almsgiving.“Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor 6:2)Father Javier explains that “now is the time to convert and to turn to the Lord.. [He gives us] an entire season of the liturgical year characterized by acts and symbols of penance… A time of salvation is a time of conversion [during which] we can actually repent from our actions, from our sins…” “We can say, ‘I do not wish to be identified with that action of mine. I wish I had never done it. In fact, I will try to undo it as best as I can with subsequent actions.’ That is what we want to do during Lent as we begin this acceptable time for conversion… To purify ourselves and identify ourselves with our Lord’s suffering… And when we see the great mercy that has been bestowed upon us we want to voluntarily participate a little bit in that, even though our meager efforts will never be able to match our Lord’s love for us and His power to redeem us.”Pointing to the ways that our Lord calls us to pray, fast, and give alms, this meditation helps us to see how these works are ultimately a participation in life and mission of Jesus Christ. And that these works can be fulfilled by doing our everyday duties with love as well as by offering up our food and drink, setting a time for prayer, going to Mass during the week, praying the Rosary— works and penances that fit our schedules like a glove as well as prayer that keeps us closely united to our Lord.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 talk, "On Faith and Reason", Very Rev. Peter Armenio stresses the urgency with which today’s burning issues (marriage, children, life, evolution, suffering, death, etc.) require not only an appeal to supernatural authority but also to science and nature. Fr Armenio addresses specific issues and situations confronting everyday life and how lay people in the middle of the world are often looked to by those around them (at home, work, school, etc.) “to be able to articulate these burning issues…” and “to point out with humility, with understanding, with mercy, that faith seeks understanding and that moral truth gives joy and gives fulfillment, gives freedom, makes for happier families, better society, and greater meaning in 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!

St. Josemaria Escriva pointed out that all of the apostles somehow were called to follow Jesus in and through their work, including Saint Paul. Don't be surprised, therefore, to discover that God is also calling you in and through your work.In this meditation, we will reflect on these questions: What is your Damascus? What have you chosen as that activity through which you serve society and that gives you meaning in how you live your life? We all have a mission and it is most likely right where we are already. During this time of meditation and prayer, we will ask God to help us to keep doing what we are doing, but with a new light and with new meaning. To listen to and download the eight meditations of A Spiritual Retreat in the Footsteps of St. Paul go to: https://stjosemaria.org/product/spiritual-retreat-footsteps-st-paul/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 meditation for the Feast of the Epiphany, Fr Javier del Castillo helps us to learn from the Magi how to live a life of piety that is guided by love and magnanimity. The Magi “teach us a lesson in piety. Their piety is shown by the fact that they are capable of love. They leave the comfort of their home and kingdom. They are willing to go through hardship in order to find the King of the Jews and to worship Him.” The logic of love and of magnanimity demonstrated by the Magi shows us that “only the person in love never thinks that what he or she has done for his or her beloved is actually enough. They always seek to outdo themselves and to do too much.” “When their star disappears, they didn’t question, they seek help… The greatest proof of piety is that their love does not grow cold. They don’t doubt their love. They don’t become cynical of their love. And they don’t doubt the legitimacy of the star when it disappears…” As we celebrate this feast of the Church and the beginning of a New Year, our lives of piety are guided by the knowledge that “something greater than ourselves is what we need to adore. We do need a Savior to save us from sin and death.”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 meditation for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Fr Javier del Castillo reflects on the Gospel of the day (Luke 1: 26-38) and invites us to prepare our hearts for Christmas by striving to have a listening heart like Mary. “This Advent we have to adapt the same kind of contemplative listening of Our Lady to be able to listen to the whisper of God that comes to us” and “to prepare a place for Him in our hearts.”Advent is a time of expectation, preparation, purification and contemplation— this is true both as we prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas and also as we prepare to receive Him (daily or weekly) in the Eucharist.Reflecting on the life of St Josemaria Escriva, Fr Javier explains the ways that he would prepare himself for Mass every day. Among them was the practice of repeating brief prayers or aspirations throughout the day; for example, the prayer of the spiritual communion, which St Josemaria learned as a young boy: “I wish my Lord to receive you with the purity, humility and devotion with which your most Holy Mother received you with the spirit and the fervor of the saints.”We can repeat this prayer and other aspirations as well throughout our day asking Our Lady to help us to listen and to prepare for His coming. 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 meditation for the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, Fr Javier del Castillo reflects on the profound meaning of this passage from St Paul - “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). “We ought to rejoice. This is something really important, absolutely necessary, to rejoice in the Lord always because the Lord is near." "This presence of the Lord is the cause of our joy because it makes us joyful and makes us happy… not only when things are going well… always, no matter what… and then we can radiate our cheerfulness to others… doesn’t matter what’s happening on the outside… what matters is that we be close to our Lord. And only insofar as we let our Lord be close to us can we be truly joyful, cheerful, and can we radiate cheerfulness to others.”To have this joy and cheerfulness starting this Advent and Christmas we can follow three steps:1. Prayer2. Forgiveness3. Service (Jesus, others and then yourself)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!