St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio helps us to pray about the sacrificial and redemptive true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and how we should make the greatest treasure of the universe the center of our life.The source and summit of the Christian life is the Eucharist. Therefore, as Fr. Peter explains, "everything hinges on the Mass. In a certain sense, every devotion is an extension of the Mass and must lead to the Mass." And, how much we get out of Mass depends on our presence of God throughout the day, and how well we embrace the Cross. Jesus' crucifixion and death were a culmination of his life of self-giving through his work and through his public life. We have to join Jesus in his death and resurrection, through the cross, expressed in our work and expressed in our suffering. St. Josemaria Escriva referred to the workbench as our altar, not sacramentally or liturgically, but that everybody's altar is in whatever they do. And he says that what really counts is how much self-giving love we put into our work, because that's how much we're going to get to be part of the Mass. "While you are at Mass, think that you are sharing in a divine Sacrifice. For that is how it is: on the altar, Christ is offering himself again for you" (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Forge, no. 831).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 this meditation: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on how holiness is like the seeds that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel. Holiness grows in each one of us, but it grows by being in a constant state of converting; that is, we are all a work in progress.Conversion requires an overhaul of our lives and a complete change of heart. And, as Fr. Peter explains, step number one is to speak with Our Lord and ask him to enlighten us, so that we see ourselves with the idea of changing, repenting, and becoming more like Christ. Our Lord desires a humble and contrite heart. Step number two, we need faith. We must take to heart every word Jesus enunciated—his example, his witness, his sentiments, and his teachings. Our faith is not where it should be until we embrace everything the Lord says. When we look to Our Lord and ask for his grace, we will discover the tiny ways (or seeds) that allow the natural growth of our Christian life and our progress in holiness.As St. Josemaria Escriva said, "Conversion is the matter of a moment. Sanctification is the work of a lifetime" (The Way, no. 285).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. Javier del Castillo reflects on the lives of the early Christians and martyrs and the way they gave witness to their faith through the simple actions of everyday life. He explains how we should also foster an awareness of our personal sanctification and strive to be heroic in and through our ordinary circumstances. The call to holiness is a real gift from God, there's nothing we have done to deserve it. As Fr. Javier says, "it's not about us doing anything as much as us getting out of the way so that God can do everything. Every ordinary thing that we do, if we look at it with supernatural colored glasses, can be a little step on our path to holiness." Therefore, as we respond to the gift of holiness with the same faith of the martyrs, we become cooperators in God’s divine plan and witnesses to the love of Christ.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: Msgr. Fred Dolan speaks to us about our love for a good vocation story-- that amazing moment when someone's life is changed radically. There is something very special about people who have discovered what it is that God has in store for them. Msgr. Dolan explains that the mission that Jesus offers us can change our life and fill it with light. It all comes down to that conviction that we were created, each one of us, in the Lord's image. We were called personally into existence and given a personal name. And, very compellingly, God has dreams for our life.Therefore, during this time of prayer, Msgr. Dolan helps us make the resolution to maintain a vocational sense of life every day. Our prayer can help us to see how much depends on our response, day after day, hour after hour, to the realization that God is there, following us always with his tender love and with his tremendous interest in our 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!

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the greatest gift that we have from God-- the supernatural virtue of charity. Many of the Mass readings during Christmas, Epiphany and the following days, remind us that God really wants us to think about charity. We are especially reminded of Jesus's desire that we, his disciples, should be known by the love we have for one another. Fr. Peter explains that through our baptism, all of us have charity, together with faith and hope, written in our supernatural genetic code or DNA. God gives us what it takes to love with the heart of Christ.As his disciples, no matter what the culture is like, we know that charity is more powerful than resentment, hatred, and coldness. The light of charity always dissipates darkness, just as life overcomes death and grace overcomes sin.So, as we listen to this meditation, Fr. Peter guides us to pray and ask ourselves: When I'm with my family, my friends and my colleagues, how do they detect that I'm a disciple of the Lord? What are the characteristics of my charity?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!

Reflecting on the first nativity scene and the simplicity of Mary and Joseph, the speaker highlights the unity and poverty that we can learn from them. The podcast also discusses the spiritual significance of Christmas and the mindset of poverty. A heartwarming tale of soldiers coming together during war and the transformative power of Jesus' presence are also explored.

The podcast explores the journey towards Christmas, emphasizing God's providence and the invitation to change. It discusses Mary's humility and readiness to adapt to God's plans. The concept of celibate life and finding meaning in everyday activities is explored. The speaker reflects on stories that inspire love, commitment, and joy. The podcast concludes with a reminder to prepare our hearts for Christmas and remain open to divine intervention.

In this podcast for the Third Sunday of Advent, Fr. Leo Austin encourages us to continue our interior journey this season -- a journey to (re)discover our vocations by asking ourselves the deeper questions of life: Who am I? What's my identity? What's the reason of my existence?St. John the Baptist was asked a similar question to which he immediately answered, “I am not the light, but came to testify to the light” (Jn 1:6-9). We will discover that our vocation is also to testify to the light and to be glowing witnesses of Christ who walks by our side and calls us to happiness. Pope Paul VI said, "In our world today, we need glowing witnesses who know how to break open the dark skies of the world, not with words, but with the witness of their lives."  As witnesses to Christ, we can look around at the world and at every single human being as tabernacles-- all of our friends are dwelling places of the Blessed Trinity.In this meditation, therefore, Fr. Leo helps us to consider the importance of our mission and our vocation as apostles in order to make a lot of friends and to be a friend of friends who radiates the light and friendship they have received from God. View TranscriptVisit Show PageMissed the podcasts for the first and second Sundays of Advent?  It's not too late to tune in! Explore "A Time for Hope: Advent with St. Josemaria Escriva" - a collection of devotions, readings, and meditations from the St. Josemaria Institute to help you prepare for the Nativity of Our Lord and the season of Christmas.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 for the Second Sunday of Advent, Fr. Leo Austin reflects on the invitation we receive this season to go to the desert-- a mysterious and quiet place where we can meet Our Lord face-to-face without distractions and without hiding to contemplate our lives and specifically our vocations.Even if he already knows everything, it is good for our relationship with Jesus Christ to open our hearts to him and tell him the story of our lives. This is always a little bit scary, as Fr. Leo explains, but God does not come to accuse us or threaten us. He comes to walk with us and offer us his light. This Advent, therefore, can be a great opportunity to open our eyes and allow Our Lord to point out things that maybe need to change or scars from the past that are not completely healed. Through an examination of our lives and through confession, we experience God's healing and the peace of having him inside us. A bonus of being forgiven is being able to forgive and to bring that peace and dignity to the world that sometimes is so hectic and also in need of God.View TranscriptVisit Show PageDid you enjoy this podcast? Explore "A Time for Hope: Advent with St. Josemaria Escriva" - a collection of devotions, readings, and meditations from the St. Josemaria Institute to help you prepare for the Nativity of Our Lord and the season of Christmas.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 for the First Sunday of Advent, Fr. Leo Austin offers an inspiring meditation to help us focus not necessarily on what we are going to give to Jesus, but on the gifts that Jesus gives to us. He is not asking us to be perfect. He is inviting us to a relationship with him saying, "Come to me."Advent is a preparation for an encounter. It's not about being scared or tense because God is going to show up at any moment and catch us. Advent is a time for us to realize that Our Lord is coming to this world to call us to happiness. As Fr. Leo explains, "It's God coming to see you, to be with you." This is our vocation: God coming into this world, creating us, and then giving us freedom to develop, to unfold, to discover, and to explore. God is telling us, "I love you before you were aware of that and I'm preparing for you something special--an encounter, a friendship, that is unconditional." Yet, if sometimes we don't trust God, the funny thing is that he trusts us. God knows that sometimes we are blind, scared, wounded, and discouraged. For those moments, he provides us with the gifts of faith, hope, and love. And, as we read in the Gospel, he comes to heal us and he tells us these three consoling words, "Come to me." _________Did you enjoy this podcast? Explore "A Time for Hope: Advent with St. Josemaria Escriva" - a collection of devotions, readings, and meditations from the St. Josemaria Institute to help you prepare for the Nativity of Our Lord and the season of Christmas._________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!