St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

On April 23, 1912, at the age of 10, St. Josemaria Escriva made his First Communion.In this podcast, on the anniversary of St. Josemaria’s First Communion, Fr. Leo Agustina reflects on Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, and how the Eucharist shows us Jesus as he is and ourselves as we are. As we pray and contemplate the presence of Christ in the silence of our heart, we see that Christ seeks to redeem us and to transform our hearts so that we may imitate his presence in the world today. His presence in the Eucharist teaches us how to love— not only how to love God but also how to love others and how to love ourselves. As each of us remembers the first time we received Christ in the Eucharist, we can ask him to increase our desire to receive him better and to believe more in the reality of his love.St. Josemaria explains: “Jesus has remained in the Sacred Host for us! So as to stay by our side, to sustain us, to guide us. And love can only be repaid with love. How could we not turn to the Blessed Sacrament each day, even if it is only for a few minutes, to bring him our greetings and our love as children and as brothers?” (Furrow, no. 686).[ 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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today! 

Continuing our Easter series, To and From Emmaus: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the desire for conversion that Christ inspires within the disciples and how we can imitate this act of repentance and change of heart in our daily lives. Amid their journey to Emmaus, Christ prompts a conversation with the disciples and identifies the interior pain and restlessness they experience as a result of what they believe to be an absence of Christ. It is through this conversation that Christ encourages the disciples to examine their conscience, seek repentance, and share the good news of the Risen Lord.As we too open our hearts to the grace of Christ, what sinful barriers do we need to break through to pursue a life of friendship with the Risen Lord?[ 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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today! 

Continuing our Easter series, To and From Emmaus: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the disciples’ feeling of dejection and tragedy in response to Jesus’ death, not recognizing yet how his death and resurrection will become a symbol of conversion and transformation. We see, therefore, in the story of Emmaus that it is in the midst of our difficulties that we must turn to the Lord and unite our suffering to the Cross. Fr. Peter explains that though we may not always feel or perceive the presence of the Lord, we must remain rooted in the truth that the Lord never abandons us.God loves us and desires our happiness. By reflecting on the disciples’ journey to Emmaus, especially in our suffering, we are encouraged to draw near to Christ and respond to his outpouring of love by opening our heart to him in prayer.[ 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.orgAlso, 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 is pleased to present a new seven-part podcast series by Fr. Peter Armenio on the road to Emmaus as a complement to your time of prayer as we celebrate the resurrection of Our Lord this Easter season.In this week’s podcast, the first of the series, Fr. Peter introduces us to the circumstances surrounding the disciples’ journey to Emmaus – what events are they leaving behind and what are they seeking as they walk ahead? The events that occur on the road to Emmaus serve as an allegory to the circumstances of our personal discipleship with Christ, illustrating that we can overcome our defeats with interior strength and spiritual victory.As we reflect with Fr. Peter on this spiritual journey over the next seven weeks, we are challenged to look inward and place ourselves within the experiences of the disciples and apply these events to our daily lives. In doing so, we will come away with a renewed desire to walk with and imitate Christ through the joys and sorrows of everyday life.[ 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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today! 

Praying the Stations of the Cross with St. Josemaria Escriva is an invitation and guide to praying and contemplating the traditional fourteen stations following the way of Jesus Christ’s passion and death. Like the original, this adaptation of St. Josemaria’s beloved devotion, The Way of Cross, seeks to help people to pray and, with God's grace, to grow in a spirit of reparation and of gratitude to Our Lord, who has rescued us at the cost of his blood.Physical copies of Praying the Stations of the Cross with St. Josemaria Escriva are available online to accompany this audio recording: order online. Each station is time marked below:00:00 Introduction06:35 Opening Prayer07:27 Station One10:25 Station Two13:12 Station Three16:07 Station Four18:43 Station Five21:26 Station Six24:36 Station Seven27:30 Station Eight29:59 Station Nine32:48 Station Ten35:48 Station Eleven38:32 Station Twelve42:15 Station Thirteen45:04 Station Fourteen 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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today! 

Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha concludes our Lenten podcast series by reflecting on how we can become vessels of God’s love and instruments of God’s grace through our participation in the Way of the Cross and sharing in Christ’s passion and death.Despite our sinful nature, Christ continues to call each of us to be witnesses of his love and mercy. Fr. Donncha explains that through our participation in the sacraments and through sanctifying our daily work, we can respond freely to the love of Christ and be a channel of grace to those we encounter in the midst of everyday life.As St. Josemaria explains: “Do everything for love. Thus there will be no little things: everything will be big. Perseverance in little things for love is heroism. A little act, done for love, is worth so much! (The Way, nos. 813-814).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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today! 

The Church celebrates the Solemnity of St. Joseph on March 19, honoring St. Joseph as the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and earthly father of Christ. During this Year of St. Joseph proclaimed by Pope Francis, we are reminded to go to St. Joseph and discover in him an intercessor, a support and a guide.In this podcast, Fr. Leo Agustina shares a reflection on the freedom of St. Joseph which allowed him to be an instrument in the story of salvation and share in the joy of the life of Christ. Fr. Leo explains that God counts on each one of us to be docile to the Holy Spirit in partaking in the work of Jesus Christ and bringing those we encounter closer to God through our personal freedom. Modeling the life of St. Joseph, we too can seek to live freely in the grace of Christ as we pursue the adventure of sainthood in the midst of everyday life.St. Josemaria explains: “Faith, hope, love: these are the supports of Joseph’s life and of all Christian lives. Joseph’s self-giving is an interweaving of faithful love, loving faith and confident hope. His feast is thus a good opportunity for us to renew our commitment to the Christian calling God has given each of us” (Christ is Passing By, no. 43).[ 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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today! 

What is it like to be there on Mount Calvary, on Golgotha, at the moment of the death of Jesus in the company of Mary and St. John the Apostle and the Holy Women?Continuing our Lenten podcast series, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha reflects on the wounds of Christ which helps us to realize our vocation to share in Our Lord’s suffering. As we contemplate Christ in his Passion, we are challenged to take part in it, allowing the cross to become a part of our daily life. By sharing in the cross of Our Lord, we become channels of grace through which we can lead others into an encounter with God.As St. Josemaria explains: “Do you want to accompany Jesus closely, very closely? Open the Holy Gospel and read the Passion of Our Lord. But don’t just read it: live it. There is a big difference. To read is to recall something that happened in the past; to live is to find oneself present at an event that is happening here and now, to be someone taking part in those scenes. Then, allow your heart to open wide; let it place itself next to Our Lord” (The Way of the Cross, Ninth Station).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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today! 

A Spiritual Retreat on St. Joseph, Father and Protector guides us on a prayerful reflection on St. Joseph as our father and protector, and his role in our salvation.On this retreat, we are guided to contemplate the life of St. Joseph, his virtues and zeal, and take a contemplative look at our own lives. St. Joseph teaches us– despite our weaknesses, doubts, frailty, and sinfulness– how to see all the things of our lives as having a higher purpose and he helps us to desire and grow in virtue in all the circumstances of our lives. With St. Joseph as our father and protector, we are able to see our lives as being a part of a larger guided providence and not as a random series of events.A Spiritual Retreat on St. Joseph, Father and Protector is a collection of five meditations preached by Rev. John Henry Hanson, O. Praem., a Norbertine priest of St Michael’s Abbey in Silverado, California and contributor to the St. Josemaria Institute.Listen to the full retreat for free online: download today! 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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today! 

What does it mean to be healed by the wounds of Christ? And, through understanding this saving mystery, how can we make reparation and show our love for the body of Christ?In this podcast, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha continues our Lenten podcast series contemplating Christ as a Man of Sorrows. Looking to the example of Christ, we come to realize that his suffering and Cross are also an essential part of our own biography as we cannot fully understand our past, present, and future without looking at Our Lord and meditating on his Passion. As we meditate on Christ’s sorrows, Fr. Donncha challenges us to live out the Passion of Our Lord with the same zeal as the saints. We must turn to the Crucifix in the midst of our suffering, meditating on the sorrows of Christ, allowing him to speak to us. In doing so, we will be renewed with the grace to persevere in our trials and we will receive a strengthened desire to love the Lord through our devotion to the Holy Eucharist.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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!