St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

The Lenten season provides an opportunity for conversion and purification of the soul so that we may be more closely configured to the heart of Christ. In today’s podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan shares a reflection on fostering a contrite heart to detach ourselves from the prideful areas of our life that inhibit our relationship with Christ. By removing these obstacles we can find interior peace and joy as we embrace the merciful arms of God. 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! 

As we begin a new season of Lent, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on the importance of connecting with the Lord through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. It is a season to look inward and assess what the Lord is asking us to deny, offer up, so that we can share in his self-emptying and experience the joy of everlasting life.St. Josemaria Escriva reminds us that “conversion is the task of a moment; sanctification is the work of a lifetime” (Christ is Passing By, no. 58). The Lenten season is an opportunity to begin again, to continue laying the foundation of your spiritual journey, and to grow in holiness in your everyday life. By accompanying Christ in the desert, we can put into practice the spiritual tools needed to become a saint in the world 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! 

On the Way to Damascus: The Journey of Our Vocation (Acts 9:1-3)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/st-paul-retreat/ 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! 

In today’s podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on embracing Mary as our spiritual Mother. He illustrates the idea that Mary is a great miracle worker through whom we can identify with our Lord and conquer the struggle to become holy by drawing inspiration from the Marian devotions of St. Josemaria Escriva, St. John Paul II, and Bl. Alvaro del Portillo.As St. Josemaria Escriva explains: “I would recommend that, if you haven’t already done so, you find out for yourself by personal experience the meaning of Mary’s maternal love. It is not enough just to know she is our Mother and to think and to talk about her as such. She loves you as if you were her only child in this world.” (Friends of God, no. 293). 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! 

In today’s podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the charity of God as “fuel” that enables us to seek holiness in the ordinary moments of everyday life. Our receptivity to God’s grace increases as we continue to strengthen our relationship with him through prayer and the sacraments. The grace we receive fills our life and will overflow into our relationships with one another, leading those we encounter closer to Christ.As St. Josemaria explains: “Charity is not something we ourselves build up. It invades us along with God’s grace, ‘because he has loved us first’. We would do well to fill, to saturate ourselves with this most beautiful truth: ‘If we are able to love God, it is because we have been loved by God.’ Ask God boldly for this treasure, for the supernatural virtue of charity, so that you may practice it even in the smallest details” (Friends of God, no. 229). 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! 

In today’s podcast, we conclude our three-part series exploring the prominent themes in Towards Holiness – a homily by St. Josemaria Escriva on the universal call to holiness.St. Josemaria Escriva explains that “Our Lord Jesus Christ preached the good news to all, without distinction. He calls each and everyone to holiness; he asks each and every one to love him: young and old, single and married, healthy and sick, learned and unlearned, no matter where they work, or where they are” (Friends of God, no. 294).Reflecting on this passage in Towards Holiness, Fr. Javier del Castillo reminds us to foster our interior life and relationship with Christ so that we can draw others to the faith. There are no limits upon who is called to holiness. Our witness each day should be such that when people meet us, they are immediately drawn to the love of Christ and inspired to pursue holiness in everyday 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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today! 

In today’s podcast, we continue with the second installment of our three-part series exploring the prominent themes in Towards Holiness – a homily by St. Josemaria Escriva on the universal call to holiness.St. Josemaria explains that “in order to bring peace, genuine peace, to souls; in order to transform the earth and to seek God Our Lord in the world and through the things of the world, personal sanctity is indispensable. We must come to know him through prayer; we must speak to him and show him, through a heart-to-heart conversation, that we love him” (Friends of God, 294).Reflecting upon the importance of genuine peace, Fr. Javier explains that we must seek peace with God through examining our conscience and going to confession regularly and getting to know God in prayer. We must also seek peace within ourselves so that we can fully embrace our identity as a child of God. As we obtain peace with God and within ourself, we are then motivated to go out and seek peace with others in order to build a culture rooted in the love and mercy 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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today! 

As most of us look forward to the New Year for a fresh start and the opportunity to begin again, especially our resolutions and goals, you have likely spent time time reflecting on resolutions for your spiritual life and the ultimate (lifelong) goal to become a saint. To inspire and motivate our spiritual goals, we are launching the New Year with a three-part podcast series from Fr. Javier del Castillo exploring the prominent themes in Towards Holiness— a homily by St. Josemaria Escriva on the universal call to holiness.In this podcast, the first of the series, Fr. Javier reflects upon two important questions set forth in "Towards Holiness": What does it mean to be holy? What does it mean that God’s will for us is to become saints? The writings and spirituality of St. Josemaria continually remind us that holiness can be found in each moment of everyday life. In seeking the grace of Christ in each moment, we increase our desire and capacity to love others and communicate God’s light to the world.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! 

In this podcast, as we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on the three gifts the Magi presented to the infant Jesus and the significance of those gifts in our spiritual life today.As St. Josemaria explains, “[The Lord] does not care for riches, nor for the fruits or the beasts of the earth, nor for the sea or the air, because they all belong to him. He wants something intimate, which we have to give him freely: ‘My son, give me your heart’. Do you see? God is not satisfied with sharing. He wants it all. It’s not our things he wants. It is ourselves. It is only when we give ourselves that we can offer other gifts to our Lord” (Christ is Passing By, no. 35). 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! 

In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on the three Advents we encounter in life and, as we come closer to Christmas, explains what it means to become Bethlehem–to get to know Jesus Christ, follow him, and bring him 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.orgAlso, if you enjoy the podcast, please consider helping us keep our episodes free and accessible for all our listeners: Give today!