St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

On this podcast we reflect on our personal journey to follow Jesus Christ. To follow Jesus is a journey and this is why he says he is the way (John 14:6). And, the geography of this journey is the human heart--our hearts. Like the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), our journey begins by contemplating the love of the Father, how good we have it at home, and we repent for underestimating the infinite mercy of God. Like the son, we feel his heartfelt sorrow for alienating himself from his father. Repentance leads to faith. In the Gospel when we hear the word faith or belief it means a whole change in lifestyle. To have full belief means that we incarnate everything that Jesus Christ says. And, following the example of Jesus, our faith is inspired by deeds of love--the more love the more faith. Then, like the young rich man, Jesus asks us to keep the commandments. As Pope St. John Paul II explained, we live the commandments in order to own ourselves and have a threshold of self-control and freedom in order to live a higher law of holiness. And the raw material of holiness is the total gift of self, like Our Lady and St. Joseph.We need to live holiness the way Mary and St. Joseph did amid the ordinary. The Lord is asking us to have the disposition for putting Him first, by taking concrete steps--baby steps--in the direction of the center. And, He is the center. "Why don't you give yourself to God once and for all... really..., now?" (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Way, no. 902). 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! 

Today on the podcast a reflection on the words of Jesus : “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me" (John 15:1-4).Jesus reserved these words for the Apostles within the intimacy of the Last Supper before His death. And, being a perfect teacher, He reserves these most profound and moving words for His last evening as a workshop for the first evangelization.With this imagery, Jesus is saying that there are three points of entrance into His Heart: the vine a Eucharistic symbol, pruning a symbol of the Cross, and His actual words. These three points are an instruction on the interior life.Jesus doesn't just say "remain in me". He says: "I want you to bear fruit" and "I appointed you". Our Lord is asking us to put the interior life first so that we develop the capacity to give others in a consistent way the experience of the Heart of Christ.As we reflect and pray with this meditation, we ask Our Lady: "Convert me to the need for a robust interior life where I abide in your Son so I bear the fruit of the Heart and Love of your Son." 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 this podcast we are invited to contemplate the apostles' first encounter with Jesus Christ and how that experience was an encounter with the love He had for them. Jesus is human love with a human nature--the Word made flesh.After Jesus' first conversation with Andrew and John, Andrew left the Lord's house a new man and he want out to find his brother, Simon Peter, and brought him to Jesus. From the get go, Jesus asks them (and us): "Are there other people you can bring to me?"Part of this following Him is to detect how much He loves us and that's a key part of the spirituality of St Josemaria Escriva. The truth that we are children of God is the backdrop to everything--that this God of mine loves me infinitely.Language is a medium of love. To get to know and love someone is a consequence of conversation--a disclosure of each person's inner self. This is why Jesus is Word because words are a medium of love.When Jesus Christ taught the apostles how to pray he told them that when you pray begin by saying God loves you, by calling Him "Father".How do we experience that God loves us? We have to put Him first and unite ourselves to Him. Only when we walk with Jesus Christ can we experience the love of the Father. "Before God, who is eternal, you are much more a child than, before you, the tiniest toddler. And besides being a child, you are a child of God. — Don't forget it" (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Way, no. 860). 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! 

This time of year is an especially spectacular and special time to penetrate the question: Who is God? What can we know about God?On this podcast we are invited to reflect on the mystery that our God has become one of us and how every prayer and reception of the Sacraments focuses on this incredible Truth. We [could] begin answering these questions by focusing on the suffering and solidarity of Jesus’s humanity and the fact that Our Lord shared in every component of human life. And, in turn, our contemplation of Jesus's humanity becomes an example for our lives. As St. Paul wrote: "Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:5-11).Continue reflecting on Our Lord's humanity by carving out time for mental prayer and adoration in front of the manger of the tabernacle. You will be transformed and you will be refueled. With His sentiments, you will be able to forgive; you will have the strength to bear your cross; and, most of all, you will be a light 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! 

As we prepare for the season of Advent, we share a reflection on the fruits of the Holy Spirit: peace and joy. And how with these gifts we are called to create bright and cheerful homes and environments like the home of the Holy Family in Nazareth.“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22,23).  The gifts of peace and joy are also expressions of the Heart of Jesus which he promises to give to us: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27). Therefore: “May no one read sadness or sorrow in your face, when you spread in the world around you the sweet aroma of your sacrifice: the children of God should always be sowers of peace and joy” (St. Josemaria Escriva; Furrow, no. 59). 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! 

St. Josemaria Escriva wrote that: “A very important characteristic of the apostolic man is his love for the Mass” (The Way, no. 528). Today on the podcast, 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. 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. "There he is: King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, hidden in the Bread. To this extreme has he humbled himself through love for you" (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Way, no. 538). 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! 

Thanksgiving Day is celebrated annually in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November. On today’s podcast, a reflection on the significance of this holiday and how it is a reminder that we ought to thank God always by habitually making frequent acts of thanksgiving– acts of gratitude.“We were never asked by God to come into existence. Everything we have— our talents, our virtues, even our defects— all have been been foreseen by God, allowed by God, given to us by God so that we can fulfill the single mission that we have received from before the foundation of the world, as St Paul would say, in giving glory to God: ‘Thank you Lord for everything because everything is good.’”As we strive to maintain a constant spirit of gratitude in our lives we will come to realize that “thanksgiving enlarges our hearts to receive even greater gifts from God.”“Give thanks often to Jesus, for through him, with him and in him you are able to call yourself a son of God” (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Forge, no. 265). 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 this podcast, we listen to the words of Jesus in the Gospel of St. John and reflect on what it means to our calling in life (vocation): "Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:4-5).Jesus tells us that our vocation is to be an apostle - to be the light of the world (Mt 5,14). But he doesn't give us specific instructions except that we are to remain in him. What does that mean for us? It means he wants us to be constantly united to him like the vine to the branches. We are to be contemplatives in constant dialogue with him wherever we are.Our efforts to live out our vocations and to transform the world won't work if we practice a hit or miss spirituality. "I didn't get to it today" is not the language of a saint. We need to be sincere in our desire to spend time with him, despite time constraints and the chaos and demands of daily life.Ask yourself: Am I giving my family and friends an experience of Jesus Christ?Jesus is telling us that he is the driving force of our love, peace, strength and courage. Through contemplation we charge the batteries of our hearts and minds. We will deprive others of Christ if we neglect our spiritual lives, our lives of prayer, because none of it comes from us: I'm not the source; I'm the light fixture."A saying of a soul of prayer: in intentions, may Jesus be our aim; in affections, our Love; in conversation, our theme; in actions, our model" (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Way, no. 271). 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 today’s podcast… We contemplate the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians to learn that the face of the early Church was primarily made up of ordinary men and women. But we soon come to see that their "ordinariness" was distinguished by a holy anxiousness and sense of urgency to bring the Gospel to every corner of the world.Like in every era, we are witnesses of great suffering and sadness and as Christians we recognize that the greatest suffering occurs through an absence of God. Without a doubt there is a strong correlation among sadness, despair, family disfunction, substance abuse, sexual addiction, and the absence of Christ and of the Gospel.Therefore, we are called, like the Early Christians, to make Jesus Christ real in these difficult times:“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father" (Matthew 5:13-16).So, if we want to disseminate the message of the Gospel and bring the Light of the World into our environments, we need to start from scratch. Through the intercession of Our Lady, may today’s reflection lead us to want to make specific resolutions to help us go forward in our love for Jesus 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! 

The Gospel for the Solemnity of All Saints is Jesus’s sermon on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). This Gospel communicates to us that the individual has to be the message that speaks about Christ to others. And, to be able to speak about Christ, our conviction and desire for holiness needs to be sustained by savoring Christ’s friendship and His message.“It is impossible to persevere in a fervent evangelization unless we are convinced from personal experience that it is not the same thing to have known Jesus as not to have known him, not the same thing to walk with him as to walk blindly, not the same thing to hear his word as not to know it, and not the same thing to contemplate him, to worship him, to find our peace in him, as not to. It is not the same thing to try to build the world with his Gospel as to try to do so by our own lights. We know well that with Jesus life becomes richer and that with him it is easier to find meaning in everything. This is why we evangelize. A true missionary, who never ceases to be a disciple, knows that Jesus walks with him, speaks to him, breathes with him, works with him. He senses Jesus alive with him in the midst of the missionary enterprise” (Pope Francis; Evangelii Gaudium, no. 266). 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!