St. Josemaria Institute Podcast

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha reflects on the overflowing joy and wonder of Christ’s Resurrection and the living presence of the Risen Lord in the Church, in creation, and in our daily lives. Fr. Donncha invites us to rediscover the Church as the living presence of Christ among us - a gift that is not the result of human effort, but the action of the Risen Lord in history. He reflects on how the Church, sustained by grace and alive through the sacraments, is not something we create but something we receive. It is through this divine life - pulsating in our vocation and in the ordinary moments of daily life - that Christ continues to reach the world.We are reminded that the Resurrection is not only a historical event but the very lifeblood of Christian existence. Through grace, we are divinized - participants in the vibrant, risen life of Jesus. Therefore, each moment of love and faithfulness becomes a channel of Christ’s life into the world. As a result, we are called to rejoice, to evangelize with our lives, and to recognize the hidden holiness in the most ordinary of circumstances where Christ is truly present.View Transcript Visit Show Page   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 our meditation of the week for Holy Thursday: Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha offers a profound reflection on the enduring, limitless love of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. Entering the Upper Room with the Apostles, we are invited to contemplate the eternal love of Christ, who “loved them to the end,” and who gives us not a symbol but his very self in the Blessed Sacrament.Fr. Donncha reminds us that Holy Thursday draws us into the heart of divine charity—the love of Christ poured out in the Eucharist and in the humble gesture of washing his disciples’ feet. Also being the feast of the priesthood, intimately bound to the Eucharist, we are reminded that priests are “the love of the heart of Jesus,” called to bring his presence into the world. The events of Holy Thursday call us to imitate Christ’s self-giving love, which brings lasting joy and peace.View TranscriptVisit Show Page  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 our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio shares a reflection on the Gospel passage of the Passion of Christ (Luke 22:14-23:56) which is read on Palm Sunday. During this holiest time of the year, the Church invites her people to focus directly on the suffering of our Savior, Jesus Christ.The longer Gospel readings help us to honor Christ’s request to “keep watch and pray” with him as he asked the Apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane. In this scene, we prayerfully rediscover God’s love for us expressed through his humanity and sacrifice on the cross. Through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we see his love poured out for us and discover the meaning in the crosses that he invites us to bear each day. View Transcript Visit Show Page  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 our meditation of the week: Reflecting on the Gospel of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1–11), Msgr. Fred Dolan invites us to contemplate the gift of mercy—a central theme of the Christian life. In this powerful scene, Christ reveals the heart of the Father, not through condemnation, but through compassion and forgiveness. It is a call to each of us to examine how quickly we pass judgment, often without even realizing it.Msgr. Dolan reminds us that the devil seeks to divide—within families, communities, and society at large. But mercy, as a free and generous gift from God, restores unity and healing. It enables us to overcome division and to recognize one another as children of God.Drawing from the teachings of Pope St. John Paul II, Msgr. Dolan emphasizes that every human being is a neighbor to be loved. The question is not “Who is my neighbor?”—which already implies limits—but rather, “To whom should I become a neighbor?” Mercy calls us to expand our hearts, to love as Christ loves, and to reflect his mercy in our daily encounters.View Transcript Visit Show Page 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! 

Note: This meditation was recorded in front of a live audience.In our meditation for the Fourth Week of Lent, Fr. Peter Armenio invites us to renew our commitment to the three pillars of Lent: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. As we reach the midpoint of this penitential seson, he reminds us that Lent centers on Christ’s self-giving sacrifice on the Cross—the greatest expression of love. To follow Christ is to embrace the Cross and come to know him through our own acts of self-emptying.Fr. Armenio emphasizes that almsgiving is the animating force behind prayer and fasting. Without charity, the other two lose their vitality. He encourages us to begin with love for our families and extend it outward—living the works of mercy and witnessing to Christ’s love in our daily interactions.Prayer and fasting, too, are essential. Fr. Armenio encourages us to carve out moments of silence in our days to encounter the Lord. In this quiet, we receive his love and are strengthened to share it with others. Through fasting, we learn to deny ourselves, resist temptation, and redirect our hearts toward Christ.View Transcript  Visit Show Page 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 our meditation of the week: Msgr. Fred Dolan reflects on the 100th anniversary of St. Josemaria’s priestly ordination on March 28, 1925. He invites us to consider the extraordinary fruitfulness of St. Josemaria’s life and his desire to be a genuine priest with a genuine and serious concern for souls that led him to love everyone without distinction.Drawing from personal anecdotes and historical accounts, Msgr. Dolan highlights three defining traits of St. Josemaria’s priesthood: his passionate love for the Eucharist, his burning desire for souls, and his constant search for God’s will. He recounts St. Josemaria's deep humility, his desire to serve without recognition, and his conviction that everything is done by God.Msgr. Dolan reminds us that central to the spirituality of St. Josemaria is the call to place the Holy Mass at the very heart of our lives. For St. Josemaria, the Mass was not a daily obligation, but the center and root of his interior life—something he urged all his spiritual children to imitate. Reflecting on the 50th anniversary of his ordination, St. Josemaria wrote: “Let us renew the resolution that the Holy Mass will be always the center and root of our existence. That is the best celebration of priesthood.”View TranscriptVisit Show Page 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 our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the readings for the Third Sunday of Lent and how they teach us to see that God approaches us first because he eminently wills our happiness-- a happiness that begins here on earth because of his liberation.Fr. Peter begins by recounting the familiar story of how Moses encountered God through the burning bush. We see God reveal himself as a liberator, seeking to free the Israelite people. God reveals himself to Moses by stating his name, ‘I AM,’ which is the first time God reveals this in Scripture. God desires a personal relationship with us, and like all relationships, this relationship begins with an introduction. This interaction points us toward Christ, as God will become man through whom he will have a personal relationship with his people. Through Moses, God seeks to defeat the Egyptians and save the Israelite people, prefiguring what Christ will do on the cross — defeat Satan and free God’s people from sin.Fr. Peter also recounts the parable of the fig tree. We see Christ personified as the gardener and God the Father personified as the owner. The gardener is advocating to save the fig tree, explaining to the owner that he can cut it down eventually, but it has not yet had its time. Applying this parable to our own life, we see a sense of urgency in the Gospel. Our time here on earth is finite — at some point, it will end.The season of Lent allows us the opportunity to look inward and to begin again: to take advantage of reconciliation, to seek after Christ in prayer, and to reach out in charity toward others.View Transcript Visit Show Page 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 our meditation of the week: Msgr. Dolan reflects on the Transfiguration of Christ and how this scene reminds us that a major goal of the Lenten season is to create an interior silence that allows us to enjoy God's presence. Msgr. Dolan shares how the scene of the Transfiguration echoes the words of the Psalms: "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps 46:11). The disciples who witnessed this moment "fell silent," understanding that words would have diminished its significance.   Silence is essential for encountering God. Msgr. Dolan quotes Pope Francis who explains that, "We simply cannot do without the silence of prolonged prayer, which enables us to perceive God’s language and to see the whole of our existence afresh in His own light" (Gaudete et Exsultate, no. 171). Lent calls us to cultivate this silence, shifting our focus from distractions to God’s will. How will you embrace silence this holy season to grow closer to God?  View Transcript Visit Show Page 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 our meditation of the week: we reflect on the virtue of fortitude as the driving force to overcome temptation. St. Josemaria Escriva reminds us, "A task which presents no difficulties lacks human appeal – and supernatural appeal too. If you find no resistance when hammering a nail into a wall, what can you expect to hang on it?" (The Forge, no. 245). To win the prize, you cannot avoid the struggle—it is the very path to victory.  Fortitude is essential for both the spiritual life and human development. Msgr. Dolan reflects on the importance of deferred gratification—choosing to set aside immediate desires in favor of what must be done. He explains that this discipline goes hand in hand with gumption, the ability to recognize the right course of action and take decisive steps forward. A key danger in the spiritual life is abandoning the fight altogether. We can either face challenges with fear and stress or embrace them with excitement and trust.  The Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent recounts Christ’s temptation in the desert. As the perfect model of virtue, he embodies fortitude in the face of Satan’s trials. This Lent, how can you strengthen the virtue of fortitude in your own life and say ‘no’ to temptation? View Transcript Visit Show Page 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 our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on self-denial as a path to deeper faith and freedom in Christ. As we begin Lent, we are reminded that to follow Our Lord, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. Self-denial strengthens our commitment to prayer, holiness, and living the Gospel with conviction.  Fr. Peter reminds us that St. Josemaria Escriva said, "If you don’t deny yourself, you will never be a soul of prayer" (The Way, no. 6). In a world filled with temptation, we must cultivate self-control and embrace sacrifice. And, as St. Josemaria urges, "Do it now! Now is the only shot you have. The past is gone, and the future doesn’t exist."  View Transcript  Visit Show Page  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!