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  • In our meditation of the week: Fr. Javier del Castillo explains the great lesson Jesus teaches us in the gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Lent (John 12:20-33), which is that we have to die -- to self and in this world-- in order to really see who he is.

    From a Christian outlook, death is a passageway to eternal life where we get to see God, face to face, if we have lived according to the faith. Because of Jesus, we can no longer think that our death in this world is the end or something to be feared, it is actually now a new beginning.

    Therefore, as Fr. Javier explains, the consideration of death is needed to help us to precisely put our heart in the right place. Not knowing when we're going to die is actually something that has has to help us be more faithful every day and to always be prepared for whenever God calls us to himself. And Jesus came to also teach us that all we need to prepare for eternity is love, everything else is superfluous.

    Today is is what we have; we don't have tomorrow yet. We need to love today, so that we can love for eternity. In the presence of Our Lord, Fr. Javier encourages us to ask ourselves: What is it that I am attached to? Am I placing God above all that and placing him first?

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  • In our meditation of the week: Fr. Javier del Castillo reflects on the revolutionary teaching of St. Paul who preached that Our Lord who is rich in mercy will always forgive us (Ephesians 2:4-10). It is a message that is intended to make our hearts rejoice on this Fourth Sunday of Lent or Laetare Sunday.

    Salvation is a gift. God became man for this purpose, to have mercy on us. We don't forgive our own sins. It is not a conquest of our own. We can't take our spiritual life in our own hands. Where our struggle lies is in opening up our soul to God and having the humility to recognize our sins.

    Even if we live good lives, as Fr. Javier explains, we must never assume that we are without sin. Our lives will find peace and joy only when we continue to ask for forgiveness:

    "Lord, I want to hold on tighter to your hand, because I see myself in danger all the time, as long as I am in this world. And I want to be very close to you, really change, try to change my lifestyle, that's what I want to do."

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  • In our meditation of the week: Fr. Javier del Castillo helps us to contemplate the Gospel of the Mass for the Third Sunday of Lent— Jesus cleansing the Temple (John 2:13-25). This is a rare moment in the Gospel when Jesus gets angry because the worship that was due to his Father was being mingled with human motives and was not worthy of his Father God.

    As Fr. Javier explains, when it comes to the sacred, Our Lord makes no allowances for competition. The same is true for us as the temples of the Holy Spirit. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19) The virtue which allows us to love God and to worship God rightly with an undivided heart is holy purity.

    Purity is not simply a virtue for the single person but for everyone—married, single, priest, and religious. It is a virtue that allows us to see God behind everyone and every situation in our lives. And it allows us to be a contemplative, to carry that temple, to carry God with us wherever we go.

    Our heart is something great, something valuable, and we have to keep it pure for God. There's many manifestations of this virtue and they are all beautiful, but they do require sacrifice. And that is where we need to really make a commitment to living these sacrifices so that the valuable gift of holy purity can be safeguarded.

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  • In our meditation of the week: Fr. Javier del Castillo helps us to contemplate the scene of the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, which we read in the Gospel of the Mass for the Second Sunday of Lent (Mark 9:2-10).

    Fr. Javier explains how Jesus took the Apostles up Mount Tabor to show them the full truth about himself, about his divinity, so that they could have hope in eternal life and remember this experience of bliss and eternity, especially when it comes time to suffer through the Passion. That is, Jesus took them aside to show them the glory that is a consequence of the Cross and that can only come after the Cross: the Tabor behind the Calvary.

    In considering this scene at Tabor, we also try to go to Jesus, to look at him, so that we may be enlightened and have our hopes placed correctly in that which is eternal. When we try to discover the Tabors behind the Calvaries, we are freed up of any worry and from thinking about ourselves, and that allows us to recover our peace and our inner joy in order to serve others and shine a new light around us.

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  • In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio helps us to enter into the season of the Lent with a desire for becoming good repenters. And he shares the easy steps for coming back to Christ and beginning again.

    Although we might believe that God must be sick of us for doing the same sinful things all the time, Fr. Peter reminds us that Our Lord never gets sick of us because he loves us infinitely. That is why his favorite penance is a humble and contrite heart, not to shame us but to get us back. Therefore, a spirit of self-knowledge--sincerity and self-honesty--is the raw material for repentance, not to wallow in our defects and sins, but as a springboard to begin again. A humble and contrite heart releases those barriers between ourselves and Jesus Christ.

    Fr. Peter also highlights numerous examples of good repenters in Scripture, from King David to Peter, from Matthew to the Samaritan Woman and Dismas (the Good Thief). Their stories remind us that all saints begin as very good repenters, and Our Lord is asking us to be good repenters too.

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  • 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).

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  • 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).

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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?

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  • In this meditation for Christmas Day: Fr. Leo Austin helps us to contemplate the first nativity scene. Entering into Bethlehem and the stable, he invites us to look first of all to Mary and Joseph and to learn from them. All they had were each other (unity), poverty and happiness.

    In their simplicity, Mary and Joseph are telling us that we don't need anything but each other. We don’t need anything else but to look at the baby Jesus and focus on him. Look at Jesus-- this is what all the saints have done throughout history. He will clean our eyes and our hearts. He will make us simple in a good way. This also makes it possible for us to just stop and look at each other as human beings.

    Bethlehem, the city of bread. Bethlehem, the place where Jesus was born. The Eucharist is Jesus coming to us, the person of Jesus Christ taking possession of our hearts and the Blessed Trinity dwelling in our souls. And then, after realizing the love that we have received, looking at each other and at every single human being throughout history, with different eyes, with the eyes that are cleansed and purified by contemplating Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

    In Jesus, we have a brother. In the Holy Family, we have a family. In Bethlehem, we have a home and we are always welcome.

    As Fr. Leo says, "Mary, Joseph, Jesus, I want to be always with the three of you. I don't want to leave Bethlehem. I don't want to get complicated. I don't want to grow up in a bad way. I want to just take advantage of my family, of my home in Bethlehem, to be more simple, to be more poor, in order to bring the simplicity of a heart made clean to the rest of the world."

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  • In this podcast for the Fourth Sunday of Advent: Fr. Leo Austin guides us in our prayer as we near the end of the Advent journey that is bringing us closer and closer to the day of Jesus's nativity and to the day that changed history forever.

    Our Lord, in his providence, has been leading us towards the destination that is the encounter with him. There are 7 billion people on the planet right now, more or less, and God is actually coming to us personally. He knows our past and our limitations. The good news is that he is coming to change us and not to inform us about your limitations. He is coming to tell us that we can change and that's what vocation means: a calling to a better situation and happiness in life.

    Jesus invites us to be open to divinity and to divine intervention in our history. In her humility and purity, the Blessed Virgin Mary did not understand such an honor. But we learn from Mary her readiness to use all her talents, with freedom, to adapt herself to the plans that God has for her and to see things in the big picture.

    As Fr. Leo says, like Mary, Jesus is asking us: "Are you accepting my visitation? Are you open to that?” And with all our hearts, we want to say yes, obviously, because we are the sons and daughters of the handmaid of the Lord. Mary will always give herself to God, not in an obedience that is blind and absurd, but in an obedience that is both hearts connecting at the same time. And that's what we can learn and imitate from Mary, our Mother, this Advent and Christmas.

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    Missed the podcasts for the first - third 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.

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  • 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.

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    Missed 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.

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  • 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.

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    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.

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  • 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.
    _________

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  • In this podcast, Fr. Eric Nicolai reflects on the authority of Christ as King of heaven and earth to help us renew our desire for Christ to reign deeply in our hearts and to proclaim with the saints and martyrs, "Long live Christ the King!"

    The Solemnity of Christ the King was established in the 1920s by Pope Pius XI in response to the great rise of secularism in which people increasingly lived their lives as if God didn't exist. It is not unlike the battles and crises that we are confronting today that also fuel our desire to spread God's kingdom on earth. But for that to happen, Christ has to reign in our hearts now.

    Fr. Eric reflects on the ways in which we see Christ depicted as king in scripture and in art. Among those images is Jesus's entry into Jerusalem on a humble donkey. "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest” (Mt 21:9). What is an hosanna? Hosanna is a word that was used in the Hebrew liturgy, and then later in the Christian liturgy, as a shout of jubilation and a sign of respect and honor for he who saves. But in Jerusalem, it was especially a shout of praise and adoration and a kind of recognition of Jesus as the Messiah.

    Like those people, we can also offer so many hosannas to Our Lord to acknowledge him as our king. Fr. Eric encourages us to throw our cloaks under Our Lord as a beautiful sign of our submission to his will. We want to let him trample on our comforts and willfulness, under his donkey, so that we rely more not on our things but on his will, and so that his will is what really reigns in our heart.

    Tune in as we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King.

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  • In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan guides us to pray and ask God to help us to stand back to take a look at our life on earth and to realize that our time here is very short.

    The great project of our life is gradual transformation into another Christ, explains Fr. Fred. We long to change and to be transformed. Therefore, a sign that we truly and passionately want to be fully alive is our willingness to be mindful of every moment and day of our life.

    We don't want to be sleepwalking or flying blind through life. We want to reflect on deeper things and focus on things that are important, asking ourselves often: Why do I give so much importance to things that just do not matter in the bigger scope of things? This gives us perspective and peace. And it allows us to give ourselves and our souls space to take time to do things calmly and in the right order.

    Fr. Fred also shares strategies that can help us to live heroically every minute of our life, including not allowing ourselves to waste time trying to undo the past and focusing on the importance of helping our loved ones prepare for death. The fact is that a life well lived, which is what we're all looking for, will have reverberations down through the centuries.

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  • In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reminds us of our invitation as disciples of Jesus Christ to connect with God through the humanity of Jesus, especially through the Gospels and through the geographic area revealed by the Gospel itself.

    Like Christian pilgrims throughout the ages, Fr. Peter shares how he had always dreamt and aspired to the possibility of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and how the experience exceeded his expectations. It is a very profound spiritual experience and an extraordinary privilege to walk among the sites and landscapes where Jesus lived.

    The Holy Land is the only place on earth that also has an eternal dimension to it because of Jesus Christ, God made man. These places are not just sites from a historical period of time, but they are sites made holy by the Eternal Word made flesh who lived there, worked there, socialized there, worked miracles there, died there, and redeemed us there. The redemption of the world took place there in a given place and set of circumstances.

    Therefore, Fr. Peter explains, it is obviously the will of the Holy Spirit that we encounter Christ in a special way in the Holy Land. We encounter Christ by contemplating his humanity and seeing the land where he was born and dwelt among us.

    The Holy Land holds a special place in the hearts of all Christians around the world. During this period of war and unimaginable suffering in the region, we join our prayers with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, asking for peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land, especially through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace.

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  • In this podcast, Fr. Donncha Ó hAodha guides us to pray about the gift of the month of November. It is a great gift because it gives us the opportunity to focus on reality, to focus on the truth and love of God, and to recover our perspectives on our own journeys through time and to eternity.

    This is important, as Fr. Donncha explains, because when we elevate and perfect all the bits and pieces that make up our day, seeing them within the horizon of eternity-- one universal horizon-- we will find the integrity and maturity that give meaning to all the aspects of our being.

    In the month of November, especially with the Feast of All Saints and then the Commemoration of All Souls, we're also reminded straight off that when we consider time and eternity, we're not alone before this mystery; we're not alone before this journey. In life and in death, we're always accompanied, loved, and supported by our brothers and sisters who have gone before us, who love us, and intercede for us.

    The saints are our good friends. They're our brothers and sisters. We can be sure that we are always surrounded by the reassuring company and consoling presence of the saints and the souls in purgatory, and by the whole Church.

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  • In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on how our faith and fidelity can increase through our genuine self-giving to the will of God.

    Faith is more than just believing or trusting. An ongoing faith or fidelity requires us to go beyond the limitations of our experiences and of our intellects in order to give ourselves more to the will of God and to our vocation as Christians. And, as Fr. Peter explains, our collective vocation as Christians is to evangelize and to attract people to Christ through our friendship, through our charity, and through our counsel.

    Our Lord is asking of us to bring everyone to him which requires a fidelity and partnership with him. And, we enter into a partnership and into the heart of Christ through three entrance ways: the Eucharist (the vine), the Cross (pruning), and the Word of God (nourishment).

    Under no uncertain terms, therefore, Jesus says we will be fruitful and we will work miracles. But without that kind of fidelity, we can do nothing. Even as an instrument, we could do nothing. An intimate and faithful union with Christ needs to be there fueled by prayer, sacrifice, and our self-giving.

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