St. Josemaria Institute Podcast ST. JOSEMARIA INSTITUTE

This week, we're sharing a bonus episode as we end the Month of May dedicated to Our Lady!

In this podcast, Fr. Eric Nicolai helps us reflect on the times when our faith and trust in God may seem quite fragile, even weak. In these moments, Fr. Eric explains, St. Josemaria would recommend recourse to little aspirations, glances at images of our Lady and other simple devotions, because these small acts end up awakening something within us.

Mary seems to stir up devotion in us. She awakens our faith and makes us strong. She helps us, as St. Josemaria would say, to “stir up that fire of faith. Christ is not a figure that has passed. He is not a memory that is lost in history.”

She does this because she was both the Mother of God, and our Mother. She has two motherhoods. She is twice a mother. First she became the mother of God when consenting freely to the incarnation, her “Fiat" made her mother of Jesus. But then she became mother again, when she stood at the foot of the Cross, and became our mother at the request of Jesus, by taking care of John. But that too required a Fiat.

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In this podcast, Fr. Javier del Castillo helps us prepare for the great solemnity of Pentecost by guiding us to ask ourselves: What is my relationship with the Holy Spirit? Am I docile? Do I listen? 
 "Wherever the Spirit is, there is newness, there is life," explains Fr. Javier. "There is definitely a difference between what the Apostles were before, and what the Apostles are after they received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:1-11). And, "it's the power of humility... of the docility of the Apostles that let go and let God. Let God the Holy Spirit act in and through them in spite of their own weaknesses..."
 Fr. Javier says that, "Our Lord is challenging us to be docile to the Spirit. And, to be docile means to give the Holy Spirit a blank check... It means to take a risk, it means that we won't know where He comes from and we don't know where we're going. But we know we're in sure hands. And that's what it means to commit ourselves to the Christian life." 
 We ask the Holy Spirit "to come in a new Pentecost" to each one of us today to help us be docile in order to let God into our lives and to take us wherever He wills. We also ask the Holy Spirit for His gifts, especially wisdom, to understand the ways of God and to understand the things of the world from God's point of view.

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In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on Christ’s last words before his Ascension issuing the commission to his disciples to preach the Gospel to every creature. In fact this commission is a “global apostolic assignment” that will remain until the end of time. It is an assignment, “to make disciples of all nations,” that reaches us today and should encompass every dimension of our lives as Christians.
 “Out of a hundred souls we are interested in a hundred,” said St. Josemaria Escriva. This means, as Fr. Peter explains, that “we need to reach for the peripheries… those people completely alienated from Christ.” To do this effectively will require that we get out of our comfort zones with God's help. It also requires that our apostolic spirit and evangelization "come from the heart and from the gut," says Fr. Peter. "We have to love so much that we will take the risk of being rejected, and being judged, and being labeled.”

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In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan reflects on the profound role for Our Lady in our lives as Christians and our need “to embrace Our Lady to remind her of how much we love her.” He especially reflects on the meaning and devotion to the Holy Rosary and how it is an expression we can you use to repeat our love for Our Lady “again and again and again.”
As St. Josemaria Escriva wrote: “Today as in other times, the rosary must be a powerful weapon, to enable us to win in our interior struggle and to help all souls. Exalt holy Mary with your tongue: God asks you for reparation, and for praise from your lips. May you always want to know how to spread peace and happiness throughout the world, through this beautiful devotion to our Lady, and through your watchful love.”


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In our podcast of the week, Fr. Donncha O hAodha reflects on the title of Our Lady, Queen of Peace, on this anniversary of the Dedication of the Prelatic Church of Opus Dei (May 2). The church was built by St. Josemaria Escriva as the central church of Opus Dei, the heart of the Prelature, in Rome. And he dedicated it to Our Lady of Peace.
Like all of Our Lady’s titles, “Queen of Peace” stems from her motherhood, from being the Mother of Jesus Christ who is our peace. “For he is our peace… he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:14,17). Therefore, as Fr. Donncha explains, in the image and title “Queen of Peace,” we see how she is “full of joy and full of peace that comes from redemption, from salvation, from Our Lord’s cross, death, and resurrection. And that’s the peace that can never ever be taken away. And that’s also our peace."

“In the advocation of Mary, Queen of Peace, we read, we sense, we feel, we understand, all the joy of Redemption because Christ is our peace.” It is suitable, therefore, that title of the church designated by St. Josemaria would be Our Lady, Queen of Peace, because the Church is the place of peace and reconciliation—“where the peace of Our Lord, merited for us on the Cross, pours forth.”

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In this podcast, Msgr. Fred Dolan reflects on the image of Christ as the Good Shepherd. The Gospel of John gives us the image of the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. This image captures the selfless, sacrificial love Christ has for each one of us.
Further, Msgr. Dolan explains that we too are called to be good shepherds in our ordinary lives. We are called to have a constant concern for souls. He encourages us to pray about our role in the lives of others and stresses the importance of building community to create fruitful interactions with each other. In doing so, we become imitators of the love of Christ and good shepherds in our world today.

The TED Talk featuring Pope Francis referenced in this podcast can be viewed online via YouTube.

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