In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio delves into Christ’s new commandment to love one another as he has loved us emphasizing the “vertical” and “horizontal” aspects of this commandment, likening it to the shape of a Cross. Fr. Peter also explains how strengthening our prayer life empowers us to live out this commandment and how embracing a life of piety serves as the foundation for our spiritual journey. View Transcript Visit Show Page Support the Show. THANK YOU FOR...

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio delves into the profound significance of the Resurrection challenging the notion that the Christian’s life is one defined by suffering alone. Instead, Fr. Peter emphasizes how Jesus’ Resurrection offers us a beacon of hope, turning our focus from pain to the promise of transformation when we unite ourselves to the Cross. View Transcript Visit Show Page Support the Show. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! Let us know that our podcast is important to...

In our meditation of the week:  Fr. Peter Armenio inspires our prayer this Easter season reminding us that the heart of our calling as Christians is to always be credible witnesses to the Resurrection by making the living Jesus real in the world. But how do make the Resurrection of Jesus credible today? If we're going to announce the Resurrection, like our early Christian brothers and sisters, we have to aim for intimate union with Christ. As Fr. Peter explains, we have to "constrain Jesus...

In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio offers a reflection on Easter-- the highest celebration of Our Lord's life and victory. But, we must never forget that we wouldn't have that victory without the Cross. To believe in the Resurrection, we have to believe in the power of the Cross. As Fr. Peter explains, every day is a good day to bring the Cross to our prayer and to meditate on the dynamic of the Cross. Our union with Christ through our contradictions and sufferings--the little...

In this meditation for Easter Sunday: Fr. Javier del Castillo invites us to contemplate the Resurrection of Christ and how the Resurrection is an event that can only be accessed by people of faith who have had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. Why is the Resurrection such a mysterious event that is not public, but is only accessed through a personal encounter with Our Lord? Because, as Fr. Javier explains, God preordained that the news of his Resurrection be spread through witnesses...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...