A Spiritual Retreat on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit guides us through a deeper understanding of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and shares practical applications of how to foster these gifts in our prayer and conversation with God.

“We should be aware of the work of the Holy Spirit all around us, and in our own selves we should recognize the gifts he distributes, the movements and institutions he inspired, the affections and decisions he provokes in our hearts” (St. Josemaria Escriva; Christ is Passing By, no. 130).

However, in our human weakness, our soul is clouded with the impurities of sin which inhibits our awareness to the work of grace. As we progress in our spiritual journey, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit help us overcome the obstacles of sin and lead us to the highest summits of holiness.

Weaving together stories from the life of St. Josemaria and spiritual insights from Scripture, this retreat is an opportunity to enlighten our minds, purify our hearts, and strengthen our wills as we come to know the Holy Spirit in a more profound way and seek to encounter his presence in the ordinary moments of everyday life.

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Concluding our Easter series, To and From Emmaus: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on how the disciples’ encounter with Jesus Christ along the road to Emmaus serves as a template of evangelization, and how true evangelization is the ultimate fruit of our prayer and interior life.

Jesus profoundly affected the hearts of his two companions – the disciples sense their hearts being uplifted, they sense that they are loved and affirmed, they sense the kindness and affection of Christ, and they become recipients of his joy and peace. We learn from Our Lord, therefore, that the way of true evangelization doesn’t necessarily consist in an ability to win theological debates nor does it consist in constant moralizing or defending good moral causes. These are all important elements of evangelization, but what’s essential in the work of true evangelization is that we attract, we encounter, and we accompany.

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Continuing our Easter series, To and From Emmaus: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the importance of nurturing our interior life in order to draw close to our Heavenly Father and to share the light of Christ with others. As we see in the gospel passage, Christ makes himself known to the disciples through the breaking of the bread and in sharing of the Word.

In this time of prayer and reflection, Fr. Peter challenges us to make resolutions that can help deepen our Eucharistic piety so that we can be transformed by the grace of Christ and inspired to live out the Divine Commission. As St. Josemaria explains: “If you don’t keep in touch with Christ in prayer and in the bread, how can you make him known to others?” (The Way, no. 105).

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Continuing our Easter series, To and From Emmaus: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the disciples’ desire for Jesus to remain with them as evening falls along their journey as a template for our vocation in which we seek to remain with Christ through our pursuit of holiness. The journey of the disciples provides for us a framework which we can apply to our Christian life as we turn away from sin and conform our life to Christ.

St. Josemaria prompts us to ask: “Why don’t you give yourself to God once and for all… really… now?” (The Way, no. 902). As we spend this time in prayer and conversation with God, we are encouraged to seek the grace of the Holy Spirit so that we may recognize the presence of Christ in our daily lives and burn with the fire of his love in our personal quest for sanctity.

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As we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1, we are pleased to share “Go to Joseph”: A Spiritual Retreat, a collection of meditations that invites us to contemplate the life of St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus Christ and model of virtue and leadership, and to understand more deeply: Why is the life of St. Joseph so important? Why did God choose St. Joseph to be his foster father on earth? What does St. Joseph’s life teach us about our own identities: where we come from and why God has also chosen us?

As we turn to the example of St. Joseph, we learn how his life of virtue was fostered through his docility to the Will of God and perseverance in the tasks and struggles of daily life. This time of prayer on retreat is an opportunity to look inward and assess how we respond to the grace of Christ in our daily life. By imitating the life of St. Joseph, we too can overcome obstacles and sanctify the ordinary moments of daily life.

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Continuing our Easter series, To and From Emmaus: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the disciples’ desire for Jesus to remain with them as evening falls along their journey. As we compare the journey to Emmaus with our personal journey toward eternal life with Christ, Fr. Peter reminds us that our time on Earth is short and therefore we should set out with urgency to fill our life with deeds of love.In this time of reflection and prayer, we are challenged to ask ourselves: “How much can I do for Jesus in a given day?” When our time on Earth comes to a close, can we look back confidently and know that we have taken full advantage of our time as we pursue the path of holiness toward Heaven?

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On April 23, 1912, at the age of 10, St. Josemaria Escriva made his First Communion.

In this podcast, on the anniversary of St. Josemaria’s First Communion, Fr. Leo Agustina reflects on Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, and how the Eucharist shows us Jesus as he is and ourselves as we are. As we pray and contemplate the presence of Christ in the silence of our heart, we see that Christ seeks to redeem us and to transform our hearts so that we may imitate his presence in the world today. His presence in the Eucharist teaches us how to love— not only how to love God but also how to love others and how to love ourselves. As each of us remembers the first time we received Christ in the Eucharist, we can ask him to increase our desire to receive him better and to believe more in the reality of his love.

St. Josemaria explains: “Jesus has remained in the Sacred Host for us! So as to stay by our side, to sustain us, to guide us. And love can only be repaid with love. How could we not turn to the Blessed Sacrament each day, even if it is only for a few minutes, to bring him our greetings and our love as children and as brothers?” (Furrow, no. 686).

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Continuing our Easter series, To and From Emmaus: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the desire for conversion that Christ inspires within the disciples and how we can imitate this act of repentance and change of heart in our daily lives. Amid their journey to Emmaus, Christ prompts a conversation with the disciples and identifies the interior pain and restlessness they experience as a result of what they believe to be an absence of Christ. It is through this conversation that Christ encourages the disciples to examine their conscience, seek repentance, and share the good news of the Risen Lord.

As we too open our hearts to the grace of Christ, what sinful barriers do we need to break through to pursue a life of friendship with the Risen Lord?

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Continuing our Easter series, To and From Emmaus: In this podcast, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the disciples’ feeling of dejection and tragedy in response to Jesus’ death, not recognizing yet how his death and resurrection will become a symbol of conversion and transformation. We see, therefore, in the story of Emmaus that it is in the midst of our difficulties that we must turn to the Lord and unite our suffering to the Cross. Fr. Peter explains that though we may not always feel or perceive the presence of the Lord, we must remain rooted in the truth that the Lord never abandons us.God loves us and desires our happiness. By reflecting on the disciples’ journey to Emmaus, especially in our suffering, we are encouraged to draw near to Christ and respond to his outpouring of love by opening our heart to him in prayer.

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The St. Josemaria Institute is pleased to present a new seven-part podcast series by Fr. Peter Armenio on the road to Emmaus as a complement to your time of prayer as we celebrate the resurrection of Our Lord this Easter season.

In this week’s podcast, the first of the series, Fr. Peter introduces us to the circumstances surrounding the disciples’ journey to Emmaus – what events are they leaving behind and what are they seeking as they walk ahead? The events that occur on the road to Emmaus serve as an allegory to the circumstances of our personal discipleship with Christ, illustrating that we can overcome our defeats with interior strength and spiritual victory.

As we reflect with Fr. Peter on this spiritual journey over the next seven weeks, we are challenged to look inward and place ourselves within the experiences of the disciples and apply these events to our daily lives. In doing so, we will come away with a renewed desire to walk with and imitate Christ through the joys and sorrows of everyday life.

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