"Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while." These words of Jesus Christ are an invitation to personal and intimate prayer. The meditations offered in this podcast are intended to help the listener enter into his own prayerful relationship with God. By reflecting on scenes from the Gospel, on other passages from Scripture, and on the insights of saints and spiritual writers, we can strengthen our faith in Jesus and our love for God. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "I ha ...
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St. Bartholomew's first meeting with Jesus is recorded in the Gospel of St. John. Introduced by Philip, Bartholomew is struck by Jesus's already knowing him before they ever met. Jesus is struck in turn by Bartholomew's sincerity, "an Israelite in whom there is no guile." Our own Christian life is a matter of meeting Jesus, finding that he already …
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Martha invites Jesus into her home along with her sister Mary. Jesus's interaction with them is a great source of insight for us. "The better part" that Mary has chosen, sitting at the feet of Jesus, tells us of the importance of prayer. Jesus's correction of Martha, however, also has to do with her inner attitude of distraction, worry, and resentm…
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Jesus wants his joy to be in us and our joy to be full. Sharing the joy of Jesus means sharing in his victory over sin and death on the cross. Jesus receives a crown of glory and joy in heaven for his triumph. We too will be crowned victors if we persevere joyfully in the Spiritual Olympics of life. https://comeawaybyyourselves.com…
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Rebroadcast: The Bread of Life Discourse
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The "Bread of Life" Discourse in John Chapter 6 is a treasure trove of spiritual insights. Faith in Jesus's person is paramount for the Christian life. This faith is tested by the audacity of his claims for the Eucharist as well as by the trials and difficulties of our personal Christian vocation. Jesus promises spiritual satisfaction, eternal life…
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Jesus takes his apostles to a lonely place to rest with them. He offers us the same opportunity in our prayer life and when we practice trust in his constant care for us. We need to distinguish healthy rest from rest that can short-circuit our attempts to refresh ourselves. https://comeawaybyyourselves.com…
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"To be holy in his sight": Playing our Role for God
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Prophecy wasn't Amos' original plan for life. God chose him to be a prophet. St. Paul speaks of God choosing small and weak people to do great things for him. God also chooses us for great things: holiness and mission. Our persona, our role in life, should be more and more determined by God's vision and less by our own or by others'. https://comeaw…
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Prophetic figures are usually violently resisted. This happened to Christ on the Cross. Sometimes they are simply overlooked or ignored. This happened to Christ in Nazareth, with those who knew him well. Unless we are careful, our own familiarity with Christ could weaken his impact in our life. We should pray about ways to have new and powerful enc…
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Rebroadcast: St. Josemaria and the Vocation to Work
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On the Feast of St. Josemaria, we reflect on one of his most important teachings: the sanctification of work. After their conversion, the early Christians were encouraged to continue living the same life which God had already given them. St. Josemaria encourages us to do the same. Work is a blessing from God and key to a happy, fulfilled life. Work…
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Rebroadcast: Lessons From Jesus Asleep
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In the middle of a violent storm, the apostles find Jesus asleep in the boat. This divine sleep of the Son of God teaches us important lessons: the need for rest, the importance of trust in God during difficulties, and the great care that God our Father exercises over us. Only by trusting in God's power and fatherly protection in and through times …
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"With all your mind" - Adoration and Thinking about God
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To love God as God we need to think about Him. Adoration is not just feelings of awe and veneration, but a deep knowledge of the awesome transcendence of God. This knowledge empowers our ability to love God more profoundly. https://comeawaybyyourselves.comPor Fr. John Grieco
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Jesus fulfills his promise to "remain with us always" with his presence in the Eucharist. To believe in his real presence is a game changer in our prayer life and in life in general. Jesus is alive in the Eucharist so that he can be fully alive in us. https://comeawaybyyourselves.com
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Rebroadcast -- The Sacred Heart of Jesus: A Call to Radical Love
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Jesus' Sacred Heart reveals the depth of his love for us. Opened on the Cross, streams of blood and water poured out from Jesus' Heart. Our own love for God hinges on our having a heart full of compassion, concern, and a practical spirit of service towards others. As disciples of Jesus, we should be known for our love and care for each other and fo…
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Rebroadcast: The Feast of Corpus Christi: "Adoro te devote"
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For the Feast of Corpus Christi we meditate on the Eucharistic hymn "Adoro te devote." Hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, Our Lord Jesus is truly present: body, blood, soul, and divinity. This marvel of our faith reveals God's humble and radical love for us. Our response should be one of ever greater adoration, wonder, faith, hope and love. https://c…
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The Mystery of the Blessed Trinity is a great secret shared with us by God. He tells us about his inner life so we can know him well in order to love him truly. This intimacy is a sign of God's love for us and also of his great trust in us. To know the Trinity is to know that God is love. This removes all false fear of God from our hearts, filling …
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[Rebroadcast] Pentecost: Come Holy Spirit!
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The Holy Spirit is a powerful agent of spiritual renewal and transformation. The virtue of docility and the gift of counsel are needed to tap into the motions of the Spirit which always accompany and surround us. The Sanctifier will sculpt the image of Christ in us provided that we are humble and willing to follow his lead. https://comeawaybyyourse…
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Mary is every Christian's model. In the first place, her example teaches us about love. Mary's love is expressed in a radical love for God's will. This love is made possible by her remarkable humility and emboldened by her great trust. Imitating her means growing in these virtues, which free us from ourselves and open us to a greater love of God. h…
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Jesus prays that we may be "sanctified in the truth." The objective truth of our faith is a necessary part of its saving power. Truth is ultimately personal. Jesus himself is "The way and the truth and the life." Access to this truth demands trust in God's word. Sin, and the devil, are always suggesting the opposite: that God and his word should no…
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"As I love you": The Opportunity and Challenge of Love
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"Love one another as I love you." Jesus has a great confidence in our capacity to love others. The vocation to charity is a tremendous opportunity to make our lives fruitful. In loving others we show them the love Christ and the Father have for them and for us. To do this consistently takes work. Learning to love like Jesus involves purification, o…
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Mary Magdalene's encounter with the Risen Christ is truly a master class in love. She teaches us lessons of desire, sorrow, responsibility and union with God. Ultimately, to love is to convert, to make the center of our existence God and others shifting it away from ourselves. https://comeawaybyyourselves.com…
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Rebroadcast: "Become what you receive": Easter and the Eucharist
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The Holy Mass makes present Jesus' Resurrection as well as his sacrifice on the Cross. The Body of Christ, as a resurrected body, is a gift that is given to others. To receive our Lord is to become like him and moves us to imitate his goodness. https://comeawaybyyourselves.comPor Fr. John Grieco
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Putting ourselves into the scenes of the Resurrection, we can have our own personal encounters with the Risen Lord. Where can we find him? What is he saying to us? How does he want to help us? https://comeawaybyyourselves.comPor Fr. John Grieco
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From Death to Life: "A new creation in Christ"
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Jesus's death is a great mystery of our faith. It leads to his resurrection and to our eternal life. In accepting death, Jesus enters into the nothingness of sin and evil to conquer it from within. Through his death, he is reborn into resurrected, eternal life. In our Christian life, he invites us into the same dynamic journey. https://comeawaybyyo…
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Jesus's sacrifice on the cross is already accepted and offered by him at the Last Supper. "This is my body, given for you." Both the Mass and the Cross reveal to us an incredible love. A love that we are called to imitate and a love that can make us secure no matter what happens to us in this life. https://comeawaybyyourselves.com…
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The Passion of Jesus: "By his wounds we have been healed"
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As we enter Holy Week, we contemplate the suffering of Jesus in his passion. This suffering reveals to us both the gravity of sin and the unfathomable love of God for us in Jesus Christ. To contemplate our Lord in his passion can and should be a spur to personal conversion. https://comeawaybyyourselves.com…
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[Rebroadcast] St. Patrick's Day reflection
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A short reflection in honor of St. Patrick.Por Fr. John Grieco
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[Rebroadcast] St. Joseph: Life as a Sacred Trust
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God entrusts St. Joseph with his most precious possessions, his mother and his Divine Son. We too are entrusted with a sacred responsibility in life: to care for and love God's children. Everything and everyone in our life--including ourselves--is a gift from God, something valued by God himself. This calls for a great reverence and respect on our …
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"By your patience you will win your souls." Endurance, perseverance, patience: life is hard at times and seems long, to be faithful to Christ and others we need to stick it out over the long haul. https://comeawaybyyourselves.comPor Fr. John Grieco
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[Rebroadcast}: "With all your heart, mind, soul and strength": Our Need for Adoration
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The great commandment is to love God "with all of your mind, with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength." Adoration is how we love God most directly as God. This humble recognition of God's holiness, transcendence, and radical goodness is essential for our lives as Christians. Like most things, however, we have to …
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In Lent we turn our gaze towards the sufferings of Jesus. Jesus suffers voluntarily, freely, out of love for us. Our Lenten penances are an opportunity to do the same for him. Self-denial is an essential aspect of moral strength and freedom. Without it we are incapacitated to love God and others as we should. https://comeawaybyyourselves.com…
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Lent is a wonderful opportunity to find our peace, joy, and comfort in God. We do this by denying ourselves our usual sources of support, distraction, and pleasure. To be filled by God is to run the risk of emptying ourselves out of other things. This takes trust, courage and patience. God always responds to this kind of personal faith, even when i…
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"I do will it, be made clean": Jesus' Cleansing Mercy
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In this week's Gospel, Jesus cures a leper who tells him, "If you will, you can make me clean." In confession, Jesus always wills to cleanse us of sin. These last days before Lent are a great time to pray about the conversion from sin that God is asking of us. https://comeawaybyyourselves.comPor Fr. John Grieco
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Today's reading from the Gospel of Mark continues directly from last Sunday's gospel reading. Read together, they give us a picture of a day in the life of Jesus. Jesus's day is filled with work, prayer, and service. He approaches his tasks and situations with generosity and self-forgetfulness. This day in his life is a good model for any day in ou…
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[Rebroadcast]: The Parable of the Prodigal Son: Freedom and the Father
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The parable of the prodigal son is a parable of freedom and filiation. The prodigal son and his older brother both misuse their freedom. They mistakenly feel constrained by their relationship with their father and end up rejecting him. The prodigal son rediscovers his sonship by reflecting on the truth of his situation. This speaks to a close conne…
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Class on Christian Faith: God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth
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The first in a series of classes on the Nicene Creed. We cover the concepts of Creation and Conservation, the omnipotence of God and out capacity to know God with reason alone. https://comeawaybyyourselves.comPor Fr. John Grieco
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"Speak Lord, your servant is listening": Awake and Attentive in Prayer
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God wakes up the young boy Samuel four times when he gives him his vocation as a prophet. God will also wake us up from different forms of spiritual slumber when we go to him in our times of prayer. Jesus does something similar with Andrew and John. When they take their very first steps as disciples, he asks them "What are you seeking?" We should r…
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The feast of the Epiphany tells us that Christ meant for everyone. The Magi are the very first of billions of gentiles who will come to be saved in Jesus. The journey of the Magi speaks to us of our own need to search for God. The star they follow and the finding of Jesus bring them great joy, as our own vocation and conversions give us the joy of …
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Christmas puts before us the Virgin Mary loving and caring for her Divine Son. It's a scene that we can enter into in our prayer and in our life. Jesus says that we too are "his mother" insofar as we do God's will. God allows Mary and all of us to love him in the Christ child just as He has always loved us: with a mother's heart. Christmas is a tim…
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[Rebroadcast] Christmas: The Light of the Stable, The Light of the World
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Originally published Christmas 2020 How wonderful it must have been for the Shepherds from Bethlehem to enter the stable on Christmas night ! Our times of prayer this Christmas are our own chance to be close to the baby Jesus, to speak softly with Mary and Joseph, to be wrapped up in the mystery of God present in the Child. The warm light of the fi…
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Expecting Jesus: Light, Word, Salvation
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Today we contemplate three ways of thinking about Jesus and his coming. He is the light of the world to whom John the Baptist gives witness. He is the eternal Word. John's voice and ours expresses this Word in preaching and in holiness of life. He is our salvation. By turning away from sin and towards charity with his help, Jesus heals us and bring…
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[Rebroadcast]: Valleys Filled, Mountains Lowered: God's Work in Our Souls
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Advent is a penitential season, a time to reckon with our sinfulness and to convert. Conversion requires the belief that we can radically change with God's help. God can fill the valley of our frustration and loneliness. He can lower the mountain of our pride and self-reliance. For this to happen, however, we have to desire it and ask for it with c…
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Advent is a time of patience and hope. Both of these virtues entail waiting. Waiting for God is sometimes very difficult, especially in trying situations. Our faith in Jesus, who is God with us and faithful to his promises, bolsters our ability to wait for him with joyful hope. Our faith overcomes the tribulation of the world and even makes us peac…
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[Rebroadcast] The Feast of Christ The King
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Originally published 2021 Christ's kingdom is hidden, progresses slowly, and respects our freedom. It therefore has to be sought out, given time to develop, and freely assented to. When recognized as our King, Christ brings peace and holiness to our souls. https://comeawaybyyourselves.comPor Fr. John Grieco
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Jesus often calls us to vigilance. We know neither the time nor the hour of his second coming and the time of our own death is certain but unknown to us. The best preparation for our judgment is found in discerning and doing the will of God. https://comeawaybyyourselves.comPor Fr. John Grieco
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The parable of the ten virgins invites us to reflect on the virtue of wisdom. Wisdom has to do with having the right goals and knowing how to achieve them. If our goal is heaven, the means to achieve this is charity. Growth in charity demands of us a variety of other steps depending on our personal situation and history. To know what we want is not…
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[Rebroadcast] Humility and Greatness of Soul
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Originally published 2021 Jesus stresses the importance of humility for being "great" and even "first" in the Kingdom of God. Humility is hard to come by, however, because pride is not easily overcome. The road to deep humility is a often a painful one, but there is also a shortcut called gratitude.Por Fr. John Grieco
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The Psalms and other Bible passages are full of encouraging claims about who and what God is for us. The Lord is our rock, our stronghold, our inheritance ... Faith makes these claims come to life. To be all that he wants to be for us, we must try to let God be our one and true God, whom we love with all of our soul, all of our heart and all of our…
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"This is the will of God for you, your sanctification." With these words, St. Paul reveals to us the great potential of our Christian life. St. Josemaria was inspired by God to remind us of this universal vocation. We should always be confident about taking the next step in our spiritual life. It is something that God always wants for us. Holiness …
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Life in Heaven is the supreme goal of our life on earth. Desiring Heaven is brought about by the theological virtue of hope. Our longing for Heaven, and our capacity to reach it, is tied to our love of God in this life. We must learn to love God as our happiness in this life if we wish to enter eternal life confidently. Hope helps us avoid despair …
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October is the month of the Rosary. We celebrate "Our Lady of the Rosary" and reflect on the many advantages of the recitation of this powerful prayer. https://comeawaybyyourselves.comPor Fr. John Grieco
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"I come to do your will": St. Josemaria and loving the will of God
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Jesus tells us about two sons. One does his father's will after saying he wouldn't. The other says yes to his father but promptly disobeys him. Jesus, our model, does both: he says yes to the Father's plan and then carries it out. Loving God's will is essential to our Christian life. It is Jesus's sole motive and he is our sole model. St. Josemaria…
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