Welcome to the St. Jose Maria Institute podcast. On today's podcast, a reflection on the

interior struggle of the Christian life. Father Peter Armagnio, a priest of Opus Day, explains why

the sermon on the Mount is such a shockingly high calling and encourages us to become a spiritual

athlete striving towards the kingdom of God. You'll also hear how St. José Maria Escriva

believed that the layperson was in hibernation

and that they too are called to become saints.

Lastly, Father Peter explains the price of the kingdom of heaven,

according to St. Matthew.

With your permission, Lord Jesus Christ, truly present with us in the Blessed Sacrament.

And our topic of prayer is a generic one called interior struggle.

In a certain sense, this is always a theme,

because when we converse with our Lord and we bring the gospel to our prayer,

we're at least implicitly examining ourselves against the life of Jesus or his teaching and

discovering and rediscovering how I can follow him.

And following him takes grace but also takes struggle against my weaknesses,

against my sins, against my defects.

And maybe we could look at this whole idea of sanctity

in terms of the goal.

What are we struggling after?

We're struggling to be saints.

And still, even though it's not our calling,

we have, in the the background the most recent canonized saint, and that is now St. Mother Teresa.

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