PODCAST | May: The Month of Our Mother Mary
[ Transcript ]
In this podcast, Fr. Javier del Castillo celebrates the Marian month of May and reflects on the importance of turning to Mary’s powerful intercession, especially through the Holy Rosary. He offers suggestions of how to honor Mary during this important month and reminds us to seek out the graces from Our Lord through the intercession of our Blessed Mother.
Looking at the theology of intercessory prayer, Fr. Javier explains that we must “think bigger than favors just for [ourselves]; think of the Church, think of souls, think of conversions, think of vocations… for people who desire to take their baptismal call seriously. We need a lot of those people, the laity. We need to ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers through the intercession of Mary.”
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
The St. Josemaria Institute is pleased to partner with ASL Catholic Media to share a video recording of this podcast interpreted in American Sign Language:
Rev. Javier del Castillo
Fr. Javier del Castillo is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei and currently serves as President of the St. Josemaria Institute. He earned a degree in electronic engineering and moved to Rome to complete his ecclesiastical studies, where he was ordained a priest in 2005 and earned a doctorate in Philosophy from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in 2007. He worked as a chaplain in high schools in the Washington, D.C. and Chicago areas for several years, offering spiritual accompaniment to students, parents, and teachers. From 2015 on, he served as the vicar of Opus Dei in the midwest; he was appointed regional vicar of the United States in 2022. He became vicar of the United States and Canada in 2024, following the restructuring of the regions, until his appointment as Vicar General in April 2025.
