The Universalis podcast comes out once a week. It covers the liturgical aspects of the week ahead, with reflections on the saints and on the coming week’s readings and psalms.
The week starts on Sunday. Each episode comes out two days in advance, first thing on Friday morning. The episodes are about 15 minutes long.
Do you like this podcast? Tell your friends! Just send them a link to this page.
Saturday 8 February 2025
Saint Scholastica; the Shipwreck of St Paul; Our Lady of Lourdes; Saints Cyril and Methodius, and the Basilica of San Clemente. (20 minutes)
Episode notes.
Saturday 1 February 2025
Candlemas, the feast of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of the Lord. Purification. The celebration and sanctification of transitions. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Saturday 25 January 2025
Sunday of the Word of God. Reading; listening; commentaries. Lectio Divina. Saint Thomas Aquinas. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Saturday 18 January 2025
The wedding-feast at Cana. Joy, pleasure and delight. (18 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 10 January 2025
The Baptism of the Lord. Baptism. The uncanonised Henry Edward Manning. (18 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 3 January 2025
The Epiphany. Melchizedek and the Magi. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 27 December 2024
The Christmas feasts. The Holy Family. The Finding in the Temple. (15 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 20 December 2024
The O Antiphons concluded. Christmas starts the night before. Which is more important, Christmas or Easter? Incarnation, rescue and love. Stephen (and Paul), John and the Holy Innocents. (14 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 13 December 2024
Gaudete Sunday. The countdown to Christmas with the O Antiphons. (14 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 6 December 2024
Echoes between the First Readings and the Gospel. The Immaculate Conception. Our Lady of Guadalupe. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 29 November 2024
Advent and the new liturgical year. Cribs. Isaiah, rich food and wine. St Francis Xavier. The English Standard Version (ESV). New e-books. Some exercises for Advent. Saint Nicholas. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 22 November 2024
The end of Ordinary Time; the end of the world; how to read the Apocalypse. Christ the King; ourselves as kings. (15 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 15 November 2024
The feasts of the four Roman basilicas; our reasons for fearing the gift of death. (15 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 8 November 2024
Saints Martin of Tours, Margaret of Scotland, Elizabeth of Hungary and Albert the Great. Friar Julian, the lost Hungarians and the Mongols. More of the gift of death. (15 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 1 November 2024
Saint Nuno Álvares Pereira. Saint Charles Borromeo. The gift of death. (19 minutes)
Episode notes.
Saturday 26 October 2024
All Saints, All Souls; Heaven, Purgatory, Hell and judgement. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Saturday 19 October 2024
Pope Saint John Paul II. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 11 October 2024
Saint Teresa of Ávila. Saint Callistus. (16 minutes)
Friday 4 October 2024
Saint John Henry Newman; the Feast of the Holy Rosary. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 27 September 2024
Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the Holy Guardian Angels. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 20 September 2024
Saint Vincent de Paul; the prophet Ezekiel. (17 minutes)
Friday 13 September 2024
The martyrdom of Saint Cyprian; the stillness at the heart of the fight; the blessing of a martyr. The Korean Martyrs and the human race. (21 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 6 September 2024
St Peter Claver. The Exaltation of the Holy Cross. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 30 August 2024
The two-year cycle of readings. St Gregory the Great. Mother Teresa. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 23 August 2024
St Augustine and St Monica. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 16 August 2024
Our Lady, Mother and Queen. Octaves and their history. The First Readings in the Office of Readings. The book of Ecclesiastes. The two-year cycle. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 9 August 2024
The Assumption: the birth of a doctrine and its development. The Old Testament roots of Marian belief. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 2 August 2024
The Transfiguration. Ways of reading the Gospel. Echoes across salvation history. Lectio Divina. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 26 July 2024
Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus. The active life and the contemplative life. Darnel and the Last Judgement. God's mercy: a story. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 19 July 2024
St Ignatius of Antioch again. Saint Mary Magdalene. Devils and temptation. Saint James and Compostela. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 12 July 2024
Saint Ambrose on the Mysteries. Mount Carmel and the Carmelites. Mass tourism. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 28 June 2024
Saint Peter; Saint Paul; Saint Thomas. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 21 June 2024
Saint John the Baptist; the additional long passages in the Readings at Mass page; God made manifest in the Babylonian exile. (14 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 14 June 2024
The Psalms and their position in the Liturgy of the Hours. Saint Thomas More. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 7 June 2024
Returning home to Ordinary Time. The Universalis anniversary. The tempest and the still small voice; the cliff and the beach. St Ignatius of Antioch. The Spiritual Reading page. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Thursday 30 May 2024
The Body and Blood in short words; the birth of the feast; Transubstantiation; Communion, Exposition and Benediction. The Sacred Heart of Jesus. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 24 May 2024
The Athanasian Creed; the doctrine of the Trinity; Trinitarian doctrine and human creation; the Visitation. (Corpus Christi will be in the next podcast.) (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 17 May 2024
Pentecost; the works of the Holy Spirit; Hebrew and Greek culture; St Bede the Venerable. (14 minutes)
Episode notes.
Thursday 9 May 2024
The Ascension as art and as drama. The time of waiting. The structure of a single Hour. From the Fall to the coming of the Spirit. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 3 May 2024
The last few days before the Ascension; the disciples as school-leavers. The psalm with Leviathan; delight in creation. St Gorg Preca. The date of the Ascension. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 26 April 2024
Saint Joseph the Worker. The mysterious 7th Hour in the Liturgy of the Hours. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 19 April 2024
Acts, St John and the Apocalypse. What is the Liturgy of the Hours? A week of missionaries. (15 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 12 April 2024
What it means to be a saint; “Saint You”. Madagascar, Ireland, Africa, England. Justin Martyr and the beginnings of Christianity. The unnoticed saints. (13 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 5 April 2024
Highlights of the coming week. The apprentice Apostles. What is the risen Jesus? Our bodies and ourselves. Thomas, faith and reason. Could Mary have said No? Theology as music. (15 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 29 March 2024
Highlights of Easter week. “Drunk on the Spirit”. Coming to terms with un-bereavement. Salvation history as drama. Reasons for avoiding the Liturgy. “At Easter there can be no fear”. The earliest Patristic passages. Alleluia!!! (15 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 22 March 2024
Highlights of the coming week, Holy Week. Communication by means of silence. The Passion and how we encounter it. Julian of Norwich. The first and last Mass. The empty church and the end of everything. (14 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 15 March 2024
Highlights of the coming week, the fifth week of Lent. St Patrick, and local calendars around the world. (12 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 8 March 2024
Highlights of the coming week, the fourth week of Lent. (9 minutes)
Episode notes.
Friday 1 March 2024
Highlights of the coming week (the third week of Lent), and hints for using Universalis. (10 minutes)
Episode notes.
This podcast is free.
You can use any podcast app to subscribe and receive each episode when it is published.
Apple Podcasts: Click here.
Spotify: Click here.
YouTube: Click here.
Universalis and Catholic Calendar: Click here.
AntennaPod · Castro · Overcast · Pocket Casts · Podcast Republic
Whatever podcast app you have, it has a feature which allows you to add a podcast by entering the address (URL) of the podcast’s RSS feed.
Here is the URL for the Universalis podcast feed:
https://universalis.com/static/podcast-feed.xml
The simplest way to subscribe is to copy this URL and then paste it into the appropriate place in your podcast app.
Here are some useful instructions from iMore.
We don’t provide transcripts ourselves because a podcast ought to be an aural experience. But for anyone who wants one, both Apple Podcasts and Spotify provide them. Here are the instructions.
All the Universalis apps and programs will show you each podcast as soon as it appears. The alert comes near the top of the About Today page and near the bottom of the Readings at Mass and Lauds (Morning Prayer) pages. To listen to an episode, just tap the alert.
This web site © Copyright 1996-2024 Universalis Publishing Ltd · Contact us · Cookies/privacy |