Universalis

The Universalis podcast

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.

How to subscribe

Do you like this podcast? Tell your friends! Just send them a link to this page.

Recent episodes

Saturday 8 February 2025

The week ahead – from 9 to 15 February

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

The week ahead – from 2 to 8 February

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

The week ahead – from 26 January to 1 February

Sunday of the Word of God. Reading; listening; commentaries. Lectio Divina. Saint Thomas Aquinas. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.

Saturday 18 January 2025

The week ahead – from 19 to 25 January

The wedding-feast at Cana. Joy, pleasure and delight. (18 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 10 January 2025

The week ahead – from 12 to 18 January

The Baptism of the Lord. Baptism. The uncanonised Henry Edward Manning. (18 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 3 January 2025

The week ahead – from 5 to 11 January

The Epiphany. Melchizedek and the Magi. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 27 December 2024

The week ahead – from 29 December 2024 to 4 January 2025

The Christmas feasts. The Holy Family. The Finding in the Temple. (15 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 20 December 2024

The week ahead – from 22 to 28 December

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

The week ahead – from 15 to 21 December

Gaudete Sunday. The countdown to Christmas with the O Antiphons. (14 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 6 December 2024

The week ahead – from 8 to 14 December

Echoes between the First Readings and the Gospel. The Immaculate Conception. Our Lady of Guadalupe. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 29 November 2024

The week ahead – from 1 to 7 December

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 week ahead – from 24 to 30 November

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 week ahead – from 17 to 23 November

The feasts of the four Roman basilicas; our reasons for fearing the gift of death. (15 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 8 November 2024

The week ahead – from 10 to 16 November

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

The week ahead – from 3 to 9 November

Saint Nuno Álvares Pereira. Saint Charles Borromeo. The gift of death. (19 minutes)
Episode notes.

Saturday 26 October 2024

The week ahead – from 27 October to 2 November

All Saints, All Souls; Heaven, Purgatory, Hell and judgement. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.

Saturday 19 October 2024

The week ahead – from 20 to 26 October

Pope Saint John Paul II. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 11 October 2024

The week ahead – from 13 to 19 October

Saint Teresa of Ávila. Saint Callistus. (16 minutes)

Friday 4 October 2024

The week ahead – from 6 to 12 October

Saint John Henry Newman; the Feast of the Holy Rosary. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 27 September 2024

The week ahead – from 29 September to 5 October

Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the Holy Guardian Angels. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 20 September 2024

The week ahead – from 22 to 28 September

Saint Vincent de Paul; the prophet Ezekiel. (17 minutes)

Friday 13 September 2024

The week ahead – from 15 to 21 September

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

The week ahead – from 8 to 14 September

St Peter Claver. The Exaltation of the Holy Cross. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 30 August 2024

The week ahead – from 1 to 7 September

The two-year cycle of readings. St Gregory the Great. Mother Teresa. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 23 August 2024

The week ahead – from 25 to 31 August

St Augustine and St Monica. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 16 August 2024

The week ahead – from 18 to 24 August

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 week ahead – from 11 to 17 August

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 week ahead – from 4 to 10 August

The Transfiguration. Ways of reading the Gospel. Echoes across salvation history. Lectio Divina. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 26 July 2024

The week ahead – from 28 July to 3 August

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

The week ahead – from 21 to 27 July

St Ignatius of Antioch again. Saint Mary Magdalene. Devils and temptation. Saint James and Compostela. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 12 July 2024

The week ahead – from 14 to 20 July

Saint Ambrose on the Mysteries. Mount Carmel and the Carmelites. Mass tourism. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 5 July 2024

The week ahead – from 7 to 13 July

Saint Benedict. (18 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 28 June 2024

The week ahead – from 30 June to 6 July

Saint Peter; Saint Paul; Saint Thomas. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 21 June 2024

The week ahead – from 23 to 29 June

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 week ahead – from 16 to 22 June

The Psalms and their position in the Liturgy of the Hours. Saint Thomas More. (17 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 7 June 2024

The week ahead – from 9 to 15 June

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 week ahead – from Corpus Christi to 8 June

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 week ahead – from 26 May to 1 June

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

The week ahead – from 19 to 25 May

Pentecost; the works of the Holy Spirit; Hebrew and Greek culture; St Bede the Venerable. (14 minutes)
Episode notes.

Thursday 9 May 2024

The week ahead – from the Ascension to 18 May

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 week ahead – from 5 to 11 May

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

The week ahead – from 28 April to 4 May

Saint Joseph the Worker. The mysterious 7th Hour in the Liturgy of the Hours. (16 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 19 April 2024

The week ahead – from 21 to 27 April

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

The week ahead – from 14 to 20 April

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

The week ahead – from 7 to 13 April

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

The week ahead – from 31 March to 6 April

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

The week ahead – from 24 to 30 March

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

The week ahead – from 17 to 23 March

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

The week ahead – from 10 to 16 March

Highlights of the coming week, the fourth week of Lent. (9 minutes)
Episode notes.

Friday 1 March 2024

The week ahead – from 3 to 9 March

Highlights of the coming week (the third week of Lent), and hints for using Universalis. (10 minutes)
Episode notes.

How to subscribe

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.

Also

AntennaPod · Castro · Overcast · Pocket Casts · Podcast Republic

Other apps

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.

To copy the URL

To paste the URL

Here are some useful instructions from iMore.

Transcripts

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.

The Universalis apps

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.