The 80th Anniversary of Opus Dei: A Message of Holiness in the World
1. The Founder: Saint Josemaría Escrivá
1.1 A man who knew how to love
2.1 The model of the first Christians
3. The Organization of Opus Dei
3.1 Personal Prelature
4.1 Permanent Formation and Personal Apostolate
5.1 On the Internet
6.1 The Homily, “Passionately Loving the World”
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) — The year 2008 has been a year of celebrations for Opus Dei. On March 19, they celebrated their 25th anniversary of Erection as a Personal Prelature and on October 2, they celebrate their 80th anniversary of foundation. This institution in the Catholic Church has nearly 85,000 members throughout the world, carrying out their mission in a hundred different countries on every continent. This Dossier is an attempt to show the spirit, organizational structure, and activities of this pastoral reality within the Church, whose fundamental message is that a person can be a fervent Christian and be holy, remaining in their position in the world and going about their everyday life. Opus Dei is directed towards the common faithful, the baptized who can live an authentic relationship with God, right where they are: in a factory or in an office of a skyscraper, just as well as they can going about household chores or studying at the university. It is a message of holiness in the world, in which everything, every aspect of life — even the smallest ones — become an occasion to come in contact with God.
The Work organizes activities for spiritual edification in locations all over the world. These activities include retreats, conferences on points of doctrine, and encounters for spiritual orientation and are meant to help each person to build a relationship with God in the midst of their everyday life activity. The Work helps common Christians to have a solid interior life and prayer life, which in turn leads to a constant apostolic activity: in their manner of acting — with their hard working spirit, with their readiness to serve, their joyful spirit — they can offer mankind the opportunity of experiencing God’s love firsthand. The Work is a great form of catechesis, with nothing new to say or new aspects to display. Its only goal is to spread the message of Christian love to every part of society, with formation activities, personal example, and through the apostolate of each one of its members.
The Work also has a great spirit of social initiative. Inspired by the Christian desire to give of oneself to improve others’ lives, the members of Opus Dei and many other people of good will have begun projects for social progress — in both developed and developing nations — throughout the world, in an effort to resolve concrete problems and offer services of education and assistance wherever they are needed. These initiatives are overseen and promoted by common citizens that assume this responsibility, and which the Prelature tries to give a Christian orientation and pastoral care.
1.1 A man who knew how to love
In order to learn about an institution, one must begin with its founder. There are various testimonies from those who knew Saint Josemaria Escriva and there is one point on which they all agree: his capacity to love. He had an innate ability to esteem every person he met. In him, faith was something tangible. In his words, in his gestures, Christian doctrine became real life.
There are various audio-visual recordings which are of great interest and that show the founder conversing with people of all different categories, in public events that he attended mainly in the 70s in various European and Latin American nations. In these encounters, Saint Josemaria responded to people’s questions, explaining the spirit of the Work and offering an authentic catechesis. He has been the only case up until now of a Saint in the Church explaining his message on video. These films transmit his personality as a priest with a vibrant faith, with a serene and joyful character, with a captivating character that was not a merely passing enthusiasm, but a stable habit, thanks to his profound awareness of the fact that he was a child of God.
In one of these film encounters, responding to a woman in the audience, he resumed the heart of the Work’s message in this manner: “You can turn the prose of everyday life into epic poetry. Of this I am sure. Each day you make yourself a proper schedule, and that way, every day will have a new song . . . Would you agree? Sometimes it will be one rhythm, and other times, another. When your husband tells you that he loves you, there is a different tune each day and every day seems more beautiful than the last. Place yourself face to face with God, my daughter. You should love God with the same heart with which you love your husband. And the love you have for your husband will grow more and more, and then the love for your children, for your home, for your people, for your country, for all mankind. And if you do everything for love, you will be capable of sacrificing a little more of your life, as time goes by. Love has wings. And you’ll see that sometimes you fly lower to the ground and other times, up high, and thus the prospects of your days, even though they seem very similar, each one is always different. And you know this, you put it in practice, and you live it.”
He was a man with a captivating spiritual character, who knew how to open the horizons of those who approached him, with simplicity and amiability. What is perhaps one of the most important of his homilies has been dubbed: “Passionately Loving the World” (added at the end of this Dossier), which holds the long and short of the message of Opus Dei: everyday life, the most ordinary activities, everyday “prose,” when it is lived out of love for God and out of love for our neighbor, it can become “epic poetry.” From his words and example, an abundance of fruits continue to come forth: people of all ages, races, social conditions, and geographic locations, who take their vocation as children of God seriously and try to improve their lives and contribute to the good of society, as fervent Christians.
Where does this ideal of holiness in the world come from? This way for everyday working Christians, as they go about their ordinary life? In order to understand it, we need to take a step back in time, back to the life of the Saint, to the moments of foundation.
In 1902, Josemaria Escriva was born in Barbastro, a small town in northeastern Spain near the Pyrenees Mountains, being the second of six children. His father, Jose Escriva, was a cloth merchant, and his mother Dolores, dedicated all her time to the family.
From an early age, Josemaria tasted life’s hardships: three of his younger sisters died at a young age and due to an underhanded action of one of his father’s colleagues, the textile business was financially ruined and the entire family forced to abandon a comfortable style of life and face economic challenges. It was from his parents, Jose and Dolores, that he learned what it meant to live out the Christian faith with simplicity of life, every day. With a great heroism lived with remarkable simplicity, his parents offered their children an example of what true love between husband and wife meant, living a life full of affection, serenity, and trust in God, even in the midst of adversity.
After the economic failure of his father’s business, in 1915 the family moved to Logroño, where Jose found work as a clerk in a local business. The good humor and humility of the father, who faces this time with dignity and Christian spirit, is an example for Josemaria, of a faith lived amidst the normality of everyday life situations.
One morning in 1918, before his 16th birthday, Josemaria woke up to find the city covered in snow. Going out into the street, he observed footprints left by bare feet in the snow. Following the footprints, he realized that they had been left by a Discalced Carmelite friar from the monastery near his house. He thought to himself, “If that Carmelite is capable of making a sacrifice like that for God, what can I do?”. From that moment, young Josemaria began an interior journey that would lead him to understand that God was asking something of him, but he did not yet know what it was. He knew he had to give himself completely to God and decided to become a priest, so as to place himself more readily at God’s disposition. He began ecclesiastical studies in Logroño and in 1922, entered the Diocesan Seminary of Zaragoza, where he would complete his formation as a seminarian. With the permission of his superiors, he also studied law at the university. In 1925, he was ordained a priest and began his pastoral ministry that, from then on, would become the basis of his entire life. In the meantime, he remained open to any light that would show him how to fulfill the mission the Lord was calling him to.
In 1927, he was transferred to Madrid, to earn a Doctorate in Law. His mother and siblings accompanied him, since from the moment of his father’s death in 1924, he had become the head of the family. There, in the Spanish capital, he continued his priestly ministry, working mainly with the poor, the sick and children. In the meantime, he provides for the family through other jobs, mainly through giving classes in law. His priestly apostolate also includes working with university students, artists, workers, and scholars who, in coming into contact with those whom Fr. Josemaria helps, they learn to practice charity and Christian solidarity, seeing their responsibility in the progress of society. From this small group would later come the first vocations to Opus Dei. Years later, this practice of attending to the needy is now one of the main apostolic activities of Opus Dei with the youth, as it is the school par excellence in learning to practice charity and service.
It was in this time of intense pastoral activity, study, and apostolate with the youth that Josemaria received a light from God as to the foundation. Over 10 years had passed since he saw those footprints in the snow and felt that God wanted something more of him. They had been years spent in formation and living a life of piety with commitment and dedication. On October 2, 1928, the feast of the Guardian Angels, Saint Josemaria attended a retreat in Madrid. He was in his room organizing some of his spiritual notes, when something happened and he received a divine inspiration in his soul. It was then that he “saw” Opus Dei. It was a moment of grace, as he himself explains: “I received the Vision about the Work while I was reading those notes. Deeply moved, I knelt down — I was alone in my room — and gave thanks to the Lord, and I remember with emotion the sound the church bells of Our Lady of the Angels.” “I saw” were the words he always used to describe this moment.
He then understood what God was asking of him: to found Opus Dei, a spiritual path that would lead men and women of all social environments to a personal commitment in following Christ, loving the Church, and seeking holiness in everyday life, in the midst of their day-to-day activity. The same path was both new and old, as old as the Gospel itself, and this implied leading Christians to rediscover the profound meaning of baptism and to live the faith within the normality of their lives, as they went about their everyday activity. It was like a foretaste of what would later be affirmed in a more solemn manner, many years later, in the Second Vatican Council, with the articulation of the universal call to holiness.
From that moment on, it was as though all the divine paths in the world were unearthed. Every person, whether he is a father of a family, or a student, or a CEO, each one is called to become a saint.
From 1928 onwards, Josemaria Escriva invested his spiritual and material efforts in fulfilling this mission he had received, without ever considering himself an innovator or a reformer, relying only on the conviction he had of the eternal newness of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, who continually renews the Church, at whose service God had placed Opus Dei.
In 1930, thanks to a new light he received, he understood that he should begin Opus Dei’s apostolic work with women, who would also collaborate in the mission that God had given him. In fact, the founder always considered women to be just as responsible as men in the construction of civil society and the edification of the Church.
In 1934, the first edition of “The Way” was published, then entitled “Consideraciones espirituales” (meaning “Spiritual Reflections”), which is the most widespread work of Josemaria Escriva and which until now has sold over 4 million copies. Among his other well-known works are “The Holy Rosary,” “Christ is Passing By,” “Friends of God,” “The Way of the Cross,” “The Forge,” and “The Furrow.”
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) had its influence on the Work in its early days of foundation. They were years filled with suffering for the Church and for Catholics. It was a time of religious persecution, which the founder of Opus Dei lived in an up-close and personal manner. However, they were also years in which Fr. Josemaria grew in faith and hope, as did those who called upon him for spiritual assistance.
At the end of the war, upon the request of several bishops, he began giving spiritual exercises to hundreds of priests throughout Spain. Under his direction and with his drive, Opus Dei rapidly spread all over the Iberian Peninsula. The outbreak of World War II (1939-1945) briefly put a damper on the apostolic expansion of the Work to other European nations. The 40s were also years of incomprehension and criticism, which would be echoed in the future. Aware of the fact that such things normally occur at the beginning of a new movement, in the Church and in society, Josemaria Escriva responded to these challenges with prayer and a good sense of humor.
In 1943, once again he received another “foundational” grace, which led him to understand how he could allow priests to enter into collaboration the Work: and so, he began the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. The full membership to Opus Dei of both laity and priests, as well as their integral cooperation in apostolate, is an essential characteristic of the institution, something that forms a part of the foundational charism itself, to the point of forming, as the Church has established and confirmed on repeated occasions, a specific property with its own juridical configuration.
The Priestly Society of the Holy Cross also carries out activities for spiritual formation open to all diocesan priests and candidates for priesthood, promoting the quest for holiness within the fulfillment of the priestly ministry, in harmony with the Bishops of their diocese.
Aware of the fact that his mission had taken root and been spread in a universal manner, Josemaria Escriva moved to Rome in 1946. From 1945-1975, under the guidance of the founder, apostolic activity extends to another thirty countries. From 1946-1950, Opus Dei receives all the pontifical approvals that allow it to actively work to serve the universal Church and local Diocese, remaining faithful to its own original charism, namely: the purely supernatural purpose of spreading the ideal of holiness in everyday life; service to the Church and the Roman Pontiff; secularity; love for personal freedom and responsibility; respect for pluralism in political, social, and cultural issues.
From 1948 on, married men and women could also enjoy full membership in Opus Dei, seeking holiness in their own state of life. In 1950, the Holy See gave its approval for members of other religions to join as cooperators. In fact, a great number of Christians from other denominations (e.g. Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, etc.) collaborate in Opus Dei activities, as do members of other religions (e.g. Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc.).
During the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the founder of Opus Dei maintained an intense and fraternal relationship with many of the Council Fathers, who asked for his advice on several of the main issues in the magisterial council, such as the doctrine on the universal call to holiness and the role of the laity in the mission of the Church. He was faithful to the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council and, through the formative activity of Opus Dei, he promoted its being put into practice throughout the world.
Josemaria Escriva dedicated his entire life to encouraging the youth, mothers of families, workers, people in leadership positions, teachers, and housewives to take their Christian vocation seriously. During his life, Opus Dei would grow and spread throughout the world, bearing many apostolic fruits.
Escriva died in Rome on June 26, 1975. He had established the main headquarters of the Work there, because he wanted the institution to be universal, Catholic, and at the service of the Church. Thousands of people have come to know Christ, thanks to his ministry, through his life and his writings. On October 6, 2002, 300,000 pilgrims had the joy of attending his Canonization ceremony, held in Saint Peter’s Square and presided by Pope John Paul II.
The novelty of Saint Josemaria consists of giving back to daily life the dignified rank as an adequate environment for encountering God. In the famous homily, “Passionately Loving the World” (added at the end of this Dossier), the founder summarizes what is at the heart of the spirit of the Work: “I assure you, my sons and daughters, that when a Christian carries out with love the most insignificant everyday action, that action overflows with the transcendence of God. That is why I have told you repeatedly, and hammered away once and again on the idea that the Christian vocation consists of making heroic verse out of the prose of each day. Heaven and earth seem to merge, my sons and daughters, on the horizon. But where they really meet is in your hearts, when you sanctify your everyday lives . . .”
Opus Dei is nothing more than Christianity, lived to its fullest, in the midst of the occupations of this world. The heart of Saint Josemaria's message is that the Lord has created us as we are and has placed us where we are because, since the very beginning, He has had a plan for each one of us. This is the Christian vocation: discovering that God asks us to serve others in our work well-completed, in our family relationships, in the care we show towards our friends and colleagues. There is no aspect of our existence that cannot be an occasion for us to find and love God. The founder told students: “God awaits you in your studies,” and to the husbands and wives, he said: “Your path to Heaven bears the name of your husband or your wife.” This is the universal call to holiness its essence: everyone — no one excluded — in living the great and small challenges of every day with love for God, can reach that fullness of communion with the Lord, which is Holiness.
In this message is contained the innate conviction, which is completely Christian, that the world is good because it has been created by God. It is we ourselves, mankind, who with our sins stray from the original plan of God and turn this world into a hostile place. Saint Josemaria often repeated that the world needs love. Not the world, in the “worldly” sense, contrary to the faith, but the world as the sum of circumstances that characterize our life: if we are short or tall, in a prestigious social ranking or among the very poor, in the north or the south, in heat or in cold, etc. In the world, in these normal circumstances we find God, because in the things and events of the world, God shows Himself to us and reveals Himself to us.
The Work of Saint Josemaria is nothing more than a giant speaker system for announcing this ancient teaching of the Church. Jesus tells his disciples: “be perfect as my Father is perfect” and He shows us, in His example, what the path is: seek the will of God in everything.
Nowadays, the idea of holiness is not easily understood. The common image of a saint is necessarily someone who is unapproachable, distant, incapable of being imitated. The truth is that this view is the result of a cultural invention that has, over the years, distorted the concept of holiness. In the Gospel, Jesus offers the invitation to holiness to all people, no one excluded. The message of Saint Josemaria reminds all the baptized of this profound truth.
2.1 The model of the first Christians
Saint Josemaria, with his works and teachings, brought to mind the model of the first Christians. From the beginning, the Saints in the Church have held the role of renewing and improving the knowledge and awareness of the applications of the aspects of the faith. The virtue of poverty, for example, was already known of and practiced before Saint Francis of Assisi. However, through his testimony, Saint Francis illumined and clarified the deep meaning of evangelical poverty, for all men. At the same time, the teachings of Saint Josemaria, together with the insights of the II Vatican Council and the testimonies of other great contemporary Saints, have given renewed strength and contributed to the rediscovery of the new and the old — as the Gospel — teaching of the universal call to holiness.
In its early days, Christianity was spread through common people who lived the faith in a fervent manner, within their state in society. They were farmers, merchants, soldiers, widows, and others. Nothing distinguished them from the others, except for the fact that their entire existence was permeated by an authentic relationship with God. They made the effort to live virtuously and were capable of bearing the weight of others. So much was this the case, that the pagans were impressed by how they loved each other. The spread the Gospel among their colleagues, their family members, and their comrades, through their example, friendship, and personal initiative. It was holiness “in the midst of the world,” living the faith through earthly occupations, not in spite of them.
In the days of the first Christians, it was a logical and natural part of the Gospel that the normal situations — in the workplace, in the family, relationships — were the place to live out one's own relationship with God. The first Christians are, for the Church, an example of the faith practiced in daily life. When the married couple, Aquila and Priscilla, meet an intellectual of the time period named Apollo, who shows an interest in Christianity, they don't send him to a priest or a theologian. They form him themselves. They show that they are a living part of the Church and know well the fundamental message.
This is what the Work promotes: turning every Christian into a fervent Christian capable of acting directly in society and spreading Christianity through his example, with his work, with his life.
Thus, each one becomes an apostle in his own environment: with their colleagues, their friends, their relatives. It is an apostolate that becomes like an infinite ocean, because any human activity, from professional commitments to entertainment, can become an occasion to come in contact with God.
2.2 The sanctification of work
Work is the center of the life of every Christian. God created the world and then entrusted man with the task of caring for and protecting creation. The Lord asks man to collaborate with Him in His work. The message of Opus Dei of sanctifying work goes hand-in-hand with this theological notion.
In modern times, the concept of work has lost sight of its spiritual dimension. Today, work is more viewed as a quest for one's own success and prestige, or merely as a means of supporting oneself. In the Christian message, work is completely other. God is the one who, after creating the world, entrusts it to man, giving him the task to cultivate it, know it, and protect it. For man, work is a means for continuing and collaborating in the creative work of God. In this perspective, work is not only understood as a professional activity, but as the entire sum of activities that characterize each person's life. It becomes the main means to find God, to be with Him, to do His will.
Saint Josemaria has underlined this aspect of the Christian spirit: sanctifying work means transforming one's own activity of each day into an agreeable gift to God. However, this is not all. Sanctifying work also means sanctifying ourselves and others through our actions. The person who seeks to do their work well, entirely, and with order, feels the need to constantly improve: to be more prepared, more generous, and more open to doing whatever is needed. This way of acting is necessarily beneficial to others, as it makes each one more attentive of others' needs . . . to such a degree that we begin to live in a constant desire to make the lives of others more agreeable. Thus, in our entire life, in the passing of time, every action becomes an opportunity to love that sanctifies ourselves, others, and the environment in which we move. The message of the sanctification of work, which is central to Opus Dei, cannot be understood if it is not with this perspective of love.
Love is the center of every Christian life: love above all for God, which expands outwards to include whoever is around us, beginning in one's own family, with one's own colleagues in the office and then reaching out to include all humanity. The Christian, thus, becomes a sower of peace. There is no longer a single moment of his life that is not an opportunity to do apostolate: from his conversation with a simple passerby to the service he performs for another, to the point where he begins to speak of God to all people, with words and actions, without ever tiring. The message of Opus Dei on the sanctification of work is none other than this: make every baptized person discover that his vocation is that of spreading the love of God, without ceasing, without reservations, because there is no dimension of human life that is outside this task.
Saint Josemaria untiringly taught people how to have a positive outlook on life. The Work teaches the authentic Christian spirit of not hating anyone, of not having enemies and not focusing on how much evil there is in the world. The Christian should learn to discern, with the help of grace, good from evil which come together in human history. This discernment, however, cannot become fear of sin, but rather an inspiration to more fervently spread and live the Gospel message. Every good Christian is called to share in the responsibility for the problems in society, contributing with his daily effort to improve others' lives. “Evil is canceled out by the abundance of good,” the founder used to say. Each one, therefore, is called to understand those around him, to learn how to get along with other people. As Saint Josemaria said: “This has been the great Christian revolution: transforming pain into a fruitful suffering; turning an evil into something good. We have stripped the devil of this weapon . . . and, with it, we conquer eternity.”
One of the fundamental characteristics of Opus Dei is the great freedom of the members in the professional and social arena. The Work is concerned with Christian formation and spiritual direction, while it leaves each one free to act in society according to his inclinations, according to his profession and his criteria. The Work keeps in mind the just autonomy of the laity within the Church. All the activities of Opus Dei essentially tend towards one same goal: provide its members with the spiritual assistance they need for their life of piety, in an adequate spiritual, doctrinal, and human preparation. As the founder used to say: “Thus, each one learns to swim! That is, how to act as a true Christian in order to sanctify the paths of mankind.” Pluralism is one of the essential characteristics of the good spirit of Opus Dei.
The faithful of Opus Dei are citizens that enjoy the same rights and are subject to the same duties as every other citizen. In political, economic, and cultural decisions, they act with liberty and personal responsibility, without involving the Church or Opus Dei in their own decisions and without presenting them as the only ones coherent to the faith. They respect the freedom and opinion of others, as well.
The Work calls the faithful to rediscover their role in the Church which, as Benedict XVI has said, is that of “contributing to the purification of reason and the awakening of moral strength.” Thus, it is up to the faithful to bring Christ to every part of society, through their testimony of life and their initiatives, with the desire to bring many souls to Christ and to establish a just order in society, participating in first person in public life. Christian values are valid for all because their final end is the common good. They can be adequately represented to the degree in which each member of the faithful learns to offer his contribution to society. As citizens, this implies proposing solutions, giving a good example, etc. to contribute to the growth of social justice and well-being. There is no set guideline valid for all; each one must find his path.
Opus Dei promotes the lay mentality and love for pluralism. There is no incompatibility between fidelity to the Magisterium and openness to the various solutions in areas of opinion. It has been God Himself who has arranged for this certain range of liberty and it is His will that man know how to make good use of it.
3. The Organization of Opus Dei
From a juridical point of view, Opus Dei is a personal prelature of the Catholic Church. This juridical configuration, fruit of a long and intense itinerary, celebrated its 25th anniversary on March 19, 2008. Opus Dei is the first and only personal prelature, as of today. This juridical figure was established by the Second Vatican Council. The Conciliar Decree Presbyterorum ordinis (7-12-1965), no. 10, establishes that “particular pastoral works . . . in any region or nation anywhere on earth,” in the future, among other possible institutions, could become “special personal dioceses or prelatures.”
The Council tried to delineate a new juridical figure, characterized by flexibility, in order to contribute to the effective spread of the Gospel message and Christian life: the organization of the Church thus responded to the demands of the mission, which forms a part of human history.
The personal prelature is similar to the other ecclesiastical jurisdictions: they are institutions led by a Pastor (a Prelate that can be a Bishop, named by the Pope, and that governs the Prelature); in addition to the Prelate, there is also a priestly formation, composed of diocesan priests, then there are also lay faithful — men and women. The difference between the Work and other dioceses is that a diocese is territorial, i.e. organized in basis of their being members of the Church in a certain territory, as a result of their house address, while the Work is a personal prelature in which the membership of the faithful is based upon their personal commitment, not on their territorial location.
There are other cases of ecclesiastical circumscriptions in which the membership of the faithful is not based on the house address, but on other criteria, such as profession, rite, condition as immigrant, an agreement stipulated by the jurisdictional entity, etc. This is the case, for example, of the military ordinaries, which are formed by members of the military who are baptized faithful living outside their native territory.
Paul VI and his successors in the Papacy gave their consent to the study of the possibility of granting Opus Dei a juridical configuration in conformation with its nature, which in light of the conciliar documents, would be that of a personal prelature.
This work came to an end in 1981. Not long afterwards, the Holy See sent an informational notice to the 2,000 Bishops with dioceses where Opus Dei was present, requesting their own observations.
This step completed, Opus Dei was erected by John Paul II as a personal prelature on an international level, through the Apostolic Constitution Ut Sit, on November 28, 1982 (see added documents), which took effect on March 19, 1983. With this document, the Roman Pontiff promulgated the Statutes, which constitute the particular pontifical law of the Prelature of Opus Dei.
The juridical quality of the personal prelature is important because it best expresses the “normality” of the faithful of Opus Dei: common Catholics, in everything similar to other baptized faithful, who do not take vows, do not take distance from the world, and remain in their family and work environment. The incorporation into Opus Dei does not distance the person from the life they led before: each one continues to carry out the same work that he did before and to participate in the same social life. The people of Opus Dei do not live a life removed from the world, but rather, like the majority of citizens they live immersed in it.
3.2 The members of the Prelature
When a person enters Opus Dei, he continues to be a citizen and a Catholic, just like any other. He continues belonging to his diocese and can participate in all the political, religious, and cultural activities he wants. The commitment he makes to the Prelature has a contractual character and excludes vows (of poverty, chastity, and obedience) typical of religious orders.
The current Prelate of Opus Dei is Bishop Javier Echevarria (Madrid, 1932):, who in 1994 succeeded Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, who led Opus Dei following the death of the founder in 1975.
Opus Dei is formed by its clergy and laity, men and women. The lay faithful of the Prelature are subject to the authority of the Prelate in all that concerns the fulfillment of their specific, ascetic, formative, and apostolic commitments, assumed in the formal declaration with which they are incorporated into the Prelature. At the same time, the lay faithful of Opus Dei remain as faithful within their native dioceses and therefore, continue to be subject to the power of the diocesan bishop in the same way and in the same matters as any other baptized person like them.
The majority of the members of Opus Dei (now about 70%) are supernumeraries: generally married men or women, for whom the sanctification of their family commitments are the main part of their Christian life. The other 30% of the Prelature is made up of men and women who, remaining in their life and work conditions, make a commitment to live in celibacy in order to take on initiatives of apostolate and formation for the other faithful in the Prelature. This is the case of the numeraries and associates: the former normally live in centers of the Prelature while the latter live with their families, or wherever they find it best for their professional career.
The numerary assistants are women who are mainly dedicated to domestic care of Opus Dei centers. This is what constitutes their basic professional activity and allows the various retreat houses and centers of the Prelature to hold activities characterized by a family spirit.
The priests of the Prelature come from the lay faithful of Opus Dei: they are numeraries and associates who, having freely chosen to be open to becoming priests, after having been members of the Prelature for several years and completed studies for the priesthood, are invited by the Prelate to receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Their priestly ministry is mainly carried out at the service of the faithful of the Prelature and in the apostolic activities that they promote.
One characteristic aspect of the physiognomy of Opus Dei is its Christian family environment. This family atmosphere is present in each and every one of the Prelature's activities. It is also perceived in the family warmth that is felt in its centers, in the simplicity and confidence of the interpersonal relationships, in the spirit of service, understanding, and delicacy that Opus Dei seeks to maintain amidst daily life.
There are those who, although they do not form a part of the Work, share in its spirit and support its initiatives. They are called cooperators and are like “friends of the family,” who with their prayers, alms, or personal commitment make their contribution to the activities of the Prelature. Among these are also non-Catholics and non-Christians, as the founder desired the maximum openness to all those who would like to contribute to the effort.
The Prelature has over 85,000 members, of which about 1,900 are priests. As far as the number of faithful, the ratio of men to women is more or less the same.
The distribution of members throughout the world is the following: Africa — 1,800; Asia and Oceania — 4,800; Americas — 29,400; Europe — 49,000.
The Work is present in almost one hundred countries. Among the first countries in which it began its activity (after Spain, where it began), are Portugal (in 1945) and Great Britain (in 1946). In the years that followed, apostolic activities began taking place in other European countries such as France, Ireland, and Germany, as well as in the Americas, in the United States and in Central and South America. In recent years, the spiritual activities of the Prelature have begun to take place in Kazakhstan, South Africa, Slovenia, Croatia, and Latvia, and last year, a center of the Prelature was opened in Russia.
Chronological development of Opus Dei activities throughout the world:
1945 Portugal
1946 Italy and Great Britain
1947 France and Ireland
1949 Mexico and United States
1950 Chile and Argentina
1951 Colombia and Venezuela
1952 Germany
1953 Guatemala and Peru
1954 Ecuador
1956 Uruguay and Switzerland
1957 Brazil, Austria, and Canada
1958 Japan, Kenya, and Salvador
1959 Costa Rica
1960 Holland
1962 Paraguay
1963 Australia
1964 Philippines
1965 Belgium and Nigeria
1969 Puerto Rico
1978 Bolivia
1980 Congo, Ivory Coast, and Honduras
1981 Hong Kong
1982 Singapore and Trinidad-Tobago
1984 Sweden
1985 Taiwan
1987 Finland
1988 Cameroon and Dominican Republic
1989 Macao, New Zealand and Poland
1990 Hungary and Czech Republic
1992 Nicaragua
1993 India and Israel
1994 Lithuania
1996 Estonia, Slovakia, Lebanon, Panama, and Uganda
1997 Kazakhstan
1998 South Africa
2003 Slovenia e Croatia
2004 Latvia
2007 Russia
4.1 Spiritual Formation and Personal Apostolate
The principle mission of Opus Dei is that of providing every Christian with the spiritual aid that they need in order to grow in their life of prayer and live the Gospel with coherence. The main apostolic activity, therefore, of the Prelature is that of organizing initiatives of spiritual formation that help those who so wish, to improve their own interior life and personal relationship with God. These activities take place in the homes or workplace of one of the participants. They are the classic activities mentioned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: spiritual direction, retreats, lessons on doctrine, and catechesis, all of which are especially geared towards those wishing to live a Christian life in the midst of their daily occupations. The main intention in these activities is that anyone interested in growing in their interior life can do so.
The faithful of the Prelature receive various means of spiritual, doctrinal, and apostolic formation from Opus Dei, adapted to their own needs and circumstances. Each member of Opus Dei has a spiritual program of life that normally includes attending Mass and receiving Communion, the frequent reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, reading the Bible and other spiritual texts, the recitation of the Rosary, and certain time set aside for mental prayer.
Members of Opus Dei are aware of their responsibility — and that of every Christian — in spreading the message of Christ among those around them. This “apostolic responsibility” is an essential part of the Christian vocation and, therefore, of the vocation to Opus Dei.
Opus Dei encourages its members to live out these commitments in a spirit of complete freedom. Every member of the Prelature lives his life within his occupation: employee, manual laborer, office-professional worker, housewife, offering their personal testimony of the faith in their own surroundings. Opus Dei's apostolate is that of “friendship and confidence,” as the founder used to say. Each member spreads the Gospel message in first person, living the ordinary circumstances of their life with serenity, making an effort in their family relationships, and forming friendships with those they have around them, talking about God and of their commitment to know Him and follow Him. Through their commitment in the workplace, efforts in caring for their family, and their joy, they will cause interest among those around them, carrying the light of Christ inside their heart.
The founder used to say that apostolate “is the overflowing of the interior life,” and the sole purpose of the means of spiritual formation in the Work is that of making the faithful grow in fervor, fall in love with Christ, and thus, become authentic apostles in the world. The one who knows Christ discovers a treasure that he cannot keep to himself. Christians are witnesses to Christ and spread the message of hope to their family, friends, and colleagues with their word and example. Opus Dei's founder said: “As we work at our job, side by side with our colleagues, friends and relatives and sharing their interests, we can help them come closer to Christ.” The desire to make Christ known is inseparable from the desire to meet the material needs of others and to resolve the social problems around us.
The contents in the Work's modes of formation are the classics of Christian asceticism. First of all, there is the concept of divine filiation. Saint Josemaria used to say that “divine filiation has to be a basic characteristic of the spirituality of Opus Dei.” The Prelature should encourage every member of the faithful to become aware of their condition as a child of God and take up a coherent behavior as such. This implies confidence in Divine Providence, simplicity in the personal relationship with God, a profound sense of the dignity of every human person, fraternity among all men, an authentic Christian love for the world and for God's creation, serenity, and optimism.
In the midst of all this, there is the emphasis on ordinary life and work: “It is in the midst of the most material things of the earth that we must sanctify ourselves, serving God and all mankind,” Saint Josemaria said. The family, marriage, work, each moment's care: these are the constant opportunities to be with Christ and to imitate Him, making an effort to practice charity, patience, humility, laboriousness, justice, joy, and all the human and Christian virtues in general.
The means of formation in Opus Dei also emphasize the need to cultivate the prayer and penance that form a part of the Christian spirit. The faithful of the Prelature attend Mass every day, dedicating several minutes to the reading of the Gospel, often go to confession, practice devotion to Our Lady. In imitation of Christ, they seek means to make small sacrifices, especially those that enter into the fulfillment of their own duties and making life more agreeable to others, in addition to fasting and almsgiving.
The founder of Opus Dei used to clarify that the Christian should never be “living a kind of double life. On one side, an interior life, a life of relation with God; and on the other, a separate and distinct professional, social and family life.” On the contrary, the Saint said that “there is just one life, made of flesh and spirit. And it is this life which has to become, in both soul and body, holy and filled with God.”
With this constant formation activity of the Work, it is as if it were a great catechesis that helps those who live in the world to discover the divine “quid” hidden in everyday activities. The visible effect of this silent apostolic labor is seen in families that are more united, professional workers who are more attentive to the common good, more sincere friendships, and people who do not only live for themselves but are constantly on the lookout for the needs of the others around them.
From this natural willingness to dedicate oneself to working to improving his surroundings, apostolic activities throughout the world have been initiated by members of Opus Dei and its cooperators, in collaboration with other people. They are initiatives that are begun in response to a concrete need in their society. They are a means to responding to the Gospel premise that every Christian should be someone who worries about the fate of others and works to make the world a better place.
The founder himself, from the beginning of his ministry, took care of the sick and the poor. He also dedicated much of his time to the formation of youth in an area on the outskirts of Madrid, called Vallecas. Years later, inspired by Fr. Josemaria, the members of Opus Dei created a professional center, with the help of the local people. The center is called Tajamar and has assisted over 20,000 youth in entering the working world.
In this same manner, in each country where the Work holds apostolic activities, social initiatives are begun. The criteria which inspires this work is that of respect and love for those who will benefit from it. The needs and circumstances are what dictate the criteria and means of intervention.
Many of these initiatives have the moral guarantee of the Prelature, which takes responsibility in everything that refers to their Christian orientation. They include initiatives with a civil purpose, which are non-profit and with a goal of apostolate and service. There are institutions for education and assistance, such as schools, universities, centers for women, medical clinics in underdeveloped areas, schools for rural families, institutes for professional training, student residents, cultural centers, etc. The full responsibility for the management of the apostolic works always pertains to those that begin the work, not to the Prelature of Opus Dei, which only takes responsibility for the spiritual and doctrinal orientation.
It could be said that the Work, through the apostolic audacity of its faithful, of its cooperators and friends, has a humanizing effect on the North and a professionalizing effect on the South. In the more developed nations, the Work helps people to be honest workers, spouses, and model citizens interested in the good of society. In the developing nations, the Work forms citizens that take responsibility in the advancement of their own country, promoting a human and professional formation adapted to building up the future. These initiatives are living examples of how the society would be if it were permeated by Christianity.
It is no easy task, making an analysis of the social activities promoted by the Work throughout the world, as they are begun in a spontaneous manner, there wherever there is a specific need. Here we offer a list that is necessarily incomplete, but gives an idea:
In Africa:
- Harambee: a fund that was started on the canonization of Saint Josemaria, to promote development projects on the continent. Harambee supports projects that have Africans themselves as their protagonists, with the conviction that true development should come forth from within Africa itself. The fund supports 28 projects in 14 African countries: Rwanda, South Africa, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Kenya, Cameroon, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Madagascar. The projects are not all of Opus Dei, however they are selected according to their professional value and efficiency. The range from training programs for farmers and artesans and courses in promotion of the African woman, to educational projects that favor the reintegration of freed prisoners into society.
- Strathmore College was begun in Kenya in 1961, at a time when the country was preparing for its independence. Saint Josemaria asked people to participate in the initiative which, in spite of deeply rooted customs and difficulties in negotiating with authorities, was to be an interracial school. After 40 years, 95% of the students of the College go on to University.
Monkole Medical Center began its activity in Congo in April 1991. Since then, over 10,000 children have received medical assistance and health education programs have been offered to the people. The medical personnel has been trained through foreign internships, so as to improve the efficiency and quality of the service to the people.
- A Nursing School was begun by Opus Dei members and offers training to health care personnel from six hospitals. The center promotes the education of Congolese youth so that they may better respond to the needs of this growing health care sector in this African nation.
In Mexico:
- Montefalco Girls' School and El Peñón Center are educational centers for rural families, begun in 1952 by members of Opus Dei. The main objective of these initiatives is that of improving the social, economic, and cultural level of rural families in the state of Morelos.
- Toshi is a center located west of Mexico City, in a rural region inhabited by indigenous peoples, the “otomí” and “mazahua.” There, administrative courses for the women of the area are given, thus opening up a wide range of job opportunities to them, in public offices and in industries located in neighboring cities.
- “La Ciudad de los Niños” (The Children's City) is located in Guadalupe. There are 20,000 children who cannot attend school and 320,000 youth deprived of a diploma in studies. It was founded in 1951, for the care, education, and alimentary assistance of abandoned children.
In Colombia:
- The Guatanfur Rural Family School is a sports center for the training of farmers from “Valle de Tenza,” an area in central Colombia made up of 7 towns. The project includes a school for the youth, one for adults, and an Institute for Technical Movement, designed to promote alternative solutions in improving the productivity levels of farmers in the region.
- The “Los Valles” Foundation carries out training programs for women in the poor areas of Cali, with the goal of preparing them to enter the workplace. Over 1,000 women from Nueva Floresta, a town of 75,000 inhabitants, are benefiting from these social activities.
In Guatemala:
- Kinal, a center for professional qualification training for youth, opened its doors in March of 1961, with a group of construction workers and carpenters in Villa de Mixco, a suburb of Guatemala City. There are currently 700 youth receiving technical training that offers them specialized preparation which will allow them to more easily enter the workplace and eventually become economically self-sufficient.
In Bolivia:
- “Educating a woman is educating a family.” This is the theme of the CEFIM Center for the Integral Formation of the Woman, which began in the capital of Bolivia in 1986. For women with scarce economic resources, CEFIM offers them an integral formation that will capacitate them for working and improving their living conditions.
In Peru:
- Located in San Vicente de Cañete is “Vallegrande,” a center for human and technical training of small farmers. There are intensive courses on various agricultural methods useful in improving cultivation techniques and making their work more efficient. The center even has rooms for accommodating participants who come from distant regions.
- Condoray. Over 20,000 women have attended this institution for the promotion of the woman that began in 1963 with the idea of offering integral formation to women in the province of Cañete.
In Uruguay:
- “Los Pinos” Center works in the area of Casavalle in Montevideo, known for its extreme poverty and in which the majority of the population is without light, electricity, water, and health services. The Center tries to provide courses on professions related to electricity, telecommunications, carpentry, and construction.
In Brazil:
- Casa do Moinho, located in the city of Cotia, several kilometers outside Sao Paulo, is a school for young women without economic opportunities. It offers professional courses in hotel management, health, and more. Thus, the girls receive the qualification they need in order to work and become self-sufficient.
In Chile:
- El Salto has begun activities in the district of Recoleta (Santiago de Chile) in a medical clinic and a women's center. Today, where there was once just one building, there are now three. It also offers improved medical assistance. In addition, it has acquired equipment for offering professional training in cooking, tapestry, artistry, decorating, and gardening.
In the Philippines:
- Anihan is a school for culinary arts in Laguna. The school offers a diploma in Food Services, with a specialization in baking. The course lasts for two years, in which students learn culinary art techniques and basic knowledge of business management.
- Dagatan: Rural Family School. The school began in 1988 with 35 students and by 2003 it was a group of six rural family schools that offer children from farming families the possibility of alternating their school lessons with working in the fields, in order to help their own family overcome poverty and improve their own economic conditions.
In the Western World and Italy:
These initiatives do not ignore wealthier nations. In the USA, for example, in the Bronx in New York, every year hundreds of boys attend the Crotona Center, which promotes educational programs to help them expand their horizons and gain important virtues. There is also the Hang Ah Hillside, a non-profit cultural center located in San Francisco's “Chinatown” district, offering various educational programs to girls ages 8-12 and formation courses for adult women.
In Italy, there are many initiatives based on the spirit of Saint Josemaria. In Rome, the Biomedical University Campus, with a School of Medicine and Surgery and a School of Biomedical Engineering, hopes to offer medical training that respects the person, and guarantees that patients are treated like family members. In 2003, the Campus celebrated its 10th anniversary and just recently it transferred to its permanent location in Trigoria, on 60 hectares of land. The finished project will include a hospital with nearly 400 beds and will be capable of housing a thousand students and offer employment to nearly 3,000 people. Also functioning in Rome, for 40 years now, is the ELIS Center. It is a school for professional training that was begun by the inspiration of Pope John XXIII who entrusted its formation to Saint Josemaria and his spiritual children. The courses' material ranges from traditional professional techniques to the new multimedia technologies, including courses in artistry for goldsmiths and watchmakers, as well as the SAFI school for hotel and restaurant management. The ELIS center is able to find jobs for 99% of the students who attend the classes there, also contributing to the social insertion of many young people who come from needy families on the outskirts of Rome.
In addition, throughout the world there are many Universities, whose property and management are under legally-recognized Moral Associations, in which the Prelature of Opus Dei takes care of organizing spiritual activities. In these residences, the students compliment their university courses with professional and cultural orientation, volunteer initiatives, etc., thus widening their horizons and receiving a more complete formation.
The Prelature has always been committed to offering information on all its activities. The webpage (www.opusdei.org) is translated into nearly 30 languages (Arabic and Chinese among them) and offers constantly updated news along with testimonies of members of the Prelature, documents, speeches and writings from the Prelate, apostolic initiatives, and more. Particularly interesting is the section of videos with interviews of members, documentaries on the founder, and Opus Dei's initiatives all over the world.
The website www.josemariaescriva.info is dedicated to the founder, Saint Josemaria. There, one can find information on his life, his teachings, testimonies from those who promote devotion to him, and various materials. Along with this page, there is the site www.escrivaworks.org, which has all the founder's works in various languages, available for consultation and download free of charge.
The entire copy of the official bulletin of the Prelature, “Romana,” is available at www.romana.org, where visitors can also consult past issues and subscribe.
Various interesting publications on Opus Dei have been released in recent years. First of all, there is the best-seller by Vittorio Messori entitled Opus Dei. Leadership and Vision in Today’s Catholic Church (Original title: Opus Dei un’indagine — published by Oscar Mondadori). There is also American Vatican expert John Allen's Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. Lindau recently published Opus Dei. Tutta la verità (Opus Dei: The Whole Truth) by French journalist Patrice de Plunkett.
As for books about Saint Josemaria, the most complete biography is that of Andrés Vázquez de Prada, entitled, El Fundador del Opus Dei (The Founder of Opus Dei), published by Leonardo International in three volumes. The over 1,000-page work gives a moment-by-moment account of the founder's life, through the testimonies of those who knew him and the documents from the Prelature's archive.
In addition, San Paolo Edizioni recently published a biography written by Michele Dolz, entitled Mia madre la Chiesa. Vita di san Josemaria Escrivà (The Church, my Mother. The Life of Saint Josemaria Escriva), which gives an account of the founder's life from the early days of Opus Dei until his death, from a particular perspective: his love for the Church and his relationship with the many Bishops and priests that he met over the course of his life. It is a book that highlights the ecclesial vocation of Saint Josemaria and his Work, telling of his relationships with Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, and Paul VI, who all encouraged him in his supernatural endeavor.
Other classics on Opus Dei include the study of its canonical process in becoming a personal prelature. It was written by Fuenmayor, Gómez-Iglesias, and Illanes and is entitled El itinerario jurídico del Opus Dei (English Version: The Canonical Path of Opus Dei). There is also the study entitled El Opus Dei en la Iglesia (English Version: Opus Dei in the Church), which is written by Rodríguez, Ocáriz, and Illanes and published by Piemme. For more information on personal prelatures, there is the excellent study done by Gaetano Lo Castro, entitled Las Prelaturas personales — Perfiles jurídicos (The personal prelatures — Canonical profiles) published by Giuffré.
6.1 Passionately Loving the World
In this homily, given at the University of Navarre on October 8, 1967, the founder of Opus Dei encapsulates the entire spirit of what was begun in 1928. (Taken from Conversations with Josemaría Escriva, Scepter, 2002.)
You have just listened to the solemn reading of the two texts of Holy Scripture which correspond to the Mass of the 21st Sunday after Pentecost. Having heard the Word of God you are already in the atmosphere in which I wish to situate the words I now address to you. They are intended to be supernatural, proclaiming the greatness of God and His mercies towards men. Words to prepare you for the wonder of the Eucharist, which we celebrate today on the campus of the University of Navarre.
Think for a moment about what I have just said. We are celebrating the holy Eucharist, the sacramental Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of our Lord, that Mystery of Faith which links all the mysteries of Christianity. We are celebrating, therefore, the most sacred and transcendent act which man, with the grace of God, can carry out in this life. To communicate with the Body and Blood of our Lord is, in a certain sense, like loosening the bonds of earth and time, in order to be already with God in heaven, where Christ Himself will wipe the tears from our eyes and where there will be no more death, nor mourning, nor cries of distress, because the old world will have passed away (cf. Rev 21:4).
This profound and consoling truth, which theologians call the eschatological significance of the Eucharist could however, be misunderstood. And indeed it has been, whenever men have tried to present the Christian way of life as something exclusively “spiritual”, proper to pure, extraordinary people, who remain aloof from the contemptible things of this world or at most, tolerate them as something necessarily attached to the spirit, while we live on this earth.
When things are seen in this way, churches become the setting par excellence of the Christian life. And being a Christian means going to church, taking part in sacred ceremonies, being taken up with ecclesiastical matters, in a kind of segregated world, which is considered to be the ante chamber of heaven, while the ordinary world follows its own separate path. The doctrine of Christianity and the life of grace would, in this case, brush past the turbulent march of human history, without ever really meeting it.
On this October morning, as we prepare to enter upon the memorial of our Lord’s Pasch, we flatly reject this deformed vision of Christianity. Reflect for a moment on the setting of our Eucharist, of our act of thanksgiving. We find ourselves in a unique temple. We might say that the nave is the university campus; the altarpiece, the university library. Over there, the machinery for constructing new buildings; above us, the sky of Navarre . . .
Surely this confirms in your minds, in a tangible and unforgettable way, the fact that everyday life is the true setting for your lives as Christians. Your ordinary contact with God takes place where your fellow men, your yearnings, your work and your affections are. There you have your daily encounter with Christ. It is in the midst of the most material things of the earth that we must sanctify ourselves, serving God and all mankind.
I have taught this constantly, using words from Holy Scripture. The world is not evil, because it has come from God’s hands, because it is His creation, because “Yahweh looked upon it and saw that it was good” (cf. Gen 1:7ff). We ourselves, mankind, make it evil and ugly with our sins and infidelities. Have no doubt: any kind of evasion of the honest realities of daily life is for you, men and women of the world, something opposed to the will of God.
On the contrary, you must understand now, more clearly, that God is calling you to serve Him in and from the ordinary, material and secular activities of human life. He waits for us every day, in the laboratory, in the operating theatre, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home and in all the immense panorama of work. Understand this well: there is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it.
I often said to the university students and workers who were with me in the thirties that they had to know how to “materialise” their spiritual life. I wanted to keep them from the temptation, so common then and now, of living a kind of double life. On one side, an interior life, a life of relation with God; and on the other, a separate and distinct professional, social and family life, full of small earthly realities.
No! We cannot lead a double life if we want to be Christians. There is just one life, made of flesh and spirit. And it is this life which has to become, in both soul and body, holy and filled with God. We discover the invisible God in the most visible and material things.
There is no other way. Either we learn to find our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or else we shall never find Him. That is why I can tell you that our age needs to give back to matter and to the most trivial occurrences and situations their noble and original meaning. It needs to restore them to the service of the Kingdom of God, to spiritualize them, turning them into a means and an occasion for a continuous meeting with Jesus Christ.
Authentic Christianity, which professes the resurrection of all flesh, has always quite logically opposed “dis incarnation”, without fear of being judged materialistic. We can, therefore, rightfully speak of a “Christian materialism”, which is boldly opposed to that materialism which is blind to the spirit.
What are the Sacraments, which early Christians described as the foot prints of the Incarnate Word, if not the clearest manifestation of this way which God has chosen in order to sanctify us and to lead us to heaven? Don’t you see that each Sacrament is the Love of God, with all its creative and redemptive power, giving itself to us by way of material means? What is this Eucharist which we are about to celebrate, if not the adorable Body and Blood of our Redeemer, which is offered to us through the lowly matter of this world (wine and bread), through the “elements of nature, cultivated by man,” as the recent Ecumenical Council has reminded us (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 38).
It is understandable that the Apostle should write: “All things are yours, you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor 3:22 23). We have here an ascending movement which the Holy Spirit, infused in our hearts, wants to call forth from this world, upwards from the earth to the glory of the Lord. And to make it clear that in that movement everything is included, even what seems most commonplace, St. Paul also wrote: “in eating, in drinking, do everything as for God’s glory” (cf. 1 Cor 10:32).
This doctrine of Holy Scripture, as you know, is to be found in the very nucleus of the spirit of Opus Dei. It leads you to do your work perfectly, to love God and mankind by putting love in the little things of everyday life, and discovering that divine something which is hidden in small details. The lines of a Castilian poet are especially appropriate here: “Write slowly and with a careful hand, for doing things well is more important than doing them” (Machado, A., Poesías Completas, CLXI — Proverbios y cantares, XXIV, Espasa Calpe, Madrid, 1940).
I assure you, my sons and daughters, that when a Christian carries out with love the most insignificant everyday action, that action overflows with the transcendence of God. That is why I have told you repeatedly, and hammered away once and again on the idea that the Christian vocation consists of making heroic verse out of the prose of each day. Heaven and earth seem to merge, my sons and daughters, on the horizon. But where they really meet is in your hearts, when you sanctify your everyday lives.
I have just said, sanctify your everyday lives. And with these words I refer to the whole program of your task as Christians. Stop dreaming. Leave behind false idealism, fantasies, and what I usually call mystical wishful thinking: if only I hadn’t married, if only I hadn’t this profession, if only I were healthier, if only I were young, if only I were old . . . Instead turn seriously to the most material and immediate reality, which is where Our Lord is: “Look at My hands, and My feet,” said the risen Jesus, “be assured that it is Myself, touch Me and see, a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see that I have” (Lk 24:29).
Light is shed upon many aspects of the world in which you live, when we start from these truths. Think, for example, of you activity as citizens. A man who knows that the world, and not just the church, is the place where he finds Christ, loves that world. He endeavours to become properly formed, intellectually and professionally. He makes up his own mind with complete freedom about the problems of the environment in which he moves, and then he makes his own decisions. Being the decisions of a Christian, they result from personal reflection, in which he endeavours, in all humility, to grasp the Will of God in both the unimportant and the important events of his life.
But it would never occur to such a Christian to think or to say that he was stepping down from the temple into the world to represent the Church, or that his solutions are “the Catholic solutions” to problems. That would be completely inadmissible! That would be clericalism, “official Catholicism”, or whatever you want to call it. In any case, it means doing violence to the very nature of things. You must foster everywhere a genuine “lay outlook”, which will lead to three conclusions: be sufficiently honest, so as to shoulder one’s own personal responsibility; be sufficiently Christian, so as to respect those brothers in the Faith who, in matters of free discussion, propose solutions which differ from those which each one of us maintains; and be sufficiently Catholic so as not to use our Mother the Church, involving her in human factions.
It is obvious that, in this field as in all others, you would not be able to carry out this program of sanctifying your everyday life if you did not enjoy all the freedom which proceeds from your dignity as men and women created in the image of God and which the Church freely recognises. Personal freedom is essential to the Christian life. But do not forget, my children, that I always speak of a responsible freedom.
Interpret, then, my words as what they are: a call to exercise your rights every day, and not merely in time of emergency. A call to fulfil honourably your commitments as citizens, in all fields — in politics and in financial affairs, in university life and in your job — accepting with courage all the consequences of your free decisions and the personal independence which corresponds to each one of you. A Christian “lay outlook” of this sort will enable you to flee from all intolerance, from all fanaticism. To put it in a positive way, it will help you to live in peace with all your fellow citizens, and to promote this understanding and harmony in all spheres of social life.
I know I have no need to remind you of what I have been repeating for so many years. This doctrine of civic freedom, of understanding, of living together in harmony, forms a very important part of the message of Opus Dei. Must I affirm once again that the men and women who want to serve Jesus Christ in the Work of God, are simply citizens the same as everyone else, who strive to live their Christian vocation to its ultimate consequences with a serious sense of responsibility?
Nothing distinguishes my children from their fellow citizens. On the other hand, apart from the Faith they share, they have nothing in common with the members of religious congregations. I love the religious, and venerate and admire their apostolates, their cloister, their separation from the world, their contemptus mundi, which are other signs of holiness in the Church. But the Lord has not given me a religious vocation, and for me to desire it would be a disorder. No authority on earth can force me to be a religious, just as no authority can force me to marry. I am a secular priest: a priest of Jesus Christ who is passionately in love with the world.
Who are the men and women who have accompanied this poor sinner, following Christ? A small percentage of priests, who have previously exercised a secular profession or trade. A large number of secular priests from many dioceses throughout the world, who thus strengthen their obedience to their respective bishops, increase their love for their diocesan work, and make it more effective. They stand with their arms open in the form of a Cross so that all souls may always find shelter in their hearts, and like me they live in the hustle and bustle of the workaday world which they love. And finally a great multitude made up of men and women of different nations, and tongues, and races, who earn their living with their professional work. The majority of them are married, many are single. They share with their fellow citizens the important task of making temporal society more human and more just.
They work, let me repeat, with personal responsibility, shoulder to shoulder with their fellow men and experiencing with them successes and failures in the noble struggle of daily endeavour, as they strive to fulfil their duties and to exercise their social and civic rights. And all this with naturalness, like any other conscientious Christian, without considering themselves special. Blended into the mass of their companions, they try, at the same time, to detect the flashes of divine splendour which shine through the commonest everyday realities.
Similarly the activities which are promoted by Opus Dei, as an association, also have these eminently secular characteristics. They are not ecclesiastical activities. They do not, in any way, represent the hierarchy of the Church. They are the fruit of human, cultural and social initiatives, carried out by citizens who try to make them reflect the Gospel’s light and to enkindle them with Christ’s Love. An example which will help to make this clear is that Opus Dei does not, and never will, undertake the task of directing diocesan seminaries, in which the bishops “constituted by the Holy Spirit” (Acts 20:28), prepare their future priests.
Opus Dei, on the other hand, fosters technical training centres for industrial workers, agricultural training schools for farm labourers, centres for primary, secondary and university education, and many other varied activities all over the world, because its apostolic zeal, as I wrote many years ago, is like a sea without shores.
But what need have I to speak at length on this topic, when your very presence here is more eloquent than a prolonged discourse? You, Friends of the University of Navarre, are part of a body of people who know they are committed to the progress of the society to which they belong. Your sincere encouragement, your prayers, sacrifice and contributions are not offered on the basis of Catholic denominationalism. Your cooperation is a clear testimony of a well formed civic consciousness, which is concerned with the common temporal good. You are witnesses to the fact that a university can be born of the energies of the people and be sustained by the people.
On this occasion, I want to offer my thanks once again for the cooperation lent to our university, by the city of Pamplona, by the region of Navarre, by the Friends of the University from every part of Spain and, I say this with particular gratitude, by non Spaniards and even non Catholics and non-Christians who have understood the intention and spirit of this enterprise and have shown it with their deeds.
Thanks to all of them this university has become a source, which grows day by day, of civic freedom, of intellectual preparation, of professional emulation, and a stimulus for university education. Your generous sacrifice is part of the foundations of all this work which seeks the development of human knowledge, of social welfare and of the teaching of the Faith.
What I have just pointed out has been clearly understood by the people of Navarre, who also recognise that their university is a factor in the economic development and, especially, in the social advancement of the region, a factor which has given so many of their children an opportunity to enter the intellectual professions which, otherwise, would have been difficult and, in some cases, impossible to obtain. This awareness of the role which the university would play in their lives is surely what inspired the support which Navarre has lent it from the beginning; support which will undoubtedly grow continually in enthusiasm and extent.
I continue to harbour a hope, which corresponds to justice and to the living experience of many countries, that the time will come when the Spanish government will contribute its share to lighten the burden of a task which seeks no private profit, but on the contrary is totally dedicated to the service of society, and tries to work efficiently for the present and future prosperity of the nation.
And now, my sons and daughters, let me consider for a moment, another aspect of everyday life which is particularly dear to me. I refer to human love, to the noble love between a man and a woman, to courtship and marriage. I want to say once again that this holy human love is not something merely to be permitted or tolerated alongside the true activities of the spirit, as might be insinuated by false spiritualism to which I alluded previously. I have been preaching just the contrary, in speech and in writing, for forty years and now those who did not understand are beginning to grasp the point.
Love which leads to marriage and family, can also be a marvellous divine way, a vocation, a path for a complete dedication to our God. What I have told you about doing things perfectly, about putting love into the little duties of each day, about discovering that “divine something” contained in these details, finds a special place in that vital sphere in which human love is enclosed.
All of you who are professors or students or work in any capacity in the University of Navarre, know that I have entrusted your love to holy Mary, Mother of Fair Love. And here on the university campus you have the shrine which we built with devotion, as a place where you may pray to her and offer that wonderful pure love on which she bestows her blessing.
“Surely you know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is God’s gift to you, so that you are no longer your own masters?” (1 Cor 6:19). How many times, in front of the statue of the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of Fair Love, will you reply with a joyful affirmation, to the Apostle’s question: Yes, we know that this is so and we want, with your powerful help, to live it, O Virgin Mother of God!
Contemplative prayer will rise within you whenever you meditate on this impressive reality: something as material as my body has been chosen by the Holy Spirit as His dwelling place . . . I no longer belong to myself . . . my body and soul, my whole being, belongs to God . . . And this prayer will be rich in practical consequences, drawn from the great consequence which the Apostle himself proposed: “glorify God in your bodies” (1 Cor 6:20).
On the other hand, you cannot fail to be aware that only among those who understand and value in all its depth what we have just considered about human love, can there arise that other ineffable understanding of which Jesus spoke (cf. Mt 19:11). It is a pure gift of God which moves one to surrender body and soul to our Lord, to offer him an undivided heart, without the mediation of earthly love.
I must finish now. I told you at the beginning that I wanted to announce to you something of the greatness and mercy of God. I think I have done so, in talking to you about sanctifying your everyday life. A holy life in the midst of secular reality, lived without fuss, with simplicity, with truthfulness. Is this not today the most moving manifestation of the magnalia Dei (Sir 18:5), of those prodigious mercies which God has always worked, and does not cease to work, in order to save the world?
Now I ask you with the Psalmist to unite yourselves to my prayer and my praise: Magnificate Dominum mecum, et extollamus nomen eius simul: “Praise the Lord with me, let us extol His name together” (Ps 33:4). In other words, dearly beloved, let us live by Faith.
Let us take up the Shield of Faith, the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit, which are God’s Word, as St. Paul encourages us to do in the Epistle to the Ephesians (6:11ff), which was read in the liturgy a few moments ago.
Faith is a virtue which we Christians need greatly, and in a special way in this “Year of Faith” which our beloved Holy Father, Pope Paul VI has decreed. For without faith, we lack the very foundation for the sanctification of everyday life.
A living Faith in these moments, because we are drawing near to the mysterium fidei (1 Tim 3:9), to the Holy Eucharist; because we are about to participate in our Lord’s Pasch, which sums up and brings about the mercies of God among men.
Faith, my sons, in order to acknowledge that within a few moments upon this altar “the Work of our Redemption” is going to be renewed. Faith, so as to savour the Creed and to experience, upon this altar and in this Assembly, the presence of Christ, Who makes us cor unum et anima una (Acts 4:32), one heart and one soul, a family, a Church which is One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman, which for us means the same as universal.
Faith, finally, my beloved daughters and sons, to show the world that all this is not just ceremonies and words, but a divine reality, by presenting to mankind the testimony of an ordinary life which is made holy, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and of holy Mary.
6.2 The Apostolic Constitution Ut Sit
The apostolic constitution with which the Holy See erected Opus Dei as a Personal Prelature in the Catholic Church; published on November 28, 1982.
JOHN PAUL BISHOP
SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD
FOR A PERMANENT RECORD OF THE MATTER
With very great hope, the Church directs its attention and maternal care to Opus Dei, which — by divine inspiration — the Servant of God Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer founded in Madrid on October 2, 1928, so that it may always be an apt and effective instrument of the salvific mission which the Church carries out for the life of the world.
From its beginnings, this Institution has in fact striven, not only to illuminate with new lights the mission of the laity in the Church and in society, but also to put it into practice; it has also endeavoured to put into practice the teaching of the universal call to sanctity, and to promote at all levels of society the sanctification of ordinary work, and by means of ordinary work. Furthermore, through the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, it has helped diocesan priests to live this teaching, in the exercise of their sacred ministry.
Since Opus Dei has grown, with the help of divine grace, to the extent that it has spread and works in a large number of dioceses throughout the world, as an apostolic organism made up of priests and laity, both men and women, which is at the same time organic and undivided — that is to say, as an institution endowed with a unity of spirit, of aims, of government and of formation — it has become necessary to give it a juridical configuration which is suited to its specific characteristics. It was the Founder of Opus Dei himself who, in 1962, in a humble and trusting petition, asked the Holy See to grant an appropriate ecclesial configuration to the Institution, bearing in mind its true nature and theological characteristics, and with a view to a greater apostolic effectiveness.
From the time when the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council introduced into the legislation of the Church, by means of the Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 10 — which was made effective by the Motu proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae, I, n. 4, — the figure of the personal Prelatures, to carry out specific pastoral activities, it was seen clearly that this juridical figure was perfectly suited to Opus Dei. Therefore, in 1969, Our Predecessor Paul VI, of beloved memory, graciously accepting the petition of the Servant of God Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, authorized him to convoke a special General Congress to begin, under his guidance, the study necessary for a transformation of Opus Dei, in keeping with its nature and with the norms of the Second Vatican Council.
We ourselves expressly ordered that this study should continue, and in 1979, We requested the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, which was the competent Congregation, by virtue of the matter involved, to examine the formal petition presented by Opus Dei, following a careful study of all the relevant facts and legal data.
In carrying out the task entrusted to it, the Sacred Congregation carefully examined the matter, taking into account the historical, and also the juridical and pastoral aspects. Thus, having completely eliminated all doubts about the basis, and the possibility, and the specific manner of granting the petition, it became abundantly clear that the desired transformation of Opus Dei into a personal Prelature was opportune and useful.
Therefore, We, with the plenitude of Our apostolic power, having accepted the opinion which Our Venerable Brother the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops had expressed to Us, and making good, in so far as it is necessary, the consent of those who have, or think they have some competence in this matter, command and desire the following to be put into practice.
I
Opus Dei is erected as a personal Prelature, international in ambit, with the name of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, or, in abbreviated form, Opus Dei. The Sacerdotal Society of the Holy Cross is erected as a clerical Association intrinsically united to the Prelature.
II
The Prelature is governed by the norms of general law, by those of this Constitution, and by its own Statutes, which receive the name "Code of particular law of Opus Dei".
III
The jurisdiction of the personal Prelature extends to the clergy incardinated in it, and also only in what refers to the fulfillment of the specific obligations undertaken through the juridical bond, by means of a contract with the Prelature to the laity who dedicate themselves to the apostolic activities of the Prelature: both clergy and laity are under the authority of the Prelate in carrying out the pastoral task of the Prelature, as established in the preceding article.
IV
The Ordinary of the Prelature Opus Dei is its Prelate, whose election, which has to be carried out as established in general and particular law, has to be confirmed by the Roman Pontiff.
V
The Prelature is under the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, and will also deal directly with the other Congregations or Departments of the Roman Curia, according to the nature of the matter involved.
VI
Through the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, the Prelate will present to the Roman Pontiff, every five years, a report on the state of the Prelature, and on the development of its apostolic work.
VII
The central Government of the Prelature has its offices in Rome. The oratory of Our Lady of Peace, which is in the central offices of the Prelature, is erected as a prelatic church.
The Most Reverend Monsignor Alvaro del Portillo, canonically elected President General of Opus Dei on September 15, 1975, is confirmed and is appointed Prelate of the personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, which has been erected.
Finally, We designate the Venerable Brother Romolo Carboni, Titular Archbishop of Sidone and Apostolic Nuncio in Italy, for the opportune execution of all the above, and confer on him the necessary and opportune faculties, including that of sub-delegating — in the matter in question — in any ecclesiastical dignitary, with the obligation of sending, as soon as possible, to the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, an authentic copy of the act which testifies to the fact that the mandate has been carried out.
All things to the contrary notwithstanding.
Given in Rome at Saint Peter's, on the 28th of November, 1982, the fifth of Our Pontificate.
AUGUSTINUS Card. CASAROLI,
Secretary of State
+ SEBASTIANUS Card. BAGGIO,
Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Bishops
Iosephus Del Ton, Protonotary Apostolic
Marcellus Rossetti, Protonotary Apostolic
Dossier written by B. M. — Agenzia Fides 20/9/2008 — Director Luca de Mata
This item 8685 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org
