Interview with José Luis González Gullón, author of "Escondidos," the story of how Saint Josemaria and the first members of Opus Dei managed to survive in the Republican Zone during the Spanish Civil War.
In 1971, Saint Josemaria decided to consecrate Opus Dei to the Holy Spirit, realizing how much the Church needed all her members to be holy. He himself composed the prayer of consecration, which is renewed in all Opus Dei centers every year.
Saint Josemaria made his First Communion on 23 April 1912, exactly ten years after his Confirmation. It was the feast of Saint George, patron saint of Aragon and Catalonia, and the traditional day for First Communion ceremonies.
This was the motto that Saint Josemaria set for himself at the beginning of 1972, in the face of many challenges in the Church and the world. An extract from Andrés Vazquez de Prada's biography of the founder of Opus Dei.
Fr Willie Doyle, a heroic Irish Jesuit military chaplain, died in battle 100 years ago. The story of how St Josemaria came to know about his life and include his example of self-denial in "The Way."
On June 7, 1974, the founder of Opus Dei, Msgr Josemaria Escriva, arrived in Argentina, wishing to carry out an intense catechetical apostolate. During his stay in Argentina he had many encounters with people in Opus Dei, families and friends. In these gatherings he talked about the great themes that move the world: God and men, life and death, suffering and joy, love and the fight against sin.
St Josemaria's first trip to Latin America was in May 1970. Guadalupe is not only a shrine visited by nearly thirty million people every year; it embodies the faith of the whole country in union with their Virgen Morena, the brown-skinned Virgin.
St Josemaria had a lot of devotion to Our Lady of Montserrat. Records exist of frequent visits made by him to the shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat in Barcelona, Spain, during the 1940s, especially towards the end of 1946, the year when he moved to Rome. Despite the move, his love for the Blessed Virgin Mary under this advocation continued throughout his life. And it was on the feast of Our Lady of Montserrat, 27 April 1954, that he was cured of diabetes, after a very severe attack which brought him to the
This article gives some examples of how Saint Josemaria practised forgiveness and said sorry, asking forgiveness of others.
This divine locution gave rise to n. 933 in The Way: "There is a story of a soul who, on saying to our Lord in prayer, ‘Jesus, I love you,’ heard this reply from heaven: ‘Love means deeds, not sweet words.’ "Think if you also could deserve this gentle reproach".
St Josemaria went to Lourdes, France several times. The book “At God’s Pace” by François Gondrand contains a brief account of one of his visits to the Grotto at Lourdes on October 3, 1972.
The founder of Opus Dei first visited London in 1958. He stayed from the beginning of August to the middle of September. He returned in each of the following years until 1962. In 1958, he arrived on August 4 and the following day wrote on the back of a holy picture, Sancta Maria, Sedes Sapientiae, filios tuos adiuva (Holy Mary, Seat of Wisdom, help your children); Oxford, Cambridge, 5-VIII-58.
