Opus Dei

The Novena for the Sick, with many quotes from Saint Josemaria's writings, helps people to accept suffering with a Christian spirit, uniting it to Christ's passion and death, and asks God for a cure if such be his will.

On May 17, 1992, Pope John Paul II beatified Msgr. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, and Josephine Bakhita, a Daughter of Charity of Canossa. Here are excerpts from the Pope's homily at the beatification.

Priests receive from God the power to forgive sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

“Acting is morally good when the choices of freedom are in conformity with man’s true good and thus express the voluntary ordering of the person towards our ultimate end: God himself.”

The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ’s Paschal mystery, making present his unique sacrifice in the liturgy of the Church.

The salvation achieved by Christ, and hence the mission of the Church, is directed to the human person in his or her integral being.

By this truth we affirm the immortality to which mankind is destined; it is thus a reminder of the dignity of the human person, and in particular of the body.

For a Christian sickness and death can and should be a means to seek holiness and to redeem with Christ. This is the purpose of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

The sacrament of Holy Orders confers a participation in Christ’s priesthood. The ministerial priesthood is essentially distinct from the common priesthood of the faithful.

“God himself is the author of marriage.” The intimate conjugal union between a man and a woman is sacred, and is structured according to laws established by the Creator and independent of human choice.