On a gloriously sunny and warm Saturday, 6th October 2018, Bishop Fintan Monahan of Killaloe was the main celebrant at a Mass in the Apparition Chapel of the shrine of Our Lady of Knock. It marked the 16th anniversary of the canonisation of St Josemaría, and was four days after the 90th anniversary of the founding of Opus Dei on 2nd Oct 1928. Priests of the Prelature concelebrated with him, among them Fr Justin Gillespie, the Vicar of Opus Dei in Ireland.
The congregation, made up of faithful of the Prelature, cooperators and friends, came from every province in Ireland and filled the Apparition Chapel to capacity.
During his homily, in which he quoted extensively from St Josemaría, Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Bishop Fintan told those present:
The spirit of Opus Dei teaches us to try to find and love the Lord in the ordinary bits and pieces of daily life. St Josemaría reminds us that by trying to do our daily work well, we come close to the Lord and bring others close to Him too. Work is truly a means of sanctification for ourselves and for others.
It is also in ordinary life, in our daily interactions with others, in conversations with family and friends, and through example and friendship, that we live out the vocation of all Christians to be apostles of the joy of the Gospel.
This is how we can “put out into the deep” (as spoken of in today’s Gospel). With renewed joy and courage, let us take up the Holy Father’s invitation to us recently in Ireland “to ‘go forth’ to bring the words of eternal life to all the peripheries of our world” (Pope Francis, Homily, Phoenix Park, 26th August, 2018).
He concluded by congratulating all members of Opus Dei on this significant milestone anniversary, just ten years short of a centenary. May the Lord continue to bless you in all that you do, in the pursuit of the sanctification of time through the work of the Lord in bringing about the Kingdom of God to all that we do and all that we meet.
The full homily can be read at: