Opus Dei

Yesterday I was kicked out from the exam room because I had not cleared my fees. I called my mum but she did not have the money and I also called other donors who usually support me but this time they did not have the money which was around Ksh 7,000/=. (50 Dollars)

Opus Dei is a personal prelature of the Catholic Church to which lay people are called – single, married, widowed – to live the greatest commandments of love of God and love of neighbour right there in the middle of their ordinary lives, raising their families, keeping a job and so on. It is therefore not obvious what an article on a nun would be doing featuring here.

Monick Tello is a Peruvian numerary who moved to Stockholm, Sweden seventeen years ago. She writes about her experience at World Youth Day in Lisbon this summer and how the Pope's invitation to acknowledge our roots inspired her.

I was very young when I arrived in Kenya. I was grateful that from the beginning, I did not feel alone. Immediately I realized that I was another link in a chain and would be picking the baton from many brave women who worked from the first moment to bring the message of Opus Dei to Africa.

We spent the last two weeks of our holidays helping needy students in the north of Mombasa.

Olamide is a pharmacist by profession and a basketball coach. Through a passionate training of upcoming student basketballers, she is creating a furrow of diligence in little things.

Nkem, a young mother and a supernumerary of Opus Dei, shares her adventure of teaching catechism classes in Lagos with other mothers of young children.

We realised that the suffering they had endured was hidden in their smiles and only in their eyes could one make out an unwavering determination to better their lives and those of their children.

Everything started with a small program of solidarity in the school and now we are helping a big number of people in Togo and Kenya.

This is the fifth of a series of interviews commemorating the 75th anniversary of Opus Dei coming to Ireland. In this episode, Ciara Mannion describes how she finds meaning everyday by loving others in and through her work. Ciara is a wife and mother of two living in Galway.