Opus Dei

This instalment explores the proper autonomy of temporal realities and the Christian value of secularity. Saint Josemaría’s teaching helps us understand that work, civil life, and professional commitments have laws of their own, and that the Christian is called to sanctify them from within, with freedom and personal responsibility.

Inspired by Sacred Scripture and the teachings of St. Josemaría, this article reflects on how professional activity and ordinary life can become an authentic place of encounter with God and a concrete path to holiness in the middle of the world.

The hidden life of Jesus in Nazareth reveals that our ordinary work and daily activities have a deep divine value. They can be a path for close union with God and responding to his call to holiness, by striving to imitate our Lord's entire life.

Beginning with the evolution of work throughout history, this article offers reflections on its dignity and importance in human life. Inspired by St. Josemaría’s teachings, it presents work as a place of encounter with God and a means of sanctification.

Our work, besides cooperating in the divine plan of creation, can also share in the work of redemption; it becomes a means of sanctification and transformation of the world when carried out, in Christ, with charity and a priestly soul.

This article, the fourth in the series, presents St. Josemaría’s vision of work as a participation in God’s creative work, in continuity with the biblical tradition and the Church’s magisterium. Human work is seen as an active cooperation in perfecting the created world.

St. Josemaría taught that work is a divine vocation and a means of personal sanctification and apostolate. Inspired by the mystery of the Incarnation and the pages of Sacred Scripture, he spread a Christological vision of work, integrating it into the spiritual life without separating the secular from the sacred.

This second article in the series preparing for the centenary tries to deepen our understanding of the purpose and mission of Opus Dei, based on the personal reflections and teachings of its founder.

During this time of preparation for the centenary, which we have begun with regional assemblies, the Prelate invites us to reflect on Opus Dei’s identity, history, and mission. The purpose of this series is to delve deeper into the charism by focusing on one of its essential aspects: the sanctification of work. This first article explores the specific role of the Work within the Church and develops the concepts of vocation and mission in the context of ordinary life.