Letter from the Prelate (10 September 2020)

This 15th of September will mark 45 years since the election of Blessed Alvaro as Saint Josemaria’s first successor. Monsignor Ocáriz encourages us to see him as an example of fidelity to the spirit of Opus Dei.

My dear children: may Jesus watch over my daughters and sons for me!

This 15th of September will mark 45 years since the election of Don Alvaro as Saint Josemaria’s first successor. It was a very important moment, since it meant the beginning of continuity in being faithful to our Founder’s inheritance, showing us how to live the spirit of Opus Dei in our life today. Blessed Alvaro inaugurated this time with his personal fidelity. In him we see that sanctity in ordinary life is a gift from God to make us happy and to make the people around us happy.

I invite you to consider during these days the example of Don Alvaro as a strong rock—saxum—on whom our Father could always rely and who was a support for the others. This was due above all thanks to his union with Christ, the source of his fidelity, peace and joy. The same should be true for each one of us, since Christ wants to “live in us through Love,” as Saint Josemaria said (The Way of the Cross, Fourteenth Station). This anniversary is a marvelous opportunity to reaffirm our desire to be faithful in our continuity, in service to the Church and all souls.

The ordination of 29 new priests of the Prelature is still very recent. Our thanksgiving to God for the gift of the priesthood should be accompanied by our prayer for them.

The 15th is the liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. Let us ask Mary, strong at the foot of the Cross, to obtain for us from our Lord the gift of each being faithful in our continuity. This will lead us, in one way or another, to be with Jesus on the Cross sustained by Mary.

Your Father blesses you with all his affection,

Rome, 10 September 2020.