Letter from the Prelate on the Beatification

With the beatification of Alvaro del Portillo only a few months away, the Prelate has written a short letter with suggestions on how to prepare for this event.

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

As we draw closer to September 27, the date for Don Alvaro’s beatification, I find my desire increasing to prepare myself very well for that great feast of our Holy Mother the Church and of this “small portion” of the Church that is the Prelature. The same will be happening to you. I recall how Don Alvaro urged us to prepare ourselves for our Father’s beatification on May 17, 1992. I would like to follow in his footsteps, closely accompanied by everyone’s prayer, and uniting myself personally to what each of you does.

I think it only natural that our heart pours out a sincere act of thanksgiving to God, with the joy of seeing raised to the altars the first successor of St. Josemaría, and that this divine gift prompts us to intensify our petition, each day, for the fruit of that event for the good of souls, and for so many apostolic initiatives that the faithful and cooperators of the Work are organizing all over the world.

It seems to me, also as an expression of that gratitude, that I should help you with some suggestions. In first place, in preparation for that day, and then afterwards until the end of the year, each one should personally seek out some special small way to pray for the Church, the Pope, the Work, in accord with St. Josemaría’s example. And I ask you also to beseech God to hear us in my many other intentions, to serve souls more and better.

This special prayer, with Don Alvaro as the intercessor, could involve praying an extra part of the Rosary; or else a Memorare before an image of our Lady in our family home—in the Center of the Work, or the home where each one lives. Or perhaps it could be to make each week a brief visit to a church dedicated to our Lady, or where her image is venerated, etc.

This is only a fatherly request that I am making known to you so that, with complete spontaneity and personal freedom, our faithfulness to God, to the Church, to the Pope, might be ever more refined. I dare to ask you that your help here be generous.

With all my affection, I bless you,

Your Father

+ Javier

Rome, June 4, 2014

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