Opus Dei

"Taste in your heart the need our world has to receive the graces of the Cross," Bishop Alvaro del Portillo tells us in a letter from September 1988.

Some advice for those planning to attend the beatification of Alvaro del Portillo on September 27 in Madrid.

I want to write about a small favor that Dora did for me today. A week ago, I bought a pair of shoes. I had only worn the shoes four times before they broke. I decided to entrust the issue to Dora.

Angelique Ferrali is a Cooperator of Opus Dei who lives in Switzerland and teaches tennis. She recalls a Mass celebrated by Don Alvaro when she was a university student that left a deep impression on her soul.

A quick glance at the life of Alvaro del Portillo, the successor to Opus Dei's founder St. Josemaria Escriva. Bishop del Portillo will be beatified in Madrid on Sept. 27.

John F. Coverdale, author of "Saxum: The Life of Alvaro del Portillo," was interviewed on EWTN's program "Bookmark." Watch the full interview here.

"Housework is something of primary importance. Besides, all work can have the same supernatural quality. There are no great or mean tasks. All are great if they are done with love. Those which are considered great become small when the Christian meaning of life is lost sight of. On the other hand, there are apparently small things that can in fact be very great because of their real effects." (Conversacions with Monsignor Escriva de Balaguer, 109).

Bishop Alvaro del Portillo insists on the importance of small things done for love, in the spirit taught by Saint Josemaria.

Eelis Nguyen, a convert from Buddhism, lives and works in Helsinki. He says that he is looking forward to going to the beatification of Alvaro del Portillo because it is "a great feast for the Church."

The texts for Alvaro del Portillo's Beatification Mass and Mass of Thanksgiving are now available in various formats in English, along with an extensive biography and information about sites related to his life and maps of Madrid.