Pdf: Letter from the Prelate (15 May 2024)
My dear children: may Jesus watch over my daughters and sons for me!
On the upcoming 19th, we will celebrate the solemnity of Pentecost, an opportunity to remember in a special way the visible coming of the Holy Spirit on the nascent Church. Under the form of a purifying fire and an impetuous wind, the Paraclete gave the apostles new wisdom, new love, and a courageous evangelizing impulse.
At the same time, this feast is an opportunity to meditate on, give thanks for and open our souls to the action of the Holy Spirit, infinite Love. Through sanctifying grace, He identifies us ever more closely with Christ and, in Christ, makes us ever more fully children of God the Father.
In preparation for the feast of Pentecost, we can find it helpful to meditate again during the next few days on these words of Saint Paul: “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom 8:14-15). I recall here some words of our Father, and I am sure many of you do too, in which he recounted an event that took place on a tram in Madrid on October 16, 1931: "I felt the action of our Lord, who brought this tender invocation to my heart and to my lips, with the force of something imperatively necessary: Abba! Pater!” (Letter 9 January 1959).
Thus was born, in the heart of Saint Josemaría, the sense of divine filiation as the foundation of the spirit of the Work. A filiation that is necessarily continued in the corresponding fraternity in the Church – and in the Work, as a small part of the Church – and in the apostolic efforts.
You will have often read and meditated on all this and much more about the Holy Spirit and divine filiation. But let us not tire of contemplating and being grateful for this supernatural reality. We can try to live it with renewed hope, so that, with our Lord’s help, we can also give ever greater expression to our being daughters and sons of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, in fraternal love and service to others.
As I frequently remind you, I count on the prayer of each and every one, cor unum et anima una (Acts 4:32) – it is everyone’s concern – for the ongoing study of our Statutes. At the beginning of this month, a first meeting took place of four members of the Dicastery and four canonists of Opus Dei, three men professors and one woman professor. A second meeting of this type is planned for the end of June and this work will surely continue after the summer. The goal is to finalize, in the best possible way, the Statutes of the Work, following the indication given by the Pope to “safeguard the charism” (Ad charisma tuendum). That is, to safeguard its essential elements (its secular and mainly lay character, the unity of vocation between lay people – men and women – and priests, etc.). The solemnity of Pentecost helps us to entrust ourselves to the action of the Paraclete also in this work, and to live it, each one and as a family, with the spirit of filiation that I just spoke about.
On the 25th, God willing, the priestly ordination of twenty-nine members of the Work will take place. May they also be very present in our prayer, especially during the upcoming days.
We will celebrate Pentecost in the middle of the month of May. We may find it helpful to consider that our Lady, as the mediator of all grace, is (as Saint Andrew of Crete said) “the mother from whom the Spirit descends upon all men and women” (Marian Homily II).
Your Father blesses you with all his affection.
Rome, May 15, 2024