From Warsaw to New Jersey, with St Josemaria’s teachings

Sarah Nasiek, a pediatrician in a federally funded clinic and in three schools, is a cooperator of Opus Dei. She recalls how Saint Josemaria’s teachings helped her to find God in her ordinary life.

I met Opus Dei while I was studying medicine in Warsaw, Poland, around twenty years ago. Opus Dei had just started its activities and someone in the Work met my Grandmother who was a professor at the Warsaw Veterinary University.

Through my Grandma, I met some people who were organizing the first center for women in Warsaw. I moved to the United States some years ago with my husband. He is a physician like me; I am a practicing pediatrician.

What moved me to become a cooperator of Opus Dei is the teaching of St. Josemaria Escriva – i.e., the sanctification of our daily lives through each action that we make, be it a small and apparently insignificant one or a big and very important one. This revolutionary vision has opened new horizons for me in everything I do – from taking care of my family to making decisions about how to treat my patients at work.

Because of St. Josemaria Escriva's teachings, I always strive to do my best at work, in every other activity I do and in my relationships with every person around me. Being a cooperator is also helping me become a good friend of Jesus because of the teachings that I receive in Opus Dei. Thanks to those Christian teachings, I hope to grow spiritually so that in turn, I too will be able to then teach and help other people grow spiritually.

I help a Supernumerary with a club for grade school girls. We gather with a group of around 8 girls. First we pray, then there is a talk to help the girls develop their characters and their spiritual life, after that we do an activity like painting, sewing, etc.

My role is to help so that things run smoothly the whole afternoon; I help the girls during the activity part. I started helping in this activity mainly because my three daughters participate in it. Also because I love children and I think that forming them in the right way is the future of us all.

I can see the impact that the club meetings have had on my daughters. My oldest daughter, who is really too old for the club, has started to participate in activities for high school girls at one of the centers of Opus Dei. There she is learning to be a better person and to be closer to Jesus.

My younger daughters have made great friends with the other club girls who are brought up with the same ideals that are taught in our house.

I cooperate by helping run the meetings for grade school girls and by praying for Opus Dei everyday.

Being a cooperator is helping me to be a better person – a better mother, wife, daughter and doctor. It helps me grow in my spiritual life through prayer, going to Mass every day, saying the Rosary, reading spiritual books and offering small things or sufferings to Jesus.

The first and most important thing that I find most attractive in Opus Dei are the teachings of St. Josemaria Escriva' – the sanctification of our lives through our daily work and activities. No matter who we are or what we do, we can become Saints by praying and doing the best that we can in everything we do. I also like the atmosphere I find in all the centers of Opus Dei – an atmosphere of friendship, loyalty and a big family.

I participate in the monthly recollections, and the monthly circles, and I am going to make a three day retreat in one of the conference centers of Opus Dei.