Opus Dei

Pastoral letter of Bishop Javier Echevarría to the faithful and cooperators of the Prelature of Opus Dei on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Pope's election.

One December morning in 1931, Fr. Josemaría dashed off this small book in one sitting, just after celebrating Mass. He poured into these pages an example of his way of meditating the mysteries of the life of Jesus and Mary, and of reciting the Rosary. Parting with his reader, he confides, “My friend: I have told you just part of my secret. It is up to you, with God’s help, to discover the rest. Take courage. Be faithful. Become little (...) If you say the Rosary in this way, you will learn to pray well.”

Bishop Javier Echevarría ordained seven new priests, from five countries, in a ceremony at the sanctuary of Torreciudad, on Sunday, August 31.

“On October 7,” said John Paul II, “I count on going, please God, to the Shrine of Pompei. It will be a particularly significant moment in the Year of the Rosary, inaugurated last 16 October with the signing in St Peter's Square of my Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae.”

For the past 16 years, a group of volunteers have been carrying out various programs of nutrition, hygiene and literacy in Santo Tomé, a city of 43,000 where 65% of the people are living under the poverty line.

Dagatan opened in 1988 with 35 students. As of 2003, there were five more family farm schools in the Philippines, offering children of farmers the possibility of alternating studies and field work to help their families improve their economic situation.