Letter from the Prelate (18 October 2021)

On the feast of Saint Luke, the Prelate of Opus Dei invites us to contemplate our Lord in the Gospel in order to let ourselves be transformed by Him.

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

The feast of Saint Luke, which the Church celebrates today, seems to me to present a renewed invitation to contemplate our Lord in the Gospel. Saint Josemaría advised us to put ourselves into the Gospel scenes “as another person present there.” By contemplating Jesus we will gradually be transformed into Him, until we come to have his very own sentiments (cf. Phil 2:5). With God’s grace, our Lord’s deeds and words will come to our memory and our heart, and we will strive to follow in his footsteps under his loving gaze.

To do so we will need to foster in our soul, with the help of the Holy Spirit, a sincere openness to the Word of God. Among other places, our Lord sends us this Word in the Gospel passage we hear at Mass, and this can serve to enlighten each day.

Luke is the evangelist who presents us with the most details about our Lady’s life. No one has contemplated Jesus’ face with such great love. Praying the holy Rosary (a “compendium of the Gospel,” as Saint John Paul II said) during this month can help us enter more deeply into the Gospel, guided by the Mother of our Lord.

Let us also use the Rosary to pray for the fruits of the Synod that the Pope has just begun in Rome. I ask you as well to continue praying for our plans for a renewed apostolic impulse that includes some territorial restructurings in the Work; now, specifically, for the new region of Del Plata, which includes the former regions of Argentina and Uruguay.

Your Father blesses you with all his affection,

Rome, October 18, 2021