Opus Dei

Born and bred in Japan, Shoko Hazama-de Guzman visited Australia in 1996 to study at a hospitality college in Randwick. She soon fell in love with the country, decided to stay, and in 2003 she was married. Shoko and her husband were excited to start a family - but it would be six years before this would happen, and only through the intercession of St Josemaria.

As a young priest, Saint Josemaria grasped with new depth a truth he had always known. “Yesterday I discovered another Mediterranean: if I am a son of my Father God, then I am also a son of my Mother Mary.”

On the occasion of the renewal of the consecration of the Work on August 15th to the Most Sweet Heart of Mary, the Prelate of Opus Dei invites us to keep alive our desires for holiness and apostolate, expressed in a daily, joyful and hope-filled fidelity.

Fidelity is the virtue that arises in relationships between people – and therefore also with God – when we trust in the love of the other person.

Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz met with faithful of the Prelature in various encounters during his visit to Barcelona from August 5 to 7. He also visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, as St. Josemaría did on many occasions. On Sunday, August 7, in the afternoon, the Prelate of Opus Dei returned to Rome.

In his 10 August general audience, Pope Francis continued his catechesis on old age with a reflection about hopeful waiting and old age as a time projected toward fulfillment.

“Illness is not a punishment; it is a caress from God,” Blessed Alvaro del Portillo stressed in 1987, “to draw us to him.” This couple entrusted themselves to Don Alvaro's intercession at a difficult time.

Let us pray for small and medium sized businesses; in the midst of economic and social crisis, may they find ways to continue operating, and serving their communities.

The English translation of the apostolic constitution, Ut sit, by which Opus Dei was established as the Catholic Church's first personal prelature.

A recollection is a “mini-retreat,” a few hours of quiet prayer when we look at our lives in God's presence. This guide can help us spend an hour or two in loving conversation with God, right where we are.