Opus Dei

Clips from a meeting with St Josemaria in Barcelona in October 1972, showing him answering a variety of questions about Christian living.

When asked about the future of Opus Dei, Saint Josemaria says, "Opus Dei has just one thing, the desire to fulfill God's will through our ordinary work...If we're humble and don't stray from our goal, and if we're contemplatives in the street and the market-place, everything will go well."

This year I would like to propose a few thoughts in the light of the Letter to the Hebrews “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.” These words offer a timely teaching on three aspects of Christian life: concern for others, reciprocity, and personal holiness.

In a get-together in 1972, St. Josemaria speaks about how we can best serve the society in which we live.

"You are serving your fellow-men when you work for their spiritual good and their material good... Look for the good, seek life, and struggle."

Besides the Novena for Work that has resulted in numerous favors, two other novenas are now available in English: the Novena for the Sick and the Novena for the Family.

St. Josemaria speaks about the strength he found to bring Opus Dei forward back in the 1930's in the hospitals for the poor in Madrid.

"Spiritual life today is the same as in the 16th century, or the first century. Christians today have the same means as the first Christians, the ones who lived with Jesus, and as Twelve Apostles, who could still hear his breath as he died on the Cross... We've progressed in everything including business companies, but not in the interior life."

Saint Josemaria says that peace in society starts with each person's stuggle to be a better person. "To have peace in our hearts we have to win our interior struggle, because we are all inclined to sin. We were born like that... And if we don't fight, we will fall and lead a really unhappy life."

Saint Josemaria reflects on what it means to be a priest: "I like priests to be just priests, and not to get mixed up in other things. To limit themselves to their spiritual mission, which is no small task."