The main way the faithful of Opus Dei make a difference is through prayer. Every lay person and priest in the Prelature, nearly 80,000 of them, pray daily for the Pope, for bishops, for Christian unity, for this world they love so ardently. I’m convinced that this personal and collective prayer, as it ascends to God continuously from all the continents, does great good for the Church and for society.
Apart from that, Opus Dei has no worldwide agenda for social action. Yet the spirit of sanctification of ordinary work that animates the faithful of Opus Dei does move them to make their work an effective service of others and an instrument to promote justice and exercise charity among their equals. And at the same time, that work provides the occasion for a personal apostolate that serves the Church in those other lives.
The present condition of the world impacts Opus Dei in the same way it does the entire Church, since the Prelature is a part of the Church. Growing secularization and a spirit of radical autonomy does present a real difficulty these days—or better, a real challenge—for our apostolate, just as it does for the whole Church. But the picture also includes positive elements which Opus Dei’s experience confirms every day all over the world: thousands of young people, along with men and women of all ages, want to correspond to the Christian ideal with generosity and enthusiasm. The faithful of the Prelature try to transmit that ideal to them in a vivid and demanding way.