Letter from the Prelate (9 April 2019)

In the week before Holy Week, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz invites us, when contemplating Christ on the Cross, to reflect on our personal availability to carry out God's will.

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

On Good Friday, soon upon us, we will contemplate in Christ crucified the immensity of his redeeming love. This love led Him to be fully available and obedient to the will of God the Father.

Following Jesus and identifying with Him also leads us, within our personal circumstances, to an unrestricted availability for the challenges and requirements of our apostolic mission. In our daily life, we want to discover the voice of Christ who calls and invites us to broaden our horizons. Like Saint Paul, we want to become “all things to all men” (1 Cor 9:22).

With regard to availability, I think that it will help us, in these weeks preceding Guadalupe’s beatification, to reflect on how her life was greatly expanded when it became part of the divine plan. Guadalupe let herself be led by God, with joy and spontaneity, from one place to another, from one job to another. Our Lord strengthened her abilities and talents, enriched her personality, and multiplied the fruitfulness of her life.

Despite our shortcomings and mistakes, God will also do great good to many people through us. He will do this by our availability to listen, to serve, to help and let ourselves be helped: in a word, to love whatever He wants. As Saint Josemaria wrote, “It is the divine adventure of self-giving” (Letter, 14 February 1974, no. 5), carried out always and in everything with the freedom and joy of the daughters and sons of God.

Your Father blesses you with all his affection,

Rome, 9 April 2019