Message from the Prelate (15 August 2017)

Some words from Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz for the feast of our Lady's Assumption into heaven.

As you know, during these weeks—in Spain, Portugal, France, and now Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium—I am having the opportunity to be with many people of the Work, with their families, and with cooperators and friends. As I share their joys, their sorrows and, above all, their desire to bring Christ’s love to so many people, I recall those words that issued from the heart of Saint Josemaria in thanksgiving to God: “I think about the Work and I am dumbfounded.”

Surely the same thing will happen to you, although at times the daily difficulties and problems can make it hard to see beyond the immediate task we have before us. I ask our Lady, on the feast of her Assumption, to help us always raise the eyes of our heart to God through whatever task we are doing; to care for the Work, which for us is the chief way we care for the Church. Opus Dei is not an accumulation of buildings and initiatives. It is much more: it is a family, and a family that isn’t closed in on itself, but that spreads a family atmosphere around it, opening its heart to the material and spiritual needs of everyone. In a family each person is important. So let us care for each one of them with our prayer, with our closeness, with our understanding, with our good humor.

Solingen, 15 August 2017