Opus Dei

This Newsletter is dedicated to the teachings of St Josemaria on the family.

At the beginning of the fifth week of quarantine I was asked “How are you managing with all your kids in that little house of yours?” My husband and I have a happy little brood of nine children ranging in ages from 5 to 22.

In his preaching, the "saint of ordinary life" often made small suggestions on how to get along with others. Here is a selection of his ideas that could help at this time.

The D´Orville brothers live in Puerto Rico and are very different: Francisco is talkative, and Jonnatan is reflective; what one likes, the other doesn't. One day, Francisco invited Jonnatan to participate in a recollection, but he didn't attend because it was an invitation from his brother. Now, however, they've both grown closer to God, and they run a catechism course for friends and a youth club for their children together. Their sense of mission brought them together.

Sole and Juampi, an Argentinian couple, continue the story of their married life together. Second in a series of six videos that could serve as a resource for pre-marriage courses.

We celebrate the first anniversary of "Amoris Laetitia" with a collection of quotes from the Apostolic Exhortation which can help us reflect and take up the joyful challenge of the most important virtue.

Knowing how to be creative with what one has at home: perhaps this example could serve as inspiration. Every year on the "Friday of Sorrows" (the Friday before Palm Sunday), the mother of Saint Josemaría, Dolores Escrivá, used to prepare a special dessert called "crespillos".​ It was a simple dessert that she ​would only make on that day, and thus the family would look forward to it. The recipe is easy to follow and inexpensive, and makes for a tasty and original dessert for your family.

I am very impressed with Dora. About three weeks ago, I came across her prayer card in a chapel and I said to myself, "If I feel like I'm 'in a hole' for how bad I feel, then what could be better than to pray to Dora 'del Hoyo' (Spanish for 'of the hole')." I even started to use her name as a password, to remind myself to pray to her.

I met Dora in 1995, when domestic work was far from my life and even farther from my mind. Dora and I happened to coincide on two occasions in particular in a period of about two months time. This however was enough for me to realize how she was, how she lived, for whom and why she had spent her days giving of herself to the full. There was no need for long explanations to grasp the meaning of her existence. Dora knew the meaning of her life and the path to achieve it to the full.

"My husband was baptized Catholic, but had never received any of the other sacraments. None of our four children nor I had ever been baptized."