English
Documentation
The founding of Opus Dei
Tuesday, October 2, 1928, feast of the Guardian Angels, was the second day of a week-long retreat for diocesan priests being given in the house of the Vincentian Fathers in the outskirts of Madrid, Spain. The six priests attending the retreat had celebrated Mass, breakfasted, prayed part of the Breviary together, and read some passages from the New Testament. At 10:00 a.m., Father Josemaria went to his room.
Alone there, he immersed himself in reviewing notes he had brought to the retreat. These notes recorded a series of graces and inspirations God had conferred on him in answer to ten years of intense prayer, during which he had repeatedly make his own the response of the blind beggar who, when Christ asked what he wanted, responded: “Lord, that I may see.” He knew that God wanted something specific from him, but the insights he had were so fragmentary and incomplete that he could not make out what it was.
As the sound of the bells of the church of Our Lady of the Angels drifted through the window, pealing to celebrate the feast of the Guardian Angels, the missing elements were added, and the picture suddenly came into focus. Father Josemaria saw that God wanted there to be a portion of his Church made up of people who would dedicate themselves to incorporating into their own lives and to spreading to their friends, neighbors and colleagues the joyous message that God calls everyone to sanctity, regardless of age, social condition, profession, or marital status.
A private note taken by Father Josemaria in 1930 records, in almost telegraphic fashion, a series of ideas that may summarize the content of his October 2 vision: “Plain Catholics. The mass of dough being leavened, and rising. Ours is what is ordinary, with complete naturalness. The means: professional work. Everyone a saint!”
The French author Francois Gondrand has given us a poetic version of the same ideas:
Thousands – millions – of souls, covering the whole face of the earth, raise their prayers to God. Generation upon generation of Christians, submerged in all the world’s activities, offer God their work and the thousand-and-one concerns of their daily lives. Hour after hour of hard, conscientious work: an offering that rises up like precious incense from the four corners of the globe… A multitude of people, rich and poor, young and old, from every country and of every race… Millions and millions of souls spread out in time and space, covering the whole surface of the earth with their invisible influx… Thousands – millions – of souls, like an unending peal of bells echoing toward heaven, the chimes mingling as they echo up and up.
Alone there, he immersed himself in reviewing notes he had brought to the retreat. These notes recorded a series of graces and inspirations God had conferred on him in answer to ten years of intense prayer, during which he had repeatedly make his own the response of the blind beggar who, when Christ asked what he wanted, responded: “Lord, that I may see.” He knew that God wanted something specific from him, but the insights he had were so fragmentary and incomplete that he could not make out what it was.
As the sound of the bells of the church of Our Lady of the Angels drifted through the window, pealing to celebrate the feast of the Guardian Angels, the missing elements were added, and the picture suddenly came into focus. Father Josemaria saw that God wanted there to be a portion of his Church made up of people who would dedicate themselves to incorporating into their own lives and to spreading to their friends, neighbors and colleagues the joyous message that God calls everyone to sanctity, regardless of age, social condition, profession, or marital status.
A private note taken by Father Josemaria in 1930 records, in almost telegraphic fashion, a series of ideas that may summarize the content of his October 2 vision: “Plain Catholics. The mass of dough being leavened, and rising. Ours is what is ordinary, with complete naturalness. The means: professional work. Everyone a saint!”
The French author Francois Gondrand has given us a poetic version of the same ideas:
Thousands – millions – of souls, covering the whole face of the earth, raise their prayers to God. Generation upon generation of Christians, submerged in all the world’s activities, offer God their work and the thousand-and-one concerns of their daily lives. Hour after hour of hard, conscientious work: an offering that rises up like precious incense from the four corners of the globe… A multitude of people, rich and poor, young and old, from every country and of every race… Millions and millions of souls spread out in time and space, covering the whole surface of the earth with their invisible influx… Thousands – millions – of souls, like an unending peal of bells echoing toward heaven, the chimes mingling as they echo up and up.
Prayer
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