English
Documentation
Opus Dei founder’s devotion to the Holy Cross
Salvador Bernal
The founder of Opus Dei always had great devotion to the crucifix, and he expressed this, among other places in n. 302 of his book The Way.
He recommended people to kiss it on beginning work and again on finishing it, on going to bed and getting up, while making an act of faith, hope and love, asking God that we may make up in our own lives, as St Paul put it, “what is missing in the Passion of Jesus Christ”.
I myself witnessed how devoutly, every night, St Josemaría would kiss the crucifix he used during the day, placing it afterwards in the pocket of his pajama-jacket. He wanted to feel it close to his heart when he woke up in the night.
In Rome, he had two life-size images of Christ on the Cross sculpted. The first was placed in an oratory, with an inscription bearing St Peter’s words of contrition for having failed Christ: “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you!” (John 21:17). The second was placed in a little patio, with the inscription: “For you, O God, are my strength” (Psalm 42:2). He also had crucifixes made for the Inter-regional Center of Opus Dei in Rome and the shrine of Torreciudad (Spain). They show Christ nailed to the Cross, before he died, with his eyes open, looking at those who come to pray before him. In 1970, during his stay in Mexico, he received some photographs of the clay models for these crucifixes.
In a gathering afterwards, he explained: “I’ve had a sculpture made of Christ Crucified, but without the wound of the lance. Christ still alive, dying in the most atrocious sufferings; and dying joyfully – he gave himself up voluntarily – to obtain our redemption and our love. I want us to be able to look at that image of Christ, suffering but full of peace, for you, for me, for everyone; to resolve to react with total self-giving and without holding anything back, even though it means giving our lives. They sent me a photograph of the sculpture, and I am deeply moved. The sculptor has modeled a face that bears a strong resemblance to the sculptures he did of Mary, and I like it so much: I could see why he did that, to show the union there was between Mother and Son, between the Son and all of his brothers and sisters, meaning us.”
St Josemaría’s devotion to the Cross was also shown in the wooden cross there is in all Opus Dei Centers, and which he referred to in numbers 178 and 277 of The Way.
I think that something he said in 1957 sums up the strong, joyful love he felt on contemplating Christ’s sufferings. He said: “Let us adore the Cross. It is the sign of the Christian, and the sign of Christian victories. Cross and Blood: what must that wood have looked like after the death of our Lord! The Cross was soaked in the Redeemer’s Blood; and so when you see a Cross, think of the Blood of Christ, poured out for you, and don’t deny him what he is asking you for. When we opened our first house, I had a cross put there without the Crucified Christ, as a shout, a cry, a loving act of atonement to our God, an invitation to each of us not to despise the sufferings we may meet in our lives.”
Extracts taken from the books Memoria del Beato Josemaría Escrivá by Javier Echevarria and Salvador Bernal, Madrid 2000
I myself witnessed how devoutly, every night, St Josemaría would kiss the crucifix he used during the day, placing it afterwards in the pocket of his pajama-jacket. He wanted to feel it close to his heart when he woke up in the night.
In Rome, he had two life-size images of Christ on the Cross sculpted. The first was placed in an oratory, with an inscription bearing St Peter’s words of contrition for having failed Christ: “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you!” (John 21:17). The second was placed in a little patio, with the inscription: “For you, O God, are my strength” (Psalm 42:2). He also had crucifixes made for the Inter-regional Center of Opus Dei in Rome and the shrine of Torreciudad (Spain). They show Christ nailed to the Cross, before he died, with his eyes open, looking at those who come to pray before him. In 1970, during his stay in Mexico, he received some photographs of the clay models for these crucifixes.
In a gathering afterwards, he explained: “I’ve had a sculpture made of Christ Crucified, but without the wound of the lance. Christ still alive, dying in the most atrocious sufferings; and dying joyfully – he gave himself up voluntarily – to obtain our redemption and our love. I want us to be able to look at that image of Christ, suffering but full of peace, for you, for me, for everyone; to resolve to react with total self-giving and without holding anything back, even though it means giving our lives. They sent me a photograph of the sculpture, and I am deeply moved. The sculptor has modeled a face that bears a strong resemblance to the sculptures he did of Mary, and I like it so much: I could see why he did that, to show the union there was between Mother and Son, between the Son and all of his brothers and sisters, meaning us.”
St Josemaría’s devotion to the Cross was also shown in the wooden cross there is in all Opus Dei Centers, and which he referred to in numbers 178 and 277 of The Way.
I think that something he said in 1957 sums up the strong, joyful love he felt on contemplating Christ’s sufferings. He said: “Let us adore the Cross. It is the sign of the Christian, and the sign of Christian victories. Cross and Blood: what must that wood have looked like after the death of our Lord! The Cross was soaked in the Redeemer’s Blood; and so when you see a Cross, think of the Blood of Christ, poured out for you, and don’t deny him what he is asking you for. When we opened our first house, I had a cross put there without the Crucified Christ, as a shout, a cry, a loving act of atonement to our God, an invitation to each of us not to despise the sufferings we may meet in our lives.”
Extracts taken from the books Memoria del Beato Josemaría Escrivá by Javier Echevarria and Salvador Bernal, Madrid 2000
Documentation
List of Contents
- An Italian song that St Josemaria loved
- Carmen Escrivá
- October 16, 1931, in a Madrid streetcar: Abba, Pater!
- Prehistory of the founding of Opus Dei (1917-1928)
- Opus Dei founder’s devotion to the Holy Cross
- How the founder of Opus Dei practised the spirit of mortification
- Anniversary of the death of Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo, St Josemaría’s first successor
- How the Founder of Opus Dei experienced the Sacrament of Reconciliation
- Our Lady of Guadalupe
- The Sanctity of Human Love
Prayer
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