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Putting Down Roots

April 23, 2010

Tags: books, Opus Dei
John Coverdale, author
John Coverdale, author
Putting Down Roots is the exciting story of the beginnings of Opus Dei in the U.S. It tells how Fr. Joseph Muzquiz -one of the first three priests of Opus Dei- came to America in 1949 to begin Opus Dei. At the time, only a handful of Americans had ever heard of Opus Dei.

John Coverdale, author of Uncommon Faith, an account of the life of St. Josemaría Escrivá and the early years of Opus Dei, has written the first biography of Fr. Joseph Muzquiz: Putting Down Roots.

The book tells the story of the growth of Opus Dei and of Father Muzquiz, who came to America with little money and a weak grasp of English to establish the Opus Dei. As the blurb on the back of the cover states: "On a winter afternoon in 1949, a 36 year old priest accompanied by a 27 year old graduate student stepped off a TWA flight at New York's Idelwild Airport. Father Jose Luis Muzquiz and Sal Ferigle had come to start Opus Dei, the Work of God, in the United States.
Father Joseph Muzquiz with Saint Josemaria in Rome
Father Joseph Muzquiz with Saint Josemaria in Rome

"The Founder of Opus Dei, St. Josemaría Escrivá, had not been able to give them anything beyond his blessing and a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They had almost no money and only a rudimentary command of English. Only a handful of Americans had even heard of Opus Dei, and two decades before the Second Vatican Council, its message of the call to holiness in the midst of ordinary life was a shocking novelty to most Catholics.”

”Within six months he had succeeded in purchasing a house near the University of Chicago which he planned to turn into a university residence. It would be a base for meeting young people with ideals and a spirit of adventure who would in turn blaze a trail for many others both in the United States and numerous other countries.”

"This short biography tells the story of his eventful life: from his youth and engineering studies through his first meeting with St. Josemaría, his ordination as one of Opus Dei's first three priests, and his work in establishing Opus Dei in the United States, Canada, Switzerland and Japan, to his final years as chaplain of several Opus Dei centers in Boston and his death at age 71."

Opus Dei’s call for holiness in everyday life and secular work as a form of prayer was shocking to many at the time. But by the time of Father Muzquiz’s death in 1983, Opus Dei was well-established in the U.S. Today, many Catholics pray to Father Muzquiz and pray the Church will one day canonize him.

Putting Down Roots contains eight pages of photos, and is published by Scepter Publishers, New York