Words from the New Testament, meditated on by the Founder of Opus Dei

Francisco Varo

The first issue of Studia et Documenta, the journal of the Istituto Storico San Josemaria Escriva in Rome, contains a study by Professor Francisco Varo of eight small pages written by St Josemaría, headed “Words from the New Testament meditated on frequently – June 1933”. This [...] Tags: Gospel, Jesus Christ, Prayer

February 14, 1930 and 1943 in Saint Josemaria's words

Salvador Bernal

St Josemaria did not like to speak about those more intimate moments in which Our Lord had made him know His Will. However, sometimes, following the express indication of the Holy See, or due to the insistence of the members of Opus Dei, he did tell some details. Tags: February 14, Founding of Opus Dei, Priestly Society of the Holy Cross

A faithful man

Msgr. Javier Echevarria

Alvaro del Portillo, St Josemaría’s first successor at the head of Opus Dei, was born March 11, 1914. A “good and faithful servant” – words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, that Pope John Paul II applied to Bishop Alvaro del Portillo. Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Faith, Faithfulness, Javier Echevarria

St Josemaria’s book The Way of the Cross – Foreword

Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo

“Enter into the wounds of Christ Crucified.” When Monsignor Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer proposed this way, to those who asked him for advice on how to deepen their interior life, he was doing no more than pass on his own experience, pointing out the short cut he had been using throughout his life, and which led him to the highest peaks of spiritual life. Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Contemplation, Jesus Christ, The Way of the Cross

Josemaria Escriva’s love for the virtue of poverty

Jaime Cardinal Sin

Msgr. Escriva suffered some of the most extreme forms of material need. There were times when he could only have one meal a day, and sometimes he was obliged to sleep on the kitchen floor because there was no room anywhere else in the places where the first members of Opus Dei were living. Tags: Justice, Poverty, Solidarity

A book review "The Founder of Opus Dei. The Life of Josemaría Escrivá" by Andrés Vázquez de Prada

John F. Coverdale

A book review by John F. Coverdale published in "Studia et documenta". Rivista dell’Istituto Storico San Josemaría Escrivá n. 1 (2007). Tags: October 2, 1928, Founding of Opus Dei, books, Opus Dei

A song of farewell

Pedro Casciaro

St Josemaria visited Mexico from May 15 to June 22, 1970. The day before he went back to Rome, he had a get-together with a group of young university students. One of them took up a guitar and told the Father he wanted him to listen to a song which is normally sung when people go to serenade the Virgin of Guadalupe at the Villa early in the mornings. Tags: Catechetical trips, Our Lady

The Communicator

Pilar Urbano

The following extracts are taken from El Hombre de Villa Tevere by Pilar Urbano, a book about the founder of Opus Dei. The author highlights St Josemaría’s capacity for getting through to everyone without distinction, making friends with them and putting them in direct contact with God. Tags: Friendship, Apostolate, cheerfulness

Archbishop Oscar Romero: Letter to the Pope on Escriva's death

Archbishop Oscar Romero, El Salvador

A letter written to the Pope by El Salvadorean Bishop Oscar Romero on July 12, 1975, requesting the opening of a cause for St Josemaria’s canonization. Bishop Romero was killed while celebrating Holy Mass in 1980. Tags: Canonization, Pope John Paul II, Holiness

London, August 1958: You can’t, but I can!

Andrés Vazquez de Prada

The founder of Opus Dei first visited London in 1958. He stayed from the beginning of August to the middle of September. He returned in each of the following years until 1962. In 1958, he arrived on August 4 and the following day wrote on the back of a holy picture, Sancta Maria, Sedes Sapientiae, filios tuos adiuva (Holy Mary, Seat of Wisdom, help your children); Oxford, Cambridge, 5-VIII-58. Tags: Apostolate, Rest, Faith