Homily on the Feast of Saint Josemaría, 2009

Bishop Javier Echevarria

St Josemaria was a man in love with God, who also passionately loved the world and the people of all times, and passed on that same passionate love to them in his turn. Turning to his intercession help us to respond generously and joyfully to the plan God has for each of us. Tags: Javier Echevarria, Pope, Priesthood

Bishop Javier Echevarría, Prelate of Opus Dei. Rome, June 26, 2008

Bishop Javier Echevarría

Dear brothers and sisters, All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Rom 8:14). This is the astounding truth which the second reading of today’s Mass recalls, in the words of St Paul to the Romans. It is an essential truth [...] Tags: Javier Echevarria

Tracing the history of the Church in the footsteps of St Josemaría

Places in Rome (1)

St Josemaria is a good guide to the many places in Rome that he himself visited to draw faith from the witness of the early Christians. The aim of the articles gathered under the heading Places in Rome is to reveal the main traces of the history of the Catholic Church that are to be found in Rome, the Eternal City. Tags: Church, Places in Rome, Pope

St Peter’s Basilica

Places in Rome (2)

“Peter is here.” On arriving in Rome for the first time, how the Founder of Opus Dei must have longed to go into St Peter’s Basilica to pray before the tomb of St Peter! He spent the whole of his first night in Rome praying on the balcony of the apartment where he was staying with other people of Opus Dei, in the Piazza della Città Leonina, with his eyes fixed on the lighted rooms of the Holy Father in the Vatican nearby. Tags: Church, Places in Rome, Pope, Early Christians

Msgr. Javier Echevarría in the Mass in suffrage for Mons. Álvaro Del Portillo. Rome, March17, 2008

Bishop Javier Echevarría

Dear brothers and sisters. Today we offer this Eucharistic Sacrifice for the soul of the Servant of God Mons. Álvaro del Portillo, Prelate of Opus Dei, on the fourteenth anniversary of his dies natalis. We do so with six days of anticipation because the 23 of [...] Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Generosity, Opus Dei prelate

St Peter’s Square

Places in Rome (3)

The majestic façade of St Peter’s Basilica was completed in 1614, when the thirteen statues of the risen Christ, St John the Baptist, and eleven Apostles were placed on the balustrade surmounting the edifice. Tags: Church, Places in Rome, Pope

The Pantheon and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

Places in Rome (4)

On entering the Piazza della Rotonda, the Pantheon looms unexpectedly before one’s eyes, looking as though its gray stone bulk has emerged unscathed from the depths of time. Tags: Church, Places in Rome, Our Lady

The Catacombs of St Callixtus

Places in Rome (5)

The Catacombs of St Callixtus are located just outside Rome on the Appian Way. This area began to be used for burials in the second century AD, and some of the local proprietors, who must have been Christians, allowed the bodies of their brethren in the faith to be buried there too. Tags: Early Christians

The Holy Cross in Jerusalem

Places in Rome (6)

In the basilica the precious fragments of the Holy Cross are displayed for the veneration of the faithful. It became the object of devotional visits by the Christian people. St Josemaría went to pray in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme on August 4, 1946. Tags: Cross, Places in Rome, Holy Week

The Roman Forum

Places in Rome (7)

Among the ruins of the Roman Forum it is easy to recall the phrase St Josemaría often used to sum up Opus Dei: “The easiest way to understand Opus Dei is to consider the life of the early Christians.” Tags: Passionately Loving the World, Citizenship, Places in Rome, Early Christians