He asked me to let him stay there alone for a little while

The Augustinian Father José Llamas Simón met Saint Josemaría in 1944, when the founder of Opus Dei was preaching a spiritual retreat to the Community of the Royal Monastery of Saint Lawrence in El Escorial, Madrid. In the testimony he wrote for the Cause of [...]
Tags: Eucharist, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Retreat

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Help me to keep him company!

Msgr. Pedro Casciaro first met Saint Josemaría in 1935, when he was studying architecture in Madrid. Right from the start, the Father, as people called him, opened up broad horizons of holiness and apostolate to him. In the following extract, he recalls one of the [...]
Tags: Eucharist, Presence of God

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St Josemaría’s own account of his sister’s death

After St Josemaría died, a sealed envelope was found among his papers. Written on it were the words, “Not to be opened until my death. Mariano, 2-VII-1957.” Inside were six handwritten sheets that read as follows: When Alvaro told me that the doctor gave my sister [...]
Tags: Eucharist, The Escriva family, Death

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He put all his love into saying Holy Mass

Msgr Javier Echevarría saw from close at hand, from 1953 onwards, how St Josemaría prepared to celebrate Mass, how he said it, how he did his thanksgiving afterwards, and how he prolonged it throughout the day. The following is an extract from Msgr Echevarría’s book [...]
Tags: Gratitude, Eucharist, Faith, Javier Echevarria, Prayer, Piety, Priesthood

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The Holy Mass was the center of Saint Josemaría’s day

Saint Josemaría often spoke of the Holy Mass as the “center and root of the interior life”. Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, the Founder’s first successor at the head of Opus Dei, spent nearly forty years with Saint Josemaría, and was an exceptional witness of how [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Eucharist, Piety, Plan of life, Priesthood

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Eucharist: Sanctity and Salvation

As regards personal sanctification, Saint Josemaría did not hesitate to state that the Eucharist is “the centre and root of the spiritual life”, as the Second Vatican Council would later repeat. In his lifetime, Saint Josemaría encouraged hundreds of thousands of men and women to [...]
Tags: Eucharist, Jesus Christ, Sacraments

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I shall never forget that Mass

During the Spanish Civil War, when Saint Josemaría could not minister as a priest and was in constant danger of death because of the violent religious persecution, he had no option but to escape from Spain over the Pyrenees and go through Andorra to re-enter [...]
Tags: Eucharist, Spanish Civil War, Piety

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Saint Josemaría’s love for the Eucharist

Saint Josemaría often talked about the need for Christian life to be essentially Eucharistic. He summed it up in a classic phrase: having a “Eucharistic soul”. He liked to make explicit acts of faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament: “I [...]
Tags: Love of God, Eucharist, Javier Echevarria, Piety, Priesthood

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His whole day was a Mass

Memories of the Servant of God Msgr. Garcia Lahiguera, Bishop of Valencia. He was a close friend of Saint Josemaría from 1932 onwards, and for some years was his confessor. His whole day was a Mass, an offering that he joined to the one he celebrated [...]
Tags: Eucharist, Faith, Piety

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Priestly Holiness and Ministry: Priests that Love the Mass

“A priest's worth can be measured by the way he lives his Mass.”--St Josemaria When I was a young man serving Mass at my local parish, I was struck by one particular priest who was resident in the parish. He was a veteran of the [...]
Tags: Eucharist, Priesthood, Sacraments