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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Friends for 43 years

Msgr Pedro Altabella first met St Josemaria in Saragossa, Spain, in the early 1920s. In the following article he recalls some aspects of the enduring friendship between them. “I would like to be able to evoke at least some facet of the rich, priestly character [...]
Tags: Friendship, Prayer, Priesthood

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In Love with the Church

The core of this book is three homilies on themes related to the Church, given in 1972-73, when the author suffered much over the confusion of the post-conciliar years. The title captures his attitude of filial love for the Spouse of Christ that permeates these [...]
Tags: Church, Priesthood, In Love with the Church

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The work that Escrivá did not want to found. The story of a priest who became a saint

It was October 6, 2002, and St Peter’s Square, which has seen so many crowds, had never seen one quite so vast. I have a privileged memory of it all, at least the visuals, because I was helping Giuseppe De Carli with the television transmission. [...]
Tags: Abandonment to God, Canonization, Pope John Paul II, Priesthood

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Speech given by John Paul II to the participants of the Workshop on the Apostolic Letter «Novo Millennio Ineunte»

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Welcome! I cordially greet each of you, priests and lay people, who have gathered in Rome to spend some days reflecting on the Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte and on the prospects that I outlined in it for the future of [...]
Tags: Apostolate, Pope John Paul II, Opus Dei prelate, Opus Dei prelature, Priesthood

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Priestly Fraternity in the Life of Josemaría Escrivá

Bishop Javier Echevarria, who worked with St Josemaria for many years and is now the prelate of Opus Dei, explains how St Josemaria saw the priesthood and taught others to see it – a life of unity and fraternity in close identification with Christ. Above [...]
Tags: Priesthood, Sacraments, Following Christ

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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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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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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

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Those Masses made me love the liturgy

José María Casciaro met Saint Josemaría in 1939. The next year he moved to Madrid to study, and lived in Jenner hall of residence, where Saint Josemaría was also living. He spent more than five years close to the Founder of Opus Dei. When I arrived [...]
Tags: Eucharist, Piety, Plan of life, Priesthood