Opus Dei and Motherhood...

A mother's letter to Holly Pierlot at A Mother's Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to your Home and Peace to your Soul

Dear Holly,

I want to suggest another book for your reading list:-). Scott Hahn writes about his experience and membership in Opus Dei in a new book called Ordinary Work Extraordinary Grace (I'd double check that title). His style is so wonderful, you can feel the beauty of Opus Dei and it's nice to be familiar with his voice because I can hear him telling his story--it really hits home. I tell you because the Mother's Rule of Life, for lack of a better way to put this) is sooooooo Opus Dei-again, I am struck by the confirmation I am finding! I believe you have a patron saint for your book! I, myself, am and have been for the past two years in the midst of a heavy battle with living through a rule, but time and time and time...:) again, it is confirmed for me that this is God's call to me. Even in one of the pamphlets from the Opus Dei priest, he talks about the Loaves and the Fish!!!

Scott also talks about how people balk at the Opus Dei "plan of life"--basically a prayer rule. But he then says his spiritual director helped him to implement each step little by little and he had extraordinary amounts of time to complete things, or experienced an unexpected relief from duties, or became far more productive in the same amount of time, all the while coming closer to God and improving his relationships with family and friends! The similarities are so striking. So, I am praying to St. Josemaria Escriva to help me and I know he will! Also Opus Dei priests are particularly called to helping the laity sanctify their daily work and they offer so much in the way of spiritual direction and formation. Perhaps this is the best place many of the moms who long for spiritual direction, as I do, can look for that long lost spiritual director!!!

Ex-member: why Opus Dei appeals to a regular Joe

By Pete Cook in Opus Dei blogs. Pete comments on the Da Vinci Code fad.

One of the very few positive results from [the Da Vinci Code] fad is the increased availability of accurate information in regards to Opus Dei. Not that Opus Dei has ever sought much press coverage. The pursuit of sanctity in ordinary life is tough to sell in a sound bite, though founder St. Josemaria’s quick points in his spiritual classic The Way might be the closest thing we’ve seen to “spiritual sound bites.” The trouble is, after reading them one has to take time and consider (in silence) the points made by the saint. Doing so takes discipline. Believe me, I have been trying to do so for 15 years and I have yet to pray well or consistently.

I’m not a member of Opus Dei (I was a celibate member for just under a year and a half in 1990 and 1991, but it was not my vocation). That being said, I still have great affection for Opus Dei, St. Josemaria, and his first successor, Bishop Alvaro del Portillo.

Let’s hope and pray that a handful of those 40+ million Da Vinci Code readers are intrigued enough to honestly look into Opus Dei and the Catholic Church. Being readers, hopefully they’ll pick up a high quality history of the Church, or maybe the Catholic Catechism. If interested in Opus Dei, let’s hope they grab a biography of St. Josemaria or Don Alvaro del Portillo. If they do, they’ll understand why men like John Paul II and our present Holy Father have such great affection for those two men of God, and for Opus Dei. Equally important, they’ll understand why Opus Dei appeals to a regular Joe like you or me.

Married and saintly

By Eric Sammons in Divine Life, Why We Were Created. Eric was an Evangelical Protestant who converted to Catholicism in 1993.

Vatican II emphasized the truth that all of us are called to be holy; it is not something reserved for priests and religious. Pope John Paul II realized that an effective way to demonstrate this reality is to canonize more lay Catholics. The percentage of lay Catholics who have been canonized throughout the centuries is quite small if you consider how much they make up the membership of the Church.

Married couples especially have not fared well; only two have been beatified: Ludovico and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi (2001), and the parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin (2008). As a Catholic, I know I am called to sainthood, and as a married man, I think it would be great to have more models of married couples to follow.

Well, just last month the cause for canonization was opened for another married couple, Paquita Dominguez and Tomas Alvira, a Spanish couple who were members of Opus Dei and had eight children (all of whom are still living). I pray that many more married couples are recognized for their saintly lives in the years to come.

All you holy men and women, pray for us!

Amazing serenity

By Jose Sison

Last Sunday, March 8, 2009, my family was at “Heaven’s Gate” to commemorate in advance the sixth death anniversary of our only daughter Joyce which falls today, March 10, 2009. “Heaven’s Gate” is the memorial park at the hills of Antipolo which is the gravesite of Joyce. Somehow the place seems so aptly named especially last Sunday when I felt we were at heaven’s gate meeting and greeting Joyce; and reminiscing and renewing those times when we were still together, particularly during the last moments before she entered it.

That sense of closeness to Joyce and memories of the times of our life together is stronger this year as we bade goodbye just ten days ago to one of her cousins, Menchu Sison who has also reached heaven’s gate at the end of her earthly sojourn last February 27, 2009. The windy hills of Antipolo last Sunday afternoon is so conducive to envisioning a scene where Joyce is welcoming Menchu at heaven’s gate with a big, warm hug.

This is a scene that looks so vivid and stirring because of the many parallelisms in the lives of these two young girls. Both of them served as numerary members of the Opus Dei. Menchu was one of Joyce’s cousins who became close to her and followed her at Opus Dei. The others are the ever smiling Tina and the jolly good girl Dottie who are both still serving God in this world as numerary members.

The most striking part in the life of Joyce and Menchu is how they lived it. Joyce herself best described it when she once wrote: “I have always been happy wherever I am and just lived what I have seen I have to do. I consider my life as simple, simplified even with my sickness, by the idea that all I have to do is to love; Simplify life, love! Manifest that love in whatever may be asked of you at each moment”.

Menchu, like Joyce also died after a lingering bout with the deadly cancer. They accepted their affliction and suffering with amazing grace and serenity. Even as they experience pain, they can still manage to smile as their thoughts remain centered on others. In fact during her last moments the words coming out of Menchu’s dying lips were “thank you, thank you” and “I am sorry, I am sorry”. Thus I was no longer surprised when I heard for the first time at the homily during Menchu’s funeral mass that when Joyce was already ill, Menchu even wrote a letter asking to take the place of Joyce in her sufferings. More than a proof of how close the cousins had become, they have shown us the reason for their serenity and calmness amidst pain and suffering — by always thinking of others and not of themselves.

And so as we commemorate the sixth death anniversary of our daughter Joyce, allow me to share with you some of her words when she was already stricken with cancer:

“When symptoms appear pointing to a possible grave illness, the first thing you have to do is undergo some tests until you get to know what you really have. This is the hardest part of the sickness, I’d say, because of the unknown factor. We are usually afraid of the unknown - What is this? How grave is it? Am I to live long or will I die soon? Can I take the pain – physical or moral - those I will and those my loved ones will feel? The sooner you get to know what you have, the better. You can only fight once you know who or what your enemy is. And I was going through this stage during the merry days of Christmas. Blessed Josemaria taught us to judge events with the eyes of eternity, with the logic of God. So I looked at the coincidence of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word with the incarnation of a tumor. And what do I arrive at? A greater devotion to Our Lady! I saw the succeeding events in her life as those which are to take place in mine – the joys and sorrows, anxieties and abandonment in her bearing a child have a great parallelism in my bearing a tumor…Our founder would also teach us to live in divine filiation, to consider frequently that we are children of God and have to behave as one at all moments. So, if I am with my loving Father God and He sends me this, what do I have to fear? Besides my Daddy wrote this note to me (Blessed Josemaria would tell us that we owe 90% of our vocation to our parents): He knows you, he loves you and he will give you only what is best for you.

Why do Catholics have to fast?

By Mike Aquilina

The question came from a non-Catholic Boy Scout in my son's troop. We had spent a long, soggy weekend in the middle of the woods. And now, Sunday morning, the adults announced that breakfast would be delayed so that the Catholics could keep the Communion fast. He was not a happy camper.

His question comes to mind again as Lent begin, because fasting is the most distinguishing practice of the season. On two days in Lent, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, Catholics limit their eating to one full, meatless meal. On all the Fridays of Lent we abstain from meat.

Why do Catholics fast? Our reasons find firm grounding in the Bible.

When we fast, we follow holy example. Moses and Elijah fasted forty days before going into God's presence (Exodus 34:28, 1 Kings 19:8). Anna the Prophetess fasted to prepare herself for the coming of the Messiah (Luke 2:37). They all wanted to see God, and they considered fasting a basic prerequisite. We, too, wish to enter God's presence, so we fast.

Jesus fasted (Matthew 4:2). And since He needed no purification, He surely did this only to set an example for us. In fact, He assumed that all Christians would follow His example. "When you fast," he said, "do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting" (Matthew 6:16). Note that He did not say "IF you fast," but "when."

And WHEN is now. In Lent the Church extends the idea of fasting, beyond the minimal skipping of meals, to a more far-reaching program of self-denial. Jesus said: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself ... daily" (Luke 9:23). So we "give up" something that we'd ordinarily enjoy: sweets, soda pop, a favorite TV show, or the snooze alarm.

Fasting has its health benefits, but it's not the same as dieting. Fasting is something spiritual and far more positive. Fasting is a spiritual feast. It does for the soul what food does for the body.

The Bible spells out specific spiritual benefits of fasting. It produces humility (Psalm 69:10). It shows our sorrow for our sins (1 Samuel 7:6). It clears a path to God (Daniel 9:3). It is a means of discerning God's will (Ezra 8:21) and a powerful method of prayer (8:23). It's a mark of true conversion (Joel 2:12).

Fasting helps us to be detached from the things of this world. We fast, not because earthly things are evil, but precisely because they're good. They're God's gifts to us. But they're so good that we sometimes prefer the gifts to the Giver. We practice self-indulgence rather than self-denial. We tend to eat and drink to the point where we forget God. Such indulgence is really a form of idolatry. It's what St. Paul meant when he said, "their god is the belly ... with minds set on earthly things" (Philippians 3:19).

How can we enjoy God's gifts without forgetting the Giver? Fasting is a good way to start. The body wants more than it needs, so we should give it less than it wants.

St. John of the Cross said that we cannot rise up to God if we are bound to the things of this world. So we give up good things, and gradually we grow less dependent on them, less needy.

All of this is part of our preparation for heaven. For we're destined to lose our earthly goods anyway. Time, age, illness and "doctor's orders" can take away our taste for chocolate, our ability to enjoy a cold beer, and even the intimate embrace of a loved one. If we have no discipline over our desires, then these losses will leave us bitter and estranged from God. But if we follow Jesus in self-denial, we'll find a more habitual consolation in the ultimate good -- God Himself.

How is it that some people are able to remain serene and cheerful amid extreme suffering and even when facing imminent death? It's not just a matter of temperament. They've prepared themselves for the moment by giving up the things of this world, one small thing at a time. They've grown so accustomed to small sacrifice that the big one isn't such a stretch.

No one says that fasting is easy. In fact, says Benedictine Father Thomas Acklin, author of The Passion of the Lamb: God's Love Poured Out in Jesus. "Fasting can seem very hard, and it can seem that if I do not eat I will become weak and will not be able to work, or pray, or do anything.

"Yet there is that marvelous moment," he adds, "when, after some hours have passed, my stomach has stopped growling and I've even forgotten what I've given up, when there is a lightness, a freedom, a clarity of the senses and a brightness of attitude and feeling, an incomparable closeness to the Lord."

Lent is a special season, but God wants these forty days to have a lasting effect on our lives. So, in a sense, fasting is for always. Father Rene Schatteman, an Opus Dei chaplain in Pittsburgh, says that he received this lesson directly from a canonized saint. "I learned from St. Josemaria Escriva, whom I had the privilege of knowing personally, that a person should make some small sacrifice at each meal, always, and not just during Lent."

Fr. Schatteman emphasizes the importance of little things, and the big effect they can have: "We should all feel the need to help Christ redeem the world by practicing self-denial in everyday, ordinary eating and drinking ... to take a bit less, or a bit less of what we like most, to avoid eating between meals, to skip a snack or dessert, etc., without making a big deal of it."

A Pittsburgh businessman (who asked for anonymity) told me of his longtime practice of fasting on Fridays, "a 12-15 hour fast from food, water-only." He said, however, that this can be difficult to carry out, not because of the hunger, but because it can disrupt family life. "It's very hard to sit at the family table and not eat. It's not so much a question of resisting the temptation of the food. I always felt like I was breaking fellowship. My fasting actually felt selfish, like I was taking something away from our time together as a family."

He has since modified his fast, "to be broken at the family dinner in the evening."

Why do Catholics fast? Our anonymous businessman put it well: "It's medicine for my biggest problem -- selfishness and lack of self-control. To force myself to curb my appetites, to not satisfy my desires -- even for a short period of time -- this is a good thing. To offer up the little sacrifice to God, for my family, for people who are hungry through no choice of their own, this I think is also good."

Church Sees Africa as More Than Photo-Op

ROME, FEB. 27, 2009 (Zenit.org)

Some people might give money or support to Africa because it could be considered fashionable, but the Church's role on the continent is that of being an anchor of salvation, says a Vatican aide.

Monsignor Fortunatus Nwachukwu, an official at the Vatican Secretariat of State, spoke this week about the Church's role in Africa at a conference organized in Rome by Harambee Africa International.

"The Catholic Church constitutes a reference point for the continent of Africa" the monsignor said. "Africa is being spoken about more and more, even becoming a fashionable topic. Lots of public personalities are used to traveling to be photographed with African children, but more to highlight their own public image than to contribute really to the solutions of problems that afflict the infants of Africa."

The Vatican aide said that what Africa needs above all is "to be loved." He urged eliminating negative stereotypes and said that the temptation to inertia should be offset with initiatives like those of the Church, "which has gathered and developed so many signs of hope launched in this continent."

"The Church is especially present in the Sub-Saharan zone and is called to favor reconciliation, justice and peace," he continued, citing the priorities for the October synod on Africa.

"These are the lines of action that will permit us to put an end to the conflicts, stemming from selfishness, that often provoke true fratricide," Monsignor Nwachukwu affirmed. "The politics and the military in Africa have failed because they have shown exclusive attention to the personal interests and the tribes. While, on the contrary, Catholic missionaries have not been mistaken: They have brought hospitals, education and food. Many also have sacrificed their own lives to bring the light of the world."

The Harambee association was founded in 2002, on the occasion of the canonization of Father Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, founder of Opus Dei, to promote educational initiatives regarding Africa.