It feels like opening a window in a stuffy room

By Mrs Pogle in Mrs Pogle's World

I thought it was about time I posted something personal about myself! I enjoy writing entries about Scripture, theology etc., but it doesn’t give very much away about myself, and what God is doing personally in my life at present. So, by having a chat over coffee with you, I also hope to give myself an opportunity to reflect on where I’m at, with life, with family, with God!

Things are undoubtedly busy right now, as I share a house with my daughter and grandson (now 15 weeks old, can you believe! He’s now rolling over onto his front and then carries on rolling onto his back again! I imagine he’ll be crawling soon :? ) I’m busy with work, with family, grandchildren especially, and trying to ensure that God is always my foundation, the ground beneath my feet!

On that subject, things have meandered slightly recently and I have become sloppy in my devotions :( This seems to happen periodically, I let things slide and find I am missing out my prayers, my quiet time…and then wondering why my attitude deteriorates accordingly. Usually (but not always) it takes a smack on the cheek from reality to steer me back onto the right path, but this time it has just been a growing awareness that my life is not quite right somehow. Funnily enough, it was missing a train home with my husband last week after going to a concert in Manchester which drew me up short! We ended up stuck on Piccadilly Station until 5am in the morning, trying but failing miserably to get some sleep! My attitude was awful, not to mention my language, and I didn’t deal with the crisis in the manner befitting a Christian! It was like God holding a mirror up to me and I saw myself as this not-very-pleasant person :oops:

Much of it comes down to discipline ~ I am a very free-spirited flibberty-jibberty sort of person at heart, and I have realised over the years that I need to incorporate a strong discipline into my spiritual life, or otherwise I end up with this airy-fairy candy-floss-like imitation of faith. After doing a lot of thinking and praying, I have re-committed myself to God’s path for my life, starting off by praying the Penitential Psalms last night. Although not a member of Opus Dei, I have re-acquainted myself with the writings of St. Josemaria, and incorporated some of the Opus Dei way of life into my daily routine. It feels like opening a window in a stuffy room, and once more I can feel the joy creeping back into my lethargy!

I recognise that I am very much like a butterfly by nature ~ liable to flit from one flower to another but not staying around long enough for real sustenance. Like the life-span of the butterfly, my intentions can be very short-lived! My aim is to be more like the flower…rooted and grounded in God, constant, growing, stable. Even when it appears dead, and the seeds fall to the ground, the flower lives on, as God resurrects it again and again. I guess the spiritual life, after all, is a constant dying to self and being resurrected in Christ. And as an Oblate, the Benedictine vows of obedience, stability and on-going conversion of life are an important part of maintaining a sense of spiritual grounding for me…

So, that’s where I’m at right now ~ learning (hopefully) from my mistakes, and waiting to bloom again! Thanks for sharing a chat over coffee with me today!

British sixth-formers spend vacation helping earthquake survivors

By ICN

A dozen sixth-formers who attend an Opus Dei club in West London have spent over a week helping out in a social service project in the Abruzzo, the earthquake-torn region in central Italy.

The worst affected city in last April’s earthquake was L’Aquila, where the majority of the 300 victims died. The centre of town was wrecked and to this day it is still sealed off to cars and pedestrians, with only accredited building contractors being able to get in for demolition work. A single street and main square are open but walking around them is like visiting a ghost-town. The residents of L’Aquila who did not go to live with relatives elsewhere were relocated to tents at different points of the outskirts of the town, set up by the local authorities. Similar tents have been set up in all the villages and towns within a 50 mile radius of L’Aquila. Tens of thousands of people were made homeless, so whole families including babies and older people have had to move into tents, and are only slowly being relocated back to ordinary houses.

As part of the reconstruction process, the ELIS Foundation in Rome made an agreement with the authorities to run a summer school in the villages around L’Aquila between mid-June and mid-September for the local children aged 6 to 13 whose schools were closed last April. The villages include Fontecchio, San Felice d’Ocre, Succiano, Barisciano, Villa S. Angelo and San Demetrio ne’ Vestini. ELIS is a Technical College running vocational courses in computing, machine maintenance and sport. It was set up by members of Opus Dei and opened by Pope Paul VI in 1967.

Westpark Study Centre, an Opus Dei club in West London, got in contact with ELIS about the idea of helping out in the summer school. In the end, 12 volunteers set off from London on 19 July to work in the villages of Succiano and San Felice d’Ocre. After a day in Rome, they spent the rest of the time working with the local children, running sports, crafts and other activities. Volunteers included sixth formers from Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, St Benedict’s and the London Oratory School.

Jack Valero, who led the group to Italy, commented: “It is always very sad to see images of devastation on TV when watching the news of an earthquake; but coming here it becomes clearer how such events affect real people whose real lives have been wrecked by loss of relatives or the loss of their possessions. It has been a great experience to be able to share some of our energy and enthusiasm with those affected by the disaster, and to give them our friendship.”

BBC: Opus Dei: Separating fact from fiction

By Christopher Landau in BBC News Special Report
BBC Religious Affairs Correspondent


If ever a religious movement has been defined in the public imagination by its depiction in a novel, it is the Catholic group Opus Dei.

Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code portrayed a mysterious, cult-like organisation, shrouded from the wider world.

Opus Dei insists the reality is very different and I was given a rare chance to see the wide variety of initiatives they undertake in Rome.

Some aspects, if not mysterious, are certainly intriguing. The group’s large seminary where priests are trained in central Rome is unidentifiable from the outside.

One small doorway in a high wall is apparently the only entrance, even though the community is home to more than 100 men.

Conspiracy theorists might start to raise their eyebrows but inside, I found a uniformly warm welcome from students insistent that there was nothing odd about being trained by Opus Dei.

Singing their evening prayers in a chapel built long before Opus Dei took over the ancient building, the seminarians are drawn from countries around the world.

They speak of the honour of being sent to Rome to be trained by the group, and clearly have high regard for what they refer to as the “holiness” of the priests they learn from.

However, it is ordinary Catholic lay people, rather than priests, who have dominated the membership of Opus Dei, ever since it was founded in 1928 by the Spanish priest Josemaria Escriva, who was later made a saint.

People like Marta Brancatisano, who is not a mysterious, shadowy religious figure, but a middle-aged mother and lecturer at Opus Dei’s university in Rome.

Marta teaches about family life, and the Catholic values that should underpin it, at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

The name itself is significant. To be honoured by the Vatican as a pontifical university shows that Opus Dei is regarded by the Church as part of Rome’s intellectual Catholic establishment.

I met Marta just after she had finished a lecture, which included comments about the dangers of social networking sites undermining traditional family values.

She could hardly be more effusive in her praise for Opus Dei, regarding it as a way to see beyond the troubles of everyday life. “This is freedom, this is joy. If it is real, this is paradise on Earth," she said.

Most members of Opus Dei are married. But single members, called “numeraries” by the movement, are also asked to undertake a spiritual discipline known as corporal mortification.

It involves self-inflicting pain in order to focus on Christ’s suffering on the Cross, something also practised by some other Catholics.

Healthcare innovation

Opus Dei is also concerned with the relief of suffering, and its innovation in healthcare is perhaps the most remarkable and unexpected aspect of the group’s work.

On a large site on the outskirts of the city, a massive hospital and biomedical research centre is Opus Dei's latest initiative.

Members of the public are treated free of charge and research laboratories work to find medical treatments that conform to Catholic values.

Rome is also the headquarters for the group’s new overseas development charity, Harambee, providing microfinance to African communities.

One man who is candid about opposition within the wider church to Opus Dei’s work is Sean Patrick Lovett, a senior official at Vatican Radio.

“There’s jealousy, there’s envy, there’s confusion, and I think they’re working very hard to clarify that and help people to understand who they are, what they do and why they do it.”

It may have become famous through the thrilling fiction of Dan Brown but the reality of Opus Dei is certainly less dramatic, perhaps even a bit more mundane.

The movement now plans international expansion, into new countries like Indonesia, where it does not yet have a presence.

Sanctification through tensions in our relationships

by Katerina Ivanovna in Evangelical Catholicism, "a blog whose content is at once unabashedly Catholic and informed by faith as it is genuinely lived in the pastoral, spiritual, and social spheres."

Recently, my husband and I were discussing the Gospel about Jesus coming to cause division. Then we talked about tensions we sometime experience in our relationships–when our personalities clash with those of others–and he brought to my attention to the following by St. Josemaría Escrivá:

You clash with the character of one person or another… It has to be that way–you are not a dollar bill to be liked by everyone. Besides, without those clashes which arise in dealing with your neighbors, how could you ever lose the sharp corners, the edges–imperfections and defects in your character–and acquire the order, the smoothness and the firm mildness of charity, of perfection?

If your character and that of those around you were soft and sweet like marshmallows, you would never become a saint.”

(The Way, 20)

Let us imagine for a second that our relationships were all perfect; that none of them posed a challenge to us whatsoever. Wouldn’t that be boring? Perhaps so. We would not learn much about ourselves or from our neighbors. We would not be accountable for our actions and how they affect those around us. Sometimes those little bumps in our relationships are needed as means of sanctification–as means to purify our words and behavior. It is during these tense times that we are humbled and we recognize our faults and shortcomings, because of how they affect the other. Thus, I do agree with St. Josemaría that it is in this clash of characters that we are sanctified, because we are shown who we truly are. These instances force us to either be honest with ourselves—to be humble—or to walk away from these relationships, because they are “too much work.” No wonder we see so many divorces today—in our society today we lack so much the disposition to be humble.

A lot of people say that you can never change your friends, significant other, or spouse. There is a lot of truth to that statement, especially if one refers to that person’s habits or tastes. However, I think of my mom and dad and how throughout the years their relationship has improved more and more. My dad still has the same habits as well as my mom and their tastes have not changed too much, but their mutual love has made them more patient towards the other in order for their relationship to work.

I also think of my husband and I when we started dating. We both had been single for so long before we met that it was somewhat hard to shift our lives into a “giving mode.” We clashed a few times, because different than before, now we were sharing a life with someone else and we had to be cognizant of that in every single one of our actions. The shift was not too hard, because our mutual love prompted us to be aware of how our words and actions affected the other and soon there was a seamless transition into a relationship that was centered into the gift of oneself to the other—soon he was eating Venezuelan foods or listening to my favorite bands, something he would have never done before and I found myself watching NFL games or reading the same books he enjoyed, which I never thought of doing ever before. Of course, we are not perfect at doing this, but every time we have “little tensions” we try to make them out as opportunities for sanctifying the other—make it a positive experience—rather than being resentful for days!

20 Ways for Young Men to Become REAL Men

These 20 suggestions were written by the Christian Life Men’s Group of Dayton, Ohio. Originally published in One More Soul.



“There is need for a crusade of manliness and purity to counteract and nullify the savage work of those who think man is a beast. And that crusade is your work” – St. Josemaría Escrivá

1. Tell cool, funny jokes, not the kind that would make a pure woman blush—or be offended!

Find saints that you relate to and ask them to pray for you as you imitate their virtues. Some awesome real men include St. Joseph, St. Augustine, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, and St. Josemaría Escrivá.

3. Keep your standards high; only date women who have the qualities you want in a future wife and mother of your children. Pray for your bride, that she will have the love and strength to save the gift of sexual intimacy for you, and pray that you’ll have that strength, too!

4. Read the Bible—be open to God’s Word. Let it convict you to courageously do the hard and holy things.

5. Respect women, even those who don’t respect themselves and may throw themselves at you. Don’t take advantage of them but help them to know their true worth. These women have a hole in their heart that they are looking to fill—point them to the only One who can fill it, Jesus Christ.

6. Be a man of integrity. Do everything as if someone were watching, because God is watching. Prepare now to someday lead a family. Work hard to prepare yourself to provide for and protect them, not only financially and physically, but also spiritually, morally, and emotionally.

7. Be both strong and gentle. St. Francis de Sales said that “there is nothing so strong as gentleness and nothing so gentle as real strength.” And wrap your brain around this quote by contemporary Catholic psychotherapist Philip Mango: “What’s a real man? He’s not a bully or a wimp. He transcends his own ego, his own fears, his own selfishness, and sacrifices himself as a gift to those he’s called to protect.”

8. Say a prayer when you see a woman dressed immodestly (for the sake of the woman). Pope John Paul II said, “[God] has assigned as a duty to every man the dignity of every woman.”

9. Say a prayer when you see a woman dressed immodestly (for your purity’s sake). Use this moment, when Satan wants to pull you away from Jesus, to draw closer than ever to God.

10. Honor your mom and sisters. A smart woman knows that the way you treat your mother is the way you will someday treat her.

11. Find creative ways to express your (pure & chaste) feelings to the woman you like or are dating. Show her that you can love her without using her and that she is beautiful both inside and out.

12. Find good male role models to emulate; get relationship advice from Godly men.

13. Be open to the priesthood.

14. Show gentlemanly respect to all women, not just the woman you’re dating. What does it mean if you hold the door for your girlfriend but let it close in the face of the woman walking in right behind her?

15. Trust in God’s mercy. When you fall, go to confession. Receive strength from Christ truly present in the Eucharist. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati said, “With all the strength of my soul I urge you young people to approach the Communion table as often as you can. Feed on this bread of angels whence you will draw all the energy you need to fight inner battles. Because true happiness, dear friends, does not consist in the pleasures of the world or in earthly things, but in peace of conscience, which we have only if we are pure in heart and mind.”

16. Don’t settle for counterfeits such as pornography or masturbation (in fact, avoid them like the plagues they are) if you want to someday enjoy the utterly amazing gift of sex as God intended.

17. Guard your senses from temptation, and be always ready to choose God’s way, no matter what the cost. The mind is a dangerous battlefield, so “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil. 4:8).

18. Recognize Mary as your Mother and say a prayer to consecrate your heart to her. Her prayers for you will be very powerful in helping you draw near to her Son.

19. Lay down your life in the little things; practice making small sacrifices by putting someone else’s wants or needs before your own.

20. Make Jesus Christ your best friend and greatest role model. J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter to his son, wrote, “Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament…There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth…which every man’s heart desires.”

God's Work

A book review in Hey! Randy

Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church, John Allen, Doubleday, 2005, 403p.

There is no more controversial force in the Roman Catholic Church than Opus Dei. Founded by Spanish priest Josemaria Escriva in the late 1920’s, the organization has spread throughout the Roman Catholic Church. There is even an Opus Dei branch in Japan.

The organization is vilified by its detractors, praised by its supporters and misunderstood by everyone else. Allen, a staunch Catholic but not a member of Opus Dei, tries to give a reasonable picture of the organization. I think that he does a fairly good job. He has engendered in me a kind of sympathy for the organization.

Allen spends a lot of time dealing with members and former members of the group. It is always easy to find horror stories, and he does give some of those, but Allen goes beyond the superficial anecdotes to deal with the core principles of Opus Dei.

Those principles are not the least controversial. The principles are nothing the typical Catholic priest or layperson would not recognize and agree with. So why the controversy? The cause is misunderstanding, ignorance, and some errors on the part of some members of Opus Dei.

The core principle of Opus Dei is “secularity”. This is the idea that one is a Catholic in all areas of life. One is to work in one’s profession with all one’s diligence. One is to strive for excellence. This not controversial, even non-Catholics can see the merit in this.

How then does this give rise to the strong feelings, the antipathy, against Opus Dei? The charge of being a cult is usually the first one leveled at the organization. It is not, but some of its practices for it upper lever members do cause some to question what is going on. The members who live in Opus Dei residences are the major case in point. The people, called numeraries, are required to live in celibacy and perform certain spiritual practices, disciplines. In Catholic practice this is not unusual. Many of the religious orders were founded on similar principles. The numeraries are merely following a well attested path.

The two most controversial of the required disciplines of the numeraries are the using of a small rope whip and the wearing of he cilice. The whip is used while reciting a Hail Mary or Our Father prayer. It is more of a reminder, a token really, of what Christ suffered rather than a serious flailing. No bodily injury is expected, but a mortification. It is an attempt to suppress sin.

The cilice is also not controversial in Catholic practice. The cilice is a barbed chain worn on the thigh for two hours a day. The barbs poke you to remind you of the suffering of Christ. Opus Dei buys the cilices from a group of Catholic nuns that are not related to Opus Dei. The cilice Opus Dei buys is the one with only one row of barbs, not the two or three row models the nuns also sell.

Opus Dei does have legitimate status within the Catholic church. It members include several bishops, two cardinals, and over a thousand priests. The Pope granted the organization the status of Personal Prelature, the only one in the church.

Opus Dei members do not withdraw from the local diocese, rather they are still under the authority of the local bishop. So are all the priests associated with Opus Dei.

Most members of Opus Dei are not numeraries. The vast majority of members are supernumeraries. These are Catholics who do not live in Opus Dei residences, but live on their own. Often married, they practice the idea of secularity in their lives, trying to live out church teachings.

This is what Opus Dei says it is about. The organization does not tell its members what to do, other than to obey official church teaching, or how to do it. Rather, it insists that its members find their own way in life and apply their religion as they best think they can. In matters of ethics and doctrine the organization stands ready to assist.

Allen gives a detailed analysis of the organizations financial status. The myth says that the group is wealthy, but the reality is that the U.S. branch is doing OK, but the UK branch is deeply in debt.

This financial analysis also indicates that the organizations reputation for secrecy is overblown. Allen said that he had no trouble in getting the information for which he asked. Organization officials were willing to talk to him on the record about all aspects of the organization and its activities.

Allen did not join the organization, but he does give the impression of respecting it. If Allen tries to follow Escriva’s teaching of secularity, Allen’s Jewish wife may respect it as well.

Experiences with Legion of Christ and Opus Dei

By TricksterB in the Phatmass Phorum, Home of the Vatican Stairs Fan Club.


I would like to tell you about my experience with the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi. It is long, but, humbly, I think it is worth reading.

I joined Regnum Christi in 1999 shortly after my older brother entered the Legion to study for the priesthood. I can honestly say that I didn't know much about the Legion or Regnum Christi at the time, but with prayer (NOT pressure), I knew it was the right thing to do. Since that time, I have always had a Legionary spiritual director, and I have always loved them. Even though I went to a Catholic school, I can attribute the fact that I learned the truth of my faith from the Legionaries. Unfortunately, I know many people who went to my highschool who have since fallen away from the church, and I don't see any reason why the same thing would not have happened to me but that the Legion was present in my life. Through good and bad, they have been there for me, always compassionate, understanding and charitable but never afraid to point me toward the straight and narrow.

During my sophomore year of college at the United States Military Academy, I decided to leave for a year to be a coworker. I wanted to give a year of my life to Christ and only him. Embarking on this journey, I quickly learned that if one gives God an inch, He will ask for a mile. Also, I realized that my plans, which seemed so perfect, are not necessarily God's plans. Within weeks of leaving West Point, I heard, very literally, loud and clear, God calling me to join the Legion. Much to my dismay because I did not want to be a priest, I went to the candidacy program two weeks later. After two months in the candidacy (also known as postulancy as noted by some others in this forum), I received my cassock and entered the novitiate.

There seems to be some concern about this short period of candidacy, but there should not be. It is a discernment program after which no one is ordained and no vows are professed. Also, please be careful with the use of the word "licit". This candidacy, short as it may be, is not illicit by any means. The Legion of Christ is a fully approved congregation of priests within the Church, so this short period of candidacy has the Church's blessing and seal of approval. After the candidacy, the candidates who are accepted simply enter the novitiate which lasts for a period of two years. The novitiate period is spent acquiring habits of prayer and the spiritual life, general habits of religious life, and more specific habits of Legionary religious life. It is also worth noting that the two years of novitiate in the Legion is longer than in most other congregations. Therefore, this extended period before the first profession should more than make up for the short candidacy program.

After 18 months in the novitiate, through much prayer and with the help of my superiors and spiritual director, I discerned that God is not calling me to be a priest. There are several reasons that I came to this conclusion, after which received full support from everyone who knew about my situation. Additionally, as soon as I returned home (9 months ago) I was welcomed by the Legionaries who live and work near my home. I was given a new spiritual director, and we speak regularly. I also have a girlfriend and am in college. I am a normal young man. I have not been brainwashed or desocialized, and I have never been pressured into anything.

I have also had some experience with Opus Dei, and I love them. The priests of this prelature are holy men who love the Church and Christ. The lay members are also very zealous for their faith. I have also heard only good things from Legionaries about Opus Dei. In fact, I know that the founder of the Legion, Fr Maciel, received much help from St Josemaria Escriva during the foundation. There is no enmity between these two groups. They are simply two separate organizations in the Church striving to build Christ's kingdom on Earth.

If you have read this far, God bless you. I want to make one final remark: I am eterally grateful and indebted to the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi for the man I am today. Without them, I would be lost. Through them I have established a deep, personal, passionate love for Christ and the Church. I only ask one thing: out of charity, if you do not have personal experience with the Legion or Regnum Christi, please keep what you have heard to yourself to prevent false stereotypes. "Repeat all the good that you hear and only the evil that you see with your own eyes."

Response to this post by Morostheos: I was also a coworker in Regnum Christi and have never heard anything but positive things about the relationship between the Legion of Christ and Opus Dei. Actually, I was told that in Chicago, the leaders of Opus Dei there were instructed to do all they could to help the Legion and Regnum Christi get started there, and it has been my experience that they have done so. The missions of The Legion/Regnum Christi and Opus Dei are very similar, so it makes sense that in charity they would help each other out.

Italian students to spend vacation helping earthquake survivors

Around one hundred university students from all over Italy will come together for a week in Abruzzo, Italy, to study economic ethics and work as volunteers in the tent camps set up for those who have lost their homes in the earthquake.

The event is part of the 51st Summer School “College of Humanities and Science” (CHUMS), promoted by the Rui Foundation, July 23-31. The opening ceremony will take place Saturday, 25 July in L'Aquila, as 10am, at the Aula Magna of the Reiss Romoli Higher Learning Centre. The Summer School will officially be inaugurated by Guido Bertolaso, Undersecretary of the President of the Council, Extraordinary Commissioner for the Abruzzo Emergency.

The participants are university students from all over Italy, especially Sicily, Calabria, Lazio, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Veneto, and Abruzzo. Many of them attend the cultural centers and universities with spiritual activities linked to the Prelature of Opus Dei. The students have chosen Abruzzo as the destination of their annual gathering, to be near their companions and share in the difficulties that have come as a result of the earthquake, taking advantage of the summer time to study and reflect on current affairs, uniting it to concrete support of the people struck by the quake.

The program for the Summer School calls for morning seminars and group workshops, and in the afternoon, volunteer activities for the elderly and young children, with catch-up programs for the children who have not returned to school since April 6. The university students will especially dedicate time to the elderly of the RSA in Fontecchio (a residence for 110 people with various illnesses, in a difficult situation of solitude worsened by health problems) and children from San Felice D'Ocre, with a school recuperation program.

Source

The secular fundamentalists don't want any Christianity in Parliament

By Tim Montgomerie at Centre Right

David Kerr is the SNP candidate for the forthcoming Glasgow NE by-election (caused by the Speaker's resignation). Until recently at the BBC, David Kerr has come under some fire for being a member of Opus Dei, the controversial Catholic group that famously includes Labour's Ruth Kelly.

The National Secular Society has led the charge:

"The concern for voters would be that such a person would have their allegiance to the Church and not to the SNP. It is one thing to bring your religious beliefs to politics, but it is another to bring the dogmas of a right-wing Catholic organisation. That would be the worry for voters."

The NSS are making a fake distinction between Opus Dei and all Christianity. The NSS' true agenda is pretty transparent.

I am not a member of Opus Dei. I am not even a Catholic. But I am an Anglican and I worry that the attacks on Opus Dei and David Kerr are the latest stage in a secular fundamentalism that is trying to push people of faith outside the public square. The Buttiglione affair - with illiberal Liberal Democrats leading the Inquisition (and, sadly, Matthew Parris) - has been the most prominent episode in this new manifestation of intolerance.

The Da Vinci Code book and films have made Opus Dei out to be some extreme organisation. Although Opus Dei is somewhat unusual the Hollywood treatment is very unfair. Tories should certainly know that the liberal media isn't the kindest to people of conservative disposition. Opus Dei does not have its own belief system. It has exactly the same beliefs as the wider Catholic Church. An attack on Opus Dei is therefore the beginnings of an attack on Catholicism generally. Opus Dei merely upholds and practices of an orthodox Christianity and in that way is similar to Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists and Pentecostals. It is no more 'hardline' on moral issues than the Evangelical Alliance or the Conservative Christian Fellowship or the Black Majority Churches on issues of when life starts and ends and on marriage, for example.

It is of course perfectly acceptable for a voter to decide to withhold their vote from David Kerr because of his views on abortion. That's democracy. But I would counter that a new intolerance of Christianity would be very bad for politics as whole. One of the characteristics of Christianity in Britain (compared, say, with the USA) is its breadth. Christians in the UK have a healthy range of interests including a concern for the poorest people at home and abroad.

I was recently at a CCF party to celebrate Guy Hordern's 70th birthday party. Few Conservatives have done more to link the party leadership (in his home city of Birmingham and in the wider nation) with innovative poverty-fighting groups and charity sector thinkers. Philippa Stroud, our candidate in Sutton and Cheam, is (with IDS) the hero of the Centre for Social Justice. Both Guy and Philippa are churchgoers. Our country's history of social reform has had Christians at its heart (Wilberforce and Shaftesbury).

My own hunch is that the intolerance of Christianity is largely an elite class thing. Most Britons - even if they don't go to church - still have a deep affection for the Christian faith and Jesus' teachings. That's why so many send their children to faith schools and even more will do so once Michael Gove has enacted his supply side revolution.

David Kerr deserves to be judged on his merits as a candidate. I am fortunate to count him as a friend. If elected I know he'd be an excellent MP who would tirelessly work hard for all his constituents (of every faith and none). People like David would enrich Parliament. It's just a terrible shame he's in the SNP and that (in case there is any doubt) is why I'd vote Conservative and Unionist if I lived in the constituency.

Lay apostolate in action

By Fr. Tim Finnigan at The hermenuetic of continuity

Via a note from Damian Thompson on Twitter, I found Ed West's excellent post about the National Secular Society: The National Secular Society aren't secular - they're atheist bigots.

This was prompted by the NSS reaction to the Scottish Nationalist Party candidate for Glasgow North East who is associated with Opus Dei. They apparently think that this disqualifies him for office. Looking up the story, I am delighted to find that the candidate in question is David Kerr. David has worked for the BBC for many years and wrote a powerful critique of the Panorama programme "Sex and the Holy City", showing its inaccuracies and bias. This research was used by Robin Aitken in his book "Can we Trust the BBC?"

The National Secular Society needs to be worried. In addition to his association with Opus Dei, David has also been a regular at events run by the Faith Movement. He is more than able to answer the expostulations of those secularists who imagine that science has disproved the existence of God.

A Catholic man involved in his trade union, working in the media, and getting actively involved in politics: David offers a fine example of the lay apostolate in action. As Pope Benedict has pointed out in Caritas in Veritate, the Church has a right to a voice in the public square. It is good to hear that someone like David Kerr is there at the coal face.

In the Name of God and of Profit

Book review by Tiziano Buzzacchera in The University Bookman of the Russel Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal. Tiziano is a student of political science and diplomacy.

Cattolicesimo, protestantesimo e capitalismo
by Paolo Zanotto.
Facco-Rubbettino (Italy), 286 pp., 2005.


According to the well-known weberian theory, capitalism is a product of the Protestant Reform or, rather, of Protestant faith, particularly of the Calvinist doctrine. However, this argument has proved to be inconsistent with the facts. Indeed, it was the Catholic Middle Ages and their political and judicial pluralism that gave rise to what we understand as a free market economy. Furthermore, the discipline of economics experienced great development thanks to the contribution of the neoscholastic theologians of the School of Salamanca, such as Juan de Mariana, and of several Franciscan Friars, among the most prominent of which are Pierre de Jean Olivi and Bernardino degli Albizzeschi. These thinkers supported a free market for goods and services and anticipated significant concepts of modern economics, for example subjectivism and the theory of marginal utility.

All of this is explained well and deeply by Paolo Zanotto, in his Cattolicesimo, protestantesimo e capitalismo. However, the core of this volume consists of the comparison between the Catholic approach (illustrated through the teachings of St. Josemarìa Escrivà de Balaguer) and the Protestant one toward the free market economy.

Of course, it is true that, in some sectors of the Catholic Church, there is an anti-capitalist attitude. Nevertheless, the sanctification of work, as proposed by Escrivà and that Zanotto praises, is a refined attempt to rejoin the spirit of capitalism and the Catholic ethics. According to Pope John Paul II, “Jesus Christ requests everyone to consecrate himself in everyday life; as a result, work is also an instrument for personal sanctification and apostolate if it is offered to Jesus Christ.” On the subject, Zanotto specifies that the doctrine of Escrivà is not a secularization and a deconsecration of the Catholic spirituality, but rather a tool to assure lay people of a way to holiness, in an age in which the looming risk is to separate once and for all the spiritual side and the material side of life.

It seems that God wants man to work also in order to consecrate his very creation and life.

Work, in the opinion of St. Escrivà, is not subordinate to prayer; this latter throws itself into work which is, as St. Bernard stated, vita activa civilis, that is, the daily exercise of “natural and supernatural virtues inclined to the creation of genuine, justifiable and fruitful wealth which is definitely not in contrast with the longing for perfection and the chances of sanctification of a Christian.” It seems that God wants man to work also in order to consecrate his very creation and life. The Bible supports the idea that God created man so that this latter could work. For example, in the New Testament, Jesus is the son of a workman and a workman Himself who praises the loyal and hard-working servant. And St. Paul reminds that he worked with his own hands and stimulates his conversation partners to do the same thing.

Through the sanctification of work, St. Escrivà believed members of society could accomplish the development of a sort of “Christian materialism,” where the secular level reaches the nobleness of the spiritual level. This is possible if man becomes a contemplative soul, that is, a man that is “in the world” but, at the same time, is not worldly. This happens when an individual works hard at his or her chosen tasks with technical and professional competence.

Within this perspective, St. Escrivà did not portray man as a homo oeconomicus, as classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo erroneously did. Instead he focused on the whole acting person, therefore coming close to the reflections of the Austrian School of Economics, which concentrates on the homo agens, a rational man who chooses means to achieve certain ends.

In contrast, in the Protestant ethics, work is esteemed but not as a tool through which man can do God’s work; rather, it is often conceived of as a trial that only serves to confirm individual predestination. According to Zanotto, the real inspiration for understanding homo economicus through a utilitarian lens was Calvin, who first interpreted the “capitalist” not as a man who tries to get means in order to satisfy his needs and wishes, but as someone who sees profit as an end in itself. Indeed, Zanotto argues that utilitarianism is closely related to the idea of predestination. In fact, for Zanotto it is not strange that the utilitarian point of view arose in those countries in which Calvinism was deep-rooted: the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Scotland and the United States. Especially in the Calvinist understanding, man is an unconscious protagonist of a preordained plot. As Zanotto says, “the one thing that man can know is whether or not his personal performance will come to a good end. In order to check his possessio salutis, he only needs to dare: facts, then, will give their response.” However, this reliance on worldly success as an indicator of spiritual vigour conflicts with the principle that “no one can serve two masters.” Under traditional Catholic and much other Christian thinking on economics, however, doing things well, in other words service, is more important than success.

But Zanotto doesn’t restrict his sociological research to the existing connections between the free market economy and Christianity. The last part of the book is extremely interesting since it examines the usury prohibition within Christendom. In the Middle Ages, in a subsistence economy there was no room for lending money on interest in the modern sense of the term, because loans were only aimed at balancing family accounts in states of emergency. So, “it was extremely easy for a money lender to benefit from these straitened circumstances in which applicants used to find themselves.” Therefore, the Church intervened in order to protect the needy, lending, for example, money without interest. The promise of “supporting the have-nots” was likely the reason why the Church took some measures restricting and prohibiting usury. But this usury prohibition, according to Zanotto, did not hamper capitalism from flourishing; furthermore, it is noteworthy that, although Catholic thinkers rejected earnings coming from usury, they thought that profits on capital were absolutely legitimate. There was only one restraint: the capitalist had to “take upon himself the responsibility both of profits and of losses.” Usury was not justifiable because there was no risk in this activity.

On the whole, Cattolicesimo, protestantesimo e capitalismo, on one hand tells Catholics that capitalism is not incompatible with the reasons of the Catholic teachings and even that the roots of free markets are to be found in Christianity; on the other hand, it tells free market advocates that capitalism can be easily supported by resorting to religious, and especially Christian, principles. The time for mutual understanding, maybe, has come.

A great aid on my journey of life

By Paul Amrhein in Passing Through, Paul served in the United States Air Force for 31 years and worked as a licensed Realtor for 15 years.

For those of you who have read my previous blogs you'll quickly note that I've been participating in the monthly 3rd Saturday Opus Dei "Morning of Recollections" sporadically for nearly two years. Though I believe I am not called to be an Opus Dei member--numerary nor supernumerary, I believe the movement is beneficial to my spiritual development and I plan to continue to support the movement as a cooperator.

I find the emphasis of the movement of encouraging people to recognize what our daily activities potentially afford when accomplished to the best of our ability for God and our neighbor, and of being a consistent Christian throughout each day, regardless of the environment a great aid on my journey of life.

The meditations and examination of consciences offered at the Morning of Recollections are consistently provocative in the positive sense. Last Saturday for example one meditation provided by the priest dealt with "formation". What he reflected on was that the three years Jesus of public life not only showed who Jesus was, provided a platform for Him to preach, perform miracles and complete His mission salvation; it was also a period of formation for the apostles under His tutelage who followed Him. And even after three years of formation under this tutelage, the Gospel illustrates how they continued to falter. This is encouraging to us, that as we are being formed (transformed) we should never give up and if we do, like the apostles we too will succeed in "winning the race".

The meditation by the lay speaker dealt with the virtue of "fortitude" and the difficulty many of us have with this virtue. How many of us remain faithful to our principles when obstacles arise?

In a word after each of these Mornings of Recollection, I am inspired and drawn closer to the Lord, endeavoring to follow Him along the road He wants.

As an aside--two things. What is also inspiring to me is to be in the midst of 75 or so men, the majority between the ages of 25 and 55 years who are striving to be filled/transformed by our Lord. One other thing, I suggest that anyone who believes they may be interested in getting involved with Opus Dei that they read about the movement. I suggest a person read BOTH critical and favorable articles and books on Opus Dei and pray for the guidance of Holy Spirit.

I found it helpful in my own life

By a sophomore at University of Notre Dame in It's Jordan Time

The Way. This isn’t really a book designed to be read all the way through – it’s 999 short musings/reflections/thoughts on spirituality and prayer and holiness. So to read it like you would read other books would be overwhelming, to say the least. But there is a lot of content packed into this book. I highly recommend it.

Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, was an extremely wise man, and he makes some really excellent points in this book.

It’s worth reading; I’ve already found it helpful in my own life and I’ve read very few of the little reflections inside. As the preface to the book says,

Read these counsels slowly.
Pause to meditate on these thoughts.
They are things that I whisper in your ear–
confiding them–
as a friend, as a brother, as a father.

And they are being heard by God.

I won’t tell you anything new.
I will only stir your memory,
so that some thought will arise
and strike you;
and so you will better your life
and set out along ways of prayer
and of love.

And in the end you will be
a more worthy soul.

Gay magazine interview with Opus Dei spokesman

By Benjamin Cohen of Pink News. Pink News is an online gay newspaper based in the United Kingdom.

Jack Valero is a numerary for Opus Dei, the conservative Catholic organisation and he's easily their most recognised figure within Britain, acting as spokesman for the group as well as well as being a member of the ruling council of Opus Dei for the UK.

I first met him earlier this week as we debated live on Sky News the significance of Ruth Kelly (an Opus Dei member) being appointed as Minister for Equality. After the broadcast, we chatted as I waited to appear on another news programme and he waited for his taxi to arrive, as he left, Valero asked if I'd like to meet again and discuss his group's attitudes to homosexuality.

Two day's later, I found myself in the sitting room of Orme Court, the group's UK headquarters situated a stones throw from Hyde Park. Valero laughed heartily as we joked as I set up my recording equipment.

I ask Valero to describe his role as a numerary within the group that is often labelled as 'controversial'. "Numeraries are celibate, we feel that God has called us to give ourselves to God in full, all our lives, our time. We don't marry, we go to work perhaps and then the rest of the time we dedicate to giving training and support to the other members around the world.

"I've been celibate since I joined Opus Dei when I was 16. It's tough of course. But before I began working full time for Opus Dei, I used to work in software, so I was in the world and living like anyone else except for my celibacy.

"But it's very challenging, if you make a commitment to celibacy you are saying to God, 'I will give you this gift for life every day' and you have to struggle because its every day. Its a strong proof of love. If it doesn't work it's very bad and it shouldn't be taken lightly. Like everyone else, I find chastity very challenging."

Feeling rather intrusive, I ask if Valero would have been straight if he were not celibate? "Yes, can we talk about something else?" he responds fiddling to a ring on his wedding finger, "It's a ring to signify a commitment or marriage to God."

How did his family react to his teenage commitment of celibacy?

"I felt called by God. It was hard for me, really frightening. My Dad was member of Opus Dei, and my Mum was a devout Catholic, my Dad was happy, my Mum was half happy, half sad, she wanted grandchildren. I have three brothers who are married and happy and who have children although my three sisters do not have children yet, so at least my mother has the grandchildren that she wanted."

Having understood his background a little better, I ask Valero to continue the conversation we began on television earlier this week, what exactly is the stance of Opus Dei towards homosexuality? "Opus Dei doesn't have views of its own about homosexuality but that it teaches mainstream Catholic teaching, as per the Catechism.

"It is good, it distinguishes between the actions and the people.

"You must never discriminate against someone because all people have the same dignity so you must not discriminate against anyone on the basis of who they are, what they are or what they do. Obviously if they commit crimes like murder you put them in prison because they are dangerous."

"But the Catholic church believes that some actions are sinful, for example sex outside of marriage or between two men but this is not discriminating against the people because it has this idea that sex was for marriage, marriage is for a man and a woman, for them to stay together for the rest of their lives and procreate and so on. This is an idea shared by many not just Catholics."

Surprising me slightly, he adds: "It doesn't say the homosexual orientation is sinful," "but" he carefully adds that "homosexual sex acts are sinful as are heterosexual acts outside of marriage. But the church doesn't have a problem with sinners, its in the business of helping sinners."

Veering towards the Da Vinci Code, the book that thrust Opus Dei into the limelight he adds, "On Mary Magdalene, there's the controversy in the Da Vinci Code that the church didn't like her because she was a woman so made her out to be a prostitute. But we don't have a problem with prostitutes because if they repent they have as much dignity as anybody. We consider ourselves to be sinners in need of help."

Referring to the 1983 catechism of the Catholic church, Valero explains that the "psychological genesis [of homosexuality] remains largely unexplained" but adds that it is"contrary to the natural law." But rather than a striking condemnation, he adds, that the view of the church is that gay people should be "accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided."

However, this respect in the view of Valero and the church ultimately boils down to a call for chastity and celibacy. "Homosexuals can be perfect as Christians, we're all called to chastity within the Catholic church. We are keen on love, between a man and a woman, between two men, love is good."

I was surprised to learn that Valero has gay friends and admits to a close relative of his being openly gay. "If I look at a gay friend of mine, I look at him and think 'I don't agree with some of the things he is doing', but 99 per cent of him is great and he's my friend and I would be stupid to break that bond."

Turning to his gay relative he meanders onto the nature versus nurture debate concerning the roots of homosexual desires. "I think to myself, 'was she like this when she was little?' I don't know but she's a lovely lady, I like her very much but I don't like her living with another woman. I find it difficult. I don't feel that she's so happy."

Valero is certainly not naive, he appears aware of the gay community surrounding his office. "When I look at the gay bar down the road, I see people looking for love, looking for this union and ultimately, sex satisfies if its an expression of love. If they don't find it there it makes you feel low."

I ask him if he thinks that gay people are barred from heaven due to their sexuality. "One can not judge anybody," he explains. "To get to heaven you have to want to be there with God. The commandments were given so that we could be very happy."

As he carries on, Valero begins to stop talking to me as a representative of the gay media and turns to me as an individual, saying he now considers me to be his friend. As a friend, he seems genuinely concerned with my well being and my soul.

"It might seem a contradiction to me to say, 'I want you to be really happy but please don't have sex with another man' but ultimately I want you to follow this rule not because I want you to but because I think that it is really good for you. But please do what you like, I'm only putting this forward as a a proposal, hopefully you will follow it because it is beautiful."

Feeling drawn in by his compassionate manner, I ask him if in his view it is better to be in a monogamous gay relationship than to be promiscuous. "The worst thing is to be promiscuous, then the monogamous relationship and then chastity, I think that's the best. We have a defeatist attitude when it comes to sex, you can not envisage putting limits apart from saying 'you must not touch children' even if you feel like it.

"People who are good, such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, have a good time in life."

"I think I'm having a great time but others may say that having sex with lots of people is also a great time but I'm not sure. People who are intrinsically good have a good time."

As I pack myself up, I try to make it clear that I'm not going to be changing my religious views. I'm Jewish and I've had enough problems trying to reconcile my own religion with my sexuality without even considering any other religious viewpoints. Valero seems to understand and asks me if I'm happy with my partner. When I explain that we've been in a stable relationship for three years, he seems content.

On parting, I still get the impression that he is worrying about me and I have visions of him praying for my soul, which in many ways I really appreciate.

John Allen: Most members are eminently satisfied with their experience

Zenit interview with John Allen

Q: So ... Opus Dei is not as bad as it seemed, you state. Is this the general idea of your book?

Allen: The aim of my book is to be as objective as possible, on a subject that's not really known for attracting objective discussion. The idea is to separate fact from fiction, providing tools for a rational conversation that's grounded in reality rather than myth or stereotype.

It was not my intent to "convert" readers to any particular position about Opus Dei, and my experience is that most people come away from the book without having changed their fundamental impressions of the group, but perhaps feeling a bit more informed, and a bit less alarmed.

On the other hand, given the highly negative image Opus Dei carries in some quarters, any serious comparison of that image with reality inevitably will make the group seem more human, less nefarious, than some had previously believed.

To take the basic numbers, Opus Dei has a worldwide membership of 85,000, which is roughly equivalent to the Diocese of Hobart on the island of Tasmania off the Australian coast. The group also counts some 164,000 "cooperators," meaning "supporters."

Outside Spain, where Opus Dei was born in 1928, Opus Dei represents a tiny, almost invisible, fraction of the Catholic community; in the United States, for example, there are roughly 3,000 members out of a total Catholic population of 67 million.

Opus Dei's global wealth, meaning the physical value of all the assets listed as "corporate works" of Opus Dei, is around $2.8 billion. For one frame of comparison, General Motors in 2003 reported assets of $455 billion.

Even by Catholic standards, Opus Dei's wealth is not terribly impressive; in 2003, the Archdiocese of Chicago reported assets of $2.5 billion. The American lay organization the Knights of Columbus runs an insurance program which all by itself is worth $6 billion.

In terms of power, Opus Dei numbers only 40 out of more than 4,500 Catholic bishops worldwide, including only two members of the College of Cardinals, and just 20 out of more than 2,500 employees in the Roman Curia, including only one head of a policy-making agency.

In truth, Opus Dei's potential to "call the shots" inside Catholicism is far more limited than many imagine. For every Vatican battle Opus Dei members have won over the years, they've lost others.

Despite being a vaunted recruiting machine, Opus Dei's growth rate is pretty small. Worldwide they add about 650 members a year, and in some places they're basically stalled. In the United States, Opus Dei has hovered at about 3,000 members since the 1980s.

All this suggests that Opus Dei is not as imposing as some of the mythology would lead one to believe. Ironically, the people most determined to believe in Opus Dei's occult power are generally not its members, but its critics, who see its modest structure as masking vast unseen influence.

Q: You think you do not fit into the Opus Dei structure. Do you realize it now, after your research, or you already knew it?

Allen: As a journalist, I don't join groups within the Church as a matter of general principle, because I need to preserve my impartiality.

For that reason, there was never any serious question of my joining Opus Dei, or any other body. Certainly my 300-plus hours of interviews and travels to eight countries for this book, however, brought home for me that if I were to join a Catholic group, it would not be Opus Dei.

This is not the result of any lack of respect, or any fears about Opus Dei; quite the contrary, I came to admire most of the people I met in Opus Dei, and I usually found their company highly stimulating and enjoyable.

Yet there is a daily "program of life" for Opus Dei members, and a set of expectations about attendance at events and so on, that I would personally find stifling.

I'm a classic "only child," meaning that control over my time and space is important to me. I don't like anyone setting schedules for me, or telling me when I need to pray, or how.

Let me be clear, however, that this is a matter of personal taste. I admire the commitment I see in most Opus Dei members, and my perception is that most are eminently satisfied with their experiences.

How to serve our Lord in tough times

By Robert Stackpole in Divine Mercy News and Events

Given the world economic downturn that we are all facing this year, the question I received a few weeks ago from a lady named “Rosalind” is likely to be on a lot of people’s minds these days:

I understand that of utmost importance is our spiritual life … but how do you balance the needs of your spiritual life and your human/physical life? I am the mother of six children ages 8 months to 15 years. My husband was laid off from work so I have been working more than usual. It’s difficult to make enough time to pray, to care for the children, to nourish my married life.

I wish we had more stable finances, wish we could contribute more to the Divine Mercy movement, make more donations to the works of charity, but we barely have enough to pay our bills. … We live simple lives. We are not extravagant. …

We plan on taking on a new endeavour that will hopefully allow us to achieve that stability. … Is it wrong to focus on that? To put effort in that for stability in finances, so we could support our family, provide the children with a good education, and contribute to the spread of The Divine Mercy? For so long, I was lost on the many charities to give, but now I know my heart has been converted to The Divine Mercy …

Well, Rosalind, perhaps it would help to remember that works of mercy and charity are not just the extra things we do with our time (such as helping out at a shelter for the homeless), or the extra things we do with our money (such as giving money to support Divine Mercy apostolates, or some other charity). On the contrary, works of mercy are anything we do to help those in need, beginning with those nearest to us. Saint Thomas Aquinas, for example, defined the virtue of mercy as “the compassion in our hearts for another person’s misery, a compassion which drives us to do what we can to help him” (Summa Theologiae, II-II.30.1).

Again, this applies first of all to our own families, for we have a special responsibility for the families God has placed in our care. Since a work of mercy is a work of compassion for those in need, and your family is really in need of some financial stability right now, by striving to meet that genuine need you are accomplishing an important work of mercy. So the first thing I want to say to you, Rosalind, is: Be at peace. From what I can surmise from your letter to me, your intentions are pure and good, and our merciful Savoir will bless and guide you in this.

It also sounds as if you and your husband will have to work extra hard for a while to get your family finances back on a stable foundation. It is certainly not wrong to focus on that goal for now: Just make sure that you sit down with your husband and talk openly about what kind of time and energy sacrifices this will entail, and therefore how hard it will be, at this stage of your life, to spend quality time (as you put it) “nourishing your married life.” Marital problems can arise when one spouse recognizes this harsh reality, while the other cannot accept it. So be sure you two are “on the same page” here. Forgive each other in advance; it appears that no one is really at fault for the predicament you are in anyway. Such severe financial situations are often the result of circumstances beyond anyone’s control.

Just be sure that you do not put that attention to your marital relationship “on hold” indefinitely, I would suggest that you resolve to go out on a date together three months from now, just the two of you, for lunch and a walk in the park, perhaps or for dinner at a restaurant. Resolve to do it every three months, so no matter how overwhelmed with work you two may get at times, you always know you have already set aside time for each other that is sacrosanct. That way you won’t let daily absorption in the difficult task of financial recovery swallow up your marriage altogether.

With regard to your relationship with Jesus Christ, you are already finding it hard to “make enough time to pray,” you said. This is understandable, too, and our Savoir knows the pressures you are under. Again, one thing you can do to prevent this from becoming a lifelong habit is to set aside a future date — say, six months from now — when you will go on a one-day retreat at a retreat house somewhere, just to be alone with Him, and to get reacquainted, so to speak. Resolve to do it every six months.

Moreover, one of the special things about our relationship with our Lord that makes that relationship unique is that we do not have to completely “get away” from our work and labours in order to be with Him and to grow in our love for Him. After all, Jesus promised: “I am with you always, even to the end of time” (Mt 28:20). By His Spirit He is with us everywhere, at all times and all places.

One of the Catholic spiritual writers who can help us to live out this truth of our faith is the Spaniard St. Josemaria Escriva (1902-1975). For example, Escriva taught, “External work should not interrupt our praying, just as the beating of our heart does not break or diminish attention to our activities, whatever they may be.” All our work and labours — including looking after our own children, and earning a living — can be turned into a prayerful offering to God. Many of us give “lip service” to the art of turning our work into prayer, but when we find ourselves caught in situations such as the one you face, Rosalind, sometimes that is almost the only kind of daily prayer we can manage to offer at all!

Saint Josemaria Escriva’s counsel is helpful here. “Sanctify your work,” he taught us, by which he meant doing your work as well as possible, with a pure intention, such as providing a good product and service for your community, and providing a decent home and good educational opportunities for your kids.

“Sanctify yourself in your work,” St. Escriva taught, by which he meant doing your work for the glory of God and stealing little prayer times throughout the day to keep your heart open to grace. You may not have time right now for a proper half hour for meditation each day, but you can always grab 30 seconds here, a minute there, 10 minutes during a lunch break, or even when you are alone behind the wheel of your car. In these little openings in the day you can offer up the simplest “arrow prayers” to God: “Merciful Heart of Jesus, into Your Heart I put my heart,” “Merciful Heart of Jesus, I put all my trust in You,” “Merciful Heart of Jesus make me love you more and more.” Don’t you think that our Savoir will be delighted by your efforts to steal these minutes in the midst of all your labours to be alone with Him? I assure you that He will pour His grace into your heart in torrents when you do!

Finally, “sanctify others through your work,” St. Escriva said. This means setting a good example for others of cheerfulness, helpfulness, honesty, perseverance, and patience. What a tremendous example of Christian virtue you can be for others at your workplace — and especially for your own children — as they see you tackle the labours of each day in the Spirit of Christ.

Of course, I know that some days — many days — it will not be easy. At times of financial stress and strain, we may have to battle constantly against sheer exhaustion and sometimes suffer discouraging setbacks. Be patient: Let Jesus the Good Shepherd find a way forward for you when sometimes there seems to be no way. If He got His stubborn people of Israel successfully through 40 years in the wilderness before they reached the Promised Land, He can certainly find a way forward for you, too! As St. Francis De Sales put it, “Either He will shield you from suffering, or give you unfailing strength to bear it.” And He is rather good at “writing straight with crooked lines.”

So be at peace, Rosalind. You are on the right track, not only toward financial stability, I would guess, but on the right path to holiness and heaven as well.

First supernumerary of Opus Dei in Canada: Orthopedic surgeon who helps clean up a river

From Romana, Bulletin of the Prelature of Opus Dei

André Allaire was born on September 1, 1934 in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada. He was the first Supernumerary of Opus Dei in Canada.

He lived in the Piedmont Student Residence when the Work’s apostolate was taking its first steps in the country. He asked to join Opus Dei on March 19, 1958.

Married and the father of four children, he worked for more than thirty years as an orthopedic surgeon in Drummondville, Quebec. His prestige enabled him to ensure that the hospital where he worked cared for the sick in accord with Christian morality. He carried out an extensive apostolate among his patients (one of whom is now a priest of the Prelature), as well as with his colleagues and friends.

He was also very active in civic affairs. In the 70’s, for example, he headed a committee that solicited the help of many public and private organisms to clean up the river that runs through Drummondville. He continued working until a few weeks before being hospitalized to undergo chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

He was president of various foundations that assisted the apostolates of Opus Dei. He lived his vocation faithfully, and was an example to other Supernumeraries with his constant smile and great determination to fulfill his apostolic assignments.

He died in Montreal on October 30, 2007.

Inside Opus Dei's world headquarters

By Dr. Robert Moynihan in Inside the Vatican

In 2006, when The Da Vinci Code was released as a film, some high Church officials strongly objected to it because it was based on the idea that Jesus married and fathered children and because it depicted Opus Dei, a recognized Prelature within the Catholic Church, as a murderous cult.


====================

Poor Dan Brown! He completely missed the story!

In his novels The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, he depicts Opus Dei (the Latin words mean "the work of God") as a world-spanning, secret, sinister organization, and the Vatican as impenetrable, mysterious, and dangerous.

After leafing through the books, I wondered this afternoon what I might encounter as I rang the doorbell at #75 viale Bruno Buozzi, the world headquarters of Opus Dei.

The building's walls were tall and white, constructed of large blocks of what seemed to be travertine marble; the doorway seemed oddly small.

A woman answered.

"Come around the corner to via di Villa Sacchetti," she said. "The first door you come to on the left..."

Did Dan Brown ever go to Opus Dei headquarters? It wouldn't have been difficult... It's in Parioli, a wealthy Roman neighborhood just a mile or so out from Piazza del Popolo.

I went there today with my old friend, Richard Mileti, a retired Catholic historian from Cleveland, Ohio (he has been visiting Rome for a couple of days).

As soon as we reached the door, a receptionist opened the door, poked her head out, and greeted us.

"We'd like to visit the tomb of St. Josemaria," I said. "And we would like to talk to someone about Opus Dei and Dan Brown's book, Angels and Demons. Is that possible?"

"Yes, of course," the receptionist said.

We were guided to a small waiting room, and the receptionist told us we would soon be joined by a guide who would show us around the headquarters.

I looked around the little room. It seemed a bit dark, so I went to open what seemed to be a window in the back corner. But when I opened the window, there was just a 4-inch recession, then a blank wall, with a fluorescent bulb to illuminate the room through the glass.

Then there was a sound and a motion at the door, and a young woman entered the room.

"Hi," she said, in English. "I am Claudia. I can try to answer any questions you have, and I will show you around."

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"I am from Guatemala."

"And are you a member of Opus Dei?"

"Yes, I am a numerary. Do you know what that is?"

"Yes," I said. "You have taken a vow never to marry."

"Not precisely a vow," she said, laughing a bit bashfully. "I have made a commitment."

Claudia was a lovely young woman with raven-black hair and olive skin and bark eyes. She was poised and polite.

"Have you heard of the book Angels and Demons?" I asked.

"Who hasn't?" she said, and laughed again.

"What do you think of it?" I asked.

"I haven't read it."

I asked Claudia how old she was.

"I just turned 24," she said.

I asked how she came to join Opus Dei, what had attracted her.

"I met some members of The Work in my country," she answered. "I was so struck by their overflowing sense of having a meaning and purpose in their lives, that I began to want to spend more and more time with them. I began to meet with them. I began to discuss with them, and ask questions of them. And after a while it was clear to me that I had a vocation. This vocation..."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "How did you know?"

"I sensed, deep inside, that there was a love and a meaning which responded to my own deepest longings, and I wanted to be close to that love and meaning. It was an attraction that I felt, like a magnet, like a warm fire in winter-time, when your hands are cold, and you stretch out your hands toward the fire. I was warmed by what I loved, by words and prayers and songs and contemplation, and the more I drew close to what I loved, the more right and complete I felt, and so I decided to continue on this journey, wherever it leads, to the end."

We discussed our schedule for the afternoon: we would go down to the tomb of the saint, visit the chapel where he is buried, then try to reach the Opus Dei spokesman, Manuel Sanchez.

"But let me get another person to come with us, because I am rather new here," Claudia said. "Someone who may be more qualified to answer any question you have."

She left the room. I turned to Richard. "Well?" I said.

"Hey," he said, "what do you want me to say? She's an angel..."

===============================

When Claudia came back, she brought with her a slightly older woman, who said her name was Rosario.

"In Italy, it would be Rosaria, but it is Rosario in Spanish," she said. "I am from Madrid."

Rosario seemed extraordinarily refined. Her hands and fingers moved when she spoke, and her grey eyes observed us attentively and with evident intelligence.

"A second angel," Richard said.

We went out of the reception room and started down four flights of steps -- down, down, down, down. I think we must have been 60 feet under the level of the street.

We came to a small chapel, where we saw an altar and, in a glass case against the wall, a figure of a beautiful woman lying with her hands folded upon her chest and her feet in sandal.

"This is the chapel of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary," Rosario said.

I read the inscription on the side of the altar: "Assumpta est Maria in caelum. Gaudet exercitus angelorum." ("Mary was assumed into heaven. The army of angels rejoices.")

"More angels," I said to Richard.

=======================

.St. Josemaria's tomb is at the front of a small chapel called the chapel of Santa Maria della Pace (St. Mary of Peace). (Photo, me standing in front of the tomb.)

His body has been moved there from its original resting place nearby, where two large words are still written on the center of the flat stone, though Escriva's body is no longer there: "El Padre" — "The Father."

The stone now covers the body of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo (1914-1994), St. Josemaría’s first successor at the head of Opus Dei.)

When I entered the chapel, I knelt for a moment in front of the saint's tomb, on his feast day.

(Once, some years ago, when my second son, Luke, fell and hit his head while playing soccer, causing a concussion and a terrible bloody eye, I chose to say a prayer to St. Josemaria — saying to myself, "I need a tough saint for this task" — that Luke might not lose his eye, or have brain damage. And when the doctor came back, after two hours of tests, he said, "I'm quite surprised, but it looks like there will be no permanent damage whatsoever.")

Rosario nodded to me.

"Here is something you should see," she said.

She indicated a small niche in the very back of the chapel. What was there? Swords? Yes, some 60 swords were hung up in rows on both sides of the niche, like an emergency arsenal...

"Why?" I asked.

"These are the swords of all those military men who entered Opus Dei, and gave up their swords in order to show symbolically that they wished only to work for peace."

The blades glistened in the cabinet, behind a glass window. There were even some daggers there.

In the front of the case was a small box containing a gilded flower, a rose, made out of wood.

"What's this?" I asked Rosario.

"Ah," she said. "There is a story behind that rose.

"In 1936, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Fr Escriva went into hiding in Madrid. Eventually, to escape persecution, he left the city, persuaded by his followers. On November 21, 1937, he spent the night in a small room in a ruined church and spent the night in prayer, not sure whether he should go forward or back.

"That night, he asked for a sign from God. He asked that our Lady would give him a rose if God wanted him to continue.

"The next morning, Fr Escriva left the room. When he returned, he held a gilded wooden rose in is hand — this rose. And so he kept going."

I listened,

Then Rosario added: "In 1936, when the militia sacked the church, they had torn down the wooden altarpiece and carried it outside to burn. But the rose, part of the frame of roses encircling the image of Our Lady of the Rosary, survived. Fr Escriva saw it as the sign he had requested."

====================

Just at that moment, an important Vatican official whom I have known for many years entered the chapel. I waited, but the official did not turn toward me or see me. So I asked Rosario to go up to the prelate, and ask if I could speak with him at the back of the chapel.

She did so, and he came with her.

We greeted each other, and spoke about the strange coincidence of meeting just then in the chapel of St. Josemaria.

"I just felt this morning that I should come here today," I told him.

"So did I," he replied.

And then I asked him about the Ecclesia Dei Commission document, which is much on my mind, as I wrote on Thursday.

"Why has it still not been published, though it has been finished for some time?" I asked.

"It isn't yet finished," he said, without emotion.

=====================

Rosario and I looked at the eight doors around the edges of a room next to the chapel.

"Where do all these doors lead to?" I asked. I wondered if there might be some underground passageways...

Rosario opened one door: a closet.

"What about that one?" I asked.

She opened it.

There was only a wall there. But on the wall was painted, in perspective, a long corridor leading far away. If you looked at the painting without realizing it was a painting, it seemed like you were looking down a 100-yard passageway.

"That's pretty bizarre," I said.

"It's just a false doorway," Rosario said, laughing. "Just for fun."

===================

Richard and I walked back up the stairs with Rosario and Claudia, and we sat for a moment in the reception room where we had begun our visit.

A young African woman poked her head in the door.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Jennifer," she said. "I am from Nariobi, Kenya." She laughed, for no reason. Her dark skin, bright smile and flashing eyes lit up the room. She was like a lightning bolt in human form.

I asked her how she had come to join Opus Dei, and what she thought of the book Angels and Demons, and she said: "Look, people are interested in different things. Dan Brown was evidently interested in earning a lot of money. Ordinary people are easy to deceive. Just tell them a tall tale, and they will believe it, even if it is a complete fabrication.

"But my focus is a different one. I'm here in Rome to study canon law, and I don't want to be distracted from that. So I've never even read that book. If it says things about Opus Dei that aren't true, I'm sorry. But I have set my life in a certain direction. I'm like a woman who has fallen in love and knows she wants to marry a certain man. I want to give my entire life to Christ.

"And I think that the best way I can defend Opus Dei, and the Church, is simply to live my life in complete abandonment to God's will, so that my example outweighs any slander anyone may invent — if that is even the case. I am focused on the positive, not the negative. My eyes are set on the goal, and I don't want to take them off that goal, because I want to get there."

Richard looked at me, marveling at the eloquence and poise of the young lady.

"Another angel," he said.

========================

Richard and I walked down the hill to the the Basilica of Sant'Eugenio for the evening Mass in honor of St. Josemaria. The basilica was completely filled, leaving standing room only to the very back of the church.

The novels of Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, have depicted Opus Dei as a very powerful but sinister force in the world.

But Brown has somehow seen demons where there are angels. This is puzzling. Has he also seen angels where there are demons?

In front of the Church, the Opus Dei spokesman, Manuel Sanchez, was waiting. He is from Granada, Spain, in the far south, near the Rock of Gibraltar.

"I am looking for angels and demons," I said to Manuel. "Dan Brown says they can be found in Opus Dei. What do you think?"

"That's easy," Sanchez said. "The angels and demons are in each one of us."