They never pressured me

Part of a comment of Pete Vere in Catholic Lite

I basically showed up on their doorstep, a young Traditionalist journalist who had recently returned to Church, having just been accepted into a canon law licentiate program because of a gentleman who was close to the Work, and was suspicious to know why. I had lots and lots of questions, which they patiently answered.

I attended several activities, and never felt any pressure to join. Some of my friends would visit from my hometown, want to join, and were told they needed to take time to pray and discern, that Opus Dei was a vocation that could not be rushed, that the Church recognized many different paths to sanctity and holiness, and they needed to make sure Opus Dei was a good fit for them. However, I noticed that I was never offered spiritual direction whenever I showed up for recollection, or retreats.

So one day I said to the director: "Am I being singled out because I'm traddy?"

He laughed, and said: "Yes and no. The work is a path to holiness recognized by the Church, but not the only path to holiness that the Church recognizes. The Church also recognizes your involvement with the Ecclesia Dei movement as a path to holiness, you have a good spiritual director back home who is guiding you on this path, and we don't want to interfere with that unless he feels it would help you."

And it was true. My spiritual director back home was an elderly Benedictine moral theologian who often assisted the local Tridentine indult priest. One day Father came to Ottawa to visit me, do theological research, and he quietly wanted to check out Opus Dei since a number of his parishioners had made contact and expressed interest. They invited Father to stay at their residence.

At the end of the weekend, just as he was loading his suitcase in the car to return home, Father turned to the director, pointed at me and said: "Make sure you keep an eye on my Pete while he's down here. He needs some good spiritual direction to keep him focused on his studies when I'm not around. If he gives you any problems, call me."

The director laughed, and after that I was invited to receive spiritual direction. That being said, I never felt called to join, and they never pressured me to.

ST. JOSEMARIA AND THE POOR

By DR. BERNARDO M. VILLEGAS.

St. Josemaria Escriva would have been the male equivalent of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (now Blessed Teresa) in the last century if he did not receive the vocation from God to found Opus Dei, a way of sanctification in daily work and in the fulfillment of the ordinary duties of a Christian. He spent the early years of his priesthood substantially given to the ministry of the poor and the sick in the most depressed areas of Madrid, the capital of what at that time was very much a Third World country. If he had been in the Manila of today, he would have spent countless hours administering to both the material and spiritual needs of the very poor in such districts as Tondo and Payatas.

As Chaplain of an NGO that was called the Foundation for the Sick, he spared no effort and time to attend to thousands of poor and sick people. As one of his biographers, Andres Vazquez de Prada, wrote in The Founder of Opus Dei, "The Foundation for the Sick waged war on ignorance and misery, through schools, soup kitchens, clinics, chapels, and catechetical programs scattered all through Madrid and the surrounding areas. On the ground floor of Santa Engracia, there was a public dining room, and on the second floor, a 20-bed infirmary. The parlors and bedrooms of the Foundation looked out into a large courtyard with a public church attached. There, early each morning, the chaplain said Mass." Through his personal example, he made it clear that the spiritual needs of the poor should be given the highest priority in any charitable work.

The priority given to the spiritual needs of the poor is clearly reflected in the following description given by Vazquez de Prada in his book: "There were all kinds of activities at the Foundation on weekends. As a prelude to his other pastoral ministrations, the chaplain started off in the confessional. On Saturdays, the poor and sick from the surrounding neighborhoods came to Santa Engracia – that is, those whose ailments did not prevent them from getting there – or physical and spiritual care in the clinic and the chapel. On Sundays, it was the turn of the boys and girls of the schools that the Apostolic Ladies conducted. They all gathered at Santa Engracia, and Father Josemaria heard their confessions. So many people showed up there on the weekend that an observer used to say, 'Here at the Foundation, everything is done by the ton.'"

Despite his great concern for the material welfare of the poor, he never made the mistake of converting the Catholic religion into a purely social work. He made sure that first and foremost, the poorest of the poor had access to the life-giving Sacraments. In his own words, "I went for hours and hours all over the place every day, on foot, from one area to another, among poor people ashamed of their poverty and poor people too miserable to be ashamed, who had nothing at all; among children with running noses – dirty, but children, which means souls pleasing to God. How indignant I feel in my priestly soul when they say that small children should not go to confession! That's not true! They should make their personal confession, speaking one on one to the priest in secret, just like everyone else. What good, what joy it brings them! I spent many hours in that work, and I'm only sorry that it was not more."

After he saw that it was God's will that he should found Opus Dei on that fateful October 2, 1928, Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, he devoted all his energies to spreading the doctrine of the universal call to sanctity, a teaching that became the centerpiece of the Second Vatican Council almost forty years later. His preferential love for the poor, however, never left him. He made sure that the young university students whom he introduced to the spirituality of Opus Dei would spend many hours in the slum districts of Madrid, bathing the sick, cutting their nails, giving them all the possible mateArial and spiritual care of which they were capable, even at the risk of contamination from infectious diseases (tuberculosis was at that time still incurable). These examples from the first years of Opus Dei have been replicated thousands of times all over the world today as the faithful of the Prelature have given the highest priority in their corporate and personal apostolic works to giving material and spiritual assistance to the poorest of the poor. In all the continents where Opus Dei is present, there are hospitals and clinics for the poor; technical schools for out-of-school youth in farming, electro-mechanical skills, culinary arts, and other skills that enable the children of the poor to obtain gainful employment. In the Philippines for example, faithful of the Prelature of Opus Dei have established such technical schools for out-of-school youth like Dualtech in Manila and CITE in Cebu; Punlaan and Anihan in Luzon and Banilad in Cebu; Family Farm Schools in Batangas and Iloilo; and many other personal initiatives of individual members and cooperators.

Read the rest at: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/362090/st-josemaria-and-the-poor

Holiness for Everyone: The Practical Spirituality of St. Josemaría Escrivá

A book of Eric Sammons with a foreword by Scott Hahn

Eric Sammons is not a member of Opus Dei. He is a convert to Catholicism from Evangelical Protestantism and was received into the Catholic Church in 1993. He has appeared on EWTN and is a frequent guest on Catholic radio. He is now the Director of Evangelization for the Diocese of Venice in Florida. He has a Master's Degree in Theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville and lives in Florida with wife, Suzan, and their six children.

Here is the description of his book as found in his website: http://ericsammons.com/index.html

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God intends nothing less than sainthood for you!

The early Church held that all believers could achieve holiness. Over time this conviction was largely forgotten. Sainthood seemed to be an honor only intended for a select few among the priests and religious.

Eric Sammons tells how twentieth century Spanish priest—and canonized saint—Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, recovered the message of the universal call to holiness. Declared “the saint of ordinary life” by Pope John Paul II, St. Josemaría developed a spirituality directed toward the sanctity of every man and woman. His legacy is the belief that each of us can, by God’s grace, achieve holiness through the course of our ordinary life and work.

The heart of Sammons’ practical guide to the spiritual life is a detailed examination of the steps in St. Josemaría’s thoughtful plan for building a saintly life in spite of your hectic work and home life – in a world filled with distractions and temptations.

Strive for your own personal holiness as you implement your daily plan to:

• Be a Contemplative in the Midst of a Busy World

• Live a Life of Prayer

• Recognize the Presence of God

• Make a Plan of Life

• Make Your Work a Way to Heaven

Holiness for Everyone! will inspire you as it sets your feet on the path to sainthood.

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"Eric Sammons shows that St. Josemaría has recovered the most powerful truth of classic Christianity and restated it in a way that is compelling for men and women of our time" - Scott Hahn

2012 Holds Multiple Anniversaries for Opus Dei

By Jim Graves in National Catholic Reporter

The beginning of each of the past three decades has brought about a significant event for Opus Dei, whose mission is to promote holiness among laypeople as they go about their daily work.

In 1982, Pope John Paul II approved changing the organization’s status from a secular institute to a personal prelature. In 1992, Opus Dei’s founder, Msgr. Josemaria Escriva, was beatified, and, in 2002, he was canonized. As the prelature celebrates the anniversaries of each of these major events, it continues to enjoy steady growth and have far-reaching influence as it goes about its mission.

Pope Benedict XVI has long supported the unique apostolate of Opus Dei. Upon St. Josemaria’s canonization, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed the belief that the saint’s message helped correct an erroneous idea of sanctity — that holiness was reserved only for “the great.”

More recently, Pope Benedict told the head of Opus Dei, 79-year-old Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez, “When you foster the eagerness for personal sanctity and the apostolic zeal of your priests and laypeople, not only do you see the flock that has been entrusted to you grow, but you provide an effective help to the Church in her urgent evangelization of present-day society.”

Opus Dei (which is Latin for “Work of God”) was founded by a young Father Escriva in 1928, and it was approved by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Today, it has 90,000 members in 60 countries, including 3,000 in the United States. Typical elements of its apostolate include evenings of recollection, retreats, spiritual direction and religious-education classes. Opus Dei members also oversee schools, including the respected IESE Business School, the graduate school of management at the University of Navarra in Spain. IESE recently opened up a campus in New York.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/2012-holds-multiple-anniversaries-for-opus-dei/#ixzz1uXOBGQtE

She advised people to make God the center of their lives

By Graydon Megan in the Chicago Tribune

Maria Palos shared her deep Roman Catholic faith with everyone around her — strangers she met on the bus, young couples seeking marriage advice and women she encouraged through her support of Lexington College, a women's hospitality management school run by the conservative Catholic community Opus Dei.

"She was definitely one of the catalysts for the school," said her son Tony Palos Jr.

As for counseling couples on marriage, the mother of nine "would advise them to make God the center of their lives," her son said.

Born Maria Ramirez, Mrs. Palos grew up in Monterrey, Mexico. In 1956, she met Tony Palos, a young man from Chicago visiting there on vacation. He extended his stay after winning a Mexican lottery and spent that time courting her.

The couple married in 1957 and raised nine children. Her husband died in 1991.

Mrs. Palos considered her strong spiritual life a gift, one she was eager to share with others. Her son said she acted "almost like a precinct captain for God." If she saw a stranger with a baby on the bus or in her neighborhood, she would ask whether the baby had been baptized and, if not, encourage the mother to baptize the infant.

Read the rest of the article here.

Cherished Event

By Atty. Jose Sison in Philippine Star

Time flies fast indeed. And this is especially true with respect to some events in our life that remains deeply etched in our hearts because they involve our dearly beloved ones. Tomorrow, our family will be commemorating one such event which happened nine years ago. This is the death anniversary of our beloved and only daughter Joyce. As a father, I seize every opportunity to write about her and dedicate it to all the fathers and daughters who are still together in this world. The urge to do so keeps coming back because I want to show that while my bonding with my sons is usually more intimate and closer, as in all other fathers’ bonding with their sons, my bonding with my daughter was as intimate and close as it should be because all our children are God’s precious gifts to us.

On March 10, 2003, at about 15 minutes before two o’clock in the afternoon, Joyce our oldest daughter and the loving and caring sister of five brothers, after hanging on to life — but not afraid of death — finally ended her short but meaningful and fruitful earthly life and began another life of eternal bliss as she moved into the beatific House of our Lord in heaven.

In her short life span of almost 39 years, our family enjoyed her company only during the first 18 years because she decided to devote the rest of the 21 years in the service of the Lord. But the strong father-daughter bond formed during the period she spent with us made it most difficult for me to let her go. All fathers perhaps who have an only daughter would feel the same. They would naturally resist letting go of “daddy’s girl” whom they used to carry in their arms so lovingly and protectively, forgetting or even ignoring how great and glorious it is to be blessed with such daughters who chose to devote their entire life in the service of God.

After she joined Opus Dei (the “Work”), events spent together with her became so precious few and far between. But they were enough to fill my storage of happy memories with her. The most memorable yet was in 1993 when Joyce, Josie my wife and I went on a spiritual journey to Rome for the beatification of St. Josemaria. That was indeed one of the most spiritually edifying experiences in our life. This event and many other memorable events with her not only strengthened our bond but also made us realize how happy she was in her work. We felt her joy and from then on we became closer though far apart.

Every time we visited her in any Opus Dei center we saw and felt love all around through her and her sisters in the Work with their ever smiling faces. On special occasions when we joined her in the centers of her assignment, that father-daughter bond simply grew stronger. Even when she was in Rome and other far away centers she never failed to get in touch with us. We felt her presence and support wherever she was, through her prayers thus prompting Josie to describe her as our “one woman prayer department.”

News of her cancerous ailment was therefore so heartbreaking and devastating. But her illness, which she called God’s “divine caress”, became the source of so many more awakenings in me about a daughter’s love for her father, requited belatedly and inadequately. To make up for lost time, I tried my best to visit her nearly every day, especially when she was transferred to the “Pandan” and “Punlaan” centers in Manila. Those almost daily moments with her enabled me to understand the meaning of Christian love more deeply and taught me lessons on Sufferings in life by “rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulation and persevering in prayer.” She made me realize that the greatest suffering of sick people is to see their loved ones suffer because of their own suffering. Thus without any words uttered, I got her message to please change your “tears for Joyce to tears of joy.”

Read up to end of this beautiful piece here.

How Lila Rose Became Pro-Life … and Catholic

by JUSTIN BELL 02/03/2012 from the National Catholic Register

At 9 years old, Lila Rose saw an image of an aborted baby in a book at her home. She said it struck her to the heart, and she asked, How could anybody do this to a baby?

In time, she became educated about the abortion issue and wanted to act, to speak out, and help save some of the lives that were being taken.

At 15, Rose started her organization Live Action, which she continues to lead today. In 2006, Rose began her series of undercover videos of Planned Parenthood that revealed non-reporting of apparent illegal situations. Rose and friends would pose as minor, pregnant girls seeking abortions, while videotaping conversations with workers, and then later posting the videos on YouTube.

Last year, Live Action released a video where a manager at a Planned Parenthood in New Jersey aided a couple pretending to be operating a prostitution ring of 14- and 15-year-old girls.

Live Action’s video investigations have placed serious scrutiny on the largest abortion provider in the country, including a more than $61-million loss of state funding, according to the group. The investigation in New Jersey led to an Illinois law that expanded the list of those who are obligated to report sex violations involving minors to authorities.


You said you converted to Catholicism not that long ago. Can you walk me through that process a little bit?

I was received into the Church two and a half years ago. Best day of my life, although every day after that has been pretty good, too. I was raised as a Protestant, and my parents were very faithful people; and they taught us to read the Bible and love and respect life. I learned about Jesus Christ as a Protestant.

But in my upbringing, my dad was on his own spiritual journey, reading the Church Fathers and doctors. So we had these books in the home: a lot of Ignatius Press books, for example. And so, I was reading these as a young teen. I read Joan of Arc by Mark Twain when I was 12. I was reading Mother Teresa’s writings at 12, 13 … like Total Surrender, Loving Jesus. Then I was reading St. Thomas Aquinas, and I was actually translating him in and out of Latin. That was part of the education experience that I was given by my parents because we’re home-schooled. They really pursued classical education for us. That was really neat, too; that’s another side of the story, but …

I was becoming formed by some of the best thinkers and saints of our Church, doctors of our Church, as a teen. I was very much drawn to the Church. I was drawn to Our Lady. I admired her so much, although the Protestant community doesn’t really talk about her very much. … My family talked about our faith, and, of course, about theology and different aspects of the Catholic tradition and everything. But we were still Protestant.

So then, when I got to UCLA, I fell in with — literally, one day I was looking for a church to go to — I had been experimenting with different Protestant churches, and I couldn’t find one that I clicked with, as they say, because the Eucharist wasn’t there and the theology was not sound. And I knew it, but I hadn’t really gotten to the place in my head that: Oh, I need to be Catholic; that just makes sense. I had been intellectually convinced over a period of years, but I really didn’t have Catholic friends, you know, strong Catholic friendships or anything like that, so it didn’t really occur to me that I could convert.


You didn’t see a way to convert then?

I didn’t see a way to that. And my family, I thought, Well, maybe one day if they do [convert], then I could with them, but they were not doing it at the time.

So I was looking for churches and [said] “I’ll go to Mass.” I had been to Mass a few times before … so I called up my friend Jen, and she was going to a Mass at this women’s Catholic center, which turned out to be a women’s Opus Dei center. … I didn’t realize there were all women in the little chapel; I was kind of clueless.

I went, prayed through the Mass, and then I was sitting with a woman in the back of the Mass; and I turned to her afterwards, and I said, “You know, is there someone here that can mentor me, or something like that?” She was a numerary [a type of member of Opus Dei who, according to the institution’s website is “completely available to attend to the apostolic undertakings and the formation of the other faithful of” Opus Dei], and she’s like, “Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/how-lila-rose-became-pro-life-and-catholic/#ixzz1lZnVUP00

It gives you an inner joy

By Adrienne Treleaven in Independent Catholic News

I first came into contact with Opus Dei as a very shy 16 year old. I applied to do a course in Hospitality at Lakefield, a college in London. My parents allowed me to go even though financially it was quite a burden for them. The main reason they were willing for me to go was the fact that I would be in a Catholic environment and able to attend Mass on a regular basis. Little did I expect how much I would come to know my faith more deeply and the effect it would have on my decision about my life.

I spent two years training in the theory and practice of Household Management gaining my qualifications in Hospitality.

During these years of training, what attracted me most was the family atmosphere, the warmth, the care and the love that the people of Opus Dei showed to everyone. It was not long before I realised I had found what was going to make me happy. I remember saying to myself one day “this is what I want to do, this is for me”. God was giving me a vocation to Opus Dei as an assistant numerary.

So why am I happy?…to give oneself in whatever capacity is very rewarding: it gives you an inner joy that no one and nothing can take from you. Knowing that I have in my hands – what I do and how I do it – the possibility of passing on to others the love that God has for each person.

This profession, for that is what it is, is a very special way of serving one’s family and the wider community. One learns that in serving one receives more than one gives and so this is a wonderful experience even from a purely human point of view. Throughout the day I often remind myself that I am doing the same work that Our Lady did and moreover I receive a salary for doing a job I enjoy immensely.

Read the rest here.

Dora del Hoyo: a very important person for Opus Dei

Dora del Hoyo, said the Prelate of Opus Dei, "was a woman of faith. Because she was the very first numerary assistant, she had to be able to trust in what God, through St. Josemaria, was asking of her.

She lived the virtue of hope, knowing that Opus Dei would grow and expand, becoming what we see today. She was able to trust and hope in this way because her love of God was so great that she forgot about herself; she lived for the Lord and for the others. We have a great intercessor, to whom we owe gratitude. She learned from our Founder that what is most important is always to serve: to serve the Lord and to serve souls.”

Dora del Hoyo Alonso was born in Boca de Huergano (Leon, Spain) on January 11, 1914. Her parents were exemplary Christians and raised her to be a good daughter of God.

On March 14, 1946, in Bilbao, Spain, Dora asked for admission to Opus Dei. From the beginning, she knew how to correspond faithfully to her divine vocation. Outstanding among Dora’s characteristics were her devotion to the Holy Eucharist–the Holy Mass was the center and root of her interior life– as well as her tender love for the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph and her confident recourse to her guardian angel. Dora moved to Rome on December 27, 1946, at the invitation of St. Josemaria, and remained there until the end of her life.

Dora knew how to seek holiness and apostolic meaning in every task, even those that appeared most trivial, combining a spirit of service with professional competence. From Rome, she assisted with the formation of women from around the world, and contributed to the apostolic work of Opus Dei carried out all over the world and at every level of society.

Dora died on January 10, 2004. On that day Bishop Javier Echevarria, the Prelate of Opus Dei, made these remarks,

“Dora was very important for Opus Dei because of her faithfulness and her work well done, always humbly desiring to pass unnoticed, to ‘do and disappear.’ She took the Blessed Virgin Mary as her teacher, as Saint Josemaria Escriva had encouraged her, and because of this she was effective to the very end of her life. She wanted no glory or recognition, and she gave one hundred percent throughout her entire life."

Her remains lie in the crypt of the Church of the Prelature, Our Lady of Peace, Bruno Buozzi 75, Rome.

===

I remembered Dora in the garden in the month of August, at the age of 89, watering the pumpkins she would use to make the last cabello de angel of her life, to fill the ensaimadas. “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well,” she would always say–and so she collected the seeds, planted them, and took care of the seedlings. Finally, she filled jars and jars with her cabello de angel for the many people who would enjoy this treat, made with the love of a grandmother. She made marmalade and candy. She enjoyed anything that had to do with spreading the warmth of hearth and home. She didn’t talk about this–she just did it, and that was enough.

“She loved life and delighted in carrying out the familiar, lovable traditions of each holiday, and she spared herself no work in this regard. She created the extraordinary by doing ordinary things with perfection: the peace which comes from living the virtue of order, from finding everything in its proper place, a simple but well prepared meal, and a spotless table set with good taste and simplicity. She was always working but she did so calmly, seeking to serve the others, taking care of the clothing, the garden, all the details of the meals, the cleaning, making sure that “the cold things were cold and the hot things were hot,” as she liked to repeat, doing all of the things which she had learned from Saint Josemaria himself, in order to be a sower of peace and joy.

“In life we get to know a lot of people, and we value and remember them. But there are some people who are unforgettable because, doing things that no one notices and without calling attention to themselves, they make a deep impression on us. We ask ourselves what it is about them…and we begin to discover the heroes of the world, the ones who know how to make us happy in little things, the saints, who show us the wonder of creation, the goodness of the world, the importance of caring for others, one by one, cheerfully, enjoying what they are doing.

“I was reading a novel recently and I came upon a passage which immediately made me think of Dora. The author was writing about a Hungarian immigrant working for a lady in North America at the beginning of the twentieth century. ‘They liked to make delicious and plentiful meals, and see the others enjoy them; they liked to prepare soft, clean beds and see the children sleeping in them…both of them had in their depths a kind of overflowing joy, a pleasure in life which was delicate but invigorating.’

“Dora, following the example of the Blessed Virgin, took care of the others like a mother or an older sister and sought their good in the beauty of the work she carried out. In those details, apparently unimportant, she demonstrated her love for God and for the transcendent life to which He had called her.”

Isabel García Martín
Rome (Italy)

From: http://doradelhoyo.org/

Listening to people’s hearts

Fr. Ron Gillis provides spiritual direction for many
By Lisa Socarras | For the Catholic Herald

Born and raised in Boston, Father Ron Gillis calls 1967 the year of “The Impossible Dream” because the Red Sox won the American League Pennant and because the youngest of eight children in the Gillis household was ordained to the priesthood.

“My father was in seventh heaven,” he said, reflecting on his vocation. “I regard it as a miracle, the whole expectation that you could be called by God to give everything. I looked at the crucifix and said, ‘Lord, You did all that for me. What should I be willing to do for You?’”

Today, 44 years later, Father Gillis serves as chaplain at both the Reston Study Center and Oakcrest School in McLean, and as a spiritual director at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., a position he has held for the past 30 years. Some years, he has given ongoing spiritual direction to more than 40 seminarians, driving twice a week from Northern Virginia to listen, advise and guide those in priestly formation.

As an Opus Dei priest working in the Washington, D.C., area for the past 38 years, Father Gillis has administered the sacraments, taught courses, preached, and provided spiritual direction and evenings of recollection for hundreds of married men and women as well as students. He always has been selfless and ready to help others on their personal path to sanctity, part of the universal call to holiness.

Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church, was founded in Spain in 1928 by St. Josemaría Escrivá, who taught that work and the circumstances of ordinary life are occasions for growing closer to God, serving others and for improving society.

Even as a young man, Father Gillis had a strong sense of purpose for his life and never had any doubts about his vocation.

“It was impossible to grow up in Catholic Boston and not have a strong sense of vocation because vocations were abundant,” he said. “It was a very common question for Catholic young people to ask, ‘What is my vocation?’”

“We were surrounded by the Faith and by the sense of dedication, also present in our parents, who raised large families. They were working-class people, very committed to the Faith,” said Father Gillis.

He attended Catholic elementary and secondary school where his teachers sensed he had a vocation to the priesthood.

“The nuns were after me in the eighth grade to go away to junior seminary,” he said, adding that he was not ready at that young age to make the commitment.

Later, while a junior in high school, Father Gillis said a friend “dragged me along” on a retreat at a Trappist monastery and it made a profound impact on him.

“It was in August and it was the feast of St. Bernard,” he said. “I always remember that it was like going to heaven. It was so beautiful, the peacefulness, the spirituality, the whole thing was magnificent, the Divine Office, the Liturgy. Then we were helping to make the hay with the monks. The silence, I remember thinking this is really the peace of God. This is really wonderful, but I don’t want to stay here.”

He asked himself how one could bring this sense of the presence of God into the midst of the world.

“I don’t have a monastic vocation. I like being in the middle of the world. When I encountered Opus Dei, that’s what happened. I saw that these people are involved in things, but they take spirituality very seriously. I was struck by this kind of formula that we need to bring Our Lord to so many people who are good people who live in the middle of the world,” Father Gillis said.

Following his freshman year of college at the University of Toronto, he became a member of Opus Dei and then transferred to Boston University because there was no Opus Dei center in Toronto. After earning a bachelor’s in history, he went to Rome in 1964 to study for the priesthood as a seminarian at the Roman College of the Holy Cross. While in Rome, he had the opportunity to learn from St. Josemaría Escriva himself.

“He was a great coach and a tremendous leader of men,” said Father Gillis. “Ashttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif the founder, he was strong and enormously affectionate.”

He instilled in the seminarians that the only thing that really matters is personal sanctity, that we be saints. Always ready to admit his own challenges, the saint taught that determination to persevere, even in times of tremendous trial, is the journey of the soul toward holiness. To begin again is man’s goal because of our fallen nature we will have failings.

“The spirit of St. Josemaría is that the important thing is the struggle,” said Father Gillis. “The struggle is the sign of holiness. A saint is a sinner that keeps trying.”

To read the rest the article, see here.