The Prelate’s Saints Day

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty. For cut off from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

Our Lord emphasized on many occasions the importance of unity in this life. That has been transmitted throughout the whole Church and throughout the whole of history.

In our supernatural family also, that comes to be very important. On days like today, we try to remember the Father in a very special way.

We offer everything to him. Also, we remind ourselves of the central role that the Father plays in the whole of this supernatural family to which we belong.

God has given us one point of reference, to be “united to the vine” (cf. John 15:4). We have to have that very clear.

One of the goals of our vocation is to live to support the Father—everything through him and with him. He is our pathway to Christ.

We know that everything that comes from him, therefore, is not just important, but very important. We have to be listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd: “I know mine and mine know me” (John 10:14).

We receive all sorts of spiritual nourishment from the Good Shepherd—things that we need for our soul, strengthening our interior life, strengthening our doctrine, binding us closer together, giving us a greater awareness of our role in this great supernatural family, what the Work is doing all over the world, how it has to support the Pope and the Church at this difficult time, and the role that the Prelate plays in all of that, in binding all these people together all over the world, to be that pillar that the Holy Father can rely on.

Don Álvaro del Portillo wrote in 1975: “I want now,” he says, “to spend a bit of time on the capital aspect of unity. In one of his letters, our Father left written some words which constitute, now and always, a palpable sign of the plans of God for His Work.

“Our Father says, ‘I cannot cease to lift up my grateful soul to Our Lord, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth comes (Eph. 3:15), for having given me this spiritual paternity, which, with his grace I have assumed with full consciousness of being on this earth only to carry it out. For this reason, I love you with the heart of a father and of a mother’” (Josemaría Escrivá, Letter, May 6, 1945).

Don Álvaro had just received that spiritual paternity. He was contemplating on how our Father lived out that spiritual paternity—what it meant to him, the central importance of his life, being here on this earth for the sole purpose of living out that spiritual paternity.

And now, Don Fernando Ocáriz has stepped into those shoes. It's up to each one of us to send that arterial blood to the Father, on a daily basis, maybe on an hourly basis.

Our Father used to say, “If ever you have something that's a bit more difficult to do, or to carry out, if you offer it for my intentions, then that thing would become easier.”

We have a great secret in Opus Dei, that great secret which is: when we offer the things we have to do for the Father, then it becomes easier. Our pathway becomes easier.

Unity to the vine is not a difficult pathway; it's a logical thing. It's a clear idea that we have. It helps to give meaning and purpose to everything we do. Everything for the Father.

Somebody once told Don Javier in Rome, “Father, I broke my arm recently and now it's mending, but I've offered this for you.” Don Javier said, “No, everything, everything!”

All that we have to offer has to be for the Father, to help him to carry out this spiritual paternity.

If we think for a moment, with whatever the figure is now, 92,000 people of the Work all over the world, half a million Cooperators—these numbers we've been given fairly recently—the Father is at the center of a huge phenomenon.

Every day he has to hear things. I remember in a meditation in Singapore, Don Fernando saying: “Todas las cosas desagradables llegan al Padre.” All the unpleasant things reach the Father.

We know that occasionally we get to hear unpleasant things, but every day, the Father, maybe every hour, has to hear unpleasant things.

We have to try and be his support, his help, so that he remains strong in all of those moments and knows how to lead this ship so that it may always be united to the vine.

“Ever since the 15th of September 1975,” Don Álvaro continues, “I have taken on this task, and also, I have united myself to that thanksgiving because I have the profound awareness of being now the recipient of that spiritual paternity, truly essential in the Work.”

We need a Father. This family needs somebody at the helm.

After…I don't know…I think it was when Don Javier was elected, he mentioned how he found it difficult to hear those words being addressed to him, “the Father.”

Somebody said, “Father, please get used to it very quickly, because we desperately need a Father.” Rather graphic words: “we desperately need a Father.”

We all have experienced the benefits of the Father, what comes from him, what it means to have somebody there guiding us, telling us, step here, step there, watch out for this other thing.

“And now I, with the grace of God, I live only for my children, so that each of you may be very happy here below, and also, so that we reach the eternal happiness of heaven.”

We can also remember that today the Father is, I think he’s 76, no? (He was born on October 27, 1944.) He's no spring chicken. Getting older and moving around the place becomes not so easy; all these other realities of being a little bit older.

Every time that we get little reminders from our body that we're getting a bit older, we could think of the Father and what he has to do, how he has to keep going, carrying the lamb, being that good shepherd, thinking of the sheep, expending himself, leading the way, and possibly asking himself, “Am I a leader in holiness in Opus Dei?”

It's a good question to ask ourselves, a good thing to accuse ourselves of in Confession some time. Do I lead in holiness in this center? Because that's what it's all about. That's what the Father has to do. A great responsibility.

“Each day I experience this participation in the spiritual divine paternity which leads me to think always of your good. And I can affirm to you that I feel corresponded to, embraced by your affection and your prayers. And I'm firmly convinced that you sustain me between all of you.”

The Father is saying, I feel your support. I feel you're there for me. I feel myself being goaded along onto new horizons.

In this period of the Father's incumbency, you must be very aware of where God wants him to lead Opus Dei during this particular period—possibly new countries, but also new developments in the countries where we are, new periods of growth, new influence, new leadership, new formation for millions of people all over the world, as they begin to discover this treasure that God has given to you and me.

Lord, help me to make resolutions of greater unity, greater fidelity.

If we feel the Holy Spirit is asking a little more from us at this point in time—possibly a greater humility, or a greater abandonment, or a greater apostolic zeal, or a greater docility, or a greater industriousness, or whatever it may be, some little area where Our Lord wants us to improve in a small way today, tomorrow, and the next day—we could ask Our Lord that we might apply ourselves to that goal, whatever it is He's asking of us, so that we can be better support for the Father.

As we get older in our vocation, that becomes more important. Sometimes our Father would talk very strongly to the older members of the Work: the importance of their contribution, their fidelity, because so much depends on that, our being that sound pillar where God has placed us.

“I don't forget,” he says, “those conclusions that our Father talked about after a certain family get-together. He said, ‘I know that as your Father I will give an account to God of your fidelity, of how I've helped you. But also, you have to give an account of how you've supported the Father, so that he will be a person who struggles each day, with greater passion, to be united to Our Lord.’”

When we help the Father to be stronger, we bring the whole of Opus Dei forward, to be a greater instrument, what God wants it to be in the world.

We help the Father to be more effective. It's a great contribution we make to the universal Church. We help this good shepherd to be the shepherd of so many others.

“Each morning in celebrating the Mass, I feel accompanied by all of you.” We could try to think today of the Father's Mass, all the things that might go through his mind and through his heart today—the person of the Work who might need it most, the person who might be a little bit isolated physically during this time of pandemic, the sheep that might have strayed a little bit from the path, all the concerns of the universal Church, concern for the Holy Father at this difficult time, all these things, these weights that weigh on the Father—it's our role to try and offer him that arterial blood to make him stronger.

“I present to Our Lord your prayers and your sacrifices, your works, your sufferings, your joys, while I ask the Blessed Trinity that they might not look at our lack of generosity, of which we might all, unfortunately, accuse ourselves because we are weak creatures.”

We all find a place in that paten of the Father. We place other people there; the intentions of this particular center, the things that God is asking of this center in the coming months and years, the goals he places before each one of us in our vocation—maybe new changes, new horizons, with the new years that are coming, new challenges and new requests—that we might walk along truly spiritual pathways.

Don Álvaro, in one of his letters, talks about how the Holy Spirit leads us along truly spiritual pathways–caminos verdaderamente espirituales.

The role of the Father is to lead us also along those pathways.

“And for this reason,” he says, “I ask the Blessed Trinity continually, that they would grant us an unlimited love that is concretized in contrition to atone, and in fortitude to fight and to overcome, beginning again, always, with humility.”

Today is another day to begin again, to thank Our Lord for so many good things, the beauties of our family, that spiritual paternity, things we've learned at the moment that we joined the Work, the beauty of these realities lived out in all sorts of ways.

We can also remember the Father's visit here just a year ago, and the example that he showed us the moment he stepped off the plane, the intensity of those days, the self-giving, the way it was planned, as always trips of the Father are, how he gave himself without reserve, seeing people, encouraging people, smiling.

There was no moment when he was sort of sitting down, taking it easy. He was going all the time.

That leaves us an example for our own life. We could try and imitate that example of self-giving, focus, intensity, living out our vocation in all sorts of ways, holding nothing back, expending ourselves so that the whole of Opus Dei gets fulfilled.

“I support myself in a special way,” he says, “for the task of governing the Work, on the innumerable occasions which each day you ask God for the Father, making use of that invocation that our Father has placed in the Preces: Oremus pro Patre.

“When you say those words, immediately you say, Misericórdia Dómini…super eum. Mercy is attributed in a special way to God the Father, because there is nothing more appropriate for the Father than to place his heart, his efforts, his dedication, in what his children need.”

Lord, help me to be a better child of the Father and to see what that means in concrete ways—possibly to give this fraternal correction, to get over the things that might hold me back, with a new supernatural outlook or a new fortitude.

Or help me to grow a little more in this virtue of charity that builds unity, that helps this family to shine a little more, so that the Father may be happy with everything that I do.

We can be sure that if the director is happy with us, if the Advisory is happy with us, the Father then is happy with us. It's a good indication.

“With this invocation of the Preces, we ask God, on the one hand, that He will always look with mercy on the Father, and on the other, that He will fill him with His mercy, so that he might always walk with a generous care for his children.

“I always think that the two things go united, that God may lead me along this pathway of mercy if I dedicate myself totally to my children, because this is what Our Lord has confirmed to us, ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’” (Matt. 5:7).

We can thank Our Lord today also for the good shepherds that He has given to us, the special grace that He has given to the whole of Opus Dei, and to each one of us in particular.

Very few people in the Church can “boast” in inverted commas, of the good shepherds that we have enjoyed in the past decades. Lord, may it continue for always.

Somebody said once that it's the quality of a great person that they prepare and they think of their successors. They don't see themselves as the world ending with their demise.

It's something that our Father did particularly well. He prepared his successors and the successors to his successors. We've been blessed with these great shepherds. Special people.

Don Fernando was of a very special mind and had a very special role in the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. We know that he was very particularly looked upon by Cardinal Ratzinger.

He wrote that very special Declaration Dominus Iesus at the start of the 21st century. A key role in the universal Church.

God had prepared his soul in a special way, in his mind, for this spiritual paternity that he now carries. He enjoys a special prestige in the universal Church.

The Prelate of Opus Dei is a special person. We can be very proud of that fact, but also thank God for the quality of these people—very special shepherds who have this great role to play in the universal Church.

“In thinking of this prayer that you lift up to heaven for me,” Don Álvaro continues, “immediately I hear that beautiful response of Our Lord: Custodit enim Dóminus omnes diligentes se.

“Our Lord will not cease to protect those who love Him. And I meditate also on the words of Our Lord to Peter, ‘Do you love me? Feed my sheep’” (John 21:17).

One of the great roles of the Father is to “feed my lambs…feed my sheep.” All the time the Father is thinking about what we need, what ideas, and what areas of the spirit of the Work we need to focus on.

Now he has sent us a new letter, recently arriving. When things come from the Father, we always have to have a desire to see what the Father is saying.

We have to be grazing where he is grazing. What is the Father thinking about? What is he saying? What are the ideas that dominate his mind at the moment? Because the Holy Spirit speaks to us through that pathway.

Somebody once was at an audience at St. Peter's with John Paul II, and got to the barrier, and managed to say a few words to the Pope as he passed. He said to him: “Holy Father, we are very united to you in Opus Dei.”

Immediately, John Paul II replied: “Very good, very good, but through your Prelate, through your Prelate.”

This saint seized the opportunity of that moment to emphasize unity—unity in the universal Church, unity in the Prelature. That's what we are all called to.

Everything related to unity is important. If the devil can ever drive a wedge between us and the director, or us and the Advisory, or us and the persons we chat with, they’ve driven a wedge between us and the Father. The devil has won a great battle.

The thin edge of that wedge can bring about many bad things. Lacks of unity have a lot of things coming in their wake. It's a great instrument of the devil—to lack unity.

Diaballein means to tear apart, diabolic. All unity comes from the Holy Spirit. All disunity comes from the devil.

Each one of us has to take special care, and as we grow older in our vocation, perhaps with a great refinement, an example of unity, taking care of details of unity.

Writing to the Father is an act of unity. There might be very few letters that we write nowadays, but that effort to sit down and write to the Father occasionally during the year is an act of unity that brings its great fruits.

As Don Javier used to say, it's a two-way ticket. It's a return ticket. We send things to the Father, and immediately it benefits us ourselves. Every act of unity binds us greater to this spiritual paternity.

“I hear Our Lord saying those words, ‘Feed my sheep’ (John 21:17), convinced that to be a good shepherd in the work of divine mercy, that reality is to grow each day. For that to happen, my love of Christ is to grow each day, my identification with Him. Help me, my children, because I need it, because, I insist, Our Lord will ask me to account for this duty.”

Nobody is more aware of that great duty than the Father at the moment, the account that he has to give for that spiritual paternity.

He has to take care of all the sheep. Some of them may be very young, some of them may be very old, some of them might be dying. Some of them might be suffering serious illnesses as they come to the end of their life, cancer or something. Some of them might be very young and they might be dying—all sorts of phenomena that happen in any family.

And all of this reaches the heart of the Father. That weight weighs on him, that he might be more identified with Christ all the time, leading us forward in that goal.

“Loving the unity of the Work,” he continues, quoting our Father, “means forming a part of this body, wherever we are placed.”

Our Father loved that phrase, “wherever we are placed,” the phrase we hear frequently.

We form a part of this body, wherever we are. It means the same to us to be a hand as to be a foot; to be the tongue as to be the heart, because in all places and in all ways, we are all part of this body. We are one thing through the charity of Christ that unites us.

“I want to make you feel,” said our Father, “and convinced, of the need to see ourselves as members of this one body.”

On days like today, we sort of feel a blessed unity. We know that in this family, we get excited occasionally by news we hear from other countries, Chile or Tokyo or someplace, because it's all part of the supernatural reality of which we are a part.

All of us, one single thing. May this be manifested in our unidad de miradas–the unity of gazes, of looks, focus. Unity of apostolate, unity of sacrifice, unity of hearts.

The charity with which we deal with each other, in our smile in the face of the cross and on the cross, vibrate all together in the same way.

Lord, help me to have that vibration by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that vibration for unity, unity of focus. Focus on the apostolate, siempre más.

What are the apostolic horizons that Our Lord is placing before me during these days, and weeks, and months? Who are the people I need to regather a little bit closer or cast the net in their direction?

Or what is the prayer that Our Lord wants from me in this great apostolic undertaking that we're involved in, so that the fruits reach every last soul, so that nothing is lost, so that with the passage of time and the decades, all the seeds that this apostolic work has sown may yield abundant fruit in the thousands of alumni all over the country, in the thousands or hundreds of pupils that we have at the moment, and the thousands that may come in the future. They are part of this great harvest.

Our Lord will ask us, How have you worked that harvest? What have you done? Have you offered things?

We get a glimpse of the sort of things that are going through the Father's mind and heart today.

We think of our own corporate apostolic work, but the Father has to think of, maybe, thousands of apostolic works all over the world, and the fruits for society that have to come from them. Fruits of holiness and apostolate.

Queen of Opus Dei, may you look at the Father in a very special way today, a very maternal way. Help him, encourage him, and help each one of us to support him more, so that our Father, Blessed Álvaro, and Don Javier in heaven, may be very happy with that spiritual unity that we have, to support his spiritual paternity.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

OLV