St Josemaria Escriva – 26 June
By Catherine Sheehan
When St John Paul II canonised Josemaria Escriva, founder of the Prelature of Opus Dei, on 6 October 2002, he described the Spanish priest as “a master in the practice of prayer”. He said that St Josemaria considered prayer to be “an extraordinary ‘weapon’ to redeem the world”.
“It is not a paradox but a perennial truth,” John Paul said. “The fruitfulness of the apostolate lies above all in prayer and in intense and constant sacramental life. This, in essence, is the secret of the holiness and the true success of the saints.”
Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer was born into a devout Catholic family on 9 January 1902 in Barbastro, Spain. From an early age he showed a particular love for prayer.
He first felt a calling to the priesthood at the age of 15. While he had thoughts of becoming an architect, he prayed to God asking him, “Lord, let me see what you want”.
His attraction toward the priesthood continued and he entered the seminary at Logrono at the age of 18 and was ordained a priest on 28 March 1925.
Josemaria moved to Madrid in 1927 where he cared for the poor, ill, and dying in the city’s hospitals.
He also obtained doctorate in Civil Law from the University of Madrid.
Immersed in prayer while on a retreat in 1928, he had an experience that revealed to him God’s greater purpose for his life. He later said that during this experience he “saw” Opus Dei. He received the divine inspiration to found an apostolate of lay Catholics and priests who would centre their lives on the call to holiness through their ordinary day-to-day work. The name Opus Dei means “Work of God”.
The main aim of Opus Dei is to assist in the Church’s mission to evangelise by fostering among Christians a life consistent with their faith, in the midst of the ordinary circumstances of their lives, and through the sanctification of their work.
The new apostolate was delayed somewhat during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) when Josemaria suffered greatly due to anti-clericalism. He refrained from wearing clerical garb and lived in hiding in order to avoid being captured or killed.
Following the War, Opus Dei continued to grow and in 1944 three laymen were ordained as the first priests of Opus Dei.
In 1946 Josemaria moved to Rome where he lived for the rest of his life and in 1950 Pope Pius XII granted definitive pontifical approval of Opus Dei. In 1982 Pope John Paul II established Opus Dei as a personal prelature.
When Josemaria died of a sudden heart attack on 26 June 1975 there were 60,000 members of Opus Dei world-wide.
Today, there are 90,000 members of Opus Dei and 98 percent of them are lay men and women most of whom are married. The other two percent are priests.
Even though Opus Dei is focused on achieving holiness through work, Josemaria always encouraged members to base their lives on prayer.
In his book The Way, Josemaria wrote that, “Action is worth nothing without prayer,” and “If you are not a man of prayer, I don’t believe in the sincerity of your intentions when you say that you work for Christ”.
He also wrote, “A saint without prayer? I don’t believe in such sanctity”.