PathToHoliness

It’s still Christmas even though it seems like most people have forgotten about it and are moving on to how to celebrate New Year’s and the Super Bowl. The definition of Christmas Season seems to vary as you’ll find in this article on Wikipedia. You can find more Catholic information at American Catholic. Better yet, here’s a great article about the Christmas season from the Opus Dei website.

I added the wise men to our front yard manger yesterday. I know it’s not Epiphany yet but at least some of my neighbors understand.

I hope everyone who visits has had a nice Christmas. Our family has even if we’re starting to become more spread out as our daughters get older and have other interests and friends since they’ve been in college.

Here’s wishing you a very safe and happy New Year.

Opus Dei is often seen as a way of sanctifying one’s work – which it is. But it’s not just about professional work. It’s about raising up every aspect of daily life to the level of prayer and union with God. As children of God, we must act like His children, even in the most ordinary aspects of our daily life:

Heaven and earth seem to merge, my daughters and sons, on the horizon. But where they really meet is in your heart, when you strive for holiness in your everyday lives.
~St.

http://www.gaelnet.de/wp-content/themes/twentyten/best-essay.html

Josemaria Escriva, from Passionately Loving the World, Oct. 8, 1967

On his blog, Human Life Matters, Mark Pickup has a beautiful post about how those of us with disabilities, though we may not “work”, can still contribute to society and benefit from Opus Dei:

I have been unable to work in years because of multiple sclerosis. Still, I believe that even my circumstances of everyday life — relegated to a wheelchair — can be fertile ground for growing closer to God…

We, the incurably ill and disabled, are not life unworthy of life. We have contributions to bring to the table of the Human Community, even if it is only by our presence.

We can challenge society to include those who may difficult to include, or those who bring discomfort to sophisticated or polite company. We call those around us to a higher standard of love and friendship. We can knock at the door of mainstream society and demand admission and reasonable accommodation so that we can find our rightful places in the world. If the disabled and incurably ill despair of life, we need people to lift us up as indispensable members of society and worthy of life. We do not need the abandonment of a utilitarian society eagerly agreeing to assist with our suicides, or euthanasia of those who can’t communicate to defend themselves.

Contrary to what bioethics may promote, our rightful places in the world are not graves or crematoriums.

A man like me is increasingly viewed as a liability to society. I need an organization like Opus Dei to encourage and mentor me to use my circumstances of everyday life for “growing closer to God, for serving others, and for improving society.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. My father has been a cooperator of Opus Dei for a number of years and my mother and I enjoy the women’s retreats every year. I adore the message and spirituality of Opus Dei – holiness in ordinary life. It has been a great blessing and help for me in living out the daily struggles of my own disability, not to mention every other part of my everyday life:

It doesn’t matter what age you are; it doesn’t matter what your position is or what your circumstances are or who you are: you have to convince yourself, commit yourself, and desire holiness. You well know that holiness does not consist in extraordinary graces received in prayer, or unbearable mortification and penance; nor is it the inheritance only of those who live in lonely oasis, far from the world. Holiness consists in faithful and loving fulfillment of one’s desires, in joyful and humble acceptance of God’s will, in union with him in your everyday work, in knowing how to fuse religion and life into a fruitful and harmonious unity, and in all sorts of other ordinary little things you know so well.
~ Fr. Salvatore Canals from Jesus as Friend

Find out more about Opus Dei

The Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Javier Echevarría, has written a letter to the faithful which you can find online. In it he urges the faithful to consider the ordinary but exemplary life of the first Christians.

To explain Opus Dei’s mission, St. Josemaría often turned to those first sisters and brothers of ours in the faith. If you want a point of comparison, he would say, the easiest way to understand Opus Dei is to consider the life of the early Christians. They lived their Christian vocation seriously, seeking earnestly the holiness to which they had been called by their Baptism. Externally they did nothing to distinguish themselves from their fellow citizens. Similarly, he added, the faithful of Opus Dei are ordinary people. They work like everyone else and live in the midst of the world just as they did before they joined. There is nothing false or artificial about their behavior. They live like any other Christian citizen who wants to respond fully to the demands of his faith, because that is what they are.

The basic message of Opus Dei is holiness in ordinary life, sanctifying one’s work. That was the message of the vicar of Opus Dei in the United States’ homily commemorating the feast day of Opus Dei founder St. Josemaria Escriva:

“So much depends upon our living the lives that God wants us to,” said Msgr. Bohlin, emphasizing that “every baptized Christian” has a “call to heroic Christian holiness in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.”

…Describing Opus Dei’s founder “as a modern-day saint” familiar with 20th-century life, Msgr. Bohlin said the charismatic St. Josemaria advocated “an apostleship of friendship” in which Catholics “from all walks of life” reach out “one on one” to those near them in the workplace, family, school and community.

American culture suffers from what some call “friendship-deficit syndrome,” he said, noting that “so many are surrounded by people but have few friends.”

Source: Catholic Online

See: Opus Dei Message

We didn’t have a special feast day Mass here locally on June 26 but they sure did in Sacré Coeur of Bucharest on June 9, 2007. D. Alberto Steinvorth and a Catholic priest from Buzau, P. Pavel con-celebrated.

The St. Josemaria Institute is collecting pictures from various celebrations and says they’ll be posting them on their website soon.

Canada’s Opus Dei Vicar Msgr. Fred Dolan shares his vocation story with Canadian Catholic News:

On Dec. 5, 1975, Dolan had what he calls his “Road to Damascus” experience. Working on a paper on Gulliver’s Travels, he decided to take a study break. He went over to the center’s book shelf and took down C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce. A friend had told him about scene depicting a lizard on a man’s shoulder arguing with his guardian angel on the other. He found it immediately.

“The Holy Spirit used the pages of C.S. Lewis to zap me,” Msgr. Dolan said. Instantly he saw two paths open up before him.

The path of a “numerary,” Opus Dei’s term for members committed to lifelong celibacy, promised “enormous happiness and fruitfulness.”

The other path – that of marriage and a family – also opened up and he saw he could choose it with no problem. He realized instantly, however, the celibate path “was what God wanted” for him…

He’s never experienced any doubt that he made the right decision and remains “grateful” for a “powerful sense I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

“If you give the Holy Spirit ‘carte blanche,’ you just fasten your seat belt and hold on for the ride,” he said. “It’s always pretty good.”

He also said Opus Dei’s support through excellent spiritual direction and the stress on the Sacrament of Penance helps keep any attacks of doubt or conflict at bay. “Nothing gets beyond the level of a brief skirmish,” he said.

Born in 1952, Dolan grew up in Bethesda, Md., as the oldest of six children in a family that took the Catholic faith seriously. His father attended mass daily and his mother converted as a teenager. Dolan said at age 16 he “met Opus Dei just at the right time” through his best friend…

Opus Dei gave him input on how to make his life complete, he said. It helped him develop a disciplined prayer life, take a professional attitude towards his studies, and “aim high in everything I do.”

Pope John Paul II ordained Dolan in 1983 at St. Peter’s in Rome…

Opus Dei celebrates its 50th anniversary of coming to Canada this June, and next year, Msgr. Dolan will celebrate his 10th anniversary here.

I love this part of the article. It’s very typical of an Opus Dei priest:

Msgr. Dolan always wears his clerical collar. In fact, when he was interviewed by CBC Television’s Evan Solomon last year during the height of “The Da Vinci Code” movie controversy, he showed his empty closet, bare except for a few black shirts and slacks off the sparely furnished bedroom bed at his residence in Montreal.

He said the clerical garb signals to others, “I exist for you. How can I serve you?”

“It pays to advertise,” he said, smiling. He often has people coming up to him, asking for prayer. He now makes a practice of going to the train station or the airport at least an hour early so people can approach them. “If priests are invisible, that shuts down,” he said.

From Zenit:

The new priests come from Ireland, the Netherlands, the United States, Australia, Germany, Spain, Colombia, Italy, the Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, France, Congo, Brazil, Argentina, Kenya and Guatemala.

During the Mass, Bishop Echevarría offered the new priests some advice from Opus Dei’s founder, St. Josemaría Escrivá: “We priests must only speak of God. We will not speak of politics, or social ideologies or questions extraneous to the priestly task. In this way, we will make the Holy Church and the Roman Pontiff loved.”

Brian Maguire, an American who flew to Rome to attend the event, said: “Many Americans are understandably discouraged by the so-called vocations crisis here at home. They should go to Rome. There’s no doubt that God is renewing the Church from its heart in Rome.

“Saturday’s ordinations showed not only that many young men are responding to this call, but that they are doing so generously and enthusiastically when it’s presented to them as a lifelong surrender of self for others.”

Today was the feast of St. Joseph the worker. St. Joseph could be considered a model for Opus Dei. He was regarded in the Bible as a good and just man and was referred to by his profession (“is this not the carpenter’s son?” Mt. 13:55). The emphasis on Joseph’s work in the Bible and throughout tradition speaks to the importance of our own work in the world.

From St. Paul’s teaching we know that we have to renew the world in the spirit of Jesus Christ, that we have to place Our Lord at the summit and at the heart of all things. Do you think you are carrying this out in your work, in your professional task?..

Professional work – and the work of a housewife is one of the greatest of professions – is a witness to the worth of the human creature. It provides a chance to develop one’s own personality; it creates a bond of union with others; it constitutes a fund of resources; it is a way of helping in the improvement of the society we live in, and of promoting the progress of the whole human race…For a Christian, these grand views become even deeper and wider. For work, which Christ took up as something both redeemed and redeeming, becomes a means, a way of holiness, a specific task which sanctifies and can be sanctified…

You should maintain throughout the day a constant conversation with Our Lord, a conversation fed even by the things that happen in your professional work. Go in spirit to the tabernacle…and offer to God the work that is in your hands.

~St. Josemaria, the Forge 678, 702 and 745

Presidential hopeful, Senator Sam Brownback, is a rarity as far as presidential candidates are concerned. A devout Catholic, he constantly strives to sanctify his daily life. One of the ways he does this is by keeping a quote from Mother Teresa on the back door of his home about not judging people:

“So easy to judge people,” he says. “I see you coming in the hallway and my mind just automatically goes, ‘Okay, reporter, Washington Post, that’s a primarily liberal publication, be careful.’ Well, now I’ve automatically judged you. So I’ve spent my time judging you instead of thinking, ‘Oh, here’s a great person that I can interact with. I pray to love ’em.’ “

He frequently examines his soul for hate and then works to rid himself from its harmful effects. He even went so far as to apologize to Hillary Clinton for having once despised her and her husband. In the business of politics it is easy to have ill feelings for those with whom you are in disagreement, especially in a heated debate. For these situations Sen. Brownback practices prayer:

“Instead of getting angry at somebody for opposing you on something, you’re just praying for them,” he says. “You just pray blessings on them, blessings on their family.”

In addition to striving for sanctity, the Senator is committed to promoting a culture of life. Recently he was the only presidential Candidate in the Senate to vote against a bill to increase funding for embryonic stem cell research and even lead the floor debate in opposition to it. During the 2004 Republican convention he said, “We must win this culture war. I say we fight.”

So now the Kansas Senator is seeking the office of Presidency and he does so with a humble abandonment to the will of God, “If I win, I win. If I lose, I lose. It’s a great liberation”

Though not an Opus Dei cooperater himself, Sam Brownback, a lifelong Protestant, was welcomed into the Catholic Church four years ago by Fr. John McCloskey, a priest of the prelature.

Source: Faith Based Initiative from the Washington Post

It looks like the Wespine Study Center in St. Louis is going to resume their development project of a piece of property that was donated to them. It’s in St. Charles County. They plan to put up an activity building and shrine to the Holy Family. It’ll be used to accomodate family visits, one-day conferences for adults and overnight activities for young people.

Just contact the center for more information.

The new year brings an opportunity to do a little extra self examination and see how you’re doing spiritually. As important as your spiritual life is we sure don’t see or hear much about it do we? Instead we seem to see and hear all about how important our material goods are and how important our retirement plan is. One of the things that attracted me most to Opus Dei is the spiritual formation it offers. Just reading the writings of St. Josemaria Escriva is an enormous help.

One of the things I’m focusing on right now is my plan of life. The founder describes it this way, “Try to commit yourself to a plan of life and to keep to it: a few minutes of mental prayer, Holy Mass — daily, if you can manage it — and frequent Communion; regular recourse to the Holy Sacrament of Forgiveness — even though your conscience does not accuse you of mortal sin; visiting Jesus in the Tabernacle; praying and contemplating the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, and so many other marvellous devotions you know or can learn.

You should not let them become rigid rules, or water‑tight compartments. They should be flexible, to help you on your journey you who live in the middle of the world, with a life of hard professional work and social ties and obligations which you should not neglect, because in them your conversation with God still continues. Your plan of life ought to be like a rubber glove which fits the hand perfectly.” (The Way 77)

I have my own business and travel a lot. This often makes it difficult to fulfill my daily plan, especially attending daily Mass. However, with a concerted effort it can be done. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought I couldn’t make it to Mass in a town or country I’m visiting or how many times I couldn’t find the Church. Usually just when I’m ready to give up I turn a corner and there’s the Church right in front of me.

I really believe that if a day goes by without taking the time to spend in prayer and with our Lord, it’s a lost opportunity. So, that’s part of my new year’s resolution – to re-commit myself to my plan of life.

I didn’t realize how many pictures and video clips there are on the Opus Dei website now. When the Prelate, Bishop Javier Echevarría, recently visited the United States a lot of pictures were taken like this one in Houston. He had an inspiring message which you can watch in video clips you’ll find in this section of the Opus Dei website.

In his latest letter the Prelate writes of Advent, “During this liturgical time, the Church urges us to consider the end of time, when Christ will come in the splendor of his glory to judge all men, and to prepare ourselves to remember his temporal birth, now twenty centuries ago.

The two comings are intimately related. In the first, divine mercy is especially evident; in the final one, his justice will be clearly seen. But both are a manifestation of God’s love for man, as St. Paul teaches: “For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14).”

I started this website with the idea of using it as a mechanism to evangelize the spirituality of Opus Dei and am still trying to find my voice for it. That’s a big part of why I’m not posting regularly. However, I’m going to continue to try to get into a rhythm.

I haven’t even looked at the Opus Dei website recently but thought I had better visit there more often. One of the interesting things they have a is a nice video you can watch with Doug Hinderer, a corporate executive who talks about growing up, finding Opus Dei, family issues, and misconceptions about Opus Dei.

The mid-Missouri Cooperators of Opus Dei got together yesterday for our monthly Circle meeting. It’s a time to listen to some spiritual reading, a meditation on our faith, conduct an examination of conscience and have time for fellowship.

The presenter for us was Nate Tyson, who is a super-numerary of Opus Dei. To learn what that means and a little more about Opus Dei I interviewed Nate after our meeting. Nate talks about the structure of what we call “The Work,” how people get involved to support the apostalate and how he learned about it personally.

You can listen to my interview with Nate here: Nate Tyson Interview (9 min MP3)

I talked with Justin at the Wespine Study Center in St. Louis today and found out that they’ve got a website now!

You can find Wespine online. That rhymes.

Wespine Study Center sponsors educational programs emphasizing character development, leadership and service for men of all ages. Its activities reach primarily to the metropolitan St. Louis area but also extend to nearby cities including St. Charles, Columbia, Jefferson City, Kansas City, Omaha (NE), Springfield (IL), and Memphis and Nashville (TN).