Josemaria Escriva is known as “the saint of ordinary life.”
It was Escriva who founded Opus Dei – meaning “the work of God” –
on the principle that people can find God
right in the middle of their everyday lives.
I did not found Opus Dei.
Opus Dei is the work of. . . it is God’s doing.
All I did was get in the way. Is that clear?
Josemaria had a powerful vision:
that deep spirituality could infuse every aspect of peoples’ lives,
and they could love and serve God in their everyday work,
with their families, and in their friendships.
You and I have to be rebels, but the kind that gives solutions,
solutions based on justice and charity, Christian solutions.
He was a priest who spent his life teaching ordinary people that living for God
is not just for priests and nuns.
Be holy as my heavenly Father is holy.
And he says this not just to those of us who wear these things
but to everyone, to everyone!
People of every nation, race, and social condition
could live the Christian calling in a new way:
by striving to be holy in the ordinary circumstances of their lives.
To husbands, to wives, to single people,
to workers, to intellectuals, to farmers, to everyone!
WHO WAS JOSEMARIA ESCRIVA?
THE EARLY YEARS (1902-1928)
Josemaria Escriva’s openness to the will of God began at an early age.
Born into a devoutly Catholic family,
Josemaría would recite all his life the prayers his mother taught him.
He suffered many hardships as a child.
His three younger sisters died.
His father’s business collapsed and the family had to move
to another city where they struggled to get by.
When he was 15 he began to sense that God had a special mission for him.
He had dreamed of being an architect, but instead became a priest,
to be ready for whatever God was asking,
praying fervently, “Lord, let me see what you want.”
During a retreat in Madrid, God showed him what he wanted.
It was Opus Dei,
a part of the Catholic Church that spreads the remarkable message
that a person can find holiness in ordinary life.
Father Josemaría would dedicate his whole life to developing Opus Dei.
Whenever he was asked about what happened that day,
he would simply respond, “I saw Opus Dei.”
But I think it’s clear from that very moment, he understood
that ordinary Christians were called to holiness in their work and in the middle of the world,
and that he was called to start an organization that would spread that message.
FIRST STEPS (1928-1936)
The circumstances could not have been more challenging.
Escriva was a poor, unknown priest
- no financial resources, helpers or patrons.
1930’s Spain was boiling with anti-clericalism…
priests were under attack. Churches and convents were burned.
Nevertheless, relying on the power of prayer,
he set out on a search for people who could understand his message
and dedicate their lives to spreading it.
Surrounded by political turmoil which was often violent,
Escrivá refused to take sides and taught his followers
to understand pluralism and to love and respect freedom.
Growth was slow.
After eight years, less than twenty people had joined Opus Dei.
Then war broke out.
TRIAL BY WAR (1936-1939)
The Spanish Civil War brought even fiercer religious persecution.
Thousands of priests and nuns were murdered.
Father Josemaría was forced to abandon his clerical dress
and to go into hiding in Madrid, moving from place to place
to avoid capture and death.
For a while he hid in an insane asylum,
pretending to be mentally ill.
Later he and a few members of Opus Dei
found refuge in the Consulate of Honduras
where they lived in a single room.
During this time he still ministered to many people,
at times risking his life to do so.
This was a time of great danger for all priests,
but Father Josemaría felt he could not simply sit out the war in hiding,
unable to carry out his priestly activities or work at the development of Opus Dei.
So he decided to try to escape to the Nationalist Zone,
where religious activities were permitted.
In the fall of 1937, Escrivá traveled incognito to Barcelona
and from there joined a group of smugglers
for a series of dangerous night marches through the Pyrenees Mountains
into Andorra.
For the remainder of the war he struggled to reestablish contact
with the members and friends of Opus Dei.
The civil war left Spain destroyed.
A few months later the Nazis invaded Poland,
beginning the Second World War that devastated Europe.
Spain remained neutral, but suffered scarcity of food and extreme hardship.
RAPID GROWTH (1939-1946)
Despite the difficult conditions, Father Josemaría immediately resumed
his activities in Madrid, and Opus Dei began to grow rapidly.
It spread to other Spanish cities,
and in 1944, three lay members,
all engineers, became the first priests of Opus Dei.
THE ROMAN YEARS (1946-1975)
From the beginning, Escrivá had seen that Opus Dei
would be for all people and for all time.
In 1946 he travelled to Rome to seek Vatican approval,
so that international expansion could begin.
He would live there for the rest of his life.
By the mid 1970s, Opus Dei would be flourishing
in over 30 countries on six continents.
Fr. Josemaría wanted to personally
teach members from all the new countries,
so he oversaw the building of a large complex in Rome
where young members could gather and study Christian doctrine,
and then return to their countries to spread it
along with the message of Opus Dei.
He really threw himself into this “battle of formation,” as he called it.
He spent hours and hours talking with his sons and daughters
and the optimism and confidence with which he did it was truly inspiring.
THE FINAL JOURNEYS (1970-1975)
Beginning in 1970, Fr. Josemaría made long catechetical trips
where he would meet with large groups of Opus Dei members and their friends,
to strengthen them in their Christian faith.
It is the sanctification of work.
It is to say to each Christian, whatever his job or position in life...
that there, where he is, he can and ought to be a good son of God.
On June 26th, 1975,
he died suddenly of a heart attack
and was buried in the church of Our Lady of Peace
in the central headquarters of Opus Dei in Rome.
Immediately, people around the world
began to pray to him for all their needs.
On October 6th, 2002,
before an enormous crowd in St. Peter’s Square,
Pope John Paul II declared him to be a saint
referring to him as “the saint of ordinary life.”