Category: Spirituality

Reflecting on the beautiful quote I posted below and what I’ve read of and by St. Josemaria Escriva, I’m convinced that the spirituality of Opus Dei is the antidote for the pathologies of modernity: atheism, secularism, hedonism, spiritualism, and whatever other “isms” I’ve neglected to mention. The tendency in the West to remove any mention of the Christian God or religion from public discourse is countered by the Opus Dei, which seeks to sanctify everyday life in a practical manner, thus giving its members a means to answer the universal call to holiness of Lumen Gentium and providing the world with an authentic witness of Christ.

Prayer is the most commonly used “alternative medicine,” according to a survey of more than 31,000 adults released by the National Institutes of Health yesterday…

Psalm 57
This psalm tells of our Lord’s Passion (Saint Augustine)

Have mercy of me, God, have mercy
for in you my soul has taken refuge.
In the shadow of your wings I take refuge
till the storms of destruction pass by.
I call to God the Most High,
to God who has always been my help.
May he send from heaven and save me
and shame those who assail me.
May God send his truth and his love.
My soul lies down among lions,
who would devour the sons of men.
Their teeth are spears and arrows,
their tongue a sharpened sword.
O God, rise above the heavens;
may your glory shine on earth!
They laid a snare for my steps,
my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my path
but fell in it themselves.
My heart is ready, O God,
my heart is ready.
I will sing, I will sing your praise.
Awake, my soul,
awake, lyre and harp,
I will awake the dawn.
I will thank you, Lord, among the peoples,
among the nation I will praise you
for your love reaches to the heavens
and your truth to the skies.
O God, arise above the heavens;
may your glory shine on earth.

Loving God leads us to love others for His sake: everyone who belongs to Him; which is to say, everyone. Here’s St. Thomas on friendship:

When a man has friendship for a certain person, for his sake he loves all belonging to him, be they children, servants, or connected with him in any way. Indeed, so much do we love our friends, that for their sake we love all who belong to them, even if they hurt or hate us; so that, in this way, the friendship of charity extends even to our enemies, whom we love out of charity in relation with God, to whom the friendship of charity is chiefly directed.

Fr. Victor Brezik, CSB, in an article on Friendship with God, takes it a little further:

By this principle of loving not only a friend but also whatever pertains to him, we understand why charity obliges us to be disposed in our hearts to love all human beings, if not even other animate and inanimate beings comprising the environment, not that the latter can be loved as friends, since they lack rationality, but that as creatures they belong to God Whom we love as a friend….

(Thanks to Fr. Brezik for permission to post his article.)

The Syro-Malankara diocese of Trivandrum is reporting a unusual Eucharistic manifestation in May 2001: markings appeared on a consecrated Host in the form of a face. The bishop writes:

…if we cannot find any human means active in the event, it would be reasonable and wise to believe that Our Lord has given us a special sacramental sign through a special intervention.
For us believers what we have seen is something, which we always believed. Our real attention should now be focused on the question why Our Lord gives us this unique and extraordinary sign. We must prayerfully reflect on the meaning of this sacred symbol. If Our Lord is speaking to us by giving us a sign, it certainly needs a response from us.