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Saint Josemaría Escrivá in 1902-1936

Home_San Josemaría en Barbastro y Logroño

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Epoch of Barbastro and Logroño

Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás was born in Barbastro (Huesca, Spain) on 9 January 1902. His family is connected, through both branches, with the cultural and Christian tradition of Spain, as well as with the personality and traditions of Aragon. His parents were José Escrivá y Corzán and María de los Dolores Albás y Blanc. From them he received a clear example of faith and piety. He was baptised in Barbastro and completed his Christian initiation there. He went to studentat the high schoolof the Escolapios Fathers in Barbastro, where he studied at teachingprimary school and began his programs of studystudies. high school diplomawhich he completed at the high schoolNacional in Logroño. The family moved to this city in 1915.

José Escrivá and Dolores Albás had a first daughter, Carmen (born in 1899), followed by Josemaría and then three other sisters. testThe early 1910s were a difficult period for the family, with the death of the three youngest daughters and a severe financial setback that caused them to move from Aragon to the nearby Rioja region. All this left its mark on Josemaría, but did not sour his character.

He remained a spontaneous and open-minded young man, who pursued his programs of study with application. At the age of 16, when he saw the footprints left by a barefoot Carmelite as he walked through the snowy streets of Logroño on a harsh winter's day, he felt as if he had been struck by a blow to his soul.

He then began to sense that God wanted something from him. But he did not know what it was. So he decided to abandon projectto study architecture and become a priest. He was persuaded that in this way he would be availablefully prepared for whatever God wanted from him. A long period of intense faith and prayer followed. For years he repeated: "Lord, may I see! Lord, may I be! Lady, may I be! These were ejaculations that showed his confident prayer life and his firm determination to do what God wanted.

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Questions of interest

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Home_San Josemaría en Zaragoza

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Zaragoza: priestly ordination

In 1918 he began the ecclesiastical programs of study , as external student of seminar of Logroño. In 1920, as an internal student , he continued his studies in Zaragoza. There he resided in the seminar of San Francisco de Paula and attended the classrooms of the seminar conciliar, which then had the rank of Pontifical University. The Cardinal Archbishop of Saragossa, Juan Soldevila, perceived his qualities and conferred on him in 1922 the position of Inspector in the seminar of San Francisco de Paula. Those years of priestly preparation cemented his theological and spiritual training , with frequent reading of the classics of spiritual literature and, above all, with his prayer staff. More than one night he spent long hours before the tabernacle of the church of seminar. His visits to the Virgin of Pilar, so closely linked to the piety of Zaragoza, were practically daily.

programs of studyOnce he had advanced his theological programs of studyhe obtained the appropriate authorisation from his superiors to begin his Law studies at the University of Saragossa in 1923. He took advantage of the summer holidays and the time he had available after his pastoral duties. He studied law at the request of his father, years before, when he made known to him his decision to become a priest. The contemporaneity between the ecclesiastical and civil programs of study, his presence in the classrooms of the Law School Schooland the attentionwith professors and students of that centre professor, were circumstances that enriched his personality and prepared him for the direction he would later give to his life and activity.

Ordained deacon on 20 December 1924, he received the priesthood on 28 March 1925. Shortly before, in November 1924, his father had died. His mother, his sister Carmen and a younger brother, Santiago, born in 1919, were left at positionand moved to Saragossa. Josemaría began his priestly ministry in the parish of Perdiguera (in the diocese of Zaragoza), continuing it later in the city of Zaragoza.

 

Home_San Josemaría en Madrid

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Madrid: the foundation of Opus Dei

When he finished licentiate degreein Law, the desire to obtain the doctorate-something then reserved in Spain for the University of Madrid- led him to move to the Spanish capital, together with his family. In the spring of 1927 he settled in Madrid. There he developed a tireless work of care for the poor and destitute of the extreme neighbourhoods, especially for the incurable and dying in the hospitals of Madrid. She became positionof the chaplaincy of the board of trusteesde Enfermos, a welfare work of the Damas Apostolicas del Sagrado Corazon. He devoted many hours to preparing thousands of children for their first confession and first communion and to travelling through the working-class neighbourhoods of a Madrid in full expansion, with the resulting social problems, to care for the sick and dying. statusHe taught at a university academy, specialising in the juridical programs of study, in order to earn some money to support his family, which was going through a very precarious economic situation. His activity and his persevering prayer, mortification and penance made those years a true "prehistory" of Opus Dei. That is to say, a period of spiritual deepening that prepared him to accept what God was preparing to manifest to him.

On 2 October 1928, during a retreat, God showed him clearly what he had only intuited until then. Thus Opus Dei was born, as a reality marked by fire in the soul of a young priest who devoted all his energies to that end from then on. At first he wondered whether there was not already an institution that would realise the ideals that God had shown him. But he soon realised that there was nothing similar to what God desired of him. Always moved by God, on 14 February 1930 he realised that he should also extend the apostolate of Opus Dei among women.

A new path was thus opening up in the Church, aimed at promote, among people of all social classes, the search for holiness and the exercise of the apostolate, through the sanctification of the ordinary work, in the midst of the world and without changing status. It was also in 1930 that a comment from his confessor - "How is this work of God going?" - prompted him to call the apostolic initiative he was promoting by this name. The expression "Work of God" manifested, on the one hand, his deep conviction that he was fulfilling a divine wish. On the other hand, it reflected very well its content: ordinary life, the professional workmade for God and for the service of all men, converted by personal prayer and submissioninto the work of God, into Opus Dei.

The core of St. Josemaría's message was undoubtedly the advertisementof the universal call to holiness in exercising the ordinary professional work. Thirty years before the Second Vatican Council, speaking of the fullness of Christian life, he wrote: "You have an obligation to sanctify yourself. -You too. -Who thinks that this is the exclusive task of priests and religious? To all, without exception, the Lord said: 'Be perfect, as my heavenly Father is perfect'" (The Way, n. 291). Many times he repeated that the universal call to holiness in his own workimplies reminding each and every Christian that Jesus Christ invites everyone to follow him, wherever they are, whatever their qualities may be. The ordinary faithful must attain the fullness of Christian life in the place and condition they have in society, making their ordinary work- in imitation of the hidden life of Christ - an occasion of holiness and service to God and to their brothers and sisters. From 2 October 1928, the founder of Opus Dei spread this message, which attracted around him a small groupof people in the early days.

Meanwhile, the context was undergoing changes and tensions. statusThe family's financial situation continued to be difficult. His pastoral duties changed: in 1931 he left board of trusteesfor the sick and took on the role, first as chaplain, and from 1934 as President, of board of trusteesof St. Elizabeth. In the sacristy of St. Elizabeth's, after a particularly lively prayer staff, he wrote one of his first works: a commentary on the mysteries of the Rosary, which he published with a few additions in 1934 under the title Holy Rosary. From 1930 onwards he wrote down ideas from his prayer staffand experiences from his apostolic work. Some of these notes formed in 1932 a collection of thoughts or points of meditation which he entitled Spiritual Considerations, and which constituted an effective support for his apostolate and that of those who followed him. Revised and completed, these points of meditation gave rise to one of his best known works: The Way. Since its publication in 1939, it has been translated into numerous languages and has reached a circulation of almost five million copies.

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Questions of interest

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source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es

source: www.opusdei.es