366. Twenty-second Saturday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 332 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

We are children of our Father’s prayer and mortification.

St Paul wrote to the Corinthians: For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel. Like St Paul, our Father used to say that we are children of his prayer and mortification, since he had passed on to us the very spirit he received from God. And thanks to his faithfulness, we now enjoy a wonderful spiritual legacy, a home for our souls which is founded on rock, an interior life nourished on the rich spirit of Opus Dei.

We are united to our Founder by ties stronger than blood. His faithfulness to God’s inspirations made our vocation to Opus Dei possible. He truly brought us forth to this new spiritual life that leads to heaven. My children, I have engendered you as mothers do, in pain as mothers do.

On his sixty-sixth birthday, our Father said in a homily: Some of you here will remember what I used to say to those sons of mine - there were few of them then - who were around me, foreseeing that the Work would expand from pole to pole, reaching out to become a great family…

I told them, “My children, don’t put my name on the tombstone when you have to bury this poor mortal frame.” “Then what should we put?” they asked. I replied: “Put: et genuit filios et filias; he begot sons and daughters, like the Patriarchs.” And that was no dream. Don’t you see that the dreams have come true? Today the Work is a family embracing every race, language and nation.

As the Work grew, our Lord enlarged our Founder’s heart, so that he was always a real Father for all of us. In 1945 he wrote: I cannot help raising my soul in thanksgiving to God, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, for having given me this spiritual fatherhood which, with his grace, I have taken on in full consciousness of being on earth for this purpose alone. And so I love you with the heart of a father and a mother.

Years ago, when we were fewer in the Work, I sometimes feared that as my children increased in number, I would be unable to love them all with the same human and supernatural affection. But I assure you that our Lord has enlarged my heart. And I can say to you with St Paul: os nostrum patet ad vos … cor nostrum dilatatum est (our mouth is open to you … our heart is wide); love makes me speak openly and expands my heart: for I love each one of you as if you were my only child. God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Filiation to our Founder passes through filiation to the Father.

I want to tell you something in particular about the Father. When I die, my children, love the Father very much no matter who he is, even though it may occur to you that he is not holy enough or intelligent enough, or a thousand other things which may cross your mind and which you must reject promptly because they are wrong. Love him very much, my children! Kiss the ground he walks on, and don’t omit that small daily mortification, or the prayer for the head of the Work, said with love. Love him very much, my children, for it’s very hard to carry this load!

God, who wants the Work to be a family, has arranged things so that our filiation to our Founder is continued at all times through our filiation to the Father. One of the greatest miracles our Lord has worked in Opus Dei is this marvellous continuity of ours, in close union with the Father: You have multiplied, O Lord, my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us!

Our Father once said: One sometimes hears of institutions here in Rome suffering a kind of “earthquake” when the founder or foundress dies. Opus Dei has had no foundress: I’m both founder and foundress, though without foundation. But I can assure you that in the Work there will be no earthquake. Of that I’m certain. Now we can thank God for fulfilling our Father’s heartfelt conviction so abundantly.

We owe everything to God’s grace. By staying closely united to the Father, we stay closely united to our Father and to God our Lord. There is no other way for us: without the filiation that is part of the spirit of the Work, we cannot live out our divine filiation as God wants. The Father carries out his mission in close union with our Father, who continues governing the Work from heaven: our Father’s voice reaches us principally through our Prelate. We are children of the Father’s prayer and mortification too; we are the whole reason for his existence. The Father bears each and every one of us in his heart. He gives us spiritual nourishment for our souls; he guides our steps like the Good Shepherd with paternal and maternal vigilance; he warns us of dangers, and unites us by his constant calls to personal responsibility and holiness.

What joy and gratitude to God are ours now when we read our Father’s words: Be closely united to the one who comes after me, clustered round him like the scales on a pine cone! My children, I love you - and I don’t mind saying so since I’m not exaggerating - I love you more than your parents do. And I’m sure you’ll find the same affection in the hearts of those who come after me - I was about to say more affection, but that seems impossible to me - since they will have deep in their heart our family spirit, which imbues the whole Work.

Our duty to help the Father with our prayer and mortification.

The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. He fulfils the desire of all who fear him, he also hears their cry, and saves them.

Every day, from every corner of the globe, there rises up to heaven an incessant clamour for the Father and his intentions. God asks us for faith; and he strengthens our faith by constantly showing how near he is to us, and how he works wonders through our uninterrupted prayer for the Prelate. We pray for the Father and his intentions. And when we pray for those intentions we are being good children of his; we are following a divinely ordained path and offering pleasing petition to Christ, who assured us: Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

There are many moments in our day when we pray for the Father: at Holy Mass, in the Preces, and on so many other occasions when our filial love enables us to find opportunities to respond to his vigilance for us. Prayer is repaid with prayer; love is repaid with love: that is the way we act as good children. May our prayer be conscientious and frequent, since to pray for the Father is to pray for the whole Work and all our apostolates. Then God will fill us with grace, and we will see our longings to spread Opus Dei on earth fulfilled sooner, more, and better than we had ever dreamed.

We especially pray for the intentions of the Father’s Mass. Whenever I celebrate Holy Mass, our Founder said, as well as being Christ and knowing that I am surrounded by Angels, I will also be conscious of the clamour of all my children’s prayer, which gives me the strength to say to our Lord: Exaudi orationem meam, et clamor meus ad te veniat! (Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come unto you!)

Together with prayer, there must be mortification. When something is hard, our Founder told us, offer it up for me, so that I may be good and faithful. How many things I offer up for you during the day! The Father can say the same thing. We want to respond fully to his loving vigilance by constantly overcoming ourselves in little things: small deeds of love are marvellous in God’s sight. In the examination of conscience every night, we can consider whether we are able to present to God a generous measure of mortification for the Father. Just wait and see, our Founder said, how nice, how easy something unpleasant becomes, when the thought occurs to you: “Let’s offer this up for the Father’s intentions.” Instead of getting upset, you’ll find yourself smiling. Perhaps you’ll grimace at first, but the smile will come, a smile full of peace and joy. And meanwhile our Lord will be uniting us together in mind and heart, because he sees that we are united in prayer and sacrifice.

Trusting in our Lady’s help, we ask her to teach us to forget about ourselves and our things, and be concerned about the Father and his intentions. Mary will help us to show our filial love in deeds every day. Then God will continue blessing the Work with the blessing bestowed on the Patriarchs: I will indeed bless you and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore.