504. February 14, Women's Section, Priestly Society of Holy Cross (I)

Meditations no. 434 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

God wanted women to be in Opus Dei.

This date brings us a new anniversary of that day on which our Lord made known to our Father that the Work should include women. Our prayer acknowledges this great grace from God and his Most Holy Mother, through whose mediation this came about on the 14th of February 1930. Some words of our Father spoken on this anniversary will help us speak to our Lord.

Our founder said to his daughters: We begin the thirty-seventh year, and there is something I want to tell you. I did not want to found the men’s section, or the women’s section of Opus Dei. I never even thought about a women’s section. I can assure you with physical certitude, yes, physical certitude, that you are daughters of God.

I had inklings of the love of God, he added some years later, but I never knew how immense this work would be. On the second of October, feast of the Guardian Angels, Our Lord, Jesus, wanted Opus Dei to come into being. I ask his pardon because, since then, I have not worked as much as I could.

I thought that Opus Dei would be just for men. Not that I did not have any concern for women; I love the Mother of God very much; I love my own mother and all of yours; I love all my daughters - who do splendid things throughout the world - but, before the 14th of February 1930, I had no idea there would be women in Opus Dei, although I always had a great desire in my heart of fulfilling the Will of God.

In 1930, the 14th of February fell on a Friday, that day of the week on which we especially remember the redemptive sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. God was intent on there being an innumerable crowd of women who would find Christ and follow him on all the pathways of the earth. So that there could be no doubt that it was He who was carrying out his Work, our Lord added external things. I had written: There will never be women in Opus Dei, no fear! And a few days later… the 14th of February: so that it could be seen that this thing was not mine, but against my inclination and against my will.

I used to go to the house of an old lady of eighty, who came to me for Confession, to celebrate Mass in the small oratory she had. And it was there, in the Mass, after Communion, that the women’s section came to the world. When I had finished, I went straight to my confessor who told me: This is as much God’s as all the rest.

Wanting to be faithful to the express will of God, our Father immediately began to ensure that the Work’s message reach as many women as possible. The combination of God’s grace, together with the constant (and generous) work of our founder, have since then produced outstanding benefits for the Church and for souls. But, on that 14th of February 1930, our Lord made me feel what happens to a father to whom God sends another child when he is no longer expecting one. And since then, it seems to me that I am obliged to have more affection for you: I look upon you as a mother does her youngest child.

The apostolic activity of our sisters is an essential part of the Work.

In one of the readings that can be used in the Mass of Our Lady we celebrate today, to thank the Mother of God for the marvellous gift of our vocation, we read ego quasi vitis fructificavi, as a vine, I spread sweet-smelling branches; with fine flowers and rich fruits. Ego Mater pulchrae dilectionis: I am the Mother of Fair Love, and of fear and of knowledge, and of holy hope. Come to me all you who want and enjoy my fruit (cf. Sir 24: 17-20). This passage speaks of the vine and the branches. Similarly, within the Work, the women’s section of Opus Dei has borne much wonderfully aromatic fruit. It has been producing beautiful, silent, hidden, but effective virtues. The women’s section has worked very much and has spread throughout the world.

If God had not made his will clearly known, the Work would have been left lame, our Father assured us. The spirit of Opus Dei would not have been able to reach all the corners of the world; and the sowing of peace and joy which our Lord entrusted to us, could not have penetrated such important areas as the home, the family and the professions which are proper to women.

My daughters, as our Father said many years ago, I would like you to realise today the many things that our Lord, the Church and the whole of humanity expect from the women’s section of Opus Dei; so that, knowing all the greatness of your vocation you may love it more each day, fully intent on being the instruments that our Lord needs, cheerfully, with optimism, and with a supernatural outlook. On you go, my daughters; God expects a lot from you. But take this very much to heart: we will not do anything if we are not saints.

The apostolic works of the women’s section have no limits. At all latitudes there are countless members of the women’s section of Opus Dei who carry on their saintly and sanctifying work among women of all races and religions within the very heart of temporal structures. Our Father wrote: You each carry on, among women, works that are similar to those your brothers also do in the midst of the world. Like other women, you are engaged in every type of professional, social and political occupation.

Furthermore, you have to take care of the household administration of all the houses of both sections. Once again I will write that it is the apostolate of apostolates, and I assure you that I am not exaggerating. It is a work that serves the whole Work, and it is truly professional work.

In all of their work in the service of souls, the daughters of God in Opus Dei have as their model our Lady. The main thing is that like Mary, who was a woman, a virgin and a mother, they live their lives with their eyes fixed on God, repeating her words fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum (Luke 1: 38). Be it done unto me according to your word. On this depends the faithfulness to one’s personal vocation, which is always unique and non-transferable, which makes us all cooperators in the work of salvation which God carries out in the entire world.

The whole Work gives thanks on this day.

Today is a day of thanksgiving because it is the anniversary of the foundation of the women’s section of Opus Dei. And the entire Work is filled with joy. The whole of Opus Dei, each of its members, each one of you, each one of your brothers, says to our Lord: gratias tibi, Deus, gratias tibi! I can assure you that the reason for the existence of the women’s section of Opus Dei was the express will of God, made manifest on that day in the year 1930: it was He who wanted it.

By considering the sea without shores which has been widened by the women’s section of the Work, our heart is filled with gratitude to God our Father and to the Blessed Virgin. We should begin by giving thanks from the bottom of our hearts, since, although we are inept instruments, God has chosen us from all eternity to accomplish this divine task all over the world. We should say to our Lord and to his Mother that we shall faithfully carry the love of God everywhere; truly desiring the welfare and happiness of all creatures, from whatever nation, speaking any language: before God we are all equal; and in his presence, we see no one as below us.

Our Lady, thank you, because you have given this certitude to our lives. Thank you for all the great things you have brought into being all around the world through these daughters of mine, who know very well that they are inadequate instruments; and that all their efficacy comes from you. You have won from Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit, all the necessary graces and assistance.

A sure sign of our gratitude, which should not be lacking, is the renewal of our proselytistic desire. When a person possesses some good, when a soul is truly content, when it feels interior joy and happiness, the most natural reaction is to communicate this happiness to others. Hence we have an imperative duty to do proselytism; the holy obligation of trying to win for other souls the divine gift of a vocation, striving to find other souls who want to serve God in Opus Dei. In this mystical body, in Opus Dei, you and I, through the joyful fulfilment of our duties - even when they are difficult - with this self-conquest; with that smile that can be at times a mortification, we can win abundant graces from God for other souls.

Let us finish our prayer making our own the wishes of our Father: May a song of thanksgiving spring from the depths of our hearts. A gratitude based on humility, like that of our Lady - for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden (Luke 1: 48), she said. We can say the same, but with more reason. She is the most perfect creature; we are really quite useless creatures. Our Lady, help us now, even more than before, so that we might truly love, love, and love God and the whole world.