Account of St Josemaría’s death

On June 26, 1975, Msgr. Josemaría died suddenly in Rome. The previous month he had made his last visit to Spain, where he received the gold medal of his native town, Barbastro, and visited the nearby shrine of Torreciudad, which had been built at his [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Death

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Carmen Escrivá

Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, who knew St Josemaria’s mother and sister very well, spoke in the book Immersed in God about what both of them meant for the founding and development of Opus Dei. “The availability of our Founder’s mother and sister proved of incalculable [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, The Escriva family, Opus Dei

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A faithful man

Alvaro del Portillo, St Josemaría’s first successor at the head of Opus Dei, was born March 11, 1914. A “good and faithful servant” – words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, that Pope John Paul II applied to Bishop Alvaro del Portillo. Bishop Javier Echevarria says: [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Faith, Faithfulness, Javier Echevarria

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St Josemaria’s book The Way of the Cross – Foreword

“Enter into the wounds of Christ Crucified.” When Monsignor Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer proposed this way, to those who asked him for advice on how to deepen their interior life, he was doing no more than pass on his own experience, pointing out the short [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Contemplation, Jesus Christ, The Way of the Cross

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Election of Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo as St Josemaria’s first successor

Three months after St Josemaria’s death on June 26, 1975, Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo – “Don Alvaro” – was elected to succeed him at the head of Opus Dei. No one was surprised when, on September 15, 1975, Don Alvaro was unanimously elected as the founder’s [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Faithfulness, Opus Dei

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St Josemaria and the Guardian Angels

Opus Dei was founded (in 1928) on October 2 – the feast of the Guardian Angels. St Josemaria’s devotion to the Guardian Angels, whom he saw as celestial protectors and messengers, went back to his childhood. Here Bishop Alvaro del Portillo recalls some aspects of [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Angels

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"Light, Salt, and Leaven": Lay people's role in the Church's mission

The early Christians, who had lived with Jesus and the Apostles or belonged to the next generation, were very conscious that their mission was to fill everything that they did with faith. In Tertullian’s words, “What the soul is in the body, that the Christians [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Apostolate, Citizenship, Presence of God, Early Christians, Work, Unity of life

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Apostolic constitution "Ut sit" by which Opus Dei was erected as the Catholic Church's first personal Prelature

JOHN PAUL BISHOP SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD FOR A PERMANENT RECORD OF THE MATTER With very great hope, the Church directs its attention and maternal care to Opus Dei, which -- by divine inspiration --the Servant of God Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer founded [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Pope John Paul II, Opus Dei prelature

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The Holy Mass was the center of Saint Josemaría’s day

Saint Josemaría often spoke of the Holy Mass as the “center and root of the interior life”. Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, the Founder’s first successor at the head of Opus Dei, spent nearly forty years with Saint Josemaría, and was an exceptional witness of how [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Eucharist, Piety, Plan of life, Priesthood

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Msgr. Javier Echevarría in the Mass in suffrage for Mons. Álvaro Del Portillo. Rome, March17, 2008

Dear brothers and sisters. Today we offer this Eucharistic Sacrifice for the soul of the Servant of God Mons. Álvaro del Portillo, Prelate of Opus Dei, on the fourteenth anniversary of his dies natalis. We do so with six days of anticipation because the 23 of [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Generosity, Opus Dei prelate