Saint Josemaría’s devotion to our Lady

“We have to love the Blessed Virgin Mary more. We will never love her enough. Love her a lot!” is Saint Josemaría’s advice at The Forge, n. 527. Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo recounts some of his memories of Saint Josemaría’s devotion to our Lady in [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Prayer, Our Lady

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The First Pilgrimage

I remember how in 1935 I went to visit a shrine in Spain, the shrine of Our Lady of Sonsoles. It wasn’t a pilgrimage in the normal sense: nothing noisy or elaborate, just three of us. I respect and love public demonstrations of devotion, but [...]
Tags: Opus Dei, Holy Rosary, Our Lady

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Our Lady of Guadalupe

“My children, this month (…) I did a pilgrimage to Torreciudad, barefoot, to honour our Lady. And I went to Fatima, also barefoot, to honour our Lady, in a spirit of penance. Now I’ve come to Mexico to do this novena to our Mother (…). [...]
Tags: Poverty, Priesthood, Get-together, Catechetical trips, Our Lady

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The founder of Opus Dei in Pompeii, Almudena, Sonsoles and Fatima, 1968-1970

“My dearest daughters and sons: you will have wondered why in these last few years I’ve been going from one shrine of our Lady to another, in a continual pilgrimage over many countries, which also enables me to thank our Lord for the chance to [...]
Tags: Church, Our Lady

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"Holy Rosary": To help people say the Rosary

Towards the end of 1931, St Josemaría “discovered” a special life of spiritual childhood in his prayer. On November 30, the first day of the novena for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, he noted: As I say the rosary or perform other devotions, such [...]
Tags: Spiritual childhood, books, Holy Rosary, Our Lady

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The Rose of Rialp: November 21/22, 1937

In 1936, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, religious persecution reached new depths of violence, and Fr Josemaria Escriva was obliged to go into hiding, finding refuge in several successive places in Madrid. For the time being he had to lay aside his [...]
Tags: Spanish Civil War, Crossing the Pyrenees, Our Lady

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The Pantheon and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

The Pantheon and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva On entering the Piazza della Rotonda, the Pantheon looms unexpectedly before one’s eyes, looking as though its gray stone bulk has emerged unscathed from the depths of time. It is possibly the best preserved of all the buildings [...]
Tags: Church, Places in Rome, Our Lady

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Little shrines to Our Lady

Little shrines to Our Lady When St Josemaría arrived in Rome in 1946 he was delighted to see how many pictures and statues of Our Lady are to be found in the streets there. He often used to ask other people in Opus Dei whether they [...]
Tags: Places in Rome, Our Lady

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A song of farewell

St Josemaria visited Mexico from May 15 to June 22, 1970. The day before he went back to Rome, he had a get-together with a group of young university students. One of them took up a guitar and told the Father he wanted him to listen [...]
Tags: Catechetical trips, Our Lady

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St Josemaria at Lourdes

St Josemaria went to Lourdes, France several times. The book “At God’s Pace” by François Gondrand contains a brief account of one of his visits to the Grotto at Lourdes on October 3, 1972. Saint Josemaria had just landed at Tarbes airport, not far from Lourdes. [...]
Tags: Catechetical trips, Our Lady