March 31st, 1935: The Most Holy Sacrament present for the first time in a Tabernacle at an Opus Dei centre

On this day, St. Josemaria celebrated Mass and for the first time left the Most holy Sacrament in a Tabernacle of the Work at the Ferraz st. residence. 

“At last! Jesus is coming to live with us. <Et omnia bona pariter cum eo> and all good things will come with him," the priest joyfully announced in a letter dated March 30, to Jose Maria Barredo.

St. Josemaria chose the best room: a room relatively big, with the entry close to the main vestibule, and with exit to a patio, also big and quiet. Initially they only had a table and a bench, which was given to a carpenter to make two stools. They also had a kneeler. The tabernacle was made of hardwood and it was borrowed from a nun - Mother Muratori - who had a good friendship with St. Josemaria. They obtained an altar with a portable altar stone, and for an altarpiece, a painting of the supper at Emmaus. The tabernacle, altar cloths, and candlesticks came as gifts or loan.

On March 31, in an oratory full of young men, Father Josemaría celebrated Mass in a white chasuble. The altar was adorned with flowers; rows of candles of graded length sloped up toward the crucifix above the tabernacle. Before giving Communion, Father Josemaría spoke a few words of thanks to the new "Resident." Afterward he wrote to the vicar general, "Holy Mass has been celebrated in the oratory of this house, and His Divine Majesty has remained with us in the Blessed Sacrament, at last fulfilling the desires we have had for so many years (since 1928!). 

During that year the apostolic work grew significantly. St. Josemaria used to go with the 'Saint Raphael' boys to do visits to the poor. Little by little the house acquired more things which were chosen and put with good taste. When (don) Pedro Casciaro came for the first time, he had a good impression. In the vestibule “It wasn’t a cold and disorganised place -the vestibule of a house of a middle-class family, more like modest, but with very good taste, and above all, very clean”. (See more: http://opusdei.org.sg/en-sg/article/opus-deis-first-tabernacle/)

St. Josemaria's room didn’t have more light than what came through a window open to a narrow internal patio and a wardrobe where the liturgical ornaments were kept. It was here where St. Josemaria started using, for a while, the shoes thrown away by the residents (as they couldn't afford to buy their own).

The founder's formal request to the bishop of Madrid-Alcala for permission to set up a semipublic oratory is dated March 13, 1935. Because of the location of the house, inspection of the room set aside for liturgical worship was the responsibility of the pastor of the parish of San Marcos. On March 27, 1935, he declared the oratory to be "in suitable condition and duly provided with all that is necessary for the liturgy" and then proceeded to give his blessing, "leaving the place ready for the celebration of Mass" (see "Relación del parroco de San Marcos," 27 Mar 1935, in the archive of the general secretariat of the archdiocese of Madrid-Alcala, "Oratorios, 1931-1936"). The decree authorizing the setting up of the oratory is dated 10 Apr 1935; original in AGP, RHF, Sec. Juridica 1/8066.

March 31st, 1925: St. Josemaria's first appointment, at Perdiguera

St. Josrmaria arrives in Perdiguera for his first appointment as Auxiliary regent (temporary administrator).

The parish was in a village about 15 miles from Zaragoza. It was rather out of the way and in an area with poor roads. Its pastor, the only priest in the village, had been away for some time due to a serious illness.

This appointment was a heavy blow for the new priest, who had not expected an assignment away from his family, nor one announced so suddenly, since it was taken for granted in clerical circles that newly ordained priests would be sent to parishes where they could get pastoral experience under the eye of other priests-and Saragossa had no shortage of priests.[2] But Father Josemaría obeyed promptly and without complaining, and on the very next day, Tuesday, March 31, he set out for his new post, in a mule-drawn carriage.

MArch 30th, 1925 - St. Josemaria's first Mass. Like today, that year, was also on the Monday of Passion Week!

On Monday of Passion week -March 30th, same as this year of 2015- St. Josemaria celebrated his first Mass in the Chapel of the Pillar in Zaragoza. It was not a solemn Mass but a low Mass because it was on the Monday of Passion Week, with purple vestments, and was for the repose of the soul of his father. The Mass was in the Holy Chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar in Saragossa, at 10:30 in the morning.

Some holy cards of Our Lady were sent out with the following announcement on the back:

The Priest

Jose Maria Escrivá y Albas

will celebrate his first Mass

in the Holy Chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar in Saragossa

 on March 30, 1925, at 10:30 in the morning,

for the repose of the soul of his father,

 Don Jose Escrivá Corzan,

 who went to his rest with the Lord

 on November 27, 1924.   

A.M.D.G. 

Invitation and memento

March 28th, 1925: St. Josemaria is ordained to the Priesthood - same day (5th Saturday of Lent) as this year 2015!

Did you know that St. Josemaria was ordained on a Saturday of the fifth week of Lent? Tomorrow, 28th of March, is again the Saturday of the fifth week of Lent! The following Monday (30th) was his first Mass, which was not a solemn Mass but a low Mass because it was on the Monday of Passion Week, with purple vestments, and was for the repose of the soul of his father. The Mass was in the Holy Chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar in Saragossa, at 10:30 in the morning. This of course again coincides this year of 2015.

St. Josemaria was only 23 years old. By canon law, the age required for ordination was 24. Being 10 months short, he requested a dispensation from the Pope. On February 20th, 1925, he received the good news from Rome. On March 4, San Josemaria sent to the vicar general the formal request.

90 years ago, on Ember Saturday, March 28th, 1925, the ceremony of priestly ordination was celebrated in the church of the Priestly Seminary of San Carlos Borromeo, Saragossa, with Bishop Miguel de los Santos presiding.

March 28th, 1939 - St. Josemaria returns to Madrid (after the war)

28-3-1939 St. Josemaria returns to Madrid after the end of the Spanish civil war. As he was wearing his cassock, people rushed to him to kiss his hands, and he would take the crucifix out of his pocket so people would kiss that instead.

Given that the house at #16 Ferraz st. was in ruins, he went to stay at the rectory house at St Isabel's Foundation, and his mother and siblings moved in there a few days later (he hadn’t seen her in 18 months).

St. Josemaria was very moved when he saw that his mother, risking her life, had kept all the documents of the archives of the Work. During the Spanish civil war, she hid them inside her mattress and during searches she would lie down saying she was sick. There was a time that it had more papers than wool, and it would have been very uncomfortable. Many material things were lost - furniture, jewels intended for sacred vessels... but the documents were saved by doña Dolores and his sister Carmen - they would have risked a lot to keep them.

March 28th, 1940 - The wooden Cross - Indulgences

28-3-1940: Decree by don Leopoldo Eijo y Garay granting indulgences to those who kiss the wooden Cross in the Jenner residence in Madrid.

From don Alvaro: “In Barcelona, in 'El Palau' centre, there was a big Cross. People started saying that we were doing human sacrifices, crucifying people. So our father ordered for the Cross to be changed by a small one. He also said: “But we can’t take away the Cross, because it is something essential in our life”. By seeing so many attacks to that devotion of ours, he asked don Leopoldo to grant indulgences. He hesitated saying he can’t grant indulgences for just a kiss, so he suggested that an aspiration be said. Our father said that it could be whichever aspiration each and everyone wanted, but recommended the exclamation -like a renewed resolution- “serviam!” ("I will serve!") or if we remembered, some of those aspirations by St. Andrew: “O bona crux, diu desiderata...”. Afterwards, St. Josemaria got from the Holy See, a grant for indulgences for offering to God manual or intellectual work. When the Holy See conceded the indulgences, the condition of saying an aspiration was removed.

The Cross at "La Chacra" conference centre, in Argentina

Feast of the annunciation

Don't forget, my friend, that we are children. The Lady of the sweet name, Mary, is withdrawn in prayer.

You, in that house, are whatever you want to be: a friend, a servant, an onlooker, a neighbour... —I, at this moment, don't dare to be anything. I hide behind you; full of awe, I contemplate the scene:

The Archangel delivers his message... Quomodo fiet istud, quoniam virum non cognosco? —How shall this be done since I know not man? (Luke 1:34)

Our Mother's voice brings to my memory —by contrast— all the impurities of men.... mine too.

And then how I hate the low, mean things of the earth...What resolutions!

Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.— Be it done unto me according to Thy word (Luke 1:38). By the enchantment of this virginal phrase, the Word was made flesh.

The first decade is about to end... I still have time to tell my God, before anyone else does: Jesus, I love You. 

St. Josemaria, Holy Rosary

The Annunciation: Sanctuary of Torreciudad, Huesca, Spain

First letter from St. Josemaria to all members of the Work

March 24th, 1930 First letter from St. Josemaria addressed to all members of the Work. Since then, St. Josemaria (and after him, his successors) have kept the custom of writing a pastoral letter addressed to all members and friends of the Work. For a long time now, the letter has been handwritten on a monthly basis - even if the Prelate is in the middle of an apostolic trip, as it can be seen in the date and place of some of the letters, which are not always from his home in Rome. The letter has always been available in all centres and for some years now, since the availability of information through the internet, accesible online or for download from opusdei.org. The most recent letter can be read here.

One year after, on this same date, March 24th, 1931 came the second letter from St. Josemaria addressed to all members of the Work.

And in 1939, on this same date, an important letter came from St. Josemaria, written from Burgos, where he asks all to start the custom of reciting Psalm #2. “Every Tuesday, each of us, after invoking each our Guardian Angel asking him to accompany us in prayer, will kiss the rosary as a sign of love to our Lady and to imply that prayer is our most efficacious weapon. Then we will recite Psalm 2, in Latin”.

Blessed Alvaro - Dies Natalis

March 23rd, 1994 

Death of Bl. Alvaro in Rome, at 4am. 

At 3:10am bl. Alvaro, who had just arrived from the Holy Land, called don Javier (Echevarria): He had trouble breathing and felt his heart racing. Don Javier told him that it could be serious and that he could die, and don Alvaro answered “It's nothing my son, I’m in God’s hands...”. Don Joaquin (Alonso) and don Fernando (Ocariz) arrived. Don Joaquin arranged for the last rites to be administered. Don Javier went and told the administration so they would start praying. Don Alvaro was conscious when don Javier administered the last rites, around 3:30. At 3:40 he was unconscious. Don Javier, don Joaquin and don Fernando were on their knees praying. The doctor was doing everything he could, but the vital signs were getting weaker. Finally, the only sign was of the pacemaker he had implanted the previous year. At 4am the doctor confirmed to don Javier that bl. Alvaro had died. On Tuesday, March 22nd, he had celebrated his last Mass in the Church of the Cenacle in Jerusalem. 

Don Javier waited until 6am to communicate it to Msgr. Stanislaw, the Pope’s secretary, so he would inform the holy father before the Mass. Don Alvaro’s body was transferred to the Church of the Prelature on the same board used for St. Josemaria on the 26th of June 1975.

The Pope arrived at 6:15 (Villa Tevere) to pray and remained kneeling for about 10 minutes. When upon saying goodbye don Javier thanked him for having come to pray, the Pope answered that he thought of it as a duty: “Si doveva, si doveva” ("but I had to, I had to").

In the homily that don Javier pronounced in the funeral celebrated at the basilica of St. Eugenio the next day, he said (among other things): “...has been a man whom the Lord enriched with first-class human and supernatural gifts”. Despite his great intellectual and moral attributes, he never wanted to shine with light of his own”.

In a get-together (11-3-1956), St. Josemaria commented: He is the first general procurator, the first general secretary, the first priest that came to Italy, the first Counsellor in the Italian region, the first rector of the Roman College of the Holy Cross...” and on another occasion he wrote (11-5-1962): If among you, there are many sons of mine who are altar saints - and I never overuse these terms - Alvaro is a model, and the son of mine that has worked the most and suffered the most for the work, and the one who has been able to get the spirit the best”. “If I only told you the difficulties of the first years! It was an avalanche: lack of understanding, slander, persecution...".

Bl Alvaro was beatified in Madrid on September 27, 2014. His legacy, impossible to summarise here, can be read here. A brief biography can be read here.

Beatification of Don Alvaro - View of the crowds from the altar towards the city of Madrid

Don Pedro Casciaro - Dies Natalis

March 23rd, 1995 

Death of Don Pedro Casciaro. Always and until then, he kept with him the rosary beads and the crucifix that St. Josemaria gave him when he joined Opus Dei.

Father Casciaro -"Don Pedro", as he would have been called- was born in Murcia on 16/4/1915. He joined the Work on November 20th, 1935, he was studying architecture. He was in the group that crossed the Pyrenees with St. Josemaria during the Spanish Civil war, and after that during his stay in Burgos.

St. Josemaria, standing, centre. 4th from the left, don Pedro Casciaro.
The group that crossed the Pyrenees on their arrival in Andorra

Don Pedro had doctorates in Maths and Canon Law. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1946. He started the apostolic work in Mexico In January 1949. Afterwards, he worked as delegate of Opus Dei for the Holy See from Oct. 1958 to May 1966, and as member of the governing council of Opus Dei in Italy.

In the early 70's he returned to Mexico, and died in Mexico city on March 23rd, 1995. The next day his remains were taken to the Church of Santa Veracruz (Mexico). There were uninterrupted Masses offered as suffrage for his soul, and the Church was overflowing with people from all of Mexico and all social classes, reflecting the broad spectrum of the apostolic work of Opus Dei in Mexico.

 

Among his writings, perhaps the most widely known is the book "Dream and your dreams will fall short".

First 'recollection' day

March 22nd, 1934 

First recollection with the Saint Raphael* young men (From the DYA academy. More details about the DYA academy here).

The recollection consisted of: 3 to 4 meditations (preached by St Josemaría), Via Crucis, Holy Rosary, spiritual reading, visit to the Blessed Sacrament and examination of conscience. An average of 30 young men used to attend.

On the ground floor of #33 Luchana st. (right side of the
building) was the first location of the DYA Academy

Metal plaque for the front door. Isidoro had it cast at a workshop in Malaga

*St. Raphael: St. Josemaria always entrusted the apostolate with young people to the Archangel St. Raphael. It is usually referred to, in a more familiar way, as St. Raphael's work.

Beginning of apostolic work with young people

March 19th, 1933 

St Josemaría meets for the first time with young men (the first "circle [of studies] of St. Raphael", a means of doctrinal formation for young people), at Martinez Campos st. #4. (That house was St. Josemaría's place of residence at the time, where he lived with his mother, sister Carmen and brother Santiago.

In that same building resided the Echevarria family. One of their sons, Javier, went to become St. Josemaria's second successor (he is the current prelate of Opus Dei) even though he didn't meet St. Josemaría during the time he lived there.

In this house, St. Josemaría met some of the first members of the Work, like don Ricardo Fernandez Vallespin.

It was also in this house, where they began the custom of making a brief comentary of the Gospel before the examination of conscience at night.

Definitive Juridical Incorporation of the first members

March 19th, 1935 

Ricardo Fernandez Vallespin, Juan Jimenez Vargas and others were the first members of the Work to make their definitive juridical incorporation* to Opus Dei - which some members do when they reach adulthood and have been members for some years now.

They did it before the wooden Cross for the future Chapel of the Ferraz residence. Isidoro Zorzano nor José María González Barredo were not able to make it as they were outside Madrid. The ceremony included the imposition of a ring to each which, on the inside, had engraved the date, and the word “serviam”. 

St. Joemaria asked each of them, one by one: “You, if the Lord disposed of my life before the Work had the necessary canonical approvals, would you continue working to carry it out, even at the price of your estate, your honor, your professional activity -- in one word -- all your life to the service of God in the Work?

* From opusdei.org:

Incorporation in the Prelature

In order to join Opus Dei a person must freely ask to do so, in the personal conviction of having received this divine vocation. Such a calling is a specification or determination of the Christian vocation received at baptism, and it leads them to seek sanctity and participate in the mission of the Church according to the spirit with which God inspired St. Josemaría.

The request is made in writing and needs to have been accepted by the authorities of the Prelature, and admission is granted after a minimum of six months. After an additional period of at least one year, the person can be temporarily incorporated into the Prelature through a mutual declaration, which is renewable annually. In accordance with canon law, no one may be juridically incorporated into the Prelature who has not reached 18 years of age. After a minimum of five more years, the incorporation can become definitive (that is, at a minimum age of 23).

http://opusdei.us/en-us/article/joining-opus-dei/

Diocesan approval for Opus Dei as a pious union

March 19th, 1941 

On this date, Msgr. Leopoldo Eijo y Garay (Bishop of Madrid) gave the diocesan approval to Opus Dei as pious union, in Madrid. Don Leopoldo wanted also that with this, all the slander against the Work would stop. He followed the development of the Work step by step. By that time, the Archbishop of Toledo had died, and the most probable candidate to follow would be the Bishop of Madrid. Our father thought “if he takes our side, it’s over [meaning he wouldn’t be given the seat of Toledo]”. With loyalty, he told don Leopoldo to let it go and not to help the Work: “Bishop, ditch me! Or at least make it look for now like you're ditching me, and then pick me up later. Because otherwise you stand to lose the mitre of Toledo." Bishop Leopoldo became very serious and said, "I am not going to ditch you father Josemaria. Because it's not the mitre of Toledo that's at risk - it's my soul!".

"Some time later, -the founder recalled- he let me know that he had indeed been excluded from the list".

St. Josemaria with Bishop Eijo y Garay

First assistant numeraries

March 19th, 1946 The first assistant numeraries ask to be admitted to Opus Dei. St. Josemaria received those letters from his first assistant numeraries Dora del Hoyo and Concha Andres, as the best present for his name-feast day. 

Dora del Hoyo, one of the first two assistant numeraries

His reaction was “that is nothing daughters, there will be hundreds”. A few days later, another (Antonia Penuela) asked for admission in Los Rosales (a centre for women) and two more in Bilbao (Rosalia and Julia Bustillo)

.

Prayer for private devotion - Dora del Hoyo

Today is my turn!

March 19th, 1959 Our father walks into the administration of Villa Vecchia at the time when they were preparing the trays with food to serve the dining room. He entered the dining room where some of the women from the administration were already eating. From the door, he searched for Julia Bustillo, the eldest. He went to where she was sitting, offered the tray with the food, holding it to serve her and said: “In the house of Nazareth everybody served... Today is my turn!”.

Pope Pius XII intervenes

March 19th, 1952 

On this date, Cardinal Tedeschini delivered a letter to Pope Pius XII. It was signed by st. Josemaria and Bl. Alvaro and it was in relation to the contradiction of 1951 when some members of the Curia wanted to expel st. Josemaria from the Work. 

St. Josemaria had already spoken to the correspondent dicastery but was told that there was nothing against him. “They’d refuse to dialogue -wrote st. Josemaria- they wouldn’t allow me to explain, or clarify. It was very painful. Calumnies were propagated, suspicions were started. They would try to convince, even people inside the Church, that in some Roman dicasteries we were under surveillance”. Don Alvaro signed the letter, sharing the potential consequences. By the time the Holy Father read the letter, the process was well advanced. Pope Pius XII acted immediately and before the prosecution against our father started, he put a full stop on it.

("To our beloeved son
Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer
Founder of the Priestly Society
of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei
with a special blessing
21 of June 1946
Pius pp. XII")

"Ite ad Ioseph"

March 18th, 1935 

Eve of the Feast of St. Joseph: At Ferraz (one of the first centers of Opus Dei, in Spain), they receive a package, delivered by an unidentified man, with all the items they were still missing to finish the Chapel. That same day St. Josemaria had made a list of what they were missing and put it away, commending it to Saint Joseph that a charitable soul would donate it. The doorman could only say that it had been delivered by "a bearded man". As an act of thanksgiving, st. Josemaría decided that the Tabernacles' key should have a medal of Saint Joseph with the words “Ite ad Ioseph”. In a get together, don Alvaro once commented: “I think the bearded man was Mr. Alejandro Guzmán, who used to accompany our father in those dealings through the suburbs of Madrid, visiting the poor.”

God made you like the Father of the King and Lord over his household: pray for us!

"How little is a life, to offer to God!"

March 14th, 1931

St. Josemaria jotted down this thought: “How little is a life, to offer to God! And if the life is that of a donkey… a mangy donkey!! … But in spite of everything, I expect great things in this year of 1931.”

Birth of Blessed Alvaro

Blessed Alvaro del Portillo was born in Madrid on March 11, 1914. He was the third of eight children in a devout Catholic family.

"The father"

March 11th, 1934 

St Josemaria writes in his “Catherines”: In the work there are no titles. The priest presiding the Work will be called simply that: father. Not reverend, nor illustrious, nothing of that”.

Pope Francis with the father, bishop Javier Echevarria

Audience with Pope saint John XXIII

March 5th, 1960 St. Josemaría is received for the first time by Pope John XXIII.
St Josemaría told the Pope “[In our Work, all men, catholic or not, have always found a home]”. The Pope would laugh in excitement as he knew that since 1950 the Holy See had authorized the Work to admit as cooperators non-catholics and even non-Christians. When the hearing ended, the Pope confided to Mons. Montini (later Pope Paul VI) that st. Josemaría’s explanations about the spirit of the work had opened to him "horizons of apostolate beyond imagination".

Consecration of altar

March 4th, 1957

St. Josemaría consecrates the altar of the Pentecost Chapel (the Chapel of the General Council).

March 4,1957, was a memorable day at Villa Tevere. Bishop Antonio Samore had been invited to consecrate the altar of the oratory of the Most Holy Trinity, where the Father would ordinarily say Mass. On that same day the General Council was completed, and its altar was consecrated by the Father.

After the consecration St. Josemaría said to those present (among other things):

"There is a lot to meditate on here. First: we need to "hide and disappear" -this chapel is not seen from outside- we don't boast about our dedication to our Lord (...) Our Mother, Opus Dei is in total development expanding throughout the whole world, with a marvelous poverty. And for Jesus we have prepared this tabernacle, which is the richest we have been able to do. And in it, we've wanted those words that are His "Consummati in unum!", so that the hearts of us all, as they have been before and are now, will always be one same heart. So that the words of Scripture will be real: 'Multitudinis autem credentium erat cor unum et anima una' ['The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul': Acts 4:32]. 

"Up there, above those doors, I've made it written the system, the procedure, the method, the only way that we can have this life abundant and fecund in supernatural fruits: "Omnes perseverantes unanimiter in oratione. (...). The same as the first Christians, as the first disciples, who would be mesmerized before the miracles they would do In nomine Iesu: The same for us. Because we rise dead souls, and we bring back to life withered limbs which didn't work anymore! And we bring light to intellects which didn't want to see more than darkness! Miracles like the ones the first faithful did!"

Decision to publish 'spiritual considerations'

March 1st 1934 “These are notes which I use to help me in guiding and forming young people,” said Saint Josemaría to Bishop Cruz Laplana of Cuenca on this date. As a result of this meeting he decided to have his book “Spiritual Considerations” published by the Imprenta Moderna de Cuenca, which brought out a first edition of 500 copies. The book would afterwards become The Way.