On this date, St. Josemaria celebrated Holy Mass for the first time in Mexico in the Chapel of the regional commission, and started a Novena in la Villa (until the 24th).
Once in “La Villa”, he entered through the door that leads to the presbytery, and as soon as sighting the image of Our Lady, he fell on his knees “on the marble floor, with nothing to recline on, straight”, without moving, almost for two hours, praying with much piety, until don Pedro Casciaro had to approach him to tell him that there were many people, members of the work, and that he was drawing attention. Don Alvaro mentioned at some later time , answering a question about what st. Josemaria had told Our Lady in that occasion: “The first day, he knelt in the presbytery, and remained immobile, looking constantly at Our Lady’s image; what he said, only God knows and Our Lady. And if I know it is because he said it to me in our private conversation, and therefore I must not tell you...”.
In another get-together, don Alvaro said: “It is evident that something happened during our father’s Novena. The first day, an hour and a half kneeling and without blinking. Don’t think of extraordinary things, but something happened...”. During his Novena, even though those in the commission had planned to take turns to accompany our father, due to his request every day he was escorted by don Pedro, Dr. Pacheco and Adrian Galvan.
In a get-together in Rome on the 28th of March 1995, don Alvaro would remember the Novena at La Villa: “[St. Josemaria] went to Guadalupe to lay before our lady the thorns he saw tangled around the Church... thorns that had many manifestations: In the liturgy, in discipline, in piety, in devotion, in family life... and he asked [our Lady] to take those thorns before our Lord, because with His grace they would turn into roses. How much did our father feel a son of the Church, that anything that would hurt her made him suffer a lot”.
In a letter of May 1st, 1995 don Alvaro wrote: “I would dare to assure -I heard it from him on several occasions- that Our Lady made him carry out that pilgrimage of penance, wishing that there, at the feet of that beautiful image, he would ask for her intercession in favour of the world, of the Church, and of this small portion of the Church that is Opus Dei. He went to Guadalupe to pray for the Pope, for the Bishops, for the Priests, for all the faithful. In this context of universal prayer, open to all needs of men, he prayed with perseverance for Opus Dei: That the Lord, in his infinite Goodness and Power, protect his Work and keep upright and intact -also through the juridical sanction from the ecclesiastical authority’s side- the spirit, nature and apostolic means proper of Opus Dei”.
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