Priestly ordination of the first three, in the Oratory of the Episcopal Palace of Madrid, by don Leopoldo Eilo y Garay. in 1940 the three of them had already started to study theology to be well prepared. Our father didn’t have to give them too many explanations to ask them to be ordained. Don Alvaro commented himself: Everything was so easy! There is nothing baroque in the Work. Our father knew perfectly that he could count on us, and we responded freely, with no coercion. When Mons. Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, Bishop of Madrid-Alcalá, found out that don Alvaro, whom he loved and admired very much, was going to be ordained a priest, asked him: “Alvaro, are you aware that you’re going to lose your identity? You are a prestigious engineer, and after this you will be just another priest...” Don Alvaro answered: Dear Bishop, my identity I gave away many years, to Jesus.”
The ceremony was attended by many people in the Work, from different cities in Spain, relatives of those being ordained, and friends.
St Josemaría was not present, he was celebrating Holy Mass at the same time in the Chapel of Lagasca, with don Jose Maria Albareda. From don Alvaro: “He could have gone, but he preferred not to be among the crowd that attended. He thought that if he went, everybody would want to congratulate him, and that he would be the center of attention.”
When celebrating the Holy Mass on the 25-06-1969 (25th anniversary) in Villa Tevere, in separate chapels, each of them three realized that they had been set with a palia embroidered for the occasion and the same Chalice that they had used the day of their first Mass 25 years earlier.
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