July 7th, 1935: Bl. Alvaro joins Opus Dei

The DYA/Ferraz 50 residence was finishing the first academic course. St. Josemaria writes: “I prayed for Alvaro for years. An aunt of his spoke to me about him. Sometimes she would talk to me priding herself in her nephew Alvaro, who was studying two careers. Then I started praying for Alvaro. I was disappointed when I saw he wasn’t coming that easily! Not that he resisted much either.” Don Alvaro explained, “my auntie told him that she had a very clever nephew - given that she was my Godmother, she was in her right to speak from her heart - and that he liked bananas a lot”. This must have been before 1931, the year when St. Josemaria stopped working at the Foundation of the sick, where don Alvaro’s auntie volunteered. During the term of 1933-34 don Alvaro used to go to Vallecas, a very poor and outer suburb of Madrid, to give catechesis. “One day, (on Feb. 4th, 1934) the balconies were full of people, -don Alvaro remembered- it looked as if they were getting ready to go to a football game or something like that. Actually, they had planned to give us a first-class beating to those four or five of us who were going to give the catechesis at the San Ramon parish (those were times of a strong anticlerical environment). In fact, one of us had an ear torn off, and I was hit in the head with a wrench, I was quite bad for about three months, but very happy. All of that was preparation. I still didn’t know our father”. “One day, -he continued- I saw three or four talking in a low voice. I was curious and asked them what they were talking about. They were somewhat surprised, but they told me: they were talking about our father. So I asked them to introduce me to him”.

Of that first interview, don Alvaro recalled: “He greeted me, and I saw that he was a very cheerful priest. He asked me immediately: What’s your name?, Are you Carmen del Portillo’s nephew? so, you must be that one who likes 'banananas'? (As a child he liked bananas a lot, but it seems that he couldn’t pronounce the word correctly and his aunt told that to st. Josemaria. The word in spanish is "platanos", which don Alvaro as a child used to say 'palatanos'). I was surprised, and answered him: Yes, I like them a lot. The father got his diary out and, as if he had to take care of me, asked very gently: we have to talk, slow and long. And he arranged for a meeting in four or five days. I wrote it down too. But when I got there, the father wasn’t there, he stood me up! He must have been called to look after someone dying, and he couldn’t let me know because I hadn’t given him my telephone number”.

A few months passed before don Alvaro returned to Ferraz. “When I was just about to leave Madrid for the summer, I thought I should go to say goodbye to that pleasant priest. I went, although I hadn’t seen him for more than four or five minutes. He greeted me and we spoke calmly about many things. Then he told me: Tomorrow we will have a day of recollection -it was a saturday- why don’t you stay and do it, before going on your holiday? I couldn’t say no, although I didn’t find it very appealing as I didn’t have a clue what was it about. I couldn’t say no, and the fact is that I returned the next day”.

The 7th of July was a Sunday. “In that [day of] recollection, the father gave a meditation about love for God and love for Our Lady, and I was shattered. Then the second meditation. The father had asked that I be asked in the afternoon (about joining the Work) but the one who had to didn’t understand and spoke to me in the morning... and I said yes”.

With don Alvaro started the custom of asking to join the Work in writing: “The first one to ask the admission in writing was me, on July 7th, 1935. When they told me about the Work and I decided to join, the father told me: write me a couple of lines, which I did”.