The Prelate of Opus Dei, Mons. Fernando Ocáriz, renewed his request for prayer for the new statutes of the Work, as its members call this institution of the Catholic Church, and encouraged them to share “the fire of the Lord” with others .
“As I already announced to you, in the coming days there will be a new meeting of experts studying possible adjustments to the Statutes of the Work. Let us continue to accompany these works with our prayer,” indicated the Prelate in a message shared on website of the Work this September 11.
Receive the main news from ACI Prensa by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social media. Subscribe to our free channels today:
In July 2022, Pope Francis ordered a reform of Opus Dei, which focuses on the drafting of new statutes, a work carried out by the prelature in coordination with the Vatican in a climate of dialogue and trust, as Mons. Fernando has previously indicated. Ocáriz.
“Bring the fire of the Lord to all souls”
In today’s text, the maximum leader of the Work offers a reflection on one of the seven phrases that Jesus said when he was crucified “I thirst” (Jn 19:28), on the occasion of the next feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the 14th of this month.
Mons. Ocáriz poses some questions: “Do I have that same thirst? Do I participate in the fire that burns in your heart? Does zeal for souls urge me where I am? Do I launch myself without fear into trying to ignite people? that I know, with prayer, with atonement, with sincere friendship?
“We can remember, with Saint Josemaría, that our mission is to bring to all souls – in the middle of the world – the fire of the Lord that we keep in our hearts,” the text continues, remembering that what was said by the founder of Opus Dei is in number 1 of the well-known book Camino.
“Enlighten, erase, light up. Verbs that will be a growing reality in our lives to the extent that we contemplate the wounded heart of Jesus and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are ignited by that same fire,” continues the text, in which Bishop Ocáriz exhorts us to illuminate “with clear doctrine the intelligences, erasing with one’s own atonement the filth of sin, setting hearts on fire with love.”
“The Holy Cross speaks to us all. Let us not be afraid of love, of giving life in abundance, even if it seems that we lose it, because that is not the case. Let us not be afraid to manifest Christ with our lives, whom so many souls thirstily seek, often without knowing it.”
After encouraging people to walk alongside the Virgin Mary, the Prelate of Opus Dei finally encourages that “the experience of pain lights up in us more and more the light of faith, the security of hope and the fire of charity and, with them , the joy. Yes, also the joy on the Cross.”
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.