Catholic Spirituality - Opus Dei Spirituality

Opus Dei Spirituality

Opus Dei predated the Second Vatican Council in its emphasis on the laity. Founded by St. Josemaría Escrivá, Opus Dei's spirituality is based on life lived in the secular world. The "sanctification of work" consists in offering all work, however ordinary, to God. This implies that one always does one's best. To be a contemplative is to integrate one's life ("unity of life") in faithfulness to the Catholic Church and in solidarity with all those with whom one comes into contact, living a life of faith in all circumstances of each day. As John Allen says: people who follow this spirituality enter a church and leave it for the same reason—to get closer to God. The members of Opus Dei and its cooperators have committed to convert their daily work into prayer with the spiritual assistance of the prelature.

Pope John Paul I, a few years before his election, wrote that Escrivá was more radical than other saints who taught about the universal call to holiness. While others emphasized monastic spirituality applied to lay people, for Escrivá "it is the material work itself which must be turned into prayer and sanctity", thus providing a lay spirituality.

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