{"id":31508,"date":"2014-09-28T09:23:08","date_gmt":"2014-09-28T13:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/?p=31508"},"modified":"2014-09-28T09:23:29","modified_gmt":"2014-09-28T13:23:29","slug":"alvaro-del-portillo-declared-blessed-in-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2014\/09\/alvaro-del-portillo-declared-blessed-in-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Alvaro Del Portillo declared “Blessed” in Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bl<\/a>Shortly after the elected of Francis to the Throne of Peter, he approved of the miracle that would lead to his beatification. His first miracle, if you are interested, concerned\u00a0a case in 2003 where a Chilean baby boy\u2019s heart started beating despite doctors\u2019 failed 30-minute efforts to resuscitate him. The boy\u2019s parents prayed to Del Portillo for his intercession from God\u00a0to save their child. From all reports the child lives a normal life, going to school and playing soccer.<\/p>\n

In the car last evening I was listening to various news services and NPR had a story –none of the other international services did– of the beatification of Del Portillo. But the real story seemed not the beatification of a man known for holiness but his connection to Opus Dei famously derided in Dan Brown\u2019s The DaVinci Code.<\/em> I fail to see what one thing really has to do with another.<\/p>\n

Saint Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1\u2019s original vision for Opus Dei has nothing to do with the political monikers of being\u00a0liberal or conservative. Many will frame the group in these terms out ignorance. Opus Dei –a Latin concept meaning “The Work of God”– is\u00a0about encouraging Catholics to know\u00a0their ordinary, everyday work and life as a path to holiness. In other words, we are all called in whatever our work is, to the universal call to holiness; a strong emphasis of the Second Vatican Council and many saints. Religion\u00a0is NOT just for 47 minutes on a Sunday morning where you put your money in the parking meter.<\/p>\n

So, what ought to be admired about Opus Dei is the group’s emphasis and witness on the dignity of the laity. This same emphasis is also seen in two other ecclesial movements in the Church: Communion and Liberation and Focolare. But, The Work of God since its founding in 1928 has a significant\u00a0challenge to the ultra-clerical attitudes of our Church while raising up the beauty of being a lay Christian and building up the Mystical Body of the Church.<\/p>\n

Blessed Alvaro Del Portillo’s style was humble and faithful to the charism he was given by God to fulfill in history. His reputable for holiness is well-regarded and and substantiated. Del Portillo worked with\u00a0Saint Josemar\u00eda Escriv\u00e1, the founder of Opus Dei for more than 40 years, and later his successor as the group\u2019s leader until 1994.<\/p>\n

Opus Dei is a lay organization in the Church with more than 90K members; only 2,073 are priests.<\/p>\n

Blessed Alvaro, pray for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortly after the elected of Francis to the Throne of Peter, he approved of the miracle that would lead to his beatification. His first miracle, if you are interested, concerned\u00a0a case in 2003 where a Chilean baby boy\u2019s heart started beating despite doctors\u2019 failed 30-minute efforts to resuscitate him. The boy\u2019s parents prayed to Del … Continue reading Alvaro Del Portillo declared “Blessed” in Madrid<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2],"tags":[31979,1989],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31508"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31508"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31511,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31508\/revisions\/31511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}