Romana

My dear children: may Jesus watch over my daughters and sons for me!

I have the great joy of sharing with you that today I received confirmation that our Holy Father Pope Francis has decreed that the beatification ceremony of Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri will take place in Madrid, on Saturday, May 18, 2019.

Although other details regarding the celebration will be finalized later on, this news fills us with gratitude to God and to the Holy Father. I invite you all to join in my prayer to Guadalupe for the Pope’s intentions, especially for the work of the synod Fathers gathered together in Rome these days to talk about young people, the faith, and vocational discernment.

This event in the Church will help underline how a life of service to God and others, including the most needy, can be filled with joy and meaning, as we see through Guadalupe’s life. She knew how to find God in the daily efforts of her scientific research and teaching; in the various tasks of formation and government that Saint Josemaría entrusted to her; and in her illness, which she bore with a strong Christian spirit.

Those who knew her highlight her joy and good humor, rooted in the awareness of knowing herself to be a child of God, together with a determination and spirit of initiative that formed her universal heart. Her example is a reflection of how “the Lord asks everything of us, and in return he offers us true life, the happiness for which we were created. He wants us to be saints and not to settle for a bland and mediocre existence” (Gaudete et Exsultate, no. 1).

I consider it providential that the beatification will take place on the anniversary of Guadalupe’s First Holy Communion. This coincidence reminds us how “putting Jesus at the center of our life means deepening in our contemplative prayer in the middle of the world, and helping others to travel along paths of contemplation” (Pastoral Letter, February 14, 2017).

Guadalupe will be the first lay person in Opus Dei to be raised to the altars. It is as if a seal of approval has been set on the path that our Lord helped Saint Josemaría to see 90 years ago, on October 2, 1928.

With all my affection, I bless you, your Father

Fernando