Romana

In Sanlúcar la Mayor (Spain), as in many other towns in Andalusia, there is a wonderful tradition of brotherhoods that hold processions during Holy Week. Among them is La Muy Antigua, Ilustre y Fervorosa Hermandad y Cofradía de Nazarenos de Nuestro Padre Jesús Orando en el Huerto y María Santísima de la Encarnación, founded in the 16th century by the Gremio de Letrados, Alguaciles y Escribanos de la Ciudad de Sanlúcar La Mayor (Sevilla) and refounded on May 14, 1602. The Board of Directors of the Brotherhood requested a relic of Saint Josemaría for veneration in the Church of the Incarnation, where its sacred titular images, “Our Father Jesus Praying in the Garden” and “Mary Most Holy of the Incarnation,” are venerated.

On November 1, the delivery of the relic took place with the celebration of Holy Mass presided over by the Vicar of the Delegation of the Prelature of Opus Dei in Western Andalusia and Extremadura, Father Gabriel de Castro Tornero. “Last summer,” the Vicar said, “I received a request from the Eldest Brother for a relic of St. Josemaría. In the same letter he reminded me that for many years activities of spiritual formation have been carried out in this center by priests of the Opus Dei Prelature, and that there is a picture of St. Josemaría in the Brotherhood’s office. He also told me that on June 11, the Brotherhood’s ordinary general assembly unanimously agreed to produce a full color image of St. Josemaría to be venerated in the chapel.” “On this day, when we direct our eyes especially towards St. Josemaría, we can focus on the example of his faith in launching out in undertakings that seemed humanly impossible, at a time that in many ways was more complicated and difficult than our own. I am thinking in particular of the heroic and exciting undertaking of our own personal holiness.”