Romana

On June 26, the day on which the Church celebrates the liturgical memorial of St. Josemaría, Masses have been celebrated in various cities around the world to thank God for his holy life and to ask for his intercession.

In Rome, the Mass held in the Basilica of St. Eugene was presided over by the Prelate of Opus Dei. His homily can be found in this issue of Romana.

In addition to Rome, the feast of St. Josemaría was celebrated in at least 113 other Italian localities.

Also in other countries, such as Spain and the Philippines, the number of cities in which Masses were celebrated on the feast of St. Josemaría exceeded one hundred. In the cathedral of Manila, the Archbishop, Cardinal Jose Advincula, commented in his homily on the miraculous catch of fish and encouraged people to trust in God’s love and mercy as the Church ventures into the deep waters of the apostolate: “Just as Jesus invited the fishermen to cast their nets into the deep, St. Josemaría urges us to plunge into the depths of our lives to transform our daily routines into moments of encounter with God,” he said.

Rev. Eko Budi Susilio, Vicar General of the diocese of Surabaya, Indonesia, celebrated the memorial of St. Josemaría in the Sacred Heart Cathedral. He exhorted the two hundred faithful gathered in the church to help one another in the search for holiness, and said that the teachings of St. Josemaría are a valuable way to attain it. In Singapore, the Mass celebrated by the regional vicar of the Prelature, Father Ralph Valdes, in St. Joseph’s Church was also well attended.

In Nigeria, at least one Mass of St. Josemaría was held in each of the country’s 58 dioceses. In all, almost five hundred are known to have taken place. In the Ivory Coast there were also many Masses celebrated for this feast. Often it was the faithful and cooperators of the Prelature who spontaneously took the initiative to organize them in their parishes.

In the parish of St. Josemaría and the Holy Family, in Caracas, the Bishop of Cabimas, Ángel Francisco Caraballo Fermín, celebrated the Mass. He wished to give witness to his personal experience of having discovered, at a certain moment in his life, the fatherly heart of St. Josemaría.

In the United States, some of the bishops who celebrated Masses on the liturgical feast of the founder of Opus Dei were Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, Archbishops Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Thomas Wenski of Miami and Shelton Fabre of Louisville (Kentucky), and Bishops Michael C. Barber of Oakland (California), David P. Talley of Memphis (Tennessee) and John Paprocki of Springfield (Illinois). Among other North American cities in which the liturgical memorial of St. Josemaría was celebrated for the first time was Brownsville (Texas). The celebrant was the rector of the cathedral, Father Nicolas Harding, who spoke in his homily about the mission of Opus Dei in the world.

Also in several countries where there are no centers of the Prelature, including Iraq, Bulgaria and Malta, the local churches have liturgically celebrated the feast of St. Josemaría.