here - Opus Dei

AN
UNEXPECTED
GREATNESS
Józef Morawski. Warsaw (Poland).
Opus Dei, founded on October 2, 1928 by St. Josemaría
Escrivá de Balaguer, is a hierarchical institution of the
Catholic Church—specifically, a personal Prelature. Its
aim is to spread, in every environment, the message that
all men and women are called to holiness, that work
and everyday life are opportunities for growing closer
to God, serving others and improving society. There are
currently over 88,000 members of Opus Dei, priests and
lay people, men and women, from every continent.
A direct consequence of the work of evangelization
done by the faithful of the Prelature is the strengthening
of Christian values in the home, the work place and
society in general. Thanks to God’s grace, this work also
benefits local Churches, through increased participation
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in the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, spreading
the Gospel in places where the faith is not practised,
setting up initiatives to help the disadvantaged, fostering
greater unity with the bishop and the priests of each
diocese, and other fruits.
“Yours is truly a great ideal,” Blessed John Paul II said,
“which anticipated from the outset the theology of the
laity that subsequently characterized the Church of
the Council, and the postconciliar period. This is the
message and spirituality of Opus Dei: to live united to
God in the middle of the world, in any situation, each
one striving to be better with the help of grace, and
making Jesus Christ known through the testimony of
one’s own life.”