Romana

On October 8, 1967, St. Josemaría delivered on the campus of the University of Navarra (Spain) the homily “Passionately Loving the World.” The text captures in a singular way the preaching of the founder of Opus Dei on holiness in ordinary life. Fifty years later, these words continue to inspire men and women around the world, encouraging them to find God in ordinary daily realities.

“The importance of this homily is above all in the fact that St. Josemaría expressed there the substance of the spirit of Opus Dei, what God had transmitted to him—the sanctification of ordinary life. He says it with words as beautiful and poetic as these: ‘Heaven and earth seem to merge, my sons and daughters, on the horizon. But where they really meet is in your hearts, when you sanctify your everyday lives,’” the Prelate of Opus Dei said in an interactive special prepared for this 50th anniversary by the website of the Prelature.

Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz stressed that the central message of the homily is “the universal call to holiness that St. Josemaría preached right from the beginning. Everything can be a path to holiness, everything is an opportunity to find God: all work, all daily circumstances, are paths to an encounter with God, paths to holiness.” Therefore this message “is always relevant, because although circumstances may change, jobs, cities, and customs may alter, we will all have an ordinary daily life to live, maybe very different from our current one with the passage of time, but a life that can always be, and should always be, an opportunity and place to encounter God.” Msgr. Ocáriz also highlighted “the force” and “personal conviction” with which St. Josemaría presents this message: “One sees that he is not transmitting a theory but something that comes from his heart. And this gives his words special strength, the strength of personal testimony.”