The Church of the Beatitudes at Tabgha

In the Footprints of our Faith At the beginning of his public life, Jesus “went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, [...]
Tags: History, Holy Land, In the footprints of our Faith

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Lake Genesaret and Tabgha: the Church of the Primacy of St Peter

In the footprints of our Faith Few places in the Holy Land are so directly linked to the New Testament as Lake Gennesaret (Genesareth), also known as the Sea of Galilee and Lake Tiberias. In other places, two thousand years of history have brought dramatic changes [...]
Tags: Faith, History, Pope, Holy Land, In the footprints of our Faith

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A village named Emmaus

In the footprints of our Faith Christ’s resurrection in the early hours of Sunday morning is a fact that the Gospels state clearly and firmly. The first testimonies to the fact of the empty tomb were offered by the holy women and the Apostles Peter and [...]
Tags: Faith, History, Holy Land, In the footprints of our Faith

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The Temple at Jerusalem

In the footprints of our Faith “When the time came for the mother’s purification, according to the law of Moses, they took the Child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord” (cf. Holy Rosary, fourth joyful mystery). For Christians Jerusalem, the Holy City, holds [...]
Tags: Faith, History, Holy Land, In the footprints of our Faith

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Opus Dei’s First Steps in Madrid

On finishing the spiritual retreat during which he had received the light to found Opus Dei, St Josemaria returned to his many activities in Madrid. At the same time, he started to look for people with whom he could begin the new apostolate that God [...]
Tags: Founding of Opus Dei, History, Madrid

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List of contents of St. Josemaria in the Spanish Civil War

The following is a fairly brief account of the early years of Opus Dei, together with the historical, political and social situation in Spain at the time. It is condensed from chapters 3-18 of the book Uncommon Faith: The Early Years of Opus Dei 1928 [...]
Tags: Suffering, Spanish Civil War, History, Youth, Opus Dei

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I saw three hundred, three hundred thousand, thirty million, three thousand million…

At the beginning of 1933 St Josemaria gave the first of what would afterwards be called "St Raphael circles". The St Raphael circles or classes are the axis of all the other Christian formational activities organized by Opus Dei for young people on the human, [...]
Tags: Spiritual guidance, Doctrine, Formation, History, Youth, Catechesis

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Was the Escriva family well off or short of money?

Both, at different times. Josemaria Escriva was born in 1902 into a comfortably-off middle-class family. His father co-owned a textile business called “Juncosa y Escriva”. However, when Josemaria was ten the family business ran into difficulties and money became tight, and when the business finally [...]
Tags: The Escriva family, History

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Why Burgos?

After getting through the Pyrenees mountains and arriving in Andorra at the end of 1937, Father Josemaria went via France to Pamplona, in the opposite zone of Spain. There, after brief stay, he decided to go to Burgos, where he lived from January 8, 1938 [...]
Tags: Spanish Civil War, History, Freedom, Opus Dei, Politics

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How and why did Father Josemaria decide to escape across the Pyrenees Mountains?

Spain was divided into two conflicting zones by the Spanish Civil War. After living in hiding in Madrid for over a year, Father Josemaria found himself faced with a choice of staying on there without knowing how long the situation would drag on, in constant [...]
Tags: Spanish Civil War, History, Opus Dei, Crossing the Pyrenees, Josemaria Escriva