Blessed be Suffering

St Josemaria’s book The Way, at no. 208, gives a prayer that is offered today by many people who have discovered the Christian meaning of suffering: “Blessed be pain. Loved be pain. Sanctified be pain. Glorified be pain.” This prayer has a history behind it [...]
Tags: Cross, Suffering, sick

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In water up to the neck

In the midst of financial pressures By the middle of 1952, the financial situation was to all appearances hopeless. There seemed to be no way of reducing the debt, searching for new loans and gifts produced no results, and—to add insult to injury—there was a recurrence [...]
Tags: Suffering, Opus Dei, Poverty, Opus Dei members, Consecrations of Opus Dei

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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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1931-1932: The Second Spanish Republic and Spanish anticlericalism

- The coming of the Second Republic, 1931 - Spanish anti-clericalism - The The burning of convents - Anti-clerical legislation of the Provisional Government - The Constituent Assembly and the Constitution - Father Josemaria’s reaction to growing anti-clericalism - Stoning with Hail Marys - From the Foundation for the sick to [...]
Tags: Alvaro del Portillo, Suffering, Sickness, Spanish Civil War, History, Madrid, Poverty, Politics, Women, Juan Jimenez Vargas, Opus Dei members, Anti-clericalism, Spanish history

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1928-1936: Historical, political and social situation in Spain

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 1 and 3-12 of the book Uncommon Faith: The Early Years of Opus [...]
Tags: Suffering, Spanish Civil War, History, Youth, Opus Dei

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The Experience of Suffering

Saint Josemaría Escrivá’s experience of suffering in his own family was a very practical way of attaining the maturity that others reach only after many years. Even though pain is one of the most common experiences in life, it always surprises and it continually requires us [...]
Tags: Charity, Suffering, Sickness

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Suffering, a divine subject of study

St Josemaria underwent several serious illnesses in the course of his life, and so he was able to speak of pain and suffering out of his personal experience, to encourage and console the afflicted, and help them to take a positive view of sickness and [...]
Tags: Suffering, Sickness

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Jolly Good Saint

The creeping tentacles of secularism and paganism or the unbridled worship of the things of this world keep growing, without us being aware of it. This spiritual crisis and what the world needs now was foreseen by a Saint whose footsteps trod this earth for seventy [...]
Tags: Understanding, Suffering, Faith, Plan of life, The Way of the Cross, The Will of God