It gives you an inner joy

By Adrienne Treleaven in Independent Catholic News

I first came into contact with Opus Dei as a very shy 16 year old. I applied to do a course in Hospitality at Lakefield, a college in London. My parents allowed me to go even though financially it was quite a burden for them. The main reason they were willing for me to go was the fact that I would be in a Catholic environment and able to attend Mass on a regular basis. Little did I expect how much I would come to know my faith more deeply and the effect it would have on my decision about my life.

I spent two years training in the theory and practice of Household Management gaining my qualifications in Hospitality.

During these years of training, what attracted me most was the family atmosphere, the warmth, the care and the love that the people of Opus Dei showed to everyone. It was not long before I realised I had found what was going to make me happy. I remember saying to myself one day “this is what I want to do, this is for me”. God was giving me a vocation to Opus Dei as an assistant numerary.

So why am I happy?…to give oneself in whatever capacity is very rewarding: it gives you an inner joy that no one and nothing can take from you. Knowing that I have in my hands – what I do and how I do it – the possibility of passing on to others the love that God has for each person.

This profession, for that is what it is, is a very special way of serving one’s family and the wider community. One learns that in serving one receives more than one gives and so this is a wonderful experience even from a purely human point of view. Throughout the day I often remind myself that I am doing the same work that Our Lady did and moreover I receive a salary for doing a job I enjoy immensely.

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Dora del Hoyo: a very important person for Opus Dei

Dora del Hoyo, said the Prelate of Opus Dei, "was a woman of faith. Because she was the very first numerary assistant, she had to be able to trust in what God, through St. Josemaria, was asking of her.

She lived the virtue of hope, knowing that Opus Dei would grow and expand, becoming what we see today. She was able to trust and hope in this way because her love of God was so great that she forgot about herself; she lived for the Lord and for the others. We have a great intercessor, to whom we owe gratitude. She learned from our Founder that what is most important is always to serve: to serve the Lord and to serve souls.”

Dora del Hoyo Alonso was born in Boca de Huergano (Leon, Spain) on January 11, 1914. Her parents were exemplary Christians and raised her to be a good daughter of God.

On March 14, 1946, in Bilbao, Spain, Dora asked for admission to Opus Dei. From the beginning, she knew how to correspond faithfully to her divine vocation. Outstanding among Dora’s characteristics were her devotion to the Holy Eucharist–the Holy Mass was the center and root of her interior life– as well as her tender love for the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph and her confident recourse to her guardian angel. Dora moved to Rome on December 27, 1946, at the invitation of St. Josemaria, and remained there until the end of her life.

Dora knew how to seek holiness and apostolic meaning in every task, even those that appeared most trivial, combining a spirit of service with professional competence. From Rome, she assisted with the formation of women from around the world, and contributed to the apostolic work of Opus Dei carried out all over the world and at every level of society.

Dora died on January 10, 2004. On that day Bishop Javier Echevarria, the Prelate of Opus Dei, made these remarks,

“Dora was very important for Opus Dei because of her faithfulness and her work well done, always humbly desiring to pass unnoticed, to ‘do and disappear.’ She took the Blessed Virgin Mary as her teacher, as Saint Josemaria Escriva had encouraged her, and because of this she was effective to the very end of her life. She wanted no glory or recognition, and she gave one hundred percent throughout her entire life."

Her remains lie in the crypt of the Church of the Prelature, Our Lady of Peace, Bruno Buozzi 75, Rome.

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I remembered Dora in the garden in the month of August, at the age of 89, watering the pumpkins she would use to make the last cabello de angel of her life, to fill the ensaimadas. “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well,” she would always say–and so she collected the seeds, planted them, and took care of the seedlings. Finally, she filled jars and jars with her cabello de angel for the many people who would enjoy this treat, made with the love of a grandmother. She made marmalade and candy. She enjoyed anything that had to do with spreading the warmth of hearth and home. She didn’t talk about this–she just did it, and that was enough.

“She loved life and delighted in carrying out the familiar, lovable traditions of each holiday, and she spared herself no work in this regard. She created the extraordinary by doing ordinary things with perfection: the peace which comes from living the virtue of order, from finding everything in its proper place, a simple but well prepared meal, and a spotless table set with good taste and simplicity. She was always working but she did so calmly, seeking to serve the others, taking care of the clothing, the garden, all the details of the meals, the cleaning, making sure that “the cold things were cold and the hot things were hot,” as she liked to repeat, doing all of the things which she had learned from Saint Josemaria himself, in order to be a sower of peace and joy.

“In life we get to know a lot of people, and we value and remember them. But there are some people who are unforgettable because, doing things that no one notices and without calling attention to themselves, they make a deep impression on us. We ask ourselves what it is about them…and we begin to discover the heroes of the world, the ones who know how to make us happy in little things, the saints, who show us the wonder of creation, the goodness of the world, the importance of caring for others, one by one, cheerfully, enjoying what they are doing.

“I was reading a novel recently and I came upon a passage which immediately made me think of Dora. The author was writing about a Hungarian immigrant working for a lady in North America at the beginning of the twentieth century. ‘They liked to make delicious and plentiful meals, and see the others enjoy them; they liked to prepare soft, clean beds and see the children sleeping in them…both of them had in their depths a kind of overflowing joy, a pleasure in life which was delicate but invigorating.’

“Dora, following the example of the Blessed Virgin, took care of the others like a mother or an older sister and sought their good in the beauty of the work she carried out. In those details, apparently unimportant, she demonstrated her love for God and for the transcendent life to which He had called her.”

Isabel García Martín
Rome (Italy)

From: http://doradelhoyo.org/

Listening to people’s hearts

Fr. Ron Gillis provides spiritual direction for many
By Lisa Socarras | For the Catholic Herald

Born and raised in Boston, Father Ron Gillis calls 1967 the year of “The Impossible Dream” because the Red Sox won the American League Pennant and because the youngest of eight children in the Gillis household was ordained to the priesthood.

“My father was in seventh heaven,” he said, reflecting on his vocation. “I regard it as a miracle, the whole expectation that you could be called by God to give everything. I looked at the crucifix and said, ‘Lord, You did all that for me. What should I be willing to do for You?’”

Today, 44 years later, Father Gillis serves as chaplain at both the Reston Study Center and Oakcrest School in McLean, and as a spiritual director at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., a position he has held for the past 30 years. Some years, he has given ongoing spiritual direction to more than 40 seminarians, driving twice a week from Northern Virginia to listen, advise and guide those in priestly formation.

As an Opus Dei priest working in the Washington, D.C., area for the past 38 years, Father Gillis has administered the sacraments, taught courses, preached, and provided spiritual direction and evenings of recollection for hundreds of married men and women as well as students. He always has been selfless and ready to help others on their personal path to sanctity, part of the universal call to holiness.

Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church, was founded in Spain in 1928 by St. Josemaría Escrivá, who taught that work and the circumstances of ordinary life are occasions for growing closer to God, serving others and for improving society.

Even as a young man, Father Gillis had a strong sense of purpose for his life and never had any doubts about his vocation.

“It was impossible to grow up in Catholic Boston and not have a strong sense of vocation because vocations were abundant,” he said. “It was a very common question for Catholic young people to ask, ‘What is my vocation?’”

“We were surrounded by the Faith and by the sense of dedication, also present in our parents, who raised large families. They were working-class people, very committed to the Faith,” said Father Gillis.

He attended Catholic elementary and secondary school where his teachers sensed he had a vocation to the priesthood.

“The nuns were after me in the eighth grade to go away to junior seminary,” he said, adding that he was not ready at that young age to make the commitment.

Later, while a junior in high school, Father Gillis said a friend “dragged me along” on a retreat at a Trappist monastery and it made a profound impact on him.

“It was in August and it was the feast of St. Bernard,” he said. “I always remember that it was like going to heaven. It was so beautiful, the peacefulness, the spirituality, the whole thing was magnificent, the Divine Office, the Liturgy. Then we were helping to make the hay with the monks. The silence, I remember thinking this is really the peace of God. This is really wonderful, but I don’t want to stay here.”

He asked himself how one could bring this sense of the presence of God into the midst of the world.

“I don’t have a monastic vocation. I like being in the middle of the world. When I encountered Opus Dei, that’s what happened. I saw that these people are involved in things, but they take spirituality very seriously. I was struck by this kind of formula that we need to bring Our Lord to so many people who are good people who live in the middle of the world,” Father Gillis said.

Following his freshman year of college at the University of Toronto, he became a member of Opus Dei and then transferred to Boston University because there was no Opus Dei center in Toronto. After earning a bachelor’s in history, he went to Rome in 1964 to study for the priesthood as a seminarian at the Roman College of the Holy Cross. While in Rome, he had the opportunity to learn from St. Josemaría Escriva himself.

“He was a great coach and a tremendous leader of men,” said Father Gillis. “Ashttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif the founder, he was strong and enormously affectionate.”

He instilled in the seminarians that the only thing that really matters is personal sanctity, that we be saints. Always ready to admit his own challenges, the saint taught that determination to persevere, even in times of tremendous trial, is the journey of the soul toward holiness. To begin again is man’s goal because of our fallen nature we will have failings.

“The spirit of St. Josemaría is that the important thing is the struggle,” said Father Gillis. “The struggle is the sign of holiness. A saint is a sinner that keeps trying.”

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