June 25 get-togetherA “geographical-historical” account of the years 1940-44 (incl. 25 June 1944)

Refs.: “Josemaría Escrivá en las calles de Madrid. Guía para seguir sus pasos.” RIALP; Andrés Vázquez de Prada. The Founder of Opus Dei. Vol. 2.

Basilica de San MiguelIn the 1930s, our Founder would make frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament here, before and after heading to the Bishop’s Palace.

Palacio EpiscopalOrdination, first three priests of Opus Dei.

A page from the book:Josemaría Escrivá en las calles de Madrid. Guía para seguir sus pasos. RIALP

http://www.vpike.com/TRIVIA:

"Virtual Turnpike“Guided by your knowledge of places in Madrid associated with the biography of the

founder of Opus Dei, St Josemaria Escriva, plug the STREET NAME & NO., followed by "Madrid", and voila! the "Virtual Turnpike" gives you a shot of either the exact location currently or an area near to the indicated address.  To your right is

the "StickMan" standing on the precise spot on a MAP.

https://sites.google.com/site/jmjmadridtour/

No. 2 San Justo Street. Bishop’s palace. [Ordination, first three priests of Opus Dei]The Founder of Opus Dei would often come to the Bishop’s palace in the 1930s. It was the dwelling-place of Bishop Leopoldo Eijo y Garay (1878–1963). Bishop Eijo y Garay was Bishop of Madrid for forty years, from 1923 to 1963, and gave Father Josemaria much-needed support and encouragement in the early days of Opus Dei.

Don Leopoldo Eijo y Garay

Bishop Leopoldo Eijo y Garay of Madrid-Alcala ruled his diocese with a firm hand. He energetically applied the Holy See's instructions to restrict the flow of priests to the capital from other dioceses, and during the time of the Republic he stood up to attempts of the civil authorities to interfere in Church matters, refusing to recognize the government's nominations for Church posts.Father Josemaría, from when he first came to Madrid as a young priest, had been subject to the diocese's strict rules and had conducted himself in an exemplary fashion. His consultations with the vicar general (Monsignor Moran), his punctual applications for renewal of his ministerial faculties, and, above all, his ardent apostolic zeal had commended him to Bishop Eijo y Garay from the start.Then, during the time Father Josemaría spent in Burgos in 1938, their mutual esteem quickly evolved into a warm friendship. As had Cardinal Soldevila earlier, Bishop Eijo y Garay, a perceptive man with a lot of experience in governing, discovered the exceptional qualities of this young Aragonese priest: his daring and prudence, his drive and refinement of soul, his obedience and sincerity. (In 1943, when the bishop had to send to Rome a synopsis of what he knew about the founder of Opus Dei, he wrote of him: "The distinctive notes of his character are his energy and his capacity for organization and government; with an ability to pass unnoticed. He has shown himself most obedient to the Church hierarchy-one very special hallmark of his priestly work is the way he fosters, in speech and in writing, in public and in private, love for Holy Mother Church and for the Roman Pontiff.“) Ref. Andrés Vázquez de Prada. The Founder of Opus Dei. Vol. 2.

Bishop Leopoldo Eijo y Garay of Madrid-Alcala (cont’d):Their harmony of will produced a deep mutual trust. The founder made it a habit never to take one step in his apostolic activities without first obtaining permission from the competent authority and afterward making what he called his "rendering of accounts.“ He did this with great naturalness, making no secret of his esteem and affection for the bishop, and in difficult moments he turned confidently to this shepherd of God's flock. "I've been tempted not to send my Father this letter," he once wrote him, "but I am going to send it. It is of the essence, no doubt about it, that my bishop know all about-I say this again-even the breathing of this poor son of his.” And in August 1940, as attacks on the Work were mounting, Father Josemaría expressed to him the hope "that you may continue to regard the Work that he has laid on my shoulders as something of God and as something of yours."Bishop Leopoldo's first step in defending the Work was always to obtain information-when possible, firsthand. Father Josemaría bent over backwards to understand other people's motives, and never to assume bad intentions, and so quickly disposed of reports he received on the subject of attacks. The bishop asked that in the future he keep them, and that he inform him of every detail. Indeed, by the spring of 1941 the attacks had become so virulent that they could no longer be ignored. …Ref. Andrés Vázquez de Prada. The Founder of Opus Dei. Vol. 2.

The good bishop, seriously concerned, wished to grant diocesan approval to Opus Dei in March, 1941, hoping to put an end to the malicious gossip. “One night when I was in bed and beginning to fall asleep (when I slept, I slept very soundly; I never lost sleep over the slanders, persecutions and falsehoods of those times) the telephone rang. I answered and heard ‘Josemaría…’ It was Don Leopoldo, then bishop of Madrid. There was a special warmth in his voice… ‘What is it?’ I asked. And he said to me, ‘Ecce Satanas expetivit vos ut cribaret sicut triticum’ (‘Behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat’). Then he added: ‘I pray so much for you all…Et tu… confirma filios tuos! ’ (‘You, confirm your sons’). And he hung up.”

WIKIPEDIA entry (Spanish):

Trivia (nearby place): Using theVirtual Turnpike vpike.com:

Catedral de Santa María la Real de la Almudena (no. 7 on map on Slide 3)

Today, it has a chapel dedicated to St Josemaría: there’s a high relief (lower right) representing the Founder attending to a very sick person. That sick person was a gypsy and died at the Hospital General: he died, deeply contrite, on 14 February 1932.

Beginning of the 1940s:

…Father Josemaría did everything he could to avoid harboring resentment and to forgive. One night in 1942, exasperated with a heavy load of work and wagging gossiping tongues, he knelt before the tabernacle and declared:“Lord, if you don’t need my good name, what should I want it for?”

The Priestly Society of the Holy Cross

The faithful of the Work multiplied to the point that providing priestly ministry to all of them became a concern. Father Josemaría knew that the priests should come from among the laity of Opus Dei. But as much as the founder racked his brain for a solution, he could not find a path that solved the canonical problem of the title of ordination of the future priests.

A page from the book:Josemaría Escrivá en las calles de Madrid. Guía para seguir sus pasos. RIALP

http://josemariaescriva.info/article/february-14-2011

At the end of 1930, at a time when only two or three laymen and Father Norberto, assistant chaplain of the Foundation for the Sick, were with him, Father Josemaría had written: “The priest members have to come from among the lay members.”He also wrote: “Without priests, the apostolic efforts initiated by the lay members of Opus Dei would remain uncompleted, since they would necessarily have to stop when they came up against what I often call the ‘sacramental wall’ – the administration of sacraments, which is reserved to priests.”

For some time before February 1943, three members of Opus Dei (all engineers) had been preparing intensively for the priesthood, following a plan of studies approved by the Bishop of Madrid, although St Josemaría did not yet know when or by what title they could be ordained. He kept praying and asking the Holy Spirit for light, so that he could find a solution that would enable him to unite the secular character that was essential to Opus Dei, with the ordination of priests who were necessary for the service of a universal apostolate. The problem was finding the most appropriate canonical formula.

*In the period 1930 to 1933, 2 Diocesan Priests met the Founder ―Don José María Somoano and Don Lino Vea-Murguía― and played an important role in the apostolate of the Work, including meeting the first ever female member of Opus Dei, María Ignacia García Escobar. (On 22 July 1930, she was admitted to the Hospital del Rey because of tuberculosis. She joined Opus Dei on 9 April 1932, and died on 13 September 1933.) Both Don José María and Don Lino suffered martyrdom during the religious persecution of that period: in 1932 and in 1936, respectively.

Manuscript (obituary) by María Ignacia on

the holy life of Fr. José María Somoano

Fr. José María Somoano

http://josemariaescriva.info/article/first-ordination-of-faithful-of-opus-dei-to-the-priesthood

ORDINATION – 25 JUNE 1944:When the time came for their first round of examinations, each petitioned the bishop of Madrid-Alcala in these words: "Believing he has a vocation to the priesthood and desiring to continue his ecclesiastical studies, [N.] petitions Your Excellency to grant him the appropriate permissions allowing him to be examined in the humanities and philosophy, and then admitted to the study of sacred theology.[154]The philosophy examinations were given, as mentioned earlier, by a panel from Madrid's diocesan seminary. Some months later, the theology examinations took place in the Center for Ecclesiastical Studies that was set up when the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross was canonically established. When the three candidates passed those examinations and drew near the end of their studies, Father Josemaría was deeply moved.Bishop Leopoldo suggested to Alvaro del Portillo that the three be ordained on June 25 and asked him to pass this date on to Father Josemaría. On April 25 the latter wrote the bishop that he had consulted the ordinands' professors, and they saw no difficulty with holding the final theology examinations in early June, and that he would therefore be happy to have the ordinations set for the suggested date. "I can't hide the fact," he added, "that I am deeply moved by the approaching priesthood of these sons of my soul, with unbounded gratitude to God and to my father Bishop Leopoldo. May He fill you with his grace!"[155]Ref. Andrés Vázquez de Prada. The Founder of Opus Dei. Vol. 2.

…A dispensation was needed from the Holy See to abbreviate the usual time intervals between conferrals of the various minor and major orders. On Friday, May 12, Bishop Leopoldo called Father Josemaría. "The ordinands should start their week-long retreat tomorrow," he told him, "because on Saturday the 20th I'll give them the tonsure and, every few days after that, the other orders leading to the priesthood."[156]So on May 13, Father Josemaría went to El Escorial to preach the retreat required before Holy Orders.[157]The founder supplied the instruction in liturgy and pastoral theology himself, giving talks on these topics over a period of several months. He was very demanding on the subject of liturgical decorum, insisting that his sons faithfully observe even the smallest details of the rubrics, especially those for Holy Mass, which so much help bring people nearer to the Lord.[158]In pastoral theology he shared his broad, varied ministerial experience in seminaries and universities, in rural and city parishes, in hospitals and charitable institutions, and with religious, priests, and lay people of all ages and professions.[159]As Bishop Leopoldo had promised, the ceremony of tonsure took place on May 20 and the minor orders were conferred over the next few days; the subdiaconate by the bishop of Pamplona on Sunday, May 28, in the oratory of Diego de Leon, and the diaconate on June 3 by auxiliary Bishop Casimiro Morcillo of Madrid.[160]Ref. Andrés Vázquez de Prada. The Founder of Opus Dei. Vol. 2.

…The final examinations were on June 12. Three days later Father Josemaría certified to the bishop that the candidates 'had completed all of the studies required for priestly ordination."[161]The results of the theology exams were an almost unbroken string of "Meritissimi" (the highest possible evaluation), but all three received a mere "Bene-meritus" (Good) in liturgical chant.[162]In the days before ordination, Father Josemaría received answers to requests he had sent to almost all the bishops of Spain seeking ministerial faculties for the future priests in their dioceses. All said yes, which made him feel very supported by the hierarchy and very grateful for that support.[163]On the afternoon of Saturday, June 24, he visited La Almudena cemetery. It was a pilgrimage, to the graves of his parents and Isidoro, to offer thanks and to pray that the new priests would be holy ones. He felt strongly that it was especially to his parents and to Isidoro that he owed these first ordinations, which, as this note found in the opening pages of his journal makes clear, he had foreseen at Opus Dei’s founding:The role of the priest in the Work! How often we have spoken about him! He is the nerve of the Work of God. Holy! He should go overboard in virtue, if it is possible to go overboard in this. For the lay members will see themselves in him as in a mirror; and only if the priest aims very high will the others reach the right level.[164]Ref. Andrés Vázquez de Prada. The Founder of Opus Dei. Vol. 2.

Kneeling in prayer now at the three graves, he wept with gratitude for the sacrifices that had been made by his parents and Isidoro.[165]Sunday, June 25,1944, was a day of great rejoicing. The three young men said good-bye to the founder at Diego de Leon and went by car to the bishop's residence, where they were to be ordained in his chapel. The crowd was larger than the chapel could hold and spilled over into adjoining rooms. At ten o'clock, Bishop Leopoldo entered and began the ceremony. After Mass, as the new priests were still removing their vestments, people pressed forward to kiss their newly consecrated hands. Among those present were people from the nunciature and from the bishop's staff, priests from Madrid and surrounding areas, relatives and friends and acquaintances of the new priests, members of the Work, and a large number of representatives of religious orders and congregations: Hieronymites, Dominicans, Piarists, Augustinians, Marianists, Vincentians....[166]In the meantime, while the ceremony was taking place, the founder was celebrating Mass in the oratory of the Diego de Leon center, assisted by Jose Maria Albareda.Ref. Andrés Vázquez de Prada. The Founder of Opus Dei. Vol. 2. [continued on the Note Page]

He ended with affectionate words and gave them his blessing. But before getting into his car to leave, he asked to have a photo taken of him embracing Father Josemaría.A little later everyone went to the oratory and Father Josemaría gave a meditation. Commenting on some phrases from Saint Paul that he had jotted down ten years earlier, he insisted on prayer and sacrifice, as the foundation for all interior life, and on humility, both individual and collective. "When the youngest of you who are here," he said, "are going gray-or sporting splendid bald spots, like some that you see-and I, by the law of nature, have long since departed, others are going to ask you: 'So what did the Father say on the day of the ordination of the first three?' And you will answer them: 'He said that you are to be men of prayer, men of prayer, and men of prayer.'[169]He spoke about perseverance and the cross. He told them some members of the Work would soon be leaving for distant lands. He ended by reporting that he had just received a cable from the Vatican. The Holy Father, it said, had granted the three new priests the right to give a papal blessing, accompanied by a plenary indulgence, to all those attending their first Mass.A solemn Benediction and the singing of the Te Deum followed. Phone calls, visits, and family festivities continued. When Father Josemaría retired, late that night, he was worn out by the day's emotions.Ref. Andrés Vázquez de Prada. The Founder of Opus Dei. Vol. 2.

After the ordination The morning after the ordination of the first priests of the Work, Father Josemaría went to see Father Alvaro del Portillo, in the center on Villanueva Street. He asked if Father Alvaro had heard any confessions yet. The answer was no. "Well," he said, "you're going to hear mine, because I want to make a general confession to you."[1]When the time came for absolution, Father Alvaro was so moved (Father Josemaría said later), that he had to help him recite the formula. Alvaro remained his confessor until his death.[2]Indeed, humility and interior transparency often moved him to open his soul to Father Alvaro even outside confession.[3]The new priests celebrated their first public Masses the following week. Father Hernandez Garnica's was on Tuesday, June 27, at 9:30 A.M. in the church of Santa Isabel. Assisting him were Fathers Lopez Ortiz and Bueno Monreal. The church was packed with a large contingent from the Madrid Electric Company, where the new priest had worked as an engineer. Also present were professors and former classmates from the School of Mining Engineering.[4]Ref. Andrés Vázquez de Prada. The Founder of Opus Dei. Vol. 2.

After the ordination…Father del Portillo's first public Mass took place the next day, in the chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar High School, run by the Marianists. He was assisted by a Father Aguilar, O.P., and by the principal of the school. As was also the case with Father Hernandez de Garnica's first Mass, at the end the papal blessing was given and a Te Deum was sung. Lining up to kiss the new priest's hands were many relatives, friends, and acquaintances, including engineers and professors from the School of Civil Engineering.[5]On Thursday, June 29, Father Muzquiz celebrated his first public Mass, in the church of the Monastery of the Incarnation. Those present included friends and former classmates from the School of Civil Engineering and many employees of the national railroad company where he had worked.Ref. Andrés Vázquez de Prada. The Founder of Opus Dei. Vol. 2.