28th November is the anniversary of that day in 1982 when Pope St. John Paul II officially established Opus Dei as a personal prelature of the Catholic Church.
Q. What exactly is Opus Dei?
A. It is a personal prelature of the Catholic Church.
Q. Ooookay... In layman's terms please...
A. Ooookay... "Prelature" means it is like a diocese with its own bishop or prelate (thus "prelature") and his priests who all exist to serve the lay faithful of that diocese ("lay" means those members of the Church who are NOT deacons, priests, bishops, nuns, sisters, monks, or brothers; "faithful" basically means believers).
"Personal" means that this prelature does not have geographical/territorial/physical boundaries like ordinary dioceses. Instead it extends wherever a member (person) of that prelature is. (The same idea applies with members of the armed forces: they too have their own bishop and priests who are charged with attending to their spiritual needs no matter where they are.)
Q. What's so special about Opus Dei?
A. Special? I don't think there's anything special... There's nothing taught by Opus Dei that is not taught by the Church as well.
Q. Why then was it started?
A. It was started on 2nd Oct 1928 to remind everyone that Christ's words "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" are addressed to everyone and not just the apostles. All Christians have a direct command from Christ to be as holy as God himself is holy. Over time many assumed that it was only priests, nuns and bishops who had to be holy, that only they could become saints. The rest of us could only try to be nice. Opus Dei echoes the teaching of the Church and says no! Every Christian is called to heroic virtue and holiness; in one word, to be a saint.
Q. But is such sanctity really possible?
A. On our own effort alone, not at all. With God's grace, certainly! But both are needed. As one saint would say, "Work like everything depended on you; pray like everything depended on God."
Happy feastday!
28thNovember 2015