May 5, 2026 • 34 mins
In this meditation, Fr. Peter Armenio reflects on the spirit of filial trust he witnessed in Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, shaped in large part by his closeness to St. Josemaría. Through that relationship, Blessed Alvaro learned to see God truly as Father and to entrust everything to him with serenity and faith.
Fr. Peter encourages us to deepen our own trust in God, learning from the example of the saints to live with greater confidence and interior peace.
Listen and reflect on:
- Lessons from Blessed Álvaro
- His unity with St. Josemaría
- Living with peace amid uncertainty
- Developing a simple and confident prayer life
- Imitating the virtues of the saints
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SPEAKER_00 (00:10):
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmlybelieve that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me.
I adore you with profoundreverence.
(00:30):
I ask your pardon for my sins,and the grace to make this time
of prayer fruitful.
My Immaculate Mother SaintJoseph, my father and Lord, my
guardian angel, intercede forme.
Our thanksgiving that we want tooffer to our Lord through Jesus
(00:53):
Christ and his Immaculate MotherMary would be incomplete if we
didn't make serious referenceand reflection on the role of
Saint Jose Maria's right handman for forty years, whose
(01:15):
sanctity has been recognizedofficially by the Catholic
Church.
Alvaro del Portillo is nowBlessed Alvaro del Portillo.
Ultimately, we bring saints, andto be technical, the blessed, to
(01:44):
our contemplation of the life ofJesus, since the church
recognizes that, like St.
Paul, a saint and a blessed cansay, it is no longer I that
live, but Christ who lives inme.
(02:10):
Certain individuals, I'm notsaying that they are better
disciples than others who do notget recognized officially by the
church, but those individuals asa way of helping the faithful
are declared by the church asrole models.
(02:33):
I'm grateful to God that he hasbeen declared that.
(04:01):
Since a few years before, I wasin the same room with him a
number of occasions, a goodnumber of occasions, and it's
kind of interesting, if youwill, to see someone who comes
(04:22):
across as very regular,understated, self-deprecating to
be in the presence of so manypeople.
(05:12):
Because his words are spirit andlife.
But there's a bit of a shortcutthat we contemplate Christ
through his holy followers,especially those followers who
are recognized to have followedJesus to a heroic level.
(05:32):
And so that's what we want to doduring this time of reflection
that ultimately we want to bemore identified with Jesus
Christ and all his teachings.
Let's contemplate on hisbackground.
(05:55):
Blessed Alvaro was an engineerwho suffered in a very direct
way from the horrificpersecution of the church that
(06:18):
victimized thousands of priestsand religious.
Thousands were summarilyexecuted.
And he witnessed that in hishome city of Madrid.
In a nation that a few centuriespast was responsible for the
(06:44):
conversion of a significant partof the world.
And he met Saint Jose Mariathrough his aunt, who Saint Jose
Maria knew.
(07:06):
And Blessed Alvaro immediatelysaw that that charism received
by Saint Jose Maria on October2nd, 1928, was very much for
him.
Not for long, Saint Jose Mariasaw that within Opus Day, Alvaro
(07:32):
del Portillo would have asingular role as his most
faithful assistant, and as anindividual who was most faithful
to the charism Saint Jose Mariareceived.
(07:56):
In a nutshell, that charism isthat one is called to love God,
love Jesus Christ totally inevery activity that
characterizes his or her life.
(08:17):
In a get together behind Alvarodel Portillo's back, St.
Josemaria said, He's the one toimitate.
He's the one who's embraced thespirit of Opuste, that spirit
that was divinely inspired.
(08:41):
He's the one who embraced it inan exemplary way.
And that we would have thatspirit or live that spirit to
the degree that we tried toreplicate his own fidelity to
the gospel through his callingto live the charism received by
(09:02):
José Maria Scrivan.
From the get-go, his spirit ofprayer was extraordinary.
I read a book in Spanish, abigger book, that was quite
(09:27):
enlightening.
And this was during the SpanishCivil War, where he was on the
wrongs.
He was in the part of Madridthat was controlled by
anarchists and communists, andhe was drafted in the army, and
he miraculously escaped to theother side and enlisted in the
(09:55):
National Army, if I get thetitle right.
And he was basically in the ArmyCorps of Engineers.
He was a civil engineer,specialty roads and bridges.
And I guess they would go allaround places of past battles
(10:18):
and fix roads, fix bridges.
And he uh wrote to SaintJosemaria lamenting that because
of a lack of organization andorder, that he was cutting
(10:41):
corners on what is called anopest day plan of life, plan of
life in Christ, basically, anhour of meditation, recitation
of the rosary, mass andcommunion.
Those were part of the plan oflife.
(11:01):
And in that letter that helamented, that he was cutting
corners, that he has to be morecareful, he shared with St.
Jose Maria his resolution ofbeing more diligent and take
care, taking care of his plan oflife.
He states he's very busy.
(11:21):
He states he's very tired.
And he uses every minute tospend time with our Lord, at the
same time carrying out hismilitary duties of being part of
this Army Corps of Engineers.
(11:46):
Going to mass was problematic,and he had to get permission
from his commanding officer, andall told I'm not sure the exact
distance, but I have a feelingit was something like maybe four
(12:10):
to five miles up and back, youknow, one way, maybe two and a
half, coming back.
Um, and he would go every day.
And he got permission to dothat.
And by the time his unit movesto another location, some
(12:34):
astronomical numbers, relativelyspeaking, astronomical number of
thirty other soldiers who wouldaccompany him to that daily
mass.
And just to wrap up that part ofhis life as a soldier, he was
(12:54):
transferred, not as unit, but hewas transferred.
And I think on the blackboard inhis barracks, he was about 22
years old, if that.
One of his fellow soldiers wroteon the blackboard, Officer Del
Portillo is leaving us.
(13:19):
Don't cry, although we lost afather.
And that kind of gives us alittle inside information of his
holiness, his charity.
But probably they had the sameexperience as me.
(13:41):
I found him extremelyaffectionate and kind, and not
surprised that the churchrecognized it.
I was again impressed and a bitsurprised how they went from his
(14:03):
just ordinary life to abeatification in a relatively
short time.
Let's fast forward to my ownimmediate experience of Blessed
Alvaro, being a naive youngAmerican seminarian who hardly
(14:36):
knew Spanish and Italian andcapacity to read Latin.
I arrived in Rome previous tothat.
I heard about Alvaro Portillo asa very important assistant to
(15:00):
Saint Jose Maria.
And also someone who receivedheavy positive endorsement from
Saint Jose Maria, who was notSt.
Jose Maria at that time.
And I remember my first daythere.
(15:25):
I had jet lag.
I had an Italian pranzo, whichis the main meal midday, around
two o'clock in the afternoon.
And the food was not to myliking.
We had a little some horsd'oeuvres, which consisted,
(15:51):
unbeknownst to me, until Iasked, breaded cow's brains,
with a accompanied by a sweetvermouth that I did not like.
A plate of pasta went down well,followed by a symbolic piece of
(16:15):
meat, was not to my likingeither, and I asked, what was
it?
And it was cow's tongue.
So I don't know if it waspsychological or physical, but I
was jet-lagged, didn't like thefood, and the room immediately
(16:36):
filled with cigarette smoke.
This is the 70s, with espressocoffee and a little sweet after
dinner drink.
It was Sunday, so it was a bitfestive, and the new school year
was beginning.
Also, wine accompanied the mainmeal.
(16:59):
That would be every day for therest of my stay in Rome.
And immediately after thatdinner, we we played sports.
There's a big soccer game.
Americans usually were barredfrom playing soccer with these
uh Cracker Jack players from theEuropean countries and South
(17:22):
American countries.
And um non-soccer playersplayed, would play basketball.
Being an American, I playedbasketball and I felt sick.
And so I sat out, and uh someonesaid, Well, we would we would
(17:42):
call the one in charge of OpusDay the the father to make it
more family-like.
And someone said the father willbe driving through the property
because there's a quarters inthat seminary for the prelate of
Opus Day, the father.
(18:02):
He played bocce or walk around,so there was a section for him.
And anyways, he was beingchauffeured through the grounds
of the seminary, and I just randown to the road.
I was on an embankment lookingdown and stopped the car in my
(18:25):
basketball attire.
And uh he talked to me, he wasvery happy to see me.
Uh, I needed a translator.
He asked me if I knew the recipeto be a happy young man.
I said, I don't know.
And my translator said, say no,so he gives you an answer.
(18:47):
I go, no.
And he said, Love our Lord alot.
And think about the others.
He traced the cross on myforehead and left.
And upon entering the Opus Dayheadquarters, he told the first
person he met, it was reportedto me, that he met a young
(19:10):
American who was starting histour of duty in Rome.
After that, we had gatheringswith him, and he was very
engineer-esque.
(19:33):
We'd ask him questions about thespiritual life, about the life
of St.
Jose Maria, about the life ofthe church, and he would
elaborate.
And I could summarize that myyears there, with him with him
(19:54):
being at the helm, he wouldalways begin these gatherings
inviting us gently.
This is a great day to giveyourself totally to Jesus
Christ.
And we knew that's what he wasdoing in his own prayer with his
own sentiments.
(20:16):
And he would tell us at the sametime, it's like it was an
international seminary, so youhave a smattering of seminarians
from different countries of theworld, and you represent, you
don't represent your country,but you have that sensation.
Well, I'm one of the fiveAmericans there, and Helmuth, or
(20:43):
Heinrich is one of the f threeor four Germans there.
You have a smattering of Irish,English, French.
And he would tell us, my sons, Idon't want you to be supermen.
And when you're young, you'recompetitive, even when even at
(21:04):
the highest level of piety, ofpursuit of holiness, and uh I
don't know how holy you could beif you compete to be holy, but
anyway, he detected that is anoccupational hazard of a young
man uh studying for thepriesthood who's trying to be
(21:25):
holy, he may compete withsomebody else.
And he would say, I don't wantsupermen here.
I want you to be super humble.
That's what he would say.
And he would invite us to beginagain many times to appeal to
(21:45):
the mercy of our Lord.
Those were great years becausethey coincided with a friend of
Blessed Alvaro, who wouldeventually become Saint John
Paul II.
They became friends during theSecond Vatican Council.
(22:10):
Both of them were heavilyinvolved with the council.
I hear that Saint John Paulperhaps did a lot of the work, a
lot of the work on the eventualdocument of Gary and Spaz.
Blessed Alvaro worked on thedocument on the priesthood,
(22:36):
Presbyterium Ordinis.
I think also just by reading thedocument, he had a heavy hand in
the document on the laity.
So they were they were friendsfrom way back.
John Paul got elected during myyears in Rome.
(22:59):
And Blessed Alvarez wouldperiodically meet with John
Paul.
And he would tell us about theHoly Father, what he could.
(23:32):
And when he consecrated thechurch in Mexico to Our Lady of
Guadalupe, we noticed thatBlessed Alvaro probably helped
(23:55):
compose that consecration.
It was a little too close tohome.
It was teachings that we heardvery often, very much the spirit
of Opus Day.
Holiness, abandonment, countingon Mary's motherly love and
intercession.
(24:17):
Anyway, I like to tell thisoften that he was seeing him
every day, and I was workingwith a youth group next door to
headquarters.
Most of the young men in thisyouth group were from the city
of Rome.
(24:38):
And I have my own routine.
Part of our plan of life is ahalf hour of meditation in the
evening or late afternoon.
And I would go into headquartersbecause there was a chapel
called the crypt where St.
Jose Maria was buried.
Now he's in a chapel with theBlessed Sacrament above the
(25:01):
crypt, anyway.
And Blessed Alvaro is in thatformer burial place, the crypt
of Blessed Alvaro.
And so I would go there, Ithat's probably 7.15 p.m.
at night.
Supper was late in Europe, inItaly.
(25:22):
And I knew that Blessed Alvarowas visiting the Pope every day,
and he had a routine.
He would come back toheadquarters around 7.
And I didn't want to run intohim because he had bigger fish
to fry.
Kind of silly, but um and so Iarrived at 7:30 just to be on
(25:49):
the safe side, becauseinvariably he would stop, he
would talk to you, he would, andhe was so busy.
And he even told me that he wasvery busy since ever since St.
Josemira died, that in a in agood in a good way, but he was
very busy, very under pressure.
So I wanted to give him a littlebit of respite.
(26:12):
Anyway, he didn't come in atseven.
When I came at 7.30, we both uhhe was coming in from one door,
my I came through another doorin the same lobby.
I was gonna go in one direction,he was going another.
And then he came in, and I justquickly made a sharp right turn
into a small little sittingroom, and I hear him saying in
(26:36):
Spanish, uh Peter, where arewhere are you going?
Come and talk to me.
And he talked to me for, I don'tknow, it could have been 10
minutes, and he just wanted toknow if how I was adapting to
the language, if I was eatingwell, if I was getting enough
rest, what was everybody had a ajob on the seminary uh property.
(27:03):
I was a landscaper, I didn'thave too much talent to do
anything else.
He wanted to know about that,how I was doing.
Uh he wanted to know about myfamily.
And um I was kind of a louddresser, and um I had to, matter
of fact, modify my wardrobebecause it was just too loud and
(27:24):
just didn't fit in the moresubdued uh European dresswear,
but he told me how much he likedmy elegance and uh and it really
moved me, not that theconversation make the headlines,
(27:45):
but he acted, and I knew it wasthe opposite because he actually
told me in my first encounterthat he was busy, buried in
work, that he would spend thatkind of time.
He gave me the sensation he hadnothing to do, that I was the
most important person in theworld.
It was against her realistic, Isaid this person is coming back
(28:08):
from Jean Paul II, who woulddraw thousands and thousands of
people, incredible popularity,especially among the young.
And nevertheless, he would wastequote-unquote time with me.
And I'll never forget that, howhe would walk the walk, and
(28:31):
charity was not, you know, anice uh consideration, but he
would live it, and in veryordinary ways and extraordinary
ways as well.
During those years, it was inOpus Day marrying years, where
(28:54):
there'd be a special emphasis onthe Blessed Mother, and he had a
lot of intentions.
The more immediate intention wasum the beatification of Saint
Jose Maria.
Also, John Paul recommended thatBlessed Alvaro, Alvaro del
(29:20):
Portillo start a pontificaluniversity, which took a lot of
faith because the enrollment inthe other pontifical
universities, which had beenaround for a significant amount
of time, significant amount ofyears, were diminished,
decreasing.
And so that was one intention,another intention, communism had
(29:45):
not collapsed in Eastern Europe,and uh he wanted to start
activities of Opus Day, centersof Opus Day in those countries
when the time was right, buthaving a Polish pope from a
communist country uh also addedthe evangelical pressure to do
(30:10):
this, the proper canonicalconfiguration of Opus Day, and
just to name a few things thatwere very much on his mind.
And what did he do?
(30:31):
Well, he invited all of us toput all these intentions in the
loving and maternal care of theBlessed Mother.
And in spite of being busy, hewould go on pilgrimages, which
consisted in those days of apart of the rosary heading
towards the shrine.
There's plenty of them in Rome,the main part at the shrine, and
(30:55):
another part coming back.
And I marveled about the time heput into prayer.
He would encourage us verystrongly to fulfill those acts
of piety, the contemplation ofJesus, spend an hour a day, half
hour in the morning, half hourin the evening, Mass and
(31:17):
Thanksgiving after Mass for tenminutes, charity with our
friends by witnessing the gospeland also through our words.
We don't push, maybe nudgepeople to come to God through
confession, through more prayer,more converting to a more
(31:43):
charitable life.
I don't know, a whole panoply ofpossibilities of discipleship.
And he would say this it's aplay on words in Spanish.
Fulfillment of the plan of lifeis cumplimiento, cumplimiento.
And he would tell us, make sureyour acts of piety are
(32:05):
cumplimiento, fulfillment.
And be sensitive to when it iscumplo imiento, which means I do
it, but I don't I lie.
I do it, but I lie.
In other words, I'm cuttingcorners, I'm checking the boxes,
my heart's that in there.
And so that was very muchemphasized.
(32:28):
Well, these are just a fewreflections of, in my
estimation, well, it'srecognized by the church, a
great saint, but packaged in theordinary, even though he had
extraordinary gifts.
And I would say my immediateexperience of Alvaro del
(32:52):
Portillo is a lot of love, a lotof joy, and a profound love for
our Lord through living his owncalling to live the spirit of
Opus Day as a right-hand man ofSt.
(33:15):
Jose Maria as the first link toJose Maria, Saint Jose Maria, to
the succeeding years of OpusDay.
Many beautiful things havehappened with suffering with the
cross since uh Blessed Alvaroleft this world to intercede for
(33:38):
us in heaven.
And in imitation of BlessedAlvaro and St.
Jose Maria, we turn to theBlessed Mother and ask her to
give that desire to want tofollow her Son Jesus Christ in a
more loving way, a more faithfulway, so that we could be lights
in the modern world to bringpeople back to God.
(34:02):
Amen.
I thank you, my God, for thegood resolutions, affections,
and inspirations you'vecommunicated to me in this
meditation.
I ask your help in putting theminto effect.
My Immaculate Mother, St.
Joseph, my father and Lord, myguardian angel, intercede for
me.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, amen.
My Lord and my God, I firmlybelieve that you are here, that
you see me, that you hear me.
I adore you with profoundreverence.
(00:30):
I ask your pardon for my sins,and the grace to make this time
of prayer fruitful.
My Immaculate Mother SaintJoseph, my father and Lord, my
guardian angel, intercede forme.
Our thanksgiving that we want tooffer to our Lord through Jesus
(00:53):
Christ and his Immaculate MotherMary would be incomplete if we
didn't make serious referenceand reflection on the role of
Saint Jose Maria's right handman for forty years, whose
(01:15):
sanctity has been recognizedofficially by the Catholic
Church.
Alvaro del Portillo is nowBlessed Alvaro del Portillo.
Ultimately, we bring saints, andto be technical, the blessed, to
(01:44):
our contemplation of the life ofJesus, since the church
recognizes that, like St.
Paul, a saint and a blessed cansay, it is no longer I that
live, but Christ who lives inme.
(02:10):
Certain individuals, I'm notsaying that they are better
disciples than others who do notget recognized officially by the
church, but those individuals asa way of helping the faithful
are declared by the church asrole models.
(02:33):
I'm grateful to God that he hasbeen declared that.
(04:01):
Since a few years before, I wasin the same room with him a
number of occasions, a goodnumber of occasions, and it's
kind of interesting, if youwill, to see someone who comes
(04:22):
across as very regular,understated, self-deprecating to
be in the presence of so manypeople.
(05:12):
Because his words are spirit andlife.
But there's a bit of a shortcutthat we contemplate Christ
through his holy followers,especially those followers who
are recognized to have followedJesus to a heroic level.
(05:32):
And so that's what we want to doduring this time of reflection
that ultimately we want to bemore identified with Jesus
Christ and all his teachings.
Let's contemplate on hisbackground.
(05:55):
Blessed Alvaro was an engineerwho suffered in a very direct
way from the horrificpersecution of the church that
(06:18):
victimized thousands of priestsand religious.
Thousands were summarilyexecuted.
And he witnessed that in hishome city of Madrid.
In a nation that a few centuriespast was responsible for the
(06:44):
conversion of a significant partof the world.
And he met Saint Jose Mariathrough his aunt, who Saint Jose
Maria knew.
(07:06):
And Blessed Alvaro immediatelysaw that that charism received
by Saint Jose Maria on October2nd, 1928, was very much for
him.
Not for long, Saint Jose Mariasaw that within Opus Day, Alvaro
(07:32):
del Portillo would have asingular role as his most
faithful assistant, and as anindividual who was most faithful
to the charism Saint Jose Mariareceived.
(07:56):
In a nutshell, that charism isthat one is called to love God,
love Jesus Christ totally inevery activity that
characterizes his or her life.
(08:17):
In a get together behind Alvarodel Portillo's back, St.
Josemaria said, He's the one toimitate.
He's the one who's embraced thespirit of Opuste, that spirit
that was divinely inspired.
(08:41):
He's the one who embraced it inan exemplary way.
And that we would have thatspirit or live that spirit to
the degree that we tried toreplicate his own fidelity to
the gospel through his callingto live the charism received by
(09:02):
José Maria Scrivan.
From the get-go, his spirit ofprayer was extraordinary.
I read a book in Spanish, abigger book, that was quite
(09:27):
enlightening.
And this was during the SpanishCivil War, where he was on the
wrongs.
He was in the part of Madridthat was controlled by
anarchists and communists, andhe was drafted in the army, and
he miraculously escaped to theother side and enlisted in the
(09:55):
National Army, if I get thetitle right.
And he was basically in the ArmyCorps of Engineers.
He was a civil engineer,specialty roads and bridges.
And I guess they would go allaround places of past battles
(10:18):
and fix roads, fix bridges.
And he uh wrote to SaintJosemaria lamenting that because
of a lack of organization andorder, that he was cutting
(10:41):
corners on what is called anopest day plan of life, plan of
life in Christ, basically, anhour of meditation, recitation
of the rosary, mass andcommunion.
Those were part of the plan oflife.
(11:01):
And in that letter that helamented, that he was cutting
corners, that he has to be morecareful, he shared with St.
Jose Maria his resolution ofbeing more diligent and take
care, taking care of his plan oflife.
He states he's very busy.
(11:21):
He states he's very tired.
And he uses every minute tospend time with our Lord, at the
same time carrying out hismilitary duties of being part of
this Army Corps of Engineers.
(11:46):
Going to mass was problematic,and he had to get permission
from his commanding officer, andall told I'm not sure the exact
distance, but I have a feelingit was something like maybe four
(12:10):
to five miles up and back, youknow, one way, maybe two and a
half, coming back.
Um, and he would go every day.
And he got permission to dothat.
And by the time his unit movesto another location, some
(12:34):
astronomical numbers, relativelyspeaking, astronomical number of
thirty other soldiers who wouldaccompany him to that daily
mass.
And just to wrap up that part ofhis life as a soldier, he was
(12:54):
transferred, not as unit, but hewas transferred.
And I think on the blackboard inhis barracks, he was about 22
years old, if that.
One of his fellow soldiers wroteon the blackboard, Officer Del
Portillo is leaving us.
(13:19):
Don't cry, although we lost afather.
And that kind of gives us alittle inside information of his
holiness, his charity.
But probably they had the sameexperience as me.
(13:41):
I found him extremelyaffectionate and kind, and not
surprised that the churchrecognized it.
I was again impressed and a bitsurprised how they went from his
(14:03):
just ordinary life to abeatification in a relatively
short time.
Let's fast forward to my ownimmediate experience of Blessed
Alvaro, being a naive youngAmerican seminarian who hardly
(14:36):
knew Spanish and Italian andcapacity to read Latin.
I arrived in Rome previous tothat.
I heard about Alvaro Portillo asa very important assistant to
(15:00):
Saint Jose Maria.
And also someone who receivedheavy positive endorsement from
Saint Jose Maria, who was notSt.
Jose Maria at that time.
And I remember my first daythere.
(15:25):
I had jet lag.
I had an Italian pranzo, whichis the main meal midday, around
two o'clock in the afternoon.
And the food was not to myliking.
We had a little some horsd'oeuvres, which consisted,
(15:51):
unbeknownst to me, until Iasked, breaded cow's brains,
with a accompanied by a sweetvermouth that I did not like.
A plate of pasta went down well,followed by a symbolic piece of
(16:15):
meat, was not to my likingeither, and I asked, what was
it?
And it was cow's tongue.
So I don't know if it waspsychological or physical, but I
was jet-lagged, didn't like thefood, and the room immediately
(16:36):
filled with cigarette smoke.
This is the 70s, with espressocoffee and a little sweet after
dinner drink.
It was Sunday, so it was a bitfestive, and the new school year
was beginning.
Also, wine accompanied the mainmeal.
(16:59):
That would be every day for therest of my stay in Rome.
And immediately after thatdinner, we we played sports.
There's a big soccer game.
Americans usually were barredfrom playing soccer with these
uh Cracker Jack players from theEuropean countries and South
(17:22):
American countries.
And um non-soccer playersplayed, would play basketball.
Being an American, I playedbasketball and I felt sick.
And so I sat out, and uh someonesaid, Well, we would we would
(17:42):
call the one in charge of OpusDay the the father to make it
more family-like.
And someone said the father willbe driving through the property
because there's a quarters inthat seminary for the prelate of
Opus Day, the father.
(18:02):
He played bocce or walk around,so there was a section for him.
And anyways, he was beingchauffeured through the grounds
of the seminary, and I just randown to the road.
I was on an embankment lookingdown and stopped the car in my
(18:25):
basketball attire.
And uh he talked to me, he wasvery happy to see me.
Uh, I needed a translator.
He asked me if I knew the recipeto be a happy young man.
I said, I don't know.
And my translator said, say no,so he gives you an answer.
(18:47):
I go, no.
And he said, Love our Lord alot.
And think about the others.
He traced the cross on myforehead and left.
And upon entering the Opus Dayheadquarters, he told the first
person he met, it was reportedto me, that he met a young
(19:10):
American who was starting histour of duty in Rome.
After that, we had gatheringswith him, and he was very
engineer-esque.
(19:33):
We'd ask him questions about thespiritual life, about the life
of St.
Jose Maria, about the life ofthe church, and he would
elaborate.
And I could summarize that myyears there, with him with him
(19:54):
being at the helm, he wouldalways begin these gatherings
inviting us gently.
This is a great day to giveyourself totally to Jesus
Christ.
And we knew that's what he wasdoing in his own prayer with his
own sentiments.
(20:16):
And he would tell us at the sametime, it's like it was an
international seminary, so youhave a smattering of seminarians
from different countries of theworld, and you represent, you
don't represent your country,but you have that sensation.
Well, I'm one of the fiveAmericans there, and Helmuth, or
(20:43):
Heinrich is one of the f threeor four Germans there.
You have a smattering of Irish,English, French.
And he would tell us, my sons, Idon't want you to be supermen.
And when you're young, you'recompetitive, even when even at
(21:04):
the highest level of piety, ofpursuit of holiness, and uh I
don't know how holy you could beif you compete to be holy, but
anyway, he detected that is anoccupational hazard of a young
man uh studying for thepriesthood who's trying to be
(21:25):
holy, he may compete withsomebody else.
And he would say, I don't wantsupermen here.
I want you to be super humble.
That's what he would say.
And he would invite us to beginagain many times to appeal to
(21:45):
the mercy of our Lord.
Those were great years becausethey coincided with a friend of
Blessed Alvaro, who wouldeventually become Saint John
Paul II.
They became friends during theSecond Vatican Council.
(22:10):
Both of them were heavilyinvolved with the council.
I hear that Saint John Paulperhaps did a lot of the work, a
lot of the work on the eventualdocument of Gary and Spaz.
Blessed Alvaro worked on thedocument on the priesthood,
(22:36):
Presbyterium Ordinis.
I think also just by reading thedocument, he had a heavy hand in
the document on the laity.
So they were they were friendsfrom way back.
John Paul got elected during myyears in Rome.
(22:59):
And Blessed Alvarez wouldperiodically meet with John
Paul.
And he would tell us about theHoly Father, what he could.
(23:32):
And when he consecrated thechurch in Mexico to Our Lady of
Guadalupe, we noticed thatBlessed Alvaro probably helped
(23:55):
compose that consecration.
It was a little too close tohome.
It was teachings that we heardvery often, very much the spirit
of Opus Day.
Holiness, abandonment, countingon Mary's motherly love and
intercession.
(24:17):
Anyway, I like to tell thisoften that he was seeing him
every day, and I was workingwith a youth group next door to
headquarters.
Most of the young men in thisyouth group were from the city
of Rome.
(24:38):
And I have my own routine.
Part of our plan of life is ahalf hour of meditation in the
evening or late afternoon.
And I would go into headquartersbecause there was a chapel
called the crypt where St.
Jose Maria was buried.
Now he's in a chapel with theBlessed Sacrament above the
(25:01):
crypt, anyway.
And Blessed Alvaro is in thatformer burial place, the crypt
of Blessed Alvaro.
And so I would go there, Ithat's probably 7.15 p.m.
at night.
Supper was late in Europe, inItaly.
(25:22):
And I knew that Blessed Alvarowas visiting the Pope every day,
and he had a routine.
He would come back toheadquarters around 7.
And I didn't want to run intohim because he had bigger fish
to fry.
Kind of silly, but um and so Iarrived at 7:30 just to be on
(25:49):
the safe side, becauseinvariably he would stop, he
would talk to you, he would, andhe was so busy.
And he even told me that he wasvery busy since ever since St.
Josemira died, that in a in agood in a good way, but he was
very busy, very under pressure.
So I wanted to give him a littlebit of respite.
(26:12):
Anyway, he didn't come in atseven.
When I came at 7.30, we both uhhe was coming in from one door,
my I came through another doorin the same lobby.
I was gonna go in one direction,he was going another.
And then he came in, and I justquickly made a sharp right turn
into a small little sittingroom, and I hear him saying in
(26:36):
Spanish, uh Peter, where arewhere are you going?
Come and talk to me.
And he talked to me for, I don'tknow, it could have been 10
minutes, and he just wanted toknow if how I was adapting to
the language, if I was eatingwell, if I was getting enough
rest, what was everybody had a ajob on the seminary uh property.
(27:03):
I was a landscaper, I didn'thave too much talent to do
anything else.
He wanted to know about that,how I was doing.
Uh he wanted to know about myfamily.
And um I was kind of a louddresser, and um I had to, matter
of fact, modify my wardrobebecause it was just too loud and
(27:24):
just didn't fit in the moresubdued uh European dresswear,
but he told me how much he likedmy elegance and uh and it really
moved me, not that theconversation make the headlines,
(27:45):
but he acted, and I knew it wasthe opposite because he actually
told me in my first encounterthat he was busy, buried in
work, that he would spend thatkind of time.
He gave me the sensation he hadnothing to do, that I was the
most important person in theworld.
It was against her realistic, Isaid this person is coming back
(28:08):
from Jean Paul II, who woulddraw thousands and thousands of
people, incredible popularity,especially among the young.
And nevertheless, he would wastequote-unquote time with me.
And I'll never forget that, howhe would walk the walk, and
(28:31):
charity was not, you know, anice uh consideration, but he
would live it, and in veryordinary ways and extraordinary
ways as well.
During those years, it was inOpus Day marrying years, where
(28:54):
there'd be a special emphasis onthe Blessed Mother, and he had a
lot of intentions.
The more immediate intention wasum the beatification of Saint
Jose Maria.
Also, John Paul recommended thatBlessed Alvaro, Alvaro del
(29:20):
Portillo start a pontificaluniversity, which took a lot of
faith because the enrollment inthe other pontifical
universities, which had beenaround for a significant amount
of time, significant amount ofyears, were diminished,
decreasing.
And so that was one intention,another intention, communism had
(29:45):
not collapsed in Eastern Europe,and uh he wanted to start
activities of Opus Day, centersof Opus Day in those countries
when the time was right, buthaving a Polish pope from a
communist country uh also addedthe evangelical pressure to do
(30:10):
this, the proper canonicalconfiguration of Opus Day, and
just to name a few things thatwere very much on his mind.
And what did he do?
(30:31):
Well, he invited all of us toput all these intentions in the
loving and maternal care of theBlessed Mother.
And in spite of being busy, hewould go on pilgrimages, which
consisted in those days of apart of the rosary heading
towards the shrine.
There's plenty of them in Rome,the main part at the shrine, and
(30:55):
another part coming back.
And I marveled about the time heput into prayer.
He would encourage us verystrongly to fulfill those acts
of piety, the contemplation ofJesus, spend an hour a day, half
hour in the morning, half hourin the evening, Mass and
(31:17):
Thanksgiving after Mass for tenminutes, charity with our
friends by witnessing the gospeland also through our words.
We don't push, maybe nudgepeople to come to God through
confession, through more prayer,more converting to a more
(31:43):
charitable life.
I don't know, a whole panoply ofpossibilities of discipleship.
And he would say this it's aplay on words in Spanish.
Fulfillment of the plan of lifeis cumplimiento, cumplimiento.
And he would tell us, make sureyour acts of piety are
(32:05):
cumplimiento, fulfillment.
And be sensitive to when it iscumplo imiento, which means I do
it, but I don't I lie.
I do it, but I lie.
In other words, I'm cuttingcorners, I'm checking the boxes,
my heart's that in there.
And so that was very muchemphasized.
(32:28):
Well, these are just a fewreflections of, in my
estimation, well, it'srecognized by the church, a
great saint, but packaged in theordinary, even though he had
extraordinary gifts.
And I would say my immediateexperience of Alvaro del
(32:52):
Portillo is a lot of love, a lotof joy, and a profound love for
our Lord through living his owncalling to live the spirit of
Opus Day as a right-hand man ofSt.
(33:15):
Jose Maria as the first link toJose Maria, Saint Jose Maria, to
the succeeding years of OpusDay.
Many beautiful things havehappened with suffering with the
cross since uh Blessed Alvaroleft this world to intercede for
(33:38):
us in heaven.
And in imitation of BlessedAlvaro and St.
Jose Maria, we turn to theBlessed Mother and ask her to
give that desire to want tofollow her Son Jesus Christ in a
more loving way, a more faithfulway, so that we could be lights
in the modern world to bringpeople back to God.
(34:02):
Amen.
I thank you, my God, for thegood resolutions, affections,
and inspirations you'vecommunicated to me in this
meditation.
I ask your help in putting theminto effect.
My Immaculate Mother, St.
Joseph, my father and Lord, myguardian angel, intercede for
me.
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