90 Years of Faith

BOONTON  Bishop Serratelli served as main celebrant of a Mass in observance of the 90th anniversary of Opus Dei held on Sept. 29 in Our Lady of Mount Carmel (OLMC) Church here. That Saturday also marked the Feast Day of the Holy Archangels St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael.

Concelebrating the Mass were Father Daniel O’Mullane, OLMC pastor and dean of the Northeast Morris County Deanery, and priests connected with Opus Dei, an international institution in the Church, which teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. Several OLMC parishioners belong to Opus Dei and requested that a Mass marking the anniversary be celebrated. The aim of Opus Dei is to contribute to that evangelizing mission of the Church by fostering among Catholics a life fully consistent with their faith in the middle of the ordinary circumstances of their lives and especially through the sanctification of their work.

On Oct. 2, 1928, St. Josemaría Escrivá founded Opus Dei while on a spiritual retreat in Madrid, Spain. In 1947, the Holy See granted the first pontifical approval of the organization, followed by Pope Pius XII’s granting of definitive approval in 1950. In 1982, St. John Paul II established Opus Dei as a personal prelature, and later canonized Josemaría Escrivá in St. Peter’s Square in Rome in 2002. Currently, Opus Dei is established in 66 countries.