Opus Dei

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jaaraf said:
Opus Dei does not dictate at all and the families of the individual members need not to have the same spirituality at all. I know a family in whom the mother became a member first, then the father, then a son and two daughters. The youngest daughter is my age, was encouraged to attend activities, but is not a member, and now she is srnding her ypung son to a pre-school whose chaplain is a priest of Opus Dei. There’s a person who has told me his deceased father was a member, but he did not like seeing priests who smoked, and he’s now a Franciscan tertiary.
In my personal experience, I do get advice, but I am free to take it as my own or say no. Recently, it was suggested to me that I might see a psychiatrist regarding two psychiatrically sick family members and how I could deal with the situation. I decided against doing so, and it was never brought up again by the director who talked to me about it.
Full disclosure: I’m an associate member of Opus Dei, I have been so for 11 years, since shortly before graduating from college.
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How does this advice to you come about? Is it through spiritual direction? Is this required in Opus Dei? Or does one seek out advice from priests, religious, etc.? The person whose account I read made it sound as if he was forced to do what he did, like there was a cabal or something.
 
TheRealJuliane said:
How does this advice to you come about? Is it through spiritual direction? Is this required in Opus Dei? Or does one seek out advice from priests, religious, etc.? The person whose account I read made it sound as if he was forced to do what he did, like there was a cabal or something.
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Through spiritual direction. Yes, it is required.
jbarbaretta said:
Just enjoy the journey and maybe you can enlighten those priests who have asked you to be cautious in pursuing Opus Dei – by your witness through how you live.
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I am very thankful for those priests, because they helped me realize that I didn’t need to follow all the “direction” in order to please God or be holy, that the Church only requires priests and nuns to be obedient to directors.
 
I’m not in a position to speak for Opus Dei but I can only speak through what I have observed and so far, most of the members and Opus Dei priests are warm and kind.
 
Advice comes in the form of spiritual direction. As the person himself is free with his decision, the best course of action is to pray about it before making a decision. In the end one makes his own decision, taking into account advice given, of course, and each person makes a decision for himself, not the directors or the priest. Afterall, each one pursues heaven on his own merits, but it is more difficult without spiritual guidance.
 
In most cases though, I personally see the logic of advice given in spiritual direction and take it as my own decision. My first comment was just to illustrate that a member of Opus Dei is free to not follow advice given him in spiritual direction, if in the presence of God, he sees that he should not follow such a course of action.
Not everybody can follow this spirituality though and in other spiritualities in the Church, obedience is lived in different ways.
 
jaaraf said:
Advice comes in the form of spiritual direction. As the person himself is free with his decision, the best course of action is to pray about it before making a decision. In the end one makes his own decision, taking into account advice given, of course, and each person makes a decision for himself, not the directors or the priest. Afterall, each one pursues heaven on his own merits, but it is more difficult without spiritual guidance.
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My experience is that I was frequently told to read St. Josemaria Escriva’s work that requires absolute obedience. In fact, I was advised not to read any other spiritual work. Not only this, but my spiritual director only would communicate me if I followed advice blindly and never really answered any questions or gave logic behind decisions - just gave directions of what this person thought was best without deep reflection. Came in imitating St. Faustina and thinking I should submit my will to that of my spiritual director because they were led by God; so grateful for the Catholic priest who advised me that this Opus Dei spiritual direction was unhealthy since the effects in my life were bad so I could have the faith to end it.

This is quite common with Opus Dei. There is a nonprofit called ODAN that provides advice, support, and encouragement to those whose lives have been adversely impacted by Opus Dei.

Again, I do believe that if you go in knowing that you are not planning to obey anything you disagree with (as well as a person with a high social status in society), you will have a better experience. 🙂
 
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences in Opus Dei. I’ve read some of St. Josemaria Escriva’s books and it helped me a lot with my reflections and meditations. I still have a lot to learn from Opus Dei and so I’ll keep you posted on how my journey is so far.
 
AmazingLove said:
Hi thanks for sharing your insights about Opus Dei. I’m planning to join them …
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What are you thinking of “joining them” as? That is, are you planning to become a Supernumerary or a Cooperator or a Numerary Assistant? Always remember that Opus Dei is not a religious order and you, unless you are planning to be a Numerary and become a priest of Opus Dei, have no actual permanent connections to them. That is: you join by mutual agreement. They can release you at any time for any reason or no reason.

If you feel you have a vocation to religious life, you would need to speak to the Vocation Director of your Diocese. Or, perhaps you don’t think you will become a religious, but want something larger than yourself to commit to, there are a lot of 3rd orders. The Secular Franciscans are an actual order of the Franciscans.

Opus Dei has put a lot into making big inroads in the Philippines. Since you were asking about the cult rumors, you might be interested in reading some of the material at ODAN.
 
Im sorry what does each term (Supernumerary, Cooperator and Numerary Assistant) mean and what are their functions? I can’t be a priest since I’m a woman.
 
AmazingLove said:
Im sorry what does each term (Supernumerary, Cooperator and Numerary Assistant) mean and what are their functions? I can’t be a priest since I’m a woman.
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Dear AmazingLove,
The best you can do is to visit a centre of Opus Dei nearby where you live. Get to know the people in Opus Dei, and if you do have a vocation to sanctify yourself through your work, then by that stage you will know the different terminologies.
Praying for you.
 
IMHO, anyone who believe they may have a vocation needs to go to their Diocese’s vocation director and discuss the variety of options they have. Also, learning as much as possible about the different possible options beforehand is a good idea. Then a person can become acquainted with two or three. Discernment takes time and there is never any rush.
 
TimothyH said:
ODAN is anti-Opus Dei.

They are not an objective source of information on Opus Dei. .

I would not trust ODAN as a source of information.

-Tim-
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They are just as objective as the Opus Dei website. Every organization has its detractors, people who have been hurt by their dealings with the organization, and supporters, people who have benefited. To make a fair assessment, you have to consider justice for both sides. The best way for people who support Opus Dei to rebute ODAN is by working to change practices so fewer people will have negative experiences.

You will read the same thing stated about Opus Dei as stated by ODAN in less direct terms by well respected Catholics who have done investigations, such as Fr. James Martin, S.J. americamagazine.org/content/articles/martin-opusdei.cfm and John Allen, Jr, Senior Correspondent of National Catholic Reporter.

It is frequently encouraged in Opus Dei not to read anything spiritual outside of St. Josemaria Escriva or a few other works. Anyone involved needs to keep in touch with the thinking of the rest of the Church to make sure that they are on solid theological ground as much of what you will get from Opus Dei is by lay people without any sort of decent theological training or respomsibility to canon law. It seems similar to Legionarries of Christ, where spiritual directors are now only called spiritual guides because of incompetence.
 
HailStarofSea said:
They are just as objective as the Opus Dei website. Every organization has its detractors, people who have been hurt by their dealings with the organization, and supporters, people who have benefited. To make a fair assessment, you have to consider justice for both sides. The best way for people who support Opus Dei to rebute ODAN is by working to change practices so fewer people will have negative experiences.

You will read the same thing stated about Opus Dei as stated by ODAN in less direct terms by well respected Catholics who have done investigations, such as Fr. James Martin, S.J. americamagazine.org/content/articles/martin-opusdei.cfm and John Allen, Jr, Senior Correspondent of National Catholic Reporter.

It is frequently encouraged in Opus Dei not to read anything spiritual outside of St. Josemaria Escriva or a few other works. Anyone involved needs to keep in touch with the thinking of the rest of the Church to make sure that they are on solid theological ground as much of what you will get from Opus Dei is by lay people without any sort of decent theological training or respomsibility to canon law. It seems similar to Legionarries of Christ, where spiritual directors are now only called spiritual guides because of incompetence.
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Thousands of others have had experiences with Opus Dei which are 180 degrees out of phase with ODAN. I have friends in Opus Dei, and this is not my experience with them.

They are so secret that their headquarters is on 34th Street in New York City.

-Tim-
 
HailStarofSea said:
It is frequently encouraged in Opus Dei not to read anything spiritual outside of St. Josemaria Escriva or a few other works. Anyone involved needs to keep in touch with the thinking of the rest of the Church to make sure that they are on solid theological ground as much of what you will get from Opus Dei is by lay people without any sort of decent theological training or respomsibility to canon law. It seems similar to Legionarries of Christ, where spiritual directors are now only called spiritual guides because of incompetence.
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It makes sense that a member of Opus Dei is thoroughly familiar with the writings of St. Josemaria if one is convinced that being in Opus Dei is what God wants of him. It is inaccurate though to conclude that we hardly read anuthing else…and are not in sync with the rest of the Church. Even just being in Opus Dei less than a year, I was introduced to reading the encyclicals of the Popes. I read Ecclessia de Eucharistia, Deus Caritas Est, Humanae Vitae, Evangelium Vitae just to name a few. I was asked to use the Catechism of the Catholic Church as my spiritual reading twice. We use the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in Catechism of Christian Doctrine classes. I’ve read the of St. John Marie Vianney, and the autobiographies of the two Carmelite nuns St. Therese and St. Teresa. I’ve read I Choose to be Free by Jack Philip, Three to Get Married by Fulton Sheen, the Imitation of Christ, The Secrets of the Rosary… This is to clarify that we only read works of St. Josemaria or just his biographies… I’m planning to read the Diaries of St. Faustina soon…
 
TimothyH said:
Thousands of others have had experiences with Opus Dei which are 180 degrees out of phase with ODAN. I have friends in Opus Dei, and this is not my experience with them.

They are so secret that their headquarters is on 34th Street in New York City.

-Tim-
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Thousands of others have experiences that are similar to ODAN but do not broadcast it. The fact that you have friends who are in Opus Dei doesn’t mean these people’s experiences aren’t true unless your friends are human and these people are not worthy of being considered human.

Think about the Jesuits. They are a larger order of priests and brothers than any other order. They have almost 20,000 priests. Yet, they are criticized for being unfaithful to the Church, i.e. some of their priests are pro-choice. Does the fact that the vast majority of people who know the Jesuits like them and they have more priests and brothers than any other group mean that those who criticize the order for having many unfaithful priests are wrong? No, that many Jesuits, such as Drinian, are pro-choice is a fact.

Neither does the fact that many people support Opus Dei mean the criticisms are false. Nope! Even Opus Dei itself has admitted that many of these criticisms are true. “Guilty as Charged” their officials have said to some of them.
 
If one wants to get to read an objective view, one may check out the book by John Allen on Opus Dei. Here’s a link to a review.
explorefaith.org/books/opusdei.html
It’s not written by ODAN nor is it written by a member of Opus Dei. If you are wondering, I borrowed a copy owned by a supernumerary and read it from cover to cover. I did mentipn it to my director who said there were negative things said about Opus Dei, but that was nothing new to me as I had read chapters of a book critical of Opus Dei months before I joined Opus Dei as an associate.
 
Not all ex-members are bitter and consider Opus Dei as a cult as John Allen’s book will show. I know a lot of ex-members who are now cooperators, still attending recollections and retreats, are facebook friends of the account of the Center of Opus Dei that I go to. I even know of an ex-numerary now married to a supernumerary.
 
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