Opus Dei

For several years now, I've gone back and forth in my consideration for taking on a life of religious vocation.

G took me to visit with his sister in the Bay Area who is a numerary of Opus Dei and I was charmed by the sisterhood life that L is living. She is an optometrist and she lives with a diverse group of women that are the best of friends. There was a lot of laughter shared over a lemon meringue pie. Opus dei's philosophy of life is that the daily life is a "work of God".... therefore, being a great teacher, optometrist, college student, or homemaker can be lived to the gratitude and celebration of God.

L lives in a beautiful community and all the women; young and older are absolutely lovely people... inside and out. I asked my questions regarding the image that the book "The Da Vinci Code" creates about their organization and found it absolutely funny that a work of fiction has managed to create such distortion.

Is Opus Dei for me?

Opus Dei certainly has a certain appeal that contrasts with the ascetic life of a nun. Knowing myself, I know I am not a perfect fit for a cloistered Christian life. Not that I think that having a faith and being committed to its corresponding community is wrong or insular. It is due to their special commitment that the health of their spiritual community grows and thrives. They are a system of people that are essential but no better than other systems. Does a body think the nervous system better than the immune system?

L and her friends have found and created their home.

My place in this spiritual world is still under construction. I don't have a "name" for that home or a certain community that I belong to exclusively...

But I certainly consider life as an opportunity to celebrate and live as an "opus dei" a work of God. My champagne days continue toasting to the beauty and diversity of life.

JNET

"Leadershipis much more an art, a belief,
a condition of the heart,
than a set of things to do.
The visible signs of artful leadership are expressed,
ultimately, in its practice."

Max Depree