All about the Opus Dei Mass

I think I am getting good at the guessing game.

Some got it some didn't.

But the last post about the cancelled Mass for the Feast of St. Josemaria Escriva brought to mind my experience about this mendicant order a long time ago.

I was visiting a sick uncle in the order's university and hospital back in the days when cellular phones are only for those who are FILTHY RICH.  So you guess the timeline. :)

I decided to take a walk in the university's grounds to enjoy its history .  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one friar walking with head bowed down in the middle of the darkness of the football field.  What a sight folks!  His robes were majestically being blown by the gentle breeze of the cool December night.

I thought I saw his face with a faint glow.  Wow!  A vision of a holy man.  I approached the young friar and gave him a curt smile.  When he saw me, he was clearly perturbed by my presence.  I wonder why.

It did not take a second more for the faint light to disappear from his face and from where it came from.   To my horror, the FRIAR from the MENDICANT ORDER was taken aback by my stare because he was using his CELLPHONE.  He hurriedly hid it under his scapular and proceeded as if he did not see me.  My smile was all lost when my jaw dropped at what I saw.

I could not even buy myself even a used cellphone with my salary from my full time university teaching job.  But the friar has.

I do not know where the cellphone came from.  Might be a gift.  But who am I to ask.

But what I am asking for is the propriety of it all.

I thought he was praying because his head was bowed.  Now I know he was texting.

Can he not do it in the friary?  Maybe he is not allowed to do so.  Or maybe there is another reason for it.

After what his brother did in asking for a sum from the Opus Dei before they can hold the Mass, it made me think...

Cellphone 15 years ago...

P10,000.00 for a simple Mass....

Are they still mendicant?    This was how the Catholic encylopedia defined a mendicant order:

Mendicant Friars are members of those religious orders which, originally, by vow of poverty renounced all proprietorship not only individually but also (and in this differing from the monks) in common, relying for support on their own work and on the charity of the faithful. Hence the name of begging friars.

 Yeah, I think so.  Still begging?

What Would Their Founder Say?

What do you think?

Remember, I am not against them having cellphones or asking for some donation.  What I was looking for was the sense of propriety some or even most of the men in cloth nowadays are behaving.  In Filipino, DELICADEZA.  Remember how some bishops especially those in Mindanao benefited SO MUCH from the CHARITY of the governmen's gambling agency, the PCSO and how some bishops are too close for comfort with the diminutive ex-president?

Maybe the reason why some don't want to wear the cloth in public.