In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence. I beg your pardon for my sins, and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my Father and Lord,

my guardian angel, intercede for me.

Today we celebrate the feast of

Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, May 12th, 2015 after his beatification on September 27, 2014.

The feast day that was chosen, or the date for the feast day, was chosen because it is the anniversary of his first communion.

Somehow all the other significant dates of Blessed Alvaro's life would consistently fall in Lent

or overlap with some other major solemnity in the church.

And so the prelature has decided to ask the Holy See if this would be a good day to have his feast day.

And the Holy See agreed.

And so there we have it, the anniversary of his first Holy Communion.

One of the things that Donalvaro was known for, as Cardinal Amado said in the homily of beatification in Spain,

he was known for his humility, and he was also known for his faithfulness.

But today, I want to point out another virtue of Don Alvaro,

which was his fortitude, his fortitude.

In fact, he was given a nickname by St. Jose Maria, and that was the nickname Saxum,

which means rock in Latin.

He wrote him a letter.

St. Zemir wrote Blessed Al Alvro, a letter in 1939.

And he said these words to him, may Jesus watch over you, Saxum. And yes, that is what you are.

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