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 for the first time,

May 12, 2015 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 Donalvaro, which was his fortitude.

In fact, he was given a nickname by Saint-Hose-Maria, and that was the nickname Saxum, which means rock in Latin. He wrote him a letter.

Sam Zemir wrote, Blessed 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.

I see that the Lord is giving you strength and making operative in you this word of mine,

Saxum.

Thank him for this and remain faithful to him, despite so many things.

If only you could see how great is my longing to be a saint and to make saints of all of you.

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