Today, the celebration of St. Josemaría reminds us that the mission of the baptized consists in raising the Cross of Christ above all human reality and that he felt burning within him the impassioned vocation to evangelize every human setting.

To fulfil such a rigorous mission, one needs constant interior growth nourished by prayer. St Josemaría was a master in the practice of prayer, which he considered to be an extraordinary "weapon" to redeem the world. He always recommended: "In the first place prayer; then expiation; in the third place, but very much in third place, action". It is not a paradox but a perennial truth: the fruitfulness of the apostolate lies above all in prayer and in intense and constant sacramental life. This, in essence, is the secret of the holiness and the true success of the saints.

—May the Lord help you, dear brothers and sisters, to accept this challenging ascetical and missionary instruction. May Mary sustain you, whom the holy founder invoked as "Spes nostra, Sedes Sapientiae, Ancilla Domini!" (Our Hope, Seat of Wisdom, Handmaid of the Lord).