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After coming to Christ, it is common to ask, “What now?” Joining a church is an easy first step, if not already attending one. Once in, it is common to hear about the call to discipleship —the invitation to know and love God deeper — but discipleship can be a hard thing to actually accomplish, even for longtime Christians. Even when one has the desire to grow in their faith, finding out how to develop it without guidance can be overwhelming.

For Catholics, Opus Dei exists to address this exact desire — to disciple those looking to grow in their relationship with God. Founded in 1928, Opus Dei, a Latin phrase that means “Work of God,” seeks to disciple Christians in and through their daily lives.

“Work, family life and the ordinary events of each day are opportunities for drawing close to Christ and making Him known to others,” according to their website.

Opus Dei is a personal prelature, meaning it is a Catholic church organization that focuses primarily on the spiritual formation of its members. Opus Dei does not host Sunday Mass, for example, but rather encourages its members through small group and discipleship programs, including retreats and seminars.

Claire Giuntini, Numerary

“Growing up, I always heard about Opus Dei, but it didn’t really mean anything to me,” said Giuntini, a Numerary for Opus Dei, who works in development for a magazine in New York City. “But once I started being involved in different programs and getting to know people who were in Opus Dei, it started to make more sense, and I began to really like it.”

A Numerary is a member of Opus Dei who is committed to celibacy and makes themselves fully available to the needs of the Church, said Giuntini. Giuntini’s parents were both members of Opus Dei but as Supernumeraries, members who are married or are open to marriage.

There was no Opus Dei center in Denver, where Giuntini’s family lived at the time. Because of this, a priest from Chicago would fly in once a month to give evening sessions for the members of Opus Dei in Denver. Giuntini would attend these sessions with her parents and began to grow more invested in her relationship with God.

“I began to ask myself,” Giuntini said, “what does it mean to be holy? How can I be holy? And then, I tried to sit up straight.”

Giuntini said she took these questions to a priest named Father Jim, who taught her that holiness begins and ends with being friends with Christ.

“At that point, I didn’t know what it meant to pray on my own,” Giuntini said.

Giuntini said she would pray the Rosary and pray with her church at Mass, but under the guidance of Father Jim, she began to practice personal prayer, growing in her friendship with Christ. Giuntini’s spiritual growth continued into high school, when Giuntini’s family moved to Washington, D.C., and she attended a school with many teachers who were members of Opus Dei.

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In her junior year of high school, Giuntini decided she wanted to become Numerary, though this did not instantly make her a member.

“There’s a misconception that Opus Dei is always trying to recruit everyone, but that’s not how it works,” Giuntini said.

It took months of prayer and discernment for both Giuntini and her Opus Dei mentors to decide that it was a good fit for her, especially since being a Numerary was a commitment to celibacy, she said.

“When somebody joins Opus Dei, it’s because it’s what God wants for them — not that they just want to,” she said.

Giuntini said she has since served as a Numerary and spent multiple summers serving as a Numerary Assistant, a Numerary who focuses on caring for the Opus Dei centers many members live in.

“Opus Dei helps me grow closer to God,” said Giuntini. “Everyone has their own path; Opus Dei is mine.”

Germán Saucedo, Supernumerary

“In some way or another, I’ve been involved with Opus Dei from a very young age,” said Saucedo, a junior fellow at First Things Magazine who grew up in Mexico City. Saucedo has been a member of Opus Dei since 2020.

Many members of Saucedo’s family, including his mother, are members of Opus Dei, and he had attended Opus Dei schools and after-school activities all his life, he said.

“When you are very young, you don’t understand,” said Saucedo, “but as I grew up, I began to realize that the way the people besides me lived—going to Mass everyday and caring about their sanctity—is not the norm.”

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Saucedo said he continued to be involved in this Opus Dei community as he grew up, but although he always felt like a member, he had not yet made it official.

Saucedo became frustrated that, despite basically growing up in it, he was not an official member of Opus Dei.

Saucedo said he told a numerary friend how he felt, who responded, “Most of the time, they’re not going to go after you; you have to let yourself in. The door is open. You have to knock, but they’ll let you in.”

Life in Opus Dei

Involvement in Opus Dei — the “Work” — includes daily, weekly and monthly activities. All of these are aimed at discipling members of Opus Dei and pursuing holiness.

While practice worldwide may vary, both Giuntini and Saucedo said there are four main ways Opus Dei structures the spiritual formation of their members: The Plan for Life, the Chat, the Circle and The Course.

“That’s the thing with all of the practices of Opus Dei: Most of the stuff is just different names for what you already do as a Christian,” Saucedo said. The four labels signifying spiritual formation are all things many churches, Protestant and Catholic, already practice.

The Plan of Life

The Plan of Life is a daily routine members of Opus Dei do to stay spiritually active, said Saucedo. Each member’s Plan is unique to them, but they typically include daily prayer, Bible reading, spiritual reading (such as a devotional or book on theology) and going to Mass.

Saucedo’s Plan, he said, includes praying the Angelus, a traditional Catholic prayer done at noon, right in the middle of one’s workday.

“It serves as a reminder of what your life is really about,” said Saucedo. “You are in the middle of your everyday life, probably not thinking anything about God. And then, it’s 12 o’clock. You are immersed in your mundane tasks, but then, you are forced out of yourself and reminded, ‘This is not about you.’”

A Plan of Life is not set in stone but can be developed and adjusted as needed alongside other member’s guidance.

“A Plan of Life is supposed to help you,” said Giuntini. “It’s not a checklist or to-do list,” but something to provide structure and accountability for people looking to grow in their faith. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, you didn’t do your Rosary today, 50 points off!’ It’s supposed to fit your vocation like a glove,” she said.

While Christians can attempt something like a Plan of Life on their own, Giuntini said it is helpful to her and others who struggle to be consistent in their spiritual life.

“If nobody had recommended to me to do this, I would’ve never done it on my own,” Giuntini said. “I’m not the kind of person that would just decide one day to pray more.”

The Chat

The Chat is a bi-weekly one-on-one meeting between two members of Opus Dei, usually led by a Numerary or a more longtime member of Opus Dei, Giuntini said.

Despite being with Opus Dei for nearly five years, Giuntini said she is still considered a newer Numerary and has not led a Chat yet. The purpose of The Chat is to provide community and accountability by going over one’s Plan for Life to personally disciple members.

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“It’s a good, brotherly [or sisterly] thing to do,” said Saucedo. “It’s not an interrogation. It’s just Christians helping other Christians. It’s good to get an outsider's perspective on how you can improve, how you can make your life a little better or how you can improve your relationship with the Lord.”

Traditionally, the Chat happens in-person, Saucedo said, but he has noticed that there has been more flexibility in this since Covid, as Opus Dei has adapted to the post-pandemic world.

“There’s a worry that this can be abused, but it’s better that it happens over Zoom than not at all,” Saucedo said.

Giuntini has found comfort in the consistency of her Chats, especially having moved around a lot since joining Opus Dei. “It’s extremely helpful to be able to talk about your spiritual life with someone who knows you,” she said.

The Circle

The Circle is a weekly meeting of a group of Opus Dei members where they lead one another in a spiritual discussion, Giuntini said. Members take turns leading discussions, hence the name, and topics usually regard some aspect of Christian life — a specific doctrine, how to pray better, etc.

“It helps you keep a finger on your spiritual pulse,” Giuntini said. “I have been extremely spoiled by this sort of formation. I talk to other Catholics and other people who wish they had more formation or knew more about some doctrine, and I’m like, ‘Wow. I get that every week.’”

The Course

The Course is a series of monthly and yearly spiritual retreats for Opus Dei members, typically involving a course taught by a formally educated member of Opus Dei. The monthly retreats tend to be evening sessions in Opus Dei centers or churches, Giuntini said of her family’s experience in Denver.

Once a year, Opus Dei hosts longer retreats across their various conference centers. These retreats can last up to three weeks for Numeraries and a week for Supernumeraries.

Courses are taught by experts and go more in-depth than the monthly sessions, according to Giuntini, and include topics, such as moral theology, medieval philosophy and metaphysics.

The organization of these events falls to members of Opus Dei who work more formally for Opus Dei, said Giuntini. Each center has a director, a member who oversees the operations of Opus Dei within each region, alongside a “local council” of members who assist them.

All people, not just pastors and priests, are called to a closer relationship with God. If you call Jesus “Lord,” He cannot be relegated to just Sunday mornings or nighttime prayers.

“Christ should not be hidden in a box for when we need Him,” said Saucedo, “but He should be a total and complete presence in our lives. When Jesus becomes the King of your life, He wants you to shine as your best possible expression of yourself, like a city on a hill.”

Opus Dei reminds its members that being a Christian happens in every part of one’s life, especially at work. All Christians can learn from the message of Opus Dei, which is, in Giuntini’s words, that “every aspect of life can be used to glorify God.”

David Hancock is a Philosophy graduate student at Biola University.