20170130 Saint prayed for a sign

During the Spanish Civil War, St. Josemaria Escriva and his companions tried to escape from communist controlled area. They were waiting at a house in Barcelona. On November 19, 1937, they left Barcelona to meet up with the smugglers. Soon after their departure, the house where Father Josemaria had been staying was raided by the police.

After leaving Barcelona, Father Josemaria and his companions first hid at a barn, then at a farmhouse. He celebrated Mass at the farmhouse using a small crystal glass as chalice and a notebook as Mass missal. The canon of the Mass and several texts for votive Masses had been copied in the notebook.

Since the farm was in danger to be searched by the Civil Guards, on November 21, Father Josemaria and his companions walked a bit over half an hour from the farmhouse to an abandoned rectory. At night, Pedro Casciaro could see Father Josemaria’s dejected face, and Paco Botella could hear Father Josemaria and Juan Jimenez were whispering together and arguing.

Father Josemaria was having doubt whether he was doing the will of God by leaving Madrid and trying to escape. Juan was determined to bring Father Josemaria out from the communist zone, and he said, “Alive or dead we are going to get you over to the other side.” During the night, Father Josemaria was tormented by doubt. Paco recalled: “There came from the Father first a low, pain-filled moan, and then a soft sobbing that grew in intensity.” Paco said that he had never seen anyone crying like that and Father Josemaria’s agony burned itself into his memory forever.

At one point, during his agony, Father Josemaria asked Our Lady for a clear sign: if she gave him a rose, it would mean that he should continue trying to escape from the communist zone.

In the morning, the exhausted and sad Father Josemaria calmly told Juan that he would not be celebrating Mass and asked him to take the Mass items off the table in the living room. He went to the abandoned church and came back half an hour later. When he came back, he was joyful and was holding a gilded, wooden rose. He gave the rose to Juan and said, “Juan, take good care of this. And get everything ready. I’m going to celebrate Mass.”

Pedro recalled: “For just as I had never seen the Father as distressed as on that night, neither had I ever seen him so joyful as on the following morning.” The gilded wooden rose was eventually placed at the headquarters of Opus Dei in Rome.

For a while, Father Josemaria and his companions were hiding in the forest. They remained there while the organizers of the escape expedition were waiting for the arrival of other fugitives and refugees to complete the escape group. Father Josemaria called the cabin he was staying “Saint Raphael’s Cabin”. He invoked the protection of the Archangel Raphael and asked him to help them at the dangerous escape attempt which they would soon undertake.

Near the cabin, they found an stone and log altar which must had left by an escape expedition that included a priest. The next day, Father Josemaria celebrated Mass there. Thomas Alvira recalled: “The Mass was a dialogue. I’ll never forget those Masses: the forest as our church; the celebrant utterly recollected, praying very slowly, putting his whole heart and soul into what he was doing, and above all at the moment of the Consecration. Hundreds of birds, waking with the sun’s first rays, sang incessantly, contributing to the enchantment of our Father’s Masses in the Rialp forest.”