Corporate works

Finally, there should also be another type of apostolate for which the Work will officially take responsibility. These will always be professional activities of a fully and exclusively apostolic nature, carried out by my children. And since they will be carried out corporately by people belonging to Opus Dei, we will call them corporate undertakings.

These can be of many different kinds, according to the circumstances and the needs of souls in different places and times. There will be centres of formation for all social groups, houses for spiritual retreats and courses of religious instruction, residences for university students, professional and welfare centres for workers, peasants, and so on.

Professional in character

My daughters and sons who take on these apostolic tasks must dedicate themselves to them professionally; because, for all those who form part of the Work without exception, professional work is their only means of sanctification, both for themselves and for others. Their work in the corporate undertakings will be their ordinary professional work, even if it has a directly and entirely apostolic aim. In any case, it will be the same work as that done by many other citizens: teachers, doctors, administrators, directors of student residences, etc.

Our work is always professional

If my children ever need to leave their usual professional occupation in order to devote themselves to managerial, training or support tasks in a corporate undertaking, even then they will not have stopped living the ordinary life of any other person in the street. Their new job will always be professional work. After all, it is common, everywhere, for many people to change their activities more or less often, for family, financial, social and other reasons. And there are professions, politics, for example, which are usually taken up by those who are already involved and continue being involved in other kinds of work.