PODCAST | Mary, Mother of Fairest Love
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In this special podcast, Fr. Javier del Castillo reflects on the feast of Mary, Mother of Fairest Love (February 14th), and the significance of this Marian title in the life of the Church and the history of Opus Dei.
Rooted in the Old Testament, Fr. Javier explains how “fair” in this title of Our Lady refers to “beauty” and “fairest love” means “the most beautiful love.” He also explains how St. Josemaria Escriva helped to revive the devotion to this title applying it to Mary as “the guardian of the beauty of chastity” and “as a way of praying for holy purity, for the sanctity of marriage, for the sanctity of the family, and for vocations to celibacy.”
The virtue of holy purity is not just about control, as Fr. Javier explains, but it is primarily about love. Holy purity is a gift from God that helps us safeguard the image of God we have in our soul and in our heart, which is “where we are able to love God and make a covenant with God. The heart is the place of truth… So many things happen in the heart. And this interior world has to be protected.”
Mary brings us the hope we need to struggle, to tell the truth in our hearts, to repent, and to have the holy purity “to make room in our hearts for God, for true love, for the fairest and most beautiful love… which is her Son.”
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
The St. Josemaria Institute is pleased to partner with ASL Catholic Media to share a video recording of this podcast interpreted in American Sign Language:
St. Josemaria’s desire to build a shrine to Mary, Mother of Fairest Love in the United States is underway! The shrine will be “a place where people come and ask Mary for many favors for their marriage, for their families, for their vocation, and also for holy purity.” Learn about the “Mary, Mother of Fairest Love Family Shrine” at: https://fairestloveshrine.org/.
Image: “Mother of Fair Love” by Pasquale Sciancalepore, a gift of St. Josemaria Escriva to the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
Rev. Javier del Castillo
Fr. Javier del Castillo is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei and currently serves as President of the St. Josemaria Institute. He earned a degree in electronic engineering and moved to Rome to complete his ecclesiastical studies, where he was ordained a priest in 2005 and earned a doctorate in Philosophy from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in 2007. He worked as a chaplain in high schools in the Washington, D.C. and Chicago areas for several years, offering spiritual accompaniment to students, parents, and teachers. From 2015 on, he served as the vicar of Opus Dei in the midwest; he was appointed regional vicar of the United States in 2022. He became vicar of the United States and Canada in 2024, following the restructuring of the regions, until his appointment as Vicar General in April 2025.
