Auxiliary Bishop Joseph A. Espaillat served as principal celebrant and homilist at the annual Mass in honor of Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga, OFM Cap., the Spanish Capuchin priest who founded the Prayer and Life Workshops.

The Mass occurred Sunday, Oct. 25 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral during the cathedral’s regularly scheduled 4 p.m. Spanish Sunday Mass. About 1,200 people attended. The cause for Fr.  Larrañaga’s beatification and canonization was opened early this month in Mexico, where he died in October 2013.

“My brothers and sisters, welcome – and welcome my brothers and sisters from the Prayer and Life Workshops,” Bishop Espaillat said during his homily. “Visitors from all over, and from other countries – welcome to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the parish of the United States.”

Significance of the workshops

The bishop went on to talk about the importance of the works of Fr. Larrañaga through the Prayer and Life Workshops, a ministry that “has lit a flame in the hearts of many of the faithful…And, God willing, he [Fr. Larrañaga] will reach canonization. He gave us a method of how to pray, of how to demonstrate the love of God…There are so many people in today’s world that are seeking God, but they do not find Him – and these workshops are a method.”

Bishop Espaillat noted the workshops ministry is one of many ways in the Church “through which we can pray, through which we can get closer to God – spiritualities, retreats. And this is one of the methods that the Lord has given us…Christ came so that you and I can have life, Amen?”

“Amen,” the people responded.

“But not just any kind of life, but a life in abundance – a life in abundance. Christ is the truth. Christ is the life. And the world has to recognize this. There are many people who are not living in the plenitude of the love of God; there are many people who are lost, who are seeking,” the bishop added.

“Years ago, I heard someone say that: ‘a Christian without prayer is like a fish out of water,’…And this is precisely the reason why Fr. Larrañaga left us the Prayer and Life Workshops – prayer and life. When you have a life of prayer, when you have that encounter with the Lord, that gives us life…Fr. Larrañaga noticed that many people were dying emotionally, spiritually; and for this reason and many more, he proposed that we needed to learn to pray in order to learn to live…Faith has to be something personal, and that is what we find in these Prayer and Life Workshops, that personal love of God…Love and the law are united in Jesus.”

“And what is happening in the world today? The exploitation of foreigners, the mistreatment of immigrants…,” Bishop Espaillat said. He noted the significance of the day’s Gospel reading, from Matthew 22: “And one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it – You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.’”

Denisse Perez, a lead lay organizer, gave the welcoming remarks and the closing words, saying at the end of Mass, “We are very grateful to our beloved Father, God, for His infinite goodness and mercy, and for permitting us to gather once again for this Eucharistic celebration.” After thanking God first (Primero Dios), Perez thanked Bishop Espaillat, the faithful, and all who made the Prayer and Life Workshops Mass possible, including the archdiocesan Cultural Diversity Apostolate.

About Fr. Larrañaga

Ignacio Larrañaga (May 4, 1928, Spain – Oct. 28, 2013, Mexico) was ordained a Capuchin priest in 1952. On October 6, 2026, the Archdiocese of Guadalajara officially opened the diocesan phase of the Cause for Beatification and Canonization of Fr. Larrañaga, who passed away in Guadalajara.

Living in South America, Fr. Larrañaga collaborated in Chile with the founding of the Center of Franciscan and Pastoral Studies for Latin America. Known as the “Prophet of Prayer,” he wrote 16 books and until 2007, he lived in Santiago de Chile (the capital of Chile). In that year, he celebrated his 55 years in the priesthood. For more than 35 years, he traveled the world evangelizing and spiritually lifting many communities. He founded the Prayer and Life Workshops in 1984

The focus of Prayer and Life Workshops is to enable the faithful to establish an intimate relationship with the Lord. The workshops, which span 15 weeks with two-hour weekly meetings, include reading and meditating upon the Word of God in the Bible, listening to doctrinal messages from the founder, and incorporating fifteen methods of prayer per day. They are designed to help participants reach “the heights of contemplation.”