Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated on 24 March 1980 while celebrating the Eucharist. In these powerful and moving selections from his broadcast talks Romero invites us each day to move into the ‘intimate space’ of our conscience, to encounter ourselves there, and then to go out to create a more just world.

‘There is a way to know if God is near us or far away: everyone who is concerned about the hungry, about the naked, about the poor, about the disappeared, about the tortured, about the prisoner, will find God near. The proof of prayer is not to say a great many words, the proof of my plea is easy to see: how do I act towards the poor? Because God is there.'               Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador

Translated by: Irene B. Hodgson, a professor of modern languages at Xavier University, Cincinnati, where she also teaches Latin American studies. She is a member of Christians for Peace in El Salvador. Among her many translations is A Shepherd’s Diary by Oscar Romero.