LIVING together in a large white house north of the Common, ten Harvard and M.I.T. Catholic men are trying hard to make themselves holy and glorify God by working. Leading disciplined, intensely religious lives, they are trying to prove that a few young people still believe in God, good manners, and a rugged but charitable individualism.

They are members of Opus Dei, a worldwide association of Roman Catholic lay people whose message to individuals-particularly professional people-is a sort of Catholic moral rearmament. Based in Spain, Opus Dei now claims a membership of over 60,000 men and women in 69 countries, including 2000 Americans.

Opus Dei seeks to help its members lead fully Christian lives outside as well as inside the cathedral. By obeying conscientiously the teachings of the Catholic Church in their everyday work-and by influencing their fellow workers to do likewise-members believe they will achieve sanctification.

Despite its claim to be an exclusively spiritual organization, Opus Dei has become a powerful conservative force in Spanish politics and society. Its members occupy top positions in that country's government, economy and university system. Some Spaniards refer to it as "Octopus Dei."

A Spanish lawyer-turned-priest, Msgr. Jose M. Escriva founded Opus Dei in 1928 to counter what he saw as growing secularism and anti-clericalism among Spanish intellectuals. As president-general, Escriva now controls the association from Rome. In 1947, the Vatican officially recognized Opus Dei as the Church's first secular institute.

"Opus Dei," Escriva has written, "was born to tell men and women of every country and of every condition, race, language, milicu, and state of life-single, married and priests-that they can love and serve God without giving up their ordinary work, their family or their normal social relations."

In 1933, Escriva published The Way, a collection of 999 principles by which members of Opus Dei are to live. It has sold more than two million copies in over 60 languages.

Written in the second person, most of the principles are didactic aphorisms which exhort the reader to hard work, self-denial and service to society. "Be firm! Be strong! Be a man! And then... be an angel!" counsels principle number 22.

II

THE Cambridge students live with an older director, Carl B. Schmitt Jr. '51, two priests, an architect and an astrophysicist in a large, comfortably furnished house on Follen Street.

Elmbrook, as the house is called, is one of 20 residential study centers which Opus Dei operates in the United States. Boston has two such centers: Trimount House for men and Bayridge House for women.

All of Elmbrook's residents are single Catholic men. Most Opus Dei members eventually marry, although some remain celibate. Women and non-Catholics are welcome at the house, but only as visitors.

Non-Catholics may participate in some activities as "Cooperators," but may not join the organization. Women may join the larger association of Opus Dei, but they are organized in a segregated branch.

"The professional role of women is not skirted in the least in Opus Dei," Schmitt said in a recent interview. President-general Escriva, however, believes the woman's most important place is in the home. Escriva has written, "In the care she takes of her husband and children, a woman fulfills the most indispensable part of her mission."

Unlike Phillips Brooks House and Hillel House, Elmbrook is not officially associated with the University. Schmitt said that students living at Elmbrook "participate in all sorts of Harvard activities, and hundreds of Harvard students visit Elmbrook each year."

Elmbrook was established by the American branch of Opus Dei in September 1959. It is not a monastery and its residents are not required to take vows. Most of them, however, gather for daily mass, formal evening meals, meditation sessions, and occasional weekend retreats at the association's rural conference center in East Pembroke.