QUOTATION: Education

Parents have to respect their children’s freedom, because there is no real education without personal responsibility, and there is no responsibility without freedom.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Priests

I cannot understand why some priests are so eager to be indistinguishable from other Christians, forgetting or neglecting their specific mission in the Church, that for which they have been ordained. They seem to think that Christians want to see the priest as just another man. That is not so. They want to find in the priest those virtues proper to every Christian man and, indeed, every honorable man: understanding, justice, a life of work -- priestly work in this instance -- and good manners.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, "A Priest Forever", In Love with the Church.

QUOTATION: Small Things Matter

Let us take a good honest look at our own lives. How is it that sometimes we just can’t find those few minutes it would take to finish lovingly the work we have to do, which is the very means of our sanctification? Why do we neglect our family duties? Why that tendency to rush through our prayers, or through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? How are we so lacking in calm and serenity when it comes to fulfilling the duties of our state, and yet so unhurried as we indulge in our own whims? You might say these are trifling matters. You’re right, they are, but these trifles are the oil, the fuel we need to keep our flame alive and our light shining.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Old Doesn't Mean Bad

Is the idea of Catholicism old and therefore unacceptable? —The sun is older and has not lost its light; water is more ancient, and it still quenches the thirst and refreshes us.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Prayer

For the person who loves Jesus, prayer, even prayer without consolation, is the sweetness that puts an end to all sorrow: he goes to pray, eagerly, like a child going to the sugar-bowl after a bitter dose of medicine.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, 889

QUOTATION: Purity

‘Purity?’ they ask. And they smile. They are the ones who go on to marriage with worn-out bodies and disillusioned souls.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Fight Your Spiritual Weaknesses

Fight against that weakness which makes you lazy and careless in your spiritual life. Remember that it might well be the beginning of lukewarmness... and, in the words of the Scripture, God will vomit the lukewarm out of his mouth.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, 325

QUOTATION: God Doesn't Lose

Remember this and never forget it: even if it should seem at times that everything is collapsing, nothing is collapsing at all, because God doesn’t lose battles.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Boys Don't Cry?

You are crying? Don't be ashamed of it. Yes, cry: men also cry like you, when they are alone and before God. Each night, says King David, I soak my bed with tears. With those tears, those burning, manly tears, you can purify your past and supernaturalize your present life.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, 216

  

QUOTATION: Invoke Your Guardian Angel

Whenever you are in need of anything, or are facing difficulties, whether great or small, invoke your Guardian Angel, asking him to sort the matter out with Jesus, or to do the particular service you may require.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, 931

QUOTATION: Becoming Like Christ

Do not forget that being with Jesus means we shall most certainly meet with his Cross. When we abandon ourselves into God’s hands, he frequently permits us to taste sorrow, loneliness, opposition, slander, defamation, ridicule, coming from both within and outside. This is because he wants to mold us into his image and likeness. He even tolerates that we be called lunatics and be taken for fools.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Faith

We all must have the faith of children, but the doctrine of theologians.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: How to Pray

You don't know how to pray? Put yourself in the presence of God, and as soon as you have said, "Lord, I don't know how to pray!' you can be sure you have already begun.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Sacrifices

Normally the sacrifices that our Lord asks of us, even the most difficult ones, refer to tiny details, but they are as continuous and invaluable as the beating of our hearts.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Persuasion Requires Conviction

You lack drive. That's why you sway so few. You don't seem very convinced of what you gain by giving up those things of the earth for Christ.

Just compare: a hundredfold and life everlasting! Would you call that a poor bargain?

--St. Josemaria EscrivaThe Way, 79
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QUOTATION: Stop Complaining

Don’t complain if you suffer. It is the prized and valued stone that is polished.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Unhappiness

You are unhappy? Think: there must be an obstacle between God and me. You will seldom be wrong.

--St Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Your Guardian Angel

The Guardian Angel always accompanies us as our principal witness. It is he who, at your particular judgement, will remember the kind deeds you performed for Our Lord throughout your life. Furthermore, when you feel lost, before the terrible accusations of the enemy, your Angel will present those intimate desires of your heart — which perhaps you yourself might have forgotten — those proofs of love which you might have had for God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

That is why you must never forget your Guardian Angel, and that Prince of Heaven shall not abandon you now, or at that decisive moment.

--Josemaria Escriva, Furrow, 693

QUOTATION: Fraternal Correction

Don't neglect the practice of fraternal correction, which is a clear sign of the supernatural virtue of charity. You may find it hard, for it's easier to be inhibited. It's easier to behave that way, but it's not supernatural. And you will have to render an account to God for such omissions.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #146

QUOTATION: Compromise

Compromise is a word found only in the vocabulary of those who have no will to fight — the lazy, the cunning, the cowardly — for they consider themselves defeated before they start.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, #5