Holiness for Everyone: The Practical Spirituality of St. Josemaria Escriva Paperback – March 19, 2012

In the Foreword, Scott Hahn explains that when someone is canonized a saint, he or she becomes a gift to the whole Church. St. Josemaría Escrivá , founder of Opus Dei, preached that all men are called to be saints. Therefore, Eric Sammons, not a member of Opus Dei himself, wants to make the spirituality of St. Josemaría Escrivá available to everybody. For Scott Hahn, in this book, the author shows that St. Josemaría has recovered the most powerful truth of classic Christianity: divine filiation, the fact that all Christians become children of God through Baptism. He restated it in a way that is compelling for all in our own time.In the Introduction, Eric Sammons explains that God has a goal for our life: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1Thess 4:3). Hence, our problem becomes: How do we become saints in the modern world? It is precisely to answering this question that St. Josemaría Escrivá devoted his life. Therefore, the purpose of this book is to spread the message of St. Josemaría on becoming a saint beyond the boundaries of Opus Dei. Since Opus Dei is relatively small in size, its outreach is not available for everyone, but the spirituality of St. Josemaría is for everyone who wants to grow in holiness in ordinary life in the middle of the world.Chapter 1. “Called to Be Saints” The view –never officially embraced by the Church—that holiness could only be achieved in the religious life was almost universally accepted. It was only for priests or monks or nuns to strive for holiness. This idea became the accepted assumption of millions of Catholics right up to Vatican Council II. Nevertheless, lay holiness has deep roots in Christian tradition, in the preaching of Christ, and even further back when God gave the Israelites the Law, He commanded: “You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy.” (Lev 20:26) The demand of universal holiness was preached by St. Paul: “[God] chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” (Eph. 1:4) “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4: 3a) “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31); and “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Col. 3:17) While the great teachers of the Church—such as St. Augustin, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Gregory the Great—understood that the monastic movement (men and women who physically removed themselves from ordinary life in order to bear witness to the total devotion each person should give to the Lord were to be models for all Christians) and that each person was to give a total commitment in his own state of life).The monastic trend, nevertheless, marks the birth of the notion that holiness is for the consecrated, not the layman. In spite of this notion, there were examples of laypersons following the call to holiness in the world, such as St. Thomas More (1478-1535), a married man, a statesman, and a martyr. There was also a great teacher of lay spirituality, St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622). His Introduction to the Devout Life was directed to laypeople in the midst of the world. More recently, people in all walks of life have embraced the spirituality of the Carmelite nun St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897)—a “little way” of holiness. By recognizing that every action, no matter how small in the eyes of the world, can be an act of love for God, St. Thérèse laid a clear path for holiness in all the states of life. In spite of the teachings and the examples of these saints the idea persisted that holiness is the exclusive domain of those in religious life. It was in this environment that St. Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975) made his mission to insist that the call to holiness was universal to all peoples and all walks of life. Finally, at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Lumen Gentium (“Light of the Nations”), chapter 5, titled “The Universal Call to Holiness” insisted on the idea that every person is called to holiness no matter their vocation or state in life, and that every occupation and profession can be a means to achieve sanctity. This was precisely what St. Josemaría Escrivá had been preaching since 1928.Chapter 2. “A Modern Day Saint” This chapter gives us biographical information about St. Josemaría Escrivá since his birth January 9, 1902 in Barbastro, Spain, until his death in Rome, on June 26, 1975. Some important dates are: 1) On October 2, 1928 he had the vision of the founding of Opus Dei. 2) On February 14, 1930, he had a vision of establishing a women’s branch of Opus Dei. 3) On August 7, 1931, he had a vision while celebrating Mass, at the Elevation of the Host, he saw men and women putting Christ at the pinnacle of all human activities and Christ attracting everything to himself. 4) On October 16, 1931, while on a streetcar, he had a deep experience of divine filiation as the foundation of his spirituality. 5) On October 6, 2002, St. Pope John Paul II declared him a “saint of ordinary life.”Chapter 3. “Abba! Father!” This chapter explains in detail divine filiation as the foundation of St. Josemaría’s teaching of becoming holy in the world. It is because God is our Father that we receive his very life of holiness; it is because we are children of a loving Father that we should submit ourselves to his will in humility. It is because we are sons of God and brothers with Christ that we should model our very lives on the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ. Holiness is a living relationship between a loving child who wants to please his father and a father who gives his child everything he needs to succeed. Like St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Josemaría sees abandonment and submission as two key aspects of spiritual childhood. Christian submission is always linked to spiritual childhood; it is the loving submission of a child who knows his father loves him and who trusts him completely, not the servile submission of someone who fears punishment from his master. Identification with Christ is the cornerstone of divine filiation: each Christian is to be what the name implies: a “little Christ.” The Christian becomes another Christ when he joins his life to the saving work of Jesus: recalling that every action of Christ was redemptive. Recognition of our divine filiation is the bridge to sanctification and holiness. By embracing God as our loving Father, we can be as children in His loving arms, accepting anything that comes to us as a gift and making it a means to become more and more like his eternal Son, Jesus Christ.Chapter 4. “Free to Love” God loves freedom and He gave man a profound choice: to willingly love Him or to reject His love. According to St. Thomas Aquinas in this lies men’s supreme dignity. God loves freedom so much than when He chose to become man in order to save us, he left his fate in the hands of a teenage peasant girl, Mary. For St. Josemaría there is a paradox at the heart of our freedom: “Freedom finds its true meaning when it is put to the service of the truth which redeems, when it is spent in seeking God’s infinite Love which liberates us from all forms of slavery.” (Friends of God 27) Therefore, following the “restrictions” of God leads to great blessings in our lives. Nevertheless, each person has his own unique path to God, but each path has similarities to the others: we all need to pray and depend on the sacraments for grace. While we must all follow the means of salvation put in place by Christ each person must freely determine from the rich treasury of the Church the devotions that will strengthen his faith. The rich diversity of prayers and spiritualties is one of the beauties of the Catholic Faith, but we should not fall into the trap of thinking that a particular spirituality (Carmelite, Dominican,Franciscan, Jesuit, etc) is the only valid for everyone. Our freedom of children of God also includes the freedom to start anew every time that we have fallen into sin and rejected God.Chapter 5. “Ambitious for Holiness” St. Josemaría did not reject ambition per se, and in fact embraced a certain form of ambition. He believed that every follower of Christ should have “holy ambition.” A driving desire to live completely for God, making every action an offering to God with the goal of becoming a saint. The difference between selfish ambition and holy ambition is the final goal. For the former, it is a goal focused on self and this-worldly success. Holy ambition’s goal of sanctity, on the other hand, focuses on God and otherworldly reward. Holy ambitious people are those who put God and others first in their lives, instead of self. Christ himself praised the spiritually ambitious. In the Parable of the Talents (Mt 25: 14-30), Christ commends those who ambitiously seek to multiply their gifts—the person who timidly hides his talent is condemned. For the spiritually ambitious, it is the little things that matter—those actions that no one sees except God. On the contrary, worldly ambition looks at the big things in life. The “little way” of St. Thérèse, so beloved by St. Josemaría, emphasized the importance of making every action, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, one done in love. An important component of holy ambition is the desire to do every task to the best of our abilities. St. Josemaría loved to quote Mark 7: 37, where the people say to Jesus, “He has done all things well.” The entire life of Christ is redemptive, even when Christ was doing carpentry work for a neighbor; as followers of Christ, we join in that redemption by our own work. Finally, holy ambition requires that we fight against lukewarmness: the weakness which makes us lazy and careless in spiritual life. It also calls for hatred of sin as a loving child hates to offend his loving father.Chapter 6. “Be a Contemplative in the Midst of the World” St. Josemaría loved to say that lay people are called to be “contemplatives in the midst of the world.” The fuel that powers a life of sanctity is the interior life, a life of prayer. Christ himself provides the model of the intimate prayer life necessary for holiness. In the Gospels we often see him at prayer before his most significant tasks. The vital component to any life of prayer is that it must integrate naturally with one’s lifestyle. Striving to recognize that God is always present, we will act differently. One of the greatest temptations for lay people in the midst of the world is to forget the sacred while immersed in the secular. But the reality is that God is truly present at each and every moment of the day, making every moment sacred. St. Josemaría recommended to have a “Plan of Life”—practical guidelines to win the battle for holiness. The Plan of Life is a tool for those who wish to develop their interior life. This plan should include daily, weekly, monthly, and other regular activities that help build a strong interior life and a recognition of the presence of God at all times. The Plan of Life should begin with the “heroic minute.” It’s time to get up, on the dot! It is also recommended to have a “heroic minute” each night by retiring at a reasonable hour. Another element of the Plan should be the morning offering, in which one offers the entire day to God. The Mass should be the central activity of the day because “the Mass is the center and source of a Christian’s spiritual life.” We could include in the Plan some daily spiritual exercises such as praying the Angelus, praying the Rosary, and engaging in mental prayer. Another important part of the Plan of Life should be spiritual reading. St. Josemaría recommended taking at least five to ten minutes every day to reflect on some scene in the Gospels, picturing oneself in that scene in order to meditate on Christ’s actions more deeply. We could use the method (that the Church has developed over the centuries) called Lectio Divina (“Divine Reading”). Our Plan of Life should also include mortifications: all those activities that help us to control our sinful impulses and desires. The Plan should conclude with an examination of conscience at the end of the day that should focus only on one or two areas of struggle. The core of the Plan of Life involves many daily activities, but St. Josemaría also suggested certain spiritual practices at other regular intervals. Those include: regular visits to the tabernacle to meet our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; regular, even weekly, confession, monthly recollections, and annual weekend retreats.Chapter 7. “Make Your Work a Way to Heaven” The first thing God said to his people was a command to work: they were to be fruitful, conquer the earth, and be masters of all living things. This command came before the Fall, so work is not a consequence of sin. Even the Fall did not completely obliterate the dignity of work. Work remains inherently something good because its source is God. “Work” is not limited to our paying jobs—work also encompasses our responsibilities at home, our relationships, and all we do for others. “Work” in other words, is everything we “do.” We must sanctify our ordinary life, and ordinary life is the world of work. Work, family life, and human relationships should all be directed toward Christ and offered to him because Scripture says that every disciple of Christ is a priest (See 1 Pet 2:9). All of our activities, if offered to Christ, can lead us closer to God. Nevertheless, we must keep the proper order of priorities: God, family, and work. All our activities when united to Christ’s redemptive work, become our prayer. In sum, it is important to realize that holiness is not dependent upon a specific outward state of affairs; no matter where we are in life, we can use our circumstances as a means for our sanctification.Chapter 8. “Live in the Family of God” As Catholics, we are called to follow Christ within the Church based in Rome and led by the Pope. St. Josemaría’s attitude toward the Church can be summed up in one of his favorite phrases: “To Jesus through Mary with Peter” (Christ Is Passing By 139). St. Josemaría taught: “There is no other possible attitude for a Catholic: we have to defend the authority of the Pope always, and to be ready always to correct our own views with docility, in line with the teaching authority of the Church” (The Forge 581). Another mark of the loyal son of God is devotion to his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Mary we find the “secret” of sanctity: not great deeds or bold words, but a humble submission to the will of God in the ordinary things of life. St. Josemaría also had a great devotion to St. Joseph. For him, St. Joseph is “master of the interior life” because “interior life is nothing but continual and direct conversation with Christ, so as to become one with him” (Christ Is Passing By 56), and no one, other than Mary, had more intimate contact with Jesus.Chapter 9. “Proclaim Christ to the World” In the early Church each and every Christian knew that it was his obligation to evangelize: to witness to the power of Christ in his life. For St. Josemaría this is the Church model of evangelization that should be re-adopted today. According to the saint, Christianity expanded by an “apostolate of friendship.” He thought that true friendship can be powerfully evangelistic, for everyone is more likely to listen to a friend than a stranger. Another key to evangelization is a strong interior life. You cannot give what you don’t have. “The apostolate, of whatever kind it be, must be an overflow of the interior life” (Friends of God 239). This is why it is so important to develop a personal and intimate relationship with Christ; such relationship and intimacy is fostered only by a serious, sacramental life of prayer. Therefore, the best way to evangelize and transform the world is to be a saint. It is important to remember that the early Christians transformed the pagan Roman Empire not by separating themselves from it, but by being good Christians—and good citizens—within it.Conclusion: The final message is that the only way to overcome the world and to save it is for each and every person to live a saintly life within it. “These world crises are crises of saints” (The Way 301).

Excellent book on how to apply Saint Josemarie Escriva's spirituality to one's life. We're all called to be holy, not just those who've chosen religious life. This book is a big help in perceiving the possibility that we can all live saintly lives despite our earthly circumstances or professions.I recommend it to begin the journey towards Sainthood living in the world (but not being if it!)

I found this to be such a good book I have read it twice in the month or so since I purchased it and will probably read it again in the near future. If you have found that any of the writings of St Josemaria Escriva speak to your condition (The Way, Furrow, The Forge, and others) but either do not have a vocation to Opus Dei or, like me, do not have that option due to physical remoteness from its centers of activity, you will find this to be an excellent supplement for practicing the Saint's way in ways that fit with your life and vocation. Great book.

Relevant to my spiritual journey right now. My struggle in life is my current job, working with toxic people. This book gave me the tools and prayers I need to reframe my experience as an opportunity for holiness.

Eric Sammons wrote an incredibly wonderful book in "Holiness for Everyone." I savored every page. Once you start reading it, it's hard to put it down. I very much enjoy his writing style and his ability to convey his message. I only hope that Eric will find the time to write future books.

This book is arranged in a way that presents information in short segments that can easily be read in a small amount of time. Each segment ends with a brief series of "exercises" including additional readings, questions to think about, and suggestions for prayers. For anyone looking for practical ways to approach spirituality, this book is very good!

I am not ready to review this book. I resent be forced to do this before I can get to the book

good book

This is is a great easy read. There are many examples that are easy to digest as they are written in lay language interspersed with scripture. Chris Thomas has a genuine ability to write and speak as though you are in the room with him. This makes the messages contained in this book even more personal. Very appropriate for someone who is struggling with their faith, has not faith or does but wants to go further in living in a His way. Thanks Chris

solid book.

I love this book. It is easy to read and is based on the teachings of the Lord and Josemaria Escriva. Didnt much like the constant referring to books on the internet, when you are reading in bed it is not so easy to look these up!