St. Josemaría Escrivá is a genius

By Jack Perry in Cantànima

For the record, I'm not a member of Opus Dei, and I'm not looking to become one, but I did discover St. Josemaría Escrivá's The Way while I was in seminary, and I re-discovered it online recently. I started re-reading it last night, and immediately fell in love with its gems again. Consider #4,

Don't say, That's the way I'm made… it's my character. It's your lack of character. Be a man.

I showed it to my wife last night, and she agreed with me that it seems particularly apt to some messy going-on in my extended family.

Or #9:

Say what you have just said, but in a different tone, without anger, and your argument will gain in strength and, above all, you won't offend God.

If I'd used that as a sure guideline, I likely wouldn't have written a few of the entries on this weblog…

Finally, #20:

It is inevitable that you should feel the rub of other people's characters against your own. After all, you are not a gold coin that everyone likes.

Besides, without that friction produced by contact with others, how would you ever lose those corners, those edges and projections—the imperfections and defects—of your character, and acquire the smooth and regular finish, the firm flexibility of charity, of perfection?

If your character and the characters of those who live with you were soft and sweet like sponge-cake you would never become a saint.

The world seems to want sponge-cake, yet never seems happy when it finds it.