St. Josemaria Escriva is one of my son’s patron saints

By Jennifer Gregory Miller in Family in Feria and Feast

St. Josemaria Escriva is one of my son’s patron saints. We named him after this saint in thanksgiving to St. Josemaria. In 2002 we made a pilgrimage to Rome for the canonization of Josemaria with the intention of having a child, as we were having difficulties getting pregnant. The next year our son was born, so in thanksgiving his middle name is a form of Josemaria.

Dh and I have told him this story over and over again, and include our “St. Josemaria, pray for us!” every evening in our night prayer. Now at the ripe old age of 4 1/2 our son has totally embraced this saint. And although it’s been really busy this month with many a feast passing by with just a few words and prayers, we are definitely celebrating this nameday.

This site on St. Josemaria has a section for young readers (see sidebar), with this link going a nice short biography. There are also recommendations for reading.

Through the Mountains is the first book we read together. It’s in comic book format, but a very detailed presentation of St. Josemaria’s life. We all learned so much about him reading this every night to our son. Some of the materials was over his head, but he wanted to read it all, so we read it in small chunks every night. We had many discussions stemming from the book.

Our current read-aloud is Yes! The Life of Josemaria Escriva for Young Readers. This is better for younger readers (or listeners). I believe this is a translation into English from another language, as there are some awkward phrasing and several typos. But my son really, really loves it, because it really is detailed on his early years in his family life and has lovely illustrations.

I didn’t realize how much this book was making an impression on him until the last two nights. As I was reading one of the chapters, my son starting talking out loud. I paused and asked if he wanted to continue, and he replied, “Yes, I was just praying.”

I didn’t think much about that until tonight when we said our night prayers together as a family. Our usual prayers are Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Angel of God and invocations to saints, and then spontaneous prayer which include prayer requests and going over the day. When we got to the Hail Mary, ds said we need to say 3 Hail Marys and then led them.

I was puzzled as to where he got this idea of adding the two extra Hail Marys, so after prayers I asked him. He said “We’re praying three Hail Marys to the Virgin Mary, like St. Josemaria’s family did!” And then I remembered that we read that chapter of Josemaria’s family prayer the night before.

It impresses me how absorbent a child is. I have never said explicitly that we read about saints to imitate them. And yet, how easily my son was inspired and made his own decision to imitate his patron saint.

We will be attending a special Mass in honor of St. Josemaria Thursday evening. I know it will be a little difficult due to usual bedtime routine, so I pray St. Josemaria will help the boys (and Mommy!)

And although the suggested feast day food is crespillos (see bottom of page), the recipe doesn’t fit our food allergy needs (nor, I admit, our tastebuds. Fried sweetened spinach?). So I am making allergy safe brownies for dessert, and we have a special favorite cereal for breakfast.

St. Josemaria’s teachings are simple and straightforward, but so helpful for me. Everyone is called to be a saint, echoing Vatican II’s “Universal Call to Holiness” — even lay people are called to be holy and become saints. And in our ordinary daily lives we must have a sanctification of our work.

“Since 1928 I have understood clearly that God wants our Lord’s whole life to be an example for Christians. I saw this with special reference to his hidden life, the years he spent working side by side with ordinary men. Our Lord wants many people to ratify their vocation during years of quiet, unspectacular living.”

The ordinary Christian can seek holiness in and through the ordinary circumstances of life. “Ordinary life can be holy and full of God.” And in everyday life, the Christian practices all these virtues: faith, hope and charity, and the human virtues – generosity, industriousness, justice, loyalty, cheerfulness, sincerity, and so on. In practising these virtues, a Christian imitates Jesus Christ. “The Supernatural value of our life does not depend on accomplishing great undertakings suggested to us by our overactive imagination. Rather it is to be found in the faithful acceptance of God’s will, in welcoming generously the opportunities for small, daily sacrifice.”

For the majority of Christians, marriage and the family are among the things upon which sanctity should be built, and should thus be given a Christian dimension. “For a Christian, marriage is not just a social institution, much less a mere remedy for human weakness. It is a supernatural calling.”

I forgot I had written these posts.

And I’ll close with my favorite prayer to the Holy Spirit written by St. Josemaria:

Come, O Holy Spirit:
enlighten my understanding
to know your commands;
strengthen my heart
against the wiles of the enemy;
inflame my will…
I have heard your voice,
and I don’t want to harden
my heart by resisting,
by saying ‘later…tomorrow.”
Nunc coepi! Now!
Lest there be no tomorrow for me!
O, Spirit of truth and wisdom,
Spirit of understanding and counsel,
Spirit of joy and peace!
I want what you want,
I want it because you want it,
I want it as you want it,
I want it when you want it.