Quotes by St. Josemaria Escriva - Part 4

More quotes from THE WAY by Saint Josemaria Escriva.

81. Action is worthless without prayer; prayer is worth more than sacrifice.

82. First, prayer; then, atonement; in the third place -very much in the third place - action.

83. Prayer is the foundation of the spiritual edifice. Prayer is all powerful.

84. Domine, doce nos orare. - "Lord, teach us to pray!"
And our Lord awnsered " when you pray say Our Father who art in Heaven...."
How can we fail to appreciate the value of vocal prayer!

85. Slowly. Think about what you're saying, who is saying it and to Whom. Becasue talking fast, without pausing for reflection, is only noise - the clatter of tin cans.
Along with Saint Teresa I'll tell you that, however much you move your lips, I do not call it prayer.

86. Your prayer ought to be liturgical. would that you were given to reciting the psalms and prayers of the missal instead of private or special prayers!

87 "Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of GOd," said our Lord. Bread and the word! The host and prayer.
Without these you won't live a cupernatural life.

88. YOu seek the firendship of thsoe who, with thier conversation and affection, with thier company, help you to bear more easily the exile of this world - although sometimes those friends fail you. I don't see anything wrong with that.
But how is it that you do not seek everyday, more eagerly, the company, the conversation of that great freind who will never fail you?

89. "Mary has chosen the better part," we read in holy Gospel. There she is, drinking in the words of the Master. Apparently idle, she is praying and loving. Afterwards she accompanies Jesus in his preaching through towns and villages.
Without prayer, how difficult it is to accompnay him!

90. YOu dont know how to pray? Put yourself in the presence of God, and as soon as you have said, "Lord I dont know how to pray!" you can be sure you have already begun.

Qutes by St. Josemaria Escriva - part 3

A continuation of quotes from the book THE WAY by St. Josemaria Escriva

56. The "stuff" of saint. That's what is said about some people - that they have the stuff of saints. But apart from the fact that saints are not made of "stuff", having "stuff is not sufficient.
A great spirit of obedience to a director and a great readiness to correspond to grace are required. For if you dont allow God's grace and your director to do thier work, the sculptured image of Christ, into which the sainly man is shaped will never apper.
And that "stuff" of which we have been speaking will be only a rough, unshaped log fit for the fire - for a good fire if it is a good "stuff"

57. Get to know the Holy Spirit, the Great Unknown, the one who has to sanctify you.
Dont forget that you are a temple of God. The Paraclete is in the center of your soul: listen to him, and follow his inspirations with docility.

58. Dont hinder the work of the Paraclete. Be united to Christ in order to purify yourself, and together with him experince the insults, the spit, the blows and the thorns...Experince with him the wieght of the corss, the nails tearing your flesh, and the agony of a forsaken death...And enter into the pierced side of our Lord Jesus until you find secure shelter in his wounded heart.

59. It's good for you to know this doctrine, which is always sound: your own spirit is a bad advisor, a poor pilot to steer your soul through the squalls and storms and across the reefs of the interior life.
That's why it is the will of God that the command of the ship be entrusted to a master who, with his light and knowledge, can guide us to a safe port.

60. You wouldn't think of building a good house to live in here on earthe without and architect. How can you ever hope, without a director, to build the castle of your sanctification in order to live forever in Heaven?

61. When a layman sets himself up as a arbiter of morals, he frequently errs; laymen can be only disciples.

62. A director - you need one, in order to offer yourself, to surrender yourself...by obedience. You need a director who undersatnd your apostolate, who knoes what God wants. SUch a one will effectively help to forward the work of the Holy Spirit in your soul, without taking you from your palce, filling you with peace and teaching you how your work can be fruitful.

63. YOu think you are really somebody: your studies - your research, your publications, your social position - your name, your political acomplishments - the offices you hold; your welath; your age..no longer a child!
Precisely becasue of all of this, you - more than others - need a director for your soul.

64. Dont hide the suggestions of the devil from your director. When you confide them to him, your victory brings you more grace from God. Moreover, you now have the gift of counsel and the prayers of a spiritual father to help you keep right on conquering.

65. Why do you hesitate to know yourself and to let your director know you as you really are?
YOu'll have won a great battle if you lose the fear of letting yourself be known.

66. A priest - whoever he may be - is always another Christ.

67. Though you know it well, I want to remind you again that a preist is "another Chirst" and that the HOly Spirit has said "nolite tangere Christos meos" - "Do not tuch my Christs"

68. Presbyter - priest - stymologically means and elderly man. If old age deserves reverance, think how much more you ought to revere the priest.

69. What a lack of refinement - and waht a lack of respect - to play a trick on a preist, whoever he may be, under any circumstances!

70. I insist: those tricks or jokes about a preist, in spite of what may seem to you to be attenuating circumstances, awlays are at least vulgar, a lack of good manners.

71. How we should admire purity in the preisthood! It is its treasure. No tyrant will ever be able to wrest this crown from the Chruch.

72. Dont ever make a preist run the risk of losing his dignity. Its is a virtur which, without pompusness, he simply must have.
How hard that young priest- a friend of ours- prayed for it: " Lord grant me... eighty years of dignity1"
You too should pray for it for all priests, and you'll have done something good.

73. It hurt you like a dagger in your heart to hear people say you had spoken badly of those priests. And I'm glad it hurt, for now I'm quite sure you have the right spirit.

74. To love God and not to revere the priest...This is not possible.

75. Like the good sons of Noah, cover the weaknesses you may see in your father, the priest, with the coack of charity.

76. If you dont have a plan of life, you'll never have order.

77. You told me that to tie yourself to a plan of life, to a schedule, would be so monotonous!
And I answered, "It is monotonous becasue you lack love."

78 If you dont get up at a set hour, you'll never fulfill your plan of life.

79 Virtur with out order? strange virtue!

80. With order, your time will be multiplied, and you will be able to give more glory to God by doing more work in his service.

Quotes by St. Jose Maria Escriva Part II

The following are quoes from the book THE WAY by St. Josemaria Escriva.

39. "Pray that I may never be satisfied with what is easy" you say. I've already prayed. Now it it up to you to carry out that fine resolution.

40. Faith, joy, optimism. But not the folly of closing your eyes to reality.

41. What a sublime way of carrying on with your empty follies, and what a way of getting somewhere in the world: rising, always rising simply by "weighing little", by having nothing inside - neither in your head nor in your heart!

42. Why thos variations in your character? When are you going to apply your will to something? Drop that craze for laying cornerstones, and finish at least one of your projects.

43. Don't be so touchy. The least thing offends you. People have to weigh thier wrods to talk to you even about the most trivial matter.
Dont feel hurt if I tell you that you are...unbearable. Unless you change, you will never be of any use.

44. Use the polite excuse that Chritian charity and good manners require. But then...keep on going with holy shamelesness, without stopping until you have reached the summit in the fulfilment of your duty.

45. Why feel hurt by the unjust things people say of you? You would be even worse, if God ever left you. Keep on doing good, and shrug your shoulders.

46. Dont you think that equality, as many people undersatnd it, is synonymous with injustice?

47. That pose and those important airs don't fit you well. It's obvious that they are false. At least, try not to use them either with God, or your director, or with your brothers; and then there will be between them and you one barrier less.

48. You lack character. What mania for interfering in everything. You are bent on being the salt of every dish. And you won't mind if i speak clearly- you haven't the qualities of salt: you can't be dissolved and pass unnoticed, as salt does. You lack a spirit of sacrifice. And you abound in a spirit of curiosity and ostentation.

49. Keep quite. Don't be "babyish", a caricature of a child, a tattle-tale, a trouble maker, a squaler. With your stories and tales you have cilled the warm glow on charity; you couldn't have done more hard. And if by chance you-your wagging tongue- have shaken down the strong walls of other people's perseverance, your own perserverance ceases to be a grace of God. It has become a treacherous instrument of the enemy.

50. You're curious and inquisitive, prying nad nosey. Aren't you ashamed that even in your defects you are not much of a man. Be a man, and instead of poking into other people's lives, get to know what you really are yourself.

51. your manly spirit - simple and straightforward - is crushed when you find yourself entangled in gossip and scandalous talk. You dont understand how it could happen, and you never wished to be involved in it anyway. Suffer the humiliation that such talk causes you, and let the experience urge you to greater discretion.

52. When you must judge others, why put into your criticism the bitterness of your own failures?

53. That critical spirit - granted you mean well - should never be directed toward your apostolate in which you work nor towards your bothers. In your supernatural undertakings that critical spirit - forgive me for saying it - can do a lot of harm. For when you get involved in judging the work of others, you are not doing anything constructive. Really you have no right to judge, even if you have the highest possible motives, as I admit. And with your negative attitude you hold up the progress of others.
"Then" you ask worriedly "my critical spirit, which is the keynote of my character?
Listen. I'll set your mind at east. Take pen and paper. Write down simple and confidently- yes briefly - what is worrying you. Give the note to your superior, and dont think any more about it.
He is in charge and has he grace of state. He will file the note..or will throw it in the waste basket, And since your criticism is not gossip and you do it for the higherst motives, it is all the same to you.

54. Conform? It is a word found only in the vocabulary of those who have no will to fight - the lazy, the cunning, the cowardly - becasue they know they are defeated before they start.

55. Man, Listen! even though you may be like a child - and you really are one in the eyes of God - be a little less naive: don't put your brothers "on the spot" before strangers.

Quotes from St. Josemaria Escriva

Forgive me not not posting daily, I have some personal isseuse to deal with.
I am reading a book called THE WAY by St. Josemaria Escriva. Here are some quotes from the book.

1. Don't let your life be sterile. Be useful. Blaze a trail. Shine forth with the light of your faith and of your love. With your apostolic life wipe out the slimy and filthy mark left by the impure sowers of hatered. And light up all the ways of the earth with the fire of Christ that you carry in your heart.

2 May youe behaviour and your conversation be such that every one who sees or hears you can say : this man read the life of Jesus Christ

3 Maturity. Stop making faces and acting up like a child! Your bearing ought to reflect the prace and order in your soul.

4. Dont say "That's the way i am - it's my character" It's your lack of character. Esto vir! - Be a man!

5. Get used to saying No.

6. Turn your back on the deceiver when he whispers in your ear, "Why complicate your life?"

7. Dont have a "small town" outlook. Enlarge your heart until it becomes universal - "catholic". Dont fly like a barnyard hen when you can soar like an eagle.

8. Serenity. why lose your temper if by losing it you offend God, you trouble your neighbor, your give yourself a bad time... and in the end you have to set things aright anyway?

9. What you have just said, say it in another tone, without anger, and what you say will have more force.. and above all, you wont offend God.

10. Never reprimand anyone while you feel provoked over a fault that ahs been committed. Wait until the next day, or even longer. Then make your remonstrance calmly and with a purified intention. You'll gain more with an affectionate word that you ever would from three hours of quarreling. Control your temper.

11. Will-power. Energy. Example. What has to be done is done... without wavering... without worrying about what others think...
Otherwise Cisneros would not have been Cisneros; nor Theresa of Ahumada, Saint Theresa; nor Inigo of Loyola St Ignaitus.
God and Daring! Regnare Christum volumus!- "We want Christ to reign1"

12. Let obstacles only make you bigger. the grace of our Lord will not be lacking: Inter medium montium pertransibunt aquae! - "through the very midst of the mountains the waters shall pass" You will pass through mountains!
What does it matter that you have to curtial your activity for the moment, if later, like a spring which has been compressed, you'll advance much farther than you ever dreamed?

13. Get rid of thouse useless thoughts which are at best a waste of time.

14. Don't waste your energy and your time - which belongs to God - throwing stones at the dogs that bark at you on the way - Ignore them.

15. Don't put off your work until tomorrow.

16. Give in? Be just commonplace? You, a sheep-like follower? You were born to be a leader?
Among us there is no place for the lukewarm. Humble yourself and Christ will kindle in you again the fire of love.

17. Don't succumb to that disease of character whose symptoms are a general lack of seriousness, unsteadiness in action and speech, foolishness - in a word, frivolty.
And that frivolty, mind you, which makes your plans so void - "so filled with emptiness" - will amke of you a lifeless and useless dummy, unless you ract in time - not tomorrow, but now!

18. You go on being worldly, frivolous, and giddy becasue you are a coward. What is it, if not cowardice, to refuse to face yourself?

19. Will-power. A very important quality. Dont disregard the little things, which are really never futile or trivial. For by the constant practice of repeated self denial in little things, with God's grace you will increase in strenght and manliness of character. In that way you will first become master of yourself, and then a guide and leader: to compel, to urge, to draw others with your example and with your word and with your knowledge and with your pwoer.

20 You clash with the character of one person or another... It has to be that way - you are no a dollar bill to be liked by everyone. Besides with out those clashes which arise in dealing with your neighbors, how could you ever lose those sharp corners, the edges - imperfections and defects of your character - and acquire the order, the smotthness, and the firm mildness of charity, of perfection?
If your character and that of those around you were soft and sweet like marshmallows, you would never become a saint.

21. Excuses. You'll never lack them if you want to avoid your duties. What a lot of rationalizing!
Dont stop to think about excuses. Get rid of them and do what you should.

22 Be Frim! Be Strong! Be a Man! and then...be an angel!

23 You say you can't do more? Couldn't it be... that you can't do less?

24 YOu are ambitious: for knowledge...for leadership. YOu want to be daring. Good. Fine. But let it be for Christ, for Love.

25 Don't argue. Arguments usually bring no light becasue the light is smothered by emotion.

26 Matrimony is a holy sacrament. When the time comes for you to receive it, ask your spiritual directo or your confessor to suggest an appropriate book. Then you will be better prepared to bear worthily the burdens of a home.

27 Do you laugh becasue I tell you that you have a "vocation to marriage"? Well, you have just that - a vocation.
Commend yourself to Saint Raphael that he may keep you pure, as he did Tobias, until the end of the way.

28 Marriage is for the rank and file, not for the officers of Christ's army. For, unlike food, which is necessary for every individual, procreation is necessary only for the species, and individuals can dispense with it.
A Desire to have children? Behind us we shall leave children - many children...and a lasting trail of light, if we sacrifice the selfishness of the flesh. **** What is really important is that each person should follow his vocation, in the same battle a soldier can win a medal while a general flees shamfully.

29 The limited and pitiful happiness of the selfish man, who withdraes into his shell, his ivory tower...is not difficult to attain in this world. But that happiness of the selfish is not lasting.
For the false semblance of Heaven are you going to forsake the Joy of Glory with out end?

30 You're shrewd. Dont don't tell me you are young. Youth gives all it can - it gives itself without reserve.

31 Selfish! You... always looking out for yourself. You seem unable to feel the brotherhook of Christ. In others you don't see brothers; you see steeping-stones.
I can forsee your complete failure. And wehn you are down, you'll expect others to treat you with the charity you're unwilling to show them.

32 You'll never be a leader if you see others only as stepping stones to get ahead. You'll be a leader if you are ambitious for the salvation of all souls.
You can't live iwth you back turned on everyone; you have to be eager to make others happy.

33 You never want" to get to the bottom of things." At times, becasue of politeness. Other times- most times - becasue you fear hurting yourself. Sometimes again, becasue you fear hurting others. But always because of fear!
With that fear of digging for the truth you'll never be a man of good judgement.

34 Don't be afraid of the truth, even though the truth may mean your death.

35 There are many pretty terms I don't like: you call cowardice "prudence". Your "prudence" gives an oppurtunity to those enemies of God, without any ideas in thier heads, to pass themselves off as scholars, and so reach positions that they should never attain.

36 Yes, that abuse can be eradicated. It's lack of character to let it continue as something hopeless- without any possible remedy.
Don't evade your duty. Do it in a forthright way, even though others may not.

37 You have, as they say, "the gift of the gab." But in spite of all of your talk, you can't get me to justify - by calling it "providential" - what has no justification.

38 Can it be true (I just can't believe it!) that on earth there are no men - only bellies?