Camino: The Way

Although I believe this book is better suited for my husband than for me, I want to share some of my favorite passages from Josemaria Escriva's Camino: The Way.

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.

58. Don't hinder the work of the Paraclete. Be united to Christ in order to purify yourself, and together with him experience the insults, the spit, the blows and the thorns.... And enter into the pierced side of our Lord Jesus until you find shelter in his wounded heart.

169. Suffering overwhelms you because you take it like a coward. Meet it bravely, with a Christian spirit, and you will esteem it like a treasure.

248. You are so young! You seem to me like a ship beginning its voyage. That present slight deviation will in the end keep you from port, unless you correct it now.

252. Make this firm and determined resolution: to recall, when you receive honors and praise, everything that brings you shame and embarrassment. The shame and embarrassment are yours; the praise and the glory are God's.

279. People see only the flat surface. Their vision is two-dimensional and fixed to the ground. When you live a supernatural life, God will give you the third dimension: height, and with it, perspective, weight and volume.

280. If you lose the supernatural meaning of your life, your charity will be philanthropy; your purity, decency; your mortification, stupidity; your discipline, a lash; and all your works, fruitless.

282. Paradox: Sanctity is more attainable than learning, but it is easier to be a scholar than to be a saint.

283. A little diversion! You've got to have a change! So you open your eyes wide to let in images of things, or you squint because you're nearsighted! Close them altogether! Have interior life, and you'll see the wonders of a better world, a new world with undreamed-of color and perspective...and you'll draw close to God. You'll feel your weaknesses; and you'll become more God-like...with a godliness that will make you more of a brother to your fellow men by bringing you closer to your Father.

306. "The life of man upon earth is warfare." So said Job many centuries ago. There are still some easygoing individuals unaware of this fact.

317. What zeal men put into their earthly affairs! Dreaming of honors, striving for riches, bent on sensuality! Men and women, rich and poor, old and middle-aged and young and even children: all of them alike. When you and I put the same zeal into the affairs of our souls, then we'll have a living and working faith. And there will be no obstacle that we cannot overcome in our apostolic works.

319. Withdraw into yourself. Seek God within you and listen to him.

349. Don't be upset when you state an orthodox opinion and the malice of whoever heard you caused him to be scandalized. For his scandal is pharisaical.

400. How many crimes are committed in the name of justice! If you were a dealer in guns and someone paid you for one so that he might use it to kill your mother, would you sell it to him? And yet, wasn't he ready to pay you a just price for it? Professor, journalist, politician, diplomat: meditate.

403. Be more daring still, and whenever you need anything, mindful always of the Fiat---"Your will be done"---don't ask, tell him: "Jesus, I want this or that." For that's the way children ask.

432. Consider what is most beautiful and most noble on earth, what pleases the mind and the other faculties, and what delights the flesh and the senses. Consider the world, and the other worlds that shine in the night---the whole universe. And this, along with all the satisfied follies of the heart, is worth nothing, is nothing and less than nothing, compared with this God of mine!---of yours! Infinite treasure, most beautiful pearl...humbled, become a slave, reduced to nothingness in the form of a servant in the stable where he willed to be born...in Joseph's workshop, in his Passion and in his ignominious death, and in the frenzy of Love---the blessed Eucharist.

439. Don't forget that sorrow is the touchstone of Love.

440. When you have finished your work, do your brother's, helping him, for the sake of Christ, with such finesse and naturalness that no one---not even he---will realize that you are doing more than in justice you ought. This, indeed, is virtue befitting a son of God!

441. You are hurt by your neighbor's lack of charity toward you. Think how God must be hurt by your lack of charity---of love---toward him!

447. After seeing how many people waste their lives (without a break: gab, gab, gab---and with all the consequences!), I can better appreciate how necessary and lovable silence is. And I can well understand, Lord, why you will make us account for every idle word.

466. "Generally," you write me, "people are not too generous with their money. Plenty of talk, noisy enthusiasm, promises, plans. But at the moment of sacrifice, few come forward to lend a hand. And if they do, it has to be with trimmings attached---a dance, a raffle, a movie, a show---or an announcement and subscription-list in the newspapers." It's a sad state of affairs, but it has its exceptions. May you, too, be one of those who give alms without letting their left hand know what their right hand is doing.

468. You were exceedingly naive. How few really practice charity! Being charitable doesn't mean giving away old clothes or copper pennies...Only one idea occurs to me: let us---you and I---give and give ourselves unstintingly. And we'll keep those who come in contact with us from going through the same sad experience.

503. The solitude of Mary. Alone!...She weeps, forsaken. You and I should keep our Lady company, and weep too, for our sins have fastened Jesus to the cross---with nails.

509. Mary, teacher of the sacrifice that is hidden and silent. See her, nearly always in the background, cooperating with her Son: she knows and remains silent.

523. The Church sings, it has been said, because just speaking would not satisfy its desires for prayer. You, as a Christian---and a chosen Christian---should learn to sing the liturgical chant.

594. You're not humble when you humble yourself, but when you are humbled by others and you bear it for Christ.

595. If you really knew yourself, you would rejoice at being despised, and your heart would weep in the face of honors and praise.

677. Gold, silver, jewels: dirt, piles of manure. Delights, sensual pleasures, satisfactions of the appetites: like a beast, like a mule, like a hog, like a cock, like a bull... Honors, distinctions, titles: things of air, puffs of pride, lies, nothingness.

684. So your talents, your personality, your qualities are being wasted. So you're not allowed to take full advantage of them. Meditate well on these words of a spiritual writer: "The incense offered to God is not wasted. Our Lord is more honored by the immolation of your talents than by their vain use."

701. Have you not heard the parable of the vine and the branches from the lips of the Master? Console yourself: He demands much of you, for you are the branch that bears fruit. And he must prune you, ut fructum plus afferas---"so that you'll yield more fruit." Of course that cutting---that pruning---hurts. But, afterward, how luxuriant the growth, how fruitful your works!

772. Ask yourself many times during the day: Am I doing at this moment what I ought to be doing?

774. Steps: to be resigned to the will of God; to conform to the will of God; to want the will of God; to love the will of God.

777. Your own will, your own judgment: that's what upsets you.

778. It takes only a second. Before starting anything, ask yourself: What does God want of me in this? Then, with divine grace, do it!

815. Do you really want to be a saint? Carry out the little duty of each moment: do what you ought and put yourself into what you are doing.

835. You long to glitter like a star, to shine like a light from high in the heavens? Better to burn like a torch, hidden, setting fire to all you touch. That's your apostolate, that's why you are on earth.