Holiness for Everyone: The Practical Spirituality of St. Josemaria Escriva

by Eric Sammons

Eric Sammons tells how twentieth century Spanish priest and canonized saint Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, recovered the message of the universal call to holiness.

Genres: Catholic, Christian, Spirituality

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Eric Sammons is a professional writer/editor and the author of several books. He holds a degree in Systems Analysis with a concentration in Economics from Miami University in Ohio, and earned a Master of Theology degree from Franciscan University. With expertise in diverse areas, he has worked extensively in both software development and Catholic evangelization.

Eric and his beautiful wife Suzan have seven children. They currently reside in Ohio and are serious baseball fans. Eric's website "Swimming Upstream" may be found at www.ericsammons.com and he may be followed on Twitter @EricRSammons.

Reviews

[Judgemental Toast · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good! 3.5 stars. The only reason for the low rating is that I didn't find it especially engaging even though all he talks about is excellent.

Some quotes that stuck out to me:


* A little child does not concern himself with worldly anxieties: he trusts unreservedly that his parents will solve any problems he may encounter. (...) Even a little child might have certain responsibilities (...) but he does not have anxieties, because in his simplicity he know that his parents will take care of everything for him. Likewise, we must not allow our responsibilities to become anxieties, but instead trust that our Heavenly Father always cares for our needs.
page 50-51

* St. Josemaria liked to call the first minute of the day the "heroic minute," for it is the very first opportunity to overcome our weakness and offer the day to the Lord. "The heroic minute. Its time to get up, on the dot! Without hesitation, a supernatural thought and... up! The heroic minute; here you have a mortification that strengthens your will and does not weaken your body." (...) By winning a little victory over the flesh to start the day, we will be better able to overcome the pull of the flesh during the day.
page 96


* The danger to the person who does not value interior life is that he becomes completely self-consumed. The day consists of self-focused thoughts: What should I do today? What should I eat? What should I wear? How should I entertain myself? Instead of being directed outward, such people think only of their own needs. But the person who has a deep interior life of prayer -- who spends at least some time each day in prayer with our Lord -- is thus working to be directed outward. Such a person comes to desire with all his heart the good of others, which is ultimately their sanctification and salvation. *
page 145-146

[Stephanie Quesnelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have heard a lot about St Josemaria Escriva but never really delved into his writings. This book provided a very easy read of the high level overview of his life and spirituality. I appreciated the author's addition of modern examples and the reflection questions.

I am planning to read more of Escriva's original works. I think practical spirituality is a great way to define his ideas and I would do good to figure out how to implement them into my own busy lay person's life.

[Greg Ory · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I have ever read. Very well written, simple but deep

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Friendship has a powerful impact on people's behavior. Parents often worry that their children will succumb to "peer pressure," implicitly acknowledging the power that friends can have on someone's life. Children aren't the only ones influenced in this way -- adults, too, allow their personalities and choices to be shaped by the company they keep. Communal-ness is part of human nature. We want to be accepted by others. We don't want to seem odd. Natural as this is, it, too, often leads people away from the Faith and into the culture of death in which we live. But friendship's power can work both ways: The Christian who remains faithful to his beliefs and stands up for Christ in this life can have a great influence over those closest to him, even without saying a word.

Very true. For example, I often ask myself "What would Mike Aquilina do?" Never have I been around a nicer guy who consistently sets me on the path of right behavior ... never through a word of criticism but always through his own behavior and words.

I am not a member of Opus Dei, the spiritual movement founded by St. Josemaria Escriva.. Never been much of a joiner really. However, I am well versed in the fundamental way that St. Josemaria Escriva thinks about holiness and every day life thanks to the In Conversation with God series, which I have used for over a decade. Written by a priest from Navarre University, which Escriva helped found, it reflects a lot of Escriva's spirituality which I like. The beauty of the ordinary, the everyday, offered to God is a very practical way to live, as Holiness for Everyone's subtitle reminds us.

Sammons gives a quick look at St. Josemaria Escriva's life and works. He then sets the foundations of what it means to have God as our father and what true love, freedom and holiness really mean. Finally, he comes to how to live a saintly life in our everyday, ordinary lives. Whether at work, at home, with family, with friends, or just driving to the store, the methods to becoming holy are all around us.

Mortifications are all those activities which help us to control our sinful impulses and desires. They can be as simple as denying ourselves a second helping at dinner, allowing others to speak first in conversations, or choosing the longer line at the checkout counter.

This is all interwoven with another theme dear to my heart, that we are all meant to be saints. Becoming a saint sounds like a lofty and unattainable goal because we have only seen the saints after they achieved their goals. Through stories, examples from his own life, and many other sources, Sammons gives us the tools to understand how we too can be saints-in-training right here on earth.

For example, I was struggling with grudgingly doing something I knew God wanted of me. (This is a continual struggle on this particular topic, by the way ... something of a thorn in my side which I must continually strive to overcome.)

A son or daughter of a king is uniquely privileged -- but bears a demanding load of responsibility as a result of his or her lineage. Just so, as children of God, we are called to act in accord with our nobility. Humble submission to the will of our Father will mark us as true children.

It was a real help in my struggle to suddenly see myself as a grown, royal princess, standing to the side of her father the king, awaiting his bidding. This is an image I call up time and again. It helps.

Even if you have no interest whatsoever in St. Josemaria Escriva, you will find something of value in this book. Few of us can pursue holiness aside from the demands of work, family, and friends. Holiness for Everyone gives help and the proper perspective to journey to heaven, together. Highly recommended.

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eric Sammons and Our Sunday Visitor have provided us with an amazing book and excellent resource for spiritual growth. The book walks us through the life and ministry of St. Jose Maria Escriva but does so in a way to emphasize his teachings, and the practical implications we can implement in our own day-to-day lives. The sections in the book are:

1. Called To Be Saints
2. A Modern-Day Saint

Part I - Laying The Foundation

3. Abba! Father!
Our Father God
Heirs to a King
Sons in the Son
4. Free to love
Created Free
Limits Lead to Freedom
Many Paths to Holiness
"The Truth Will Make You Free"
Free to Surrender
Free to Start Anew
5. Ambitious for Holiness
"Zeal for Your House Consumes Me"
Excellence in All Things
Fighting Lukewarmness
Hating Sin

Part II - Building a Saintly Life

6. Be a Contemplative in the Midst of the World
Live a Life of Prayer
Recognize the presence of God
Making a Plan of Life
7. Making Your Work a Way to heaven
Offer Your Work To God
Make the Secular Sacred
Take Flight from Fantasy
Work Out Your Salvation
8. Live in the Family of God
Follow the Pope
Love Mary
Honor St. Joseph
9. Proclaim Christ To The World
Be a Faithful Friend
Be an Apostle, Not an Activist
Be Transformed

The reason I include such an extensive table of contents in the review is it shows you the roadmap that Eric will walk us through. He does an amazing job of encapsulating the teaching of St. Jose Maria and making them easily applicable to day-to-day life. This book was so incredible that after I finished it the first time I went back and read it right away a second time. I tried to read a chapter a night and apply what I had read the next day. When I began reading the next night I would go back through the sections from the ends of the last few chapters to reviewand see how I was doing at applying the lessons. Each chapter ends with the following:

Read - either church document of Escriva
Meditate
Pray
Contemplate

For the Escriva readings it directs to the online version of his complete works. There is no way you could read this book with an open mind and heart and not come away a better person. This book will change lives and draw readers closer to God, and through that, service to others. This is one of the best spiritual books I have read in the last few years. I have already put it in the hands of a number of friends and that is the highest recommendation I can give. I cannot stop sharing how great it is.

Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More.

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eric Sammons and Our Sunday Visitor have provided us with an amazing book and excellent resource for spiritual growth. The book walks us through the life and ministry of St. Jose Maria Escriva but does so in a way to emphasize his teachings, and the practical implications we can implement in our own day-to-day lives. The sections in the book are:

1. Called To Be Saints
2. A Modern-Day Saint

Part I - Laying The Foundation

3. Abba! Father!
Our Father God
Heirs to a King
Sons in the Son
4. Free to love
Created Free
Limits Lead to Freedom
Many Paths to Holiness
"The Truth Will Make You Free"
Free to Surrender
Free to Start Anew
5. Ambitious for Holiness
"Zeal for Your House Consumes Me"
Excellence in All Things
Fighting Lukewarmness
Hating Sin

Part II - Building a Saintly Life

6. Be a Contemplative in the Midst of the World
Live a Life of Prayer
Recognize the presence of God
Making a Plan of Life
7. Making Your Work a Way to heaven
Offer Your Work To God
Make the Secular Sacred
Take Flight from Fantasy
Work Out Your Salvation
8. Live in the Family of God
Follow the Pope
Love Mary
Honor St. Joseph
9. Proclaim Christ To The World
Be a Faithful Friend
Be an Apostle, Not an Activist
Be Transformed

The reason I include such an extensive table of contents in the review is it shows you the roadmap that Eric will walk us through. He does an amazing job of encapsulating the teaching of St. Jose Maria and making them easily applicable to day-to-day life. This book was so incredible that after I finished it the first time I went back and read it right away a second time. I tried to read a chapter a night and apply what I had read the next day. When I began reading the next night I would go back through the sections from the ends of the last few chapters to reviewand see how I was doing at applying the lessons. Each chapter ends with the following:

Read - either church document of Escriva
Meditate
Pray
Contemplate

For the Escriva readings it directs to the online version of his complete works. There is no way you could read this book with an open mind and heart and not come away a better person. This book will change lives and draw readers closer to God, and through that, service to others. This is one of the best spiritual books I have read in the last few years. I have already put it in the hands of a number of friends and that is the highest recommendation I can give. I cannot stop sharing how great it is.

Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Eric Sammons and his book-writing. When he wrote me and asked me to take a look at this one, I couldn't say no. His last book was one of my favorites, after all, and I was curious after seeing the title to this one.

It's not a biography, but more like a braid of St. Josemaria's wisdom and spirituality and the life we all struggle to live. Sammons does a great job of keeping it real, of making the theories into practices that apply even to me.

I found myself marking this book, thinking of the people I would share it with, and considering rereading it, right away, so that I could tackle it more slowly, in a more devotional way.

I have a copy of The Way around here somewhere (I think it's tucked in a drawer of devotional stuff), and I remember enjoying the little tidbits within it. It ended up tucked away because...well, we moved, I had other things to focus on, and on and on.

Sammons compiles St. Josemaria's writings and thoughts into his own, using them to punctuate the point he's making and demonstrate the example we should strive to set.

I was a bit surprised how I enjoyed this book, honestly. I agree with the premise: holiness IS for everyone, yes. But I don't necessarily want to be told how to be holy. I don't quite have enough humility within me to accept a sermon, but the way Sammons and St. Josemaria pair up, it's like a talk with a good friend.

Sammons reclaims the word "spirituality" from the wet-behind-the-ears and rather lame approach so many people have to it and makes it something tangible. It's not easy, he makes clear, but it's also not any harder than so many other things. "Holiness is not," he writes, "a matter of following certain rules set down by a superior. Nor is it a predestined result that God determines for certain members of his creation. Holiness, rather, 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."

Holiness is about family, and our family, he reminds us, using the in-the-dirt-of-life rationale of St. Josemaria, is comprised first and foremost of God himself.

Highly recommended, especially if you're weary of spiritual reading, looking for a light in the tunnel, and maybe just looking for refreshment in your faith journey.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very intrigued by this book before I ever opened it. For starters, Scott Hahn wrote the foreword to this book, and I automatically assume anything he puts his name on has to be good. I was also intrigued by the spirituality members of Opus Dei (the order St. Josemaria Escriva founded) practiced. I knew it wasn't the exaggerated tales Dan Brown concocted in his book The Da Vinci Code, but I didn't know what all it entailed.

There are two main parts to this book. The first part is called "Laying the Foundations" and deals primarily with our relationship with God and free will. These three chapters were nice, but I didn't find it overly helpful. It was well-written, but it didn't satisfy what I was looking for and thought I was getting from the title of this book. Don't get me wrong, I understood the purpose of this section, it just didn't hit the spot.

The second part of the book is called "Building a Saintly Life." Let me just say that everything I wanted in the first part of the book, I got in this part. Drawing on the writings of St. Escriva, we get practical advice on prayer, sanctifying our daily work, and honoring the saints, particularly Sts. Mary and Joseph. I loved this part of the book and hope to be able to take these pointers and apply them to my everyday life.

Overall, I would have to give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. It was a very good, particularly the chapters in "Building a Saintly Life," but the first part was disappointing and progressed slowly. I would recommend this book to others though, as it is a book for the average person, and I don't know about the rest of you, but I can use all the help I can get. This book was provided to me for free by Our Sunday Visitor.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to St. Josemaria Escriva, makes me want to read more of his writings. "Holiness for Everyone" really sums up the theme of this book: everyone is called to become a saint no matter what their status in life. Nothing too ground breaking in this book but it was an easy read with a lot of good information in it.

[Lisa]

Foreward by Dr. Scott Hahn! Enough said...worth adding to the TBR for that.

[Anne Roat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and used a lot of the ideas with friend.

[Rev Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that really makes you think about every day life.