Amar a la Iglesia (Documentos MC)

by Josemaría Escrivá

Madrid. 20 cm. 128 p. Encuadernación en tapa blanda de editorial. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, 1902-1975. Amar a la Iglesia. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, Álvaro del Portillo. Sermones. Álvaro del Portillo,. Beato. 1914-1994 .. Este libro es de segunda mano y tiene o puede tener marcas y señales de su anterior propietario. 8471184427

Genres: Catholic, Christianity, Religion

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2002

About the author

Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer (9 January 1902 – 26 June 1975) was a Roman Catholic priest from Spain who founded Opus Dei, an organization of laypeople and priests dedicated to the teaching that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. He was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II, who declared Saint Josemaría should be "counted among the great witnesses of Christianity."

Josemaría’s father’s textile business failed in 1915, so the family relocated to Logroño, where José found other work. It was in Logroño that Josemaría sensed his vocation for the first time. After seeing some bare footprints left in the snow by a friar who had walked that way a short time earlier, he felt that God wanted something from him, though he did not know exactly what. He thought that he could more easily discover what it was if he became a priest, so he began to prepare for the priesthood, first in Logroño and later in Saragossa. Following his father’s advice, he also studied for a law degree at the University of Saragossa. His father died in 1924 and Josemaría was left as head of the family. Ordained on March 28, 1925, he began his ministry in a rural parish, and afterwards in Saragossa.

In 1927, with the permission of his bishop, Fr. Josemaría moved to Madrid to work on his doctorate in law. There, on October 2, 1928, God showed him clearly the mission he had been hinting to him for several years; and he founded Opus Dei. From that day on he worked with all his energies to develop the foundation that God asked of him, while he continued to fulfill the various priestly responsibilities he had at that time. These brought him into daily contact with sickness and poverty in the hospitals and the poor districts of Madrid.

When the civil war broke out in 1936, Josemaría was in Madrid. The religious persecution forced him to take refuge in a variety of places. He exercised his priestly ministry in a clandestine fashion until he was finally able to leave Madrid. After escaping across the Pyrenees to southern France, he took up residence in Burgos.

At the end of the war in 1939 he returned to Madrid. In the years that followed he gave many retreats to lay people, priests, and members of religious orders. In the same year, 1939, he completed his doctorate in law.

In 1946 he took up residence in Rome. There he obtained a doctorate in theology from the Lateran University and was named consultor to two Vatican Congregations, as well as honorary member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, and prelate of honor to His Holiness. He followed closely the preparations for the Second Vatican Council and its various sessions (1962-1965), keeping in touch with many of the council fathers. From Rome he frequently went to different countries in Europe, including Britain and Ireland, to spur on the apostolic work of Opus Dei. It was with the same objective that, between 1970 and 1975, he made long trips to Mexico, Spain, Portugal, South America, and Guatemala, holding catechetical gatherings which large numbers of men and women attended.

He died in Rome on June 26, 1975. Thousands of people, including many bishops (a third of all the bishops in the world), requested that the Holy See open his cause of beatification and canonization.

On May 17, 1992, Pope John Paul II beatified Josemaría Escrivá. He proclaimed him a saint ten years later, on October 6, 2002, in St. Peter’s Square, in Rome, before a great multitude. In his homily on that occasion, the Pope said: “Following in his footsteps, spread in society the awareness that we are called to holiness, without distinction of race, class, culture or age."

Reviews

[Luís Pinto-Coelho]

Compilação de várias homilias de São Josemaría sobre temas relacionados com a Igreja.

[Joey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Better to be like a torch that burns hidden but igniting all that it touches."

"Christ is always passing by; passing, but with the desire to stay."

"Some say that few men are left in the Church. I would say that if all of us loyally safeguarded Christ's doctrine, our numbers would grow considerably, since God wants his house to be filled."

"It would be a sign of very little maturity if, in view of the defects and miseries in any of those who belong to the Church (no matter how high they may be placed by virtue of their function), anyone should feel his faith in the Church and in Christ lessened. The Church is not governed by Peter, nor by John, nor by Paul; she is governed by the Holy Spirit, and the Lord has promised that He will remain at her side always, to the close of the age."

"The Catholic Church does not need the approval of men, for it is the work of God."

"If by chance you hear offensive words or shouts hurled against the Church, show their loveless authors, with humanity and charity, that they cannot mistreat a mother in that way."

"Christ does not deal with souls en masse, but one by one."

"Your daily encounter with Christ takes place where your fellow men, your yearnings, your work and your affections are."

"Don't doubt it, my children: any attempt to escape from the noble reality of daily life is, for you men and women of the world, something opposed to the will of God."

"Grant that I may also learn to turn all the circumstances and events of my life into opportunities to love you and to serve the Church, the Pope, and all souls, with joy and simplicity, lighting up the paths of the earth with faith and love."

[Leonardo Oliveira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las homilías de este libro son grandes testimonios de los tiempos inciertos después del Concilio Vaticano II y de los valores tradicionales que debían defenderse frente a un espíritu de modernidad que pronto quedó obsoleto.