Alessandra Borghese, Journalist, Italy

A New Kind of Contemplation

January 1, 2009

Tags: Work, Ordinary life Another saint for whom I feel great affection, and to whom I am indebted for significant guidance in my spiritual life, is Josemaria Escriva, the Founder of Opus Dei. I don’t belong to Opus Dei, but I feel very attracted by the spirit behind it, which was proposed by Saint Josemaria. We generally think that to become saints we have to do something quite out of the ordinary. Saint Josemaria taught us, instead, that all we have to do is fulfil our duties, our job, our calling in life, with love.

The path to holiness, therefore, passes through what is ordinary, through normal things – work, family life, but also leisure, friendships and so on.

That means that we have to train hard for our work, for example, and keep up to date. That too is part of our holiness, because it’s one of the possible ways of expressing and practising respect for others. Looking after our family with ever-renewed joy, serving one another in ordinary, everyday things, are also direct opportunities for holiness.

Like that, ordinary things become extraordinary because, if they are done with love, in union with God, they sanctify and in a way transform everyday realities. I think that the spirituality proposed by Saint Josemaria is truly modern, and very appropriate for lay-people living in the world, who have to be concerned for the world. This is a new kind of contemplation, practised in the heart of a world that is shared in by all, believers and non-believers alike. For that very reason this kind of contemplation can become a leaven and a testimony.

(Extract from her autobiography Con Occhi Nuovi, Piemme, 2004.)