Without changing anything, it changed everything

Gustavo Calvo, horseman, architect and painter

October 1, 2002

Tags: Sport, Divine sonship, Ascetical struggle, Presence of God The fascinating world of horses has led me to dedicate many years to different equestrian sports, and as time passes I feel more and more that it has been my whole life. I have gone in for dressage, and taken part in national and international competitions in the three Olympic disciplines: dressage, jumping and eventing. I’ve also trained and prepared riders for competitions.

I was 24, studying for a degree in architecture, continuing my equestrian events and preparing for my first exhibition of paintings. My hectic schedule left me little time for thinking about the meaning of my life. But it was then that something happened which turned my whole life around. At a friend’s invitation I went to a spiritual retreat organized by Opus Dei.

What did this turnaround consist of? Without changing anything, it changed everything. Holiness in the middle of the world, as preached by the founder of Opus Dei, made a deep impact on me. Saint Josemaria Escriva told me that I could be holy as an architect, or painting my pictures, and also – this was what I found so radical – on horseback, on any kind of equestrian activity. After the retreat I got to know Opus Dei, which I had not heard of until then.

All this happened in May. In January of that same year I had acquired a horse called Faraon (for experts of the turf, he was the son of Epidor VIII and Perlera). I renamed him Fausto – no connection with Goethe’s Faust – and introduced him to the jumping world. I want to bring him in at this point, having won many prizes with him in his fifteen-year career.

For a sportsman, the idea of beginning and then beginning again is not hard to understand. What was new, at least to me, was seeing it applied to spiritual life. Despite this, when I set off along the path of a deeper spiritual life, I found I really got the idea. After a triumphant end to a competition there’s no point in resting on your laurels, because you have to devote all your energies to preparing for the next one. But I learnt one new thing: to pray, thanking God and offering it all to him, because he is the lord of all, and asking him for help for the next occasion. And if a competition ends in defeat, you have to stop and analyse your mistakes so that you can set about putting them right.

My journeys and competitions went on. Now I had a new companion in my adventures – the awareness that I was in God’s hands changed things radically. The sense of being a son of God is the most important lesson I learnt through my contact with the Work. From then on I have always turned to God for help before and after each competition, through the intercession of the founder of Opus Dei. And I also ask God for help in every job I do.

How well Saint Josemaria expressed the idea of life training in The Way! “You tell me: ‘When the chance comes to do something big, then!...’ Then? Are you seriously trying to convince me — and to convince yourself — that you will be able to win in the supernatural Olympics without daily preparation, without training?”