Citizens who value love

Vittorio Gervasi, Rome, Italy

March 2, 2002

Marriage is such an important step that it requires careful preparation, following the sort of advice Saint Josemaria gave to young people setting out on this path.

It is an adventure and a beautiful one, even today. Nowadays anyone thinking of getting married is assailed by a thousand doubts. “Is it real love? Will it last for ever? How can I be sure? What if things get difficult? Why do so many marriages break down?” The adventure is still a beautiful one, because it’s all about discovering genuine love. The sort of advice which Saint Josemaria used to give young men was, “When you are thinking about getting engaged, think that she could be the mother of your children,” and, in consequence, “always look at her as someone who deserves absolute respect” (cf. Conversations, 105 and 121).

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A good co-librettist

Julio Vivián, producer and radio presenter, Uruguay

February 28, 2002

“Everything goes”. That was the idea I had when I was fourteen and began working in the media. I’d seen the media as my vocation ever since I was very young. I’d found it quite hard to get into the media world, and so I was prepared to go to any lengths not to disappear from it again.

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A prayer-card and its message

Anastasia Ngumuta, doctor and homemaker, Nairobi, Kenya

February 28, 2002

I am a doctor in a private hospital in Nairobi. I am married and have four children, aged twenty-four, twenty-three, twenty, and eleven and a half.

I was born and brought up in a rural setting in Machakos District in Kenya. My father had a low-grade job in Nairobi and most of the time my seven sisters and I lived with our mother. My mother worked hard as an agricultural worker to supplement my father’s income, in a semi-arid zone. They taught my sisters and me to work hard and to value family life, because we had a very happy family.

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President of a family institute

Cecilia Royals*, President of the National Institute of Womanhood, mother of six, USA

February 27, 2002

The influence of Josemaria Escriva on my life has been radical. He has touched the core of my being and explained to me the purpose of my existence. He has taught me to love work as an offering to God, united to the sacrifice of the Mass, for my sanctification and the sanctification of the whole world. He has taught me to desire to do it to the best of my capacity for the glory of God and in order for it to be an offering worthy of God. He has taught me to love ordinary work, to devote the time and study necessary to increase my effectiveness. Gradually, I learned to extend and expand my work, not shrink it. To do more, sooner and better.

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My home-making is a real full-time job

Genevieve McCaughan, Sydney, Australia

February 8, 2002

I have been happily married for 17 years and we have ten children aged between 16 and 2 years old. My main professional work during these 17 years has been my home and bringing up my children. In a country like Australia, where there is virtually no home help, one can really call this a full-time job.

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Always go forward

Joyce Waweru, trader, Limuru, Kenya

February 2, 2002

From Josemaria’s teachings I have learned the love of happiness, the importance of a job well done and things about the salvation of my soul. All of this has helped me to work more and to be united to my husband. As a result, I think that in our marriage we will always go forward never backwards.

Living out my faith in my work

Montserrat Caballé, Soprano, Spain

February 1, 2002

My life would be meaningless without singing. This art is a gift that enables me to give unique expression to love, goodness, patriotism, and my innermost feelings at their very highest and most unselfish level. What I most enjoy is giving enjoyment to others.

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Each vest or shirt that I iron has a name

Martine Liminski, Germany

January 27, 2002

In my daily work at home, each vest or shirt that I iron has a name, the name of the person it belongs to. Every meal I cook with care and concentration gathers real people around the table, and those little jobs done with love are big prayers for them all.

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Father, what advice do you have for a newly-married couple?

Maria Ester Goldsack, Santiago de Chile

January 22, 2002

In July 1974, I was lucky enough to meet Msgr Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer in the Colegio Tabancura in Chile. I asked him a question which has had a profound effect on my life. I said, “Father, what advice do you have for a newly-married couple who are aiming for holiness?”

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A practical sense of prayer

Mrs. Rack, home-maker

January 19, 2002

Josemaria Escriva was an eminently practical person. What is practical is always realistic, useful, lasting. I am sure that his practical, concrete spiritual advice was a consequence of his great love for God and human beings, to whom he tried to transmit this same love. Prayer, talking to God in Opus Dei, was always something experienced as very real.

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Without the generous involvement of the person, work becomes dehumanized

Marie-Thérèse Pallut, Paris, France

January 16, 2002

When we have to combine family life with employment, we really come to understand the interplay of our own personal struggle and God’s grace. We see every day that a family that is not focused on work is fragile and subjective… and that without the generous involvement of the person, work becomes dehumanized. When family life is sanctified it enriches our professional life. And what we have sanctified in our professional life, strengthens the demands of hard-working family life. I have learned this from Saint Josemaria’s life and writings.

Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan (1928-2002),

President of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace

January 11, 2002

I know that Josemaria Escriva wanted the catechism of Christian doctrine to refer to the social and political obligations of Christians in civil society. In this way, Catholics from childhood could be educated in unity of life: a good Christian must also be a good citizen. His wish has come true. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the third part, dedicates an entire section to this topic.