The Way, Furrow, The Forge – Three Marvelous Books of St. Josemaría Escrivá
The saints are truly alive. Even more alive than us who are still on Earth. Once particular saint who’s voice is still heard is St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei. This Catholic institution, of which its members are mostly the laity, teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity.
My personal experience with his books
At 18, I was young and dumb, living in my own apartment. I was blessed enough to have a job that paid well and had no responsibilities in life. I was happy-go-lucky and did whatever I pleased. But their was just something in me. I had this feeling that I needed to do something for God. I wanted to be a good person and deepen my faith, but as simple as that may sound, I din’t know how to. It’s easy for a young man to get pulled into a life of pleasure and hype. I was overly confident that I will always be fine, but that’s because deep down inside I was always scared that I can mess things up easily as well. I knew I needed to turn to God. I was brought up Catholic and I just couldn’t abandon my values. I needed guidance, especially spiritual. I needed to be groomed.
The power of free information from the internet opened my eyes to different worlds, of course not all were good. But one day, I was fortunate to have stumbled upon a video of a priest on Youtube. He was a Spanish speaking priest and he was in front of an audience. I new the video was old from the quality of the footage, but the words coming from this priest struck me like it’s something new. I read subtitle after subtitle (since I don’t speak Spanish) and I knew this priest was talking a lot of sense. His words came from his heart. His words came from WISDOM. Wisdom from a heart that is truly in love with God.
The videos of him that I’ve seen were short, I needed more. So I started researching some more about him. I found out that he had written three books. The Way, Furrow, and The Forge. So I looked in nearby Catholic shop to see if they have copies of his books. It’s a good thing his quite popular and not only does the shop has his books, they actually had them in one compilation, meaning the three books were compiled to be one.
I was surprised how simple the books is. It was an easy read. One can easily scroll from chapter to chapter. It had everything I as looking for and more. It opened my eyes about my lifestyle and attitude towards my work. It inspired me to focus on the small things in my life that can generate big things. I was now looking at my life on a bird’s eye view. Not minding the bad things that has happened, but gaining the understanding that God has control of everything and that one day I’ll be able to see the bigger picture of life. His teaching made me fall in love with the Holy Sacraments, and made me see this invisible and yet powerful relationship that we have with the saints.
Every young man should read his books
Every young man who is looking for inspiration needs to read this. Everything in this book is practical guidance and often times I still turn its pages for advice in life.
His books can still be found in bookstores but there is now a free app in google play that you can download that contains the three books.
