Josemaría Escrivá: The Saint of Ordinary Life, by Jeff Morrow

Everyday life is the true setting for your lives as Christians. Your ordinary contact with God takes place where your fellow men, your yearnings, your work and your affections are. There you have your daily encounter with Christ. It is in the midst of the most material things of the earth that we must sanctify ourselves, serving God and all mankind…. God is calling you to serve Him in and from the ordinary, material and secular activities of human life.

In his own life this saint was admired by Popes Pius XII, St. John XXIII, and Blessed Paul VI. Since his death, he has been admired by Popes John Paul I, St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, as well as our current Holy Father, Pope Francis, who beatified St. Josemaría’s first successor Blessed Alvaro del Portillo. St. Josemaría was also admired by Blessed Oscar Romero, who petitioned for his canonization. Prior to the canonization of John Paul II, Escrivá was the canonized saint most available to view on video, and many short video clips are available online of his many get-togethers. Numerous favors—most very ordinary, but many quite extraordinary—have been answered in all corners of the globe through praying the famous prayer card to St. Josemaría, or through going to his intercession with more spontaneous prayers. Just who was this saint?

Born in Barbastro, Spain in 1902, Josemaría Escrivá was raised in a Catholic home that was filled with a living faith and joy. Like many a young teenager, Josemaría planned on a future life that involved getting married and raising a family of his own. He had no interest whatsoever in becoming a priest, but was rather intent on a career as an architect. When he was sixteen, God used a very simple event to call Josemaría to give himself completely to God. Josemaría saw in the cold snow the footprints of a barefoot Carmelite. This caused him to question what God might be calling him to do. He very quickly realized that whatever God was calling him to, it was not religious life. He soon decided that he needed to become a secular priest in order to have the availability to do whatever it was God was asking of him. He was ordained a priest of the diocese of Zaragoza in 1925. Throughout this time, God was granting Escrivá a number of special graces, including specific insights into the special task God was calling him to accomplish. …