Una luz encendida: Dora del Hoyo

By: Javier Medina Bayo

BookNo.: r037

Asunto: highlights

Fecha: 12/03/12

• Dora del Hoyo didnt like a place she worked because of the lack of concern of the lady of the house... Once she was carrying a cup on a tray and fell down, she was first asked if the cup had broken rather than about her condition. (charity)

• Dora went to Moncloa fist only for a week and just to comply with what the nun that had helped her a lot had asked her to do as a favor. The pay was lower and the conditions worse than other jobs (thankfulness, generosity). She stayed there for longer because she realized Fr. Josemaria was a saint, also because she liked the women of the Work and because she saw they really needed her help.
• Once in Rome St. Josemaria entered the kitchen and saw the pans were perfectly clean on the inside but some of the outside was not so clean such as the place where the bolts are. He gave indications that that should be thoroughly cleaned because that is the spirit of Opus Dei. The rest had forgotten it by the end of the day, but Dora did remember and they stayed scrubbing even with blades until the pans were completely clean. (laboriosity, cleanliness, poverty, perfection)
• Dn Alvaro saw a very modern ironing machine being used at a hospial and suggested it would be good for Villa Tevere. However, after Dora saw it and researched on it, she and the others concluded it was too expensive and beyond their needs. However Dn Alvaro insisted and St Josemaria said it should be bought. Dora then was very happy they had bought it as it was making their job more efficient. Twenty years later some German technicians came to see the machine and were very surprised that it would still be in use and in such wonderful conditions (poverty, laboriosity)
• Dora had real concer, eagerness and worked hard to get to know about machines and devices useful in her profession. She was also looking frequently at magazines for new recipees and ways for decorating dishes, and afterwards trying them out even if they were difficult (work, professionalism)

One day when she was already 85 they had a barbeque and they had a great time, she enjoyed mostly looking at the others enjoying. But the person in charge hadn't chosen the right place to put the grill and the floor there was stained. They tried cleaning it later but some stains of grease remained. At her 85 years of age Dora decided one day to scrub it herself until the stains were gone, she took a bucket with hot water, a brush, rooled up her sleeves and she did the job (laboriosity, poverty, perfection, generosity, humility)

A Christmas Carol

By: Charles Dickens

 

• Scroodge is very greedy, doesnt even allow Cratchit (the clerk) to use more coal. And he doesnt care about Christmas or about the others.
• On Christmas Eve 3 ghosts haunt him. Past, present n future.
• They show him cheerful n sad moments in his own life n that of others around him, and he realizes that he has to change.
• Interestingly, the ghost he fears the most is the one of the Future, even though by that time he already knew he had to change.
• Very recomendable book especially near Christmas time.
• Higjlights importance of friendships being more important than anything else even if poverty or similar misfortunes had to be suffered.
• At one point, maybe with the ghost of Christmas present, Dickens says Christmas is a good time to play like kids, especially in view of its divine founder.
  BookNo.: r003
  Date: 30/12/10

El Hombre de Villa Tevere. Chapter XII.

St. Josemaria is the Father of a large family, Opus Dei, the best place to live and the best place to die. He would always remind his children to have details of affection with one another, and would preach it with example, noticing when people were not feeling well even if they didn't say it.

A fellow of the Roman College, Illanes, was with fever just by Christmas time; so that he wouldn't miss the happiness of the festivities, he asked the administration to make a mini-Christmas tree with chocolate decorations and he himself brought a mall child-Jesus for his room.

He had attempted three times along with his sons, to buy a piano for the Roman College, but each time when they had saved enough money, they had to buy somehting more important, thus they "ate 3 pianos". When finally they bought it, he suggested to gift it to his daughters, and even before finishing the sentence, they all said "YES".

When visiting his daughters in Germany he realized they were very badly economically and didn't have a washing machine (they had to do a lot of washing for many people). Before he went back to Rome, he made sure (he had it bought) they had a washing machine and other few useful tools.

In this family there are no levels or hierarchies. If there are any governors or bishops, when they reach home, they remove all their stuff, put it in a drawer and are the same at home.

The directors of this family are there to serve, and when they stop being directors, they go back to be one more. Encarnita Ortega had been in the central governement for over 20 years, and when she went back to spain, the Father told her to go back to serve and to teach with example.

Whenever some of his children would die, he would be very deeply moved, he loved them all the same but would certainly be more moved by the dead of those he had been living with for a longer period of time.

When Salvador Canals died he was really destroyed. He knew he was about to die but had to go out of town, before leaving, he went to visit him and made sure of getting him a box of sweets he knew Salvador liked a lot. St. Josemaria didn't remember the name, made the effort to find out and had them bought. The box was too small and got a bigger one. He was really enjoying when seeing Salvador delighted with the sweets.

When Wladimiro Vince died in a place accident, three other people of the Work went to the island where the accident had been. While relatives of the otehr victims couldn't get close to them because of not being able to bear the fould smell, the members of the Work did it... The Work si the best family, best to live and best to die.

Friday Fax appeal.....Help us stop Hillary Clinton and her global abortion plans...‏

Friday Fax sent on 28 April by Austin Ruse, telling of the atrocities which Hillary Clinton is going to do in her pro-abortion campaign. Not much time to summarize it, so I just copy-paste the message:

Only a few days ago Hillary Clinton appeared before the US House of Representatives and in sworn testimony said the following. Keep in mind, she promised all these things in her official capacity of US Secretary of State!

• Clinton praised Margaret Sanger, the racist and eugenicist founder of Planned Parenthood Federation. She compared Sanger to Thomas Jefferson!
• Clinton praised the UN Population Fund, the UN agency that helped set up and run the Chinese one child policy which is responsible for millions of forced abortions.
• Clinton said the US would ratify the pro-abortion CEDAW treaty, meaning the last meaningful CEDAW holdout will now fall.

These things are awful and dangerous enough but she also said this:

• The full force of the US government will be used to get governments to change their laws on abortion all over the world.

You likely know that the US has the most radical abortion laws in the world: abortion for any reason and no reason through all nine months of pregnancy. Hillary Clinton wants this for the entire world.

You likely know that most of the world has abortion either against the law or heavily regulated. Radical pro-abortion feminists like Hillary Clinton cannot stand this. They hold abortion to be a kind of secular sacrament, a sacrament that everyone must worship!

I know Hillary Clinton. My staff and I did battle with her throughout the 1990's when her husband occupied the Oval Office. I watched her work at Cairo+5, Beijing+5 and I can tell you first hand that Hillary Clinton is among the most radical pro-abortion advocates in the whole world.

I truly fear that with Hillary Clinton as US Secretary of State and with Barack Obama as President of the United States, and with their allies at the UN, we are in for the most wicked four years in our global battle to protect the unborn child from abortion.

Mr. Ruse says that they are the only ones reporting and fighting first-hand this issue. I hope they aren't. But whether they are or not, I hope they get all the support they require.