Abriendo Horizontes. Semblanza de Jose Maria Hernandez Garnica

By: Jose Carlos Martin de la Hoz

BookNo.: r038

Asunto: highlights

Fecha: 16/03/12

• Very brief biography.
• Madrid 1913- Barcelona 1972
• Joined Opus Dei in 1934 or 35, few days after Don Alvaro.
• Civil war: prisoner, suffering, condemned to death, saved by a whisker.
• Days of darkness in San Sebastian. (vocation, fidelity)
• Fully given to Opus Dei.
• 40's: director, Engineering studies, trips, priestly studies.
• Ordained in 1944.
• The work with women of Opus Dei in Spain, then France, Rome, Germany, throughout Europe.
• Capacity and eagerness to adapt himself. (self-giving, generosity)
• Never gave up looking at the difficulties of apostolic task... God would put the rest. (apostolate , fortitude)
• "Secret of Christian life is that the more you give, the more you have" (self-giving, generosity)
• Utter fidelity to St Josemaria's spirit... He would dissappear next to him.
• Respect for freedom... Long hair people.
• Suffering due to illness, especiallywhen no more celebrating the Holy Mass... Increased intensity of norms of piety...
• He would complain of the expenses and say he was a bad investment... But would allow others to take care of him. (docility, poverty)
• Tags: Garnica, Chiqui, Fidelity, Opus Dei, Suffering, Fortitude, Apostolic expansion, cheerfulness
• Listen to audio file.

Look up to Mary

By: Antonio Orozco

More lessons from Mary

• Maternal duty
• To say thst the sense of modesty just be strenghthened n informed is not to deny its natural character
• There can be no elegance without modesty
• If the body is everybody's property, then it becomes no one's posetion, leat of all its original owner's
• Without modesty the body looses its soul.
• If we are to elevate woman, we must dress her well: simply, tastefully, modestly. Then we men won't be such brutes.
• The Woman who sums up all enchantments of Creation: holy Mary.
• Fidelity
• While she was spared the inclination to sin, she was not confirmed in grace, she remained perfectly free and as perfectly responsible
• Heeding God's call
• That God calls us to holiness is clearly taught in sacred scripture: Eph 1:4-5
• Best vocation
• Doubtless it's the one I have
• Time for loyalty
• Love is so busy giving that it has no time to calculate or exact its "due"
• Only by being faithful to God can man attain all the good to which he is called
• Accepting hardships might make our hearts grow
• Is the time to look to Mary
• Only by being faithful to God can man attain all the good to which he is called
• All is good
• To say yes to God sometimes means saying no to his creatures
• At times normally good things could be bad
• In gral all pleasure is good, but not for everyone, not at every moment, not at any price
• Sexual pleasure is good, clean and holy in marriage for the right reasons and at the right time, place and mode.
• By dispensing with sexual pleasure (those called for that), we accede to other pleasures, less sensual but higher & deeper
• For them to crave pleasures reserved for marriage would be not just wrong but foolish as well
• No to no
• Every No to God is a Yes to Satan
• Yes to love
• Jesus was used to saying No
• Love asks for love
• One No to God if not mended, can undo a lifetime of Yeses
• We must shout No to No

Close to Heaven's gate

• No one can love the Virgin for you
• Isthere anything more beautiful than a child's love for its mother? Only one thing: a mother's love for her child
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BookNo.: r005

Fecha: 01/01/11

El Hombre de Villa Tevere. Chapter XIII

Freedom, it is a right, a virtue which St. Josemaria defended with a lot of energy, because he knew that freedom is essential for people to serve God well.

In 1961, Fernando Valenciano asked openly in the get-together to Dick Rieman from U.S.: "Have you voted for J.F.Kennedy?@ The father, with energy and conviction cut the conversation, there and there, making it clear that that was Dick's own business. In Opus Dei's centres people never speak politics so as to make sure that nobody's freedom is cut short at any moment, and any person is aable to choose whatever political ideollogy he may want to follow, as any other Catholic may do, just following the broad guidelines of the Church.

St. Josemaria asked Father Javier Echevarria if he wanted to be his secretary when he was just 20 years old. This request came just a short time after he had repriminded him strongly for a small-importan fault in which he had slightly 'betrayed' his trust (he took a visiting-card from his desk without permission when he had been told to take nothing from there).

To non-Catholics and non-Christians he always told them that he thought he was right and they were wrong. But he told them that he would even give his own life for the respect of their freedom.

Respecting freedom is very important for people who may want to join Opus Dei. Javier Cremades before joining Opus Dei was 'taking care' of himself because he thought they were 'after' him. Once he met St. Josemaría and he spoke so much about freedom that Javier realized that nobody was 'after' him and he decided to join the Work.

Talking about himself and everybody's freedom, St. Josemaria said:

If I wear this "umbrella cover" [referring to his black cassock] is... because I want to! I told once to God: "I give you my freedom". And with his grace I've been able to keep the promise.

El hombre de Villa Tevere. Chapter XI

In Opus Dei St. Josemaria is called, from the very beginning as The Father. and this is not just a beautiful poetical or figurative way of doing so. This chapter is full of examples of why he was called the Father.

Being a very busy man, never felt it was a waste of time to spend a few minutes with his 'children'. Once a daughter of his asked him to draw a duck for her while she played the violin for him, just like that, in the middle of the corridor.

He was very attentive to the needs of people; while a son of his, Carlos, was reading, because of his work, very heavy stuff (theology, philosophy, etc), the Father suggested him he could read 'El Quijote de la Mancha' for his spiritual reading.

He would respect freedom but would help people to live with human tone. He saw an elderly fellow dressing like a youngster, thus he asked to be told delicately to improve his way of dressing to his age. Another fellow, a young man, who had long hair he told him he thought it was good for him: "una muestra de sinceridad" [a token of sincerity].

He had to correct when he had to, but always looking at that the person corrected was not hurt. A daughter of his who lost an important document had to be strongly (but tenderly) corrected by the Father. But later on, he made sure that she wasn't hurt. A few days or weeks afterwards, he called her to thank her for giving a class about the love and care for that kind of documents (el catecismo).

He did not like being a tyrant, thus, he would always ask "please" without giving strong orders, even for the minutest detail.

He was always with good humour, looking for ways to help people have a good time, enjoying the time he spent with his children and enjoying when they "cheated" him so as to spend more time with him. Once he told a fellow after looking into his watch to tell him after 5 minutes to stop the get-together. After 15 minutes he realized that that son had not told him, and the fellow reacted "that watch sometimes goes too fast, don't trust it" and he had a good laugh.

He would go out of his way not to loose anybody. For instance, one day he spent the whole day at a station with Don Alvaro, waiting for a lady of the Work from an Italian city who had decided to "run" away. When she saw him waiting for him, showing his love for his daughters, she decided to stay. And another time he was found crying because of a son of his who was about to loose his vocation because of not struggling far away from the "muros capitales de la fortaleza" [capital walls of the fortress].

HE REALLY WAS A FATHER.