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.

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)

Leadership Lessons from the Man Who Created an Empire: Alexander the Great

By: Lance Kurke

• Lessons on leadership illustrated with episodes of Alexander The Great's life.
• It is a catchy book and the annecdotes are well narrated as well as the processes of leadership well explained with the due examples.
• Tags: order, discipline, leadership, problems, reframing problems, director, generosity
• Check audio with brief summary and a brief note of the battle in India.

Friends of God, chapter 3

By: St. Josemaria

Ch. 3. Time is a treasure

• each year that ends is a step that takes us nearer to Heaven, our final home.
• Brief indeed is our time for loving, for giving, for making atonement
• We mustn’t squander this period of the world’s history which God has entrusted to each one of us.
• we are ready from this very moment to be generous and courageous, and take loving care of little things: we are ready to go and meet Our Lord, with our lamps burning brightly
• It is precisely those who are in love who pay attention to details, even when they’re doing apparently unimportant things
• How is it that sometimes we just can’t find those few minutes it would take to finish lovingly the work we have to do, which is the very means of our sanctification?
• How are we so lacking in calm and serenity when it comes to fulfilling the duties of our state, and yet so unhurried as we indulge in our own whims?
• these trifles are the oil
• He calls each one bearing in mind their personal circumstances,
• when you sense he’s beckoning you, even if it is at the last hour, how can you think of lingering in the marketplace,
• We should never have time on our hands, not even a second
• If you have time on your hands, ... It’s quite likely that you have become lukewarm; ... you are not doing all the good you should be doing to the people around you,
• What a shame it would be to have as one’s occupation in life that of killing time which is a God-given treasure
• God may have given us just one more year in which to serve him. Don’t think of five, or even two. Just concentrate on this one year, that has just started. Give it to God, don’t bury it! This is the resolution we ought to make.
• Allow me to insist. You think your time is for yourself? Your time is for God!
• He was hungry. The Maker of the universe, the Lord of all creation, experiences hunger! Thank you, Lord, for inspiring the sacred author to include this small touch here, a detail that makes me love you more and which encourages me to desire ardently to contemplate your sacred Humanity!
• There are no bad or inopportune days. All days are good, for serving God. Days become bad only when men spoil them with their lack of faith, their laziness and their indolence, which turns them away from working with God and for God.
• Our lives are so very short. Yesterday has gone and today is passing by. But what a great deal can be done for the love of God in this short space of time!
• Youth need not imply thoughtlessness, just as having grey hair does not necessarily mean that a person is prudent and wise.

BookNo.: r010

Asunto: highlights

Fecha: 31/12/10

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