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)

The life of Mahatma Gandhi

By: Louis Fischer

BookNo.: r019

Asunto: highlights

Fecha: 13/10/11

• Proper accounting... Essential especially for charitable institutions
• Cleanliness... He was completely against humans doing their ba ic necessities anywhere, poverty not being an excuse
• Ready to acknowledge he was wrong: India served on a platter to Japan if Britain left ... Change of position in Harijan

• The purity of Gadhi's methods made it difficult for Smuts to oppose him. Victory came to Gandhi not when Smuts had no more strength to fight him but when he had no more heart to fight him. Professor Gilbert Murray wrote: 'be careful in dealing with a man who cares nothing for sensual pleasures, nothing for comfort or praise or promotion, but is simply determined to do what he believes to be right. He is a dangerous and uncomfortable enemy because his body which you can always conquer gives you so little purchase over his soul' (fortitude, poverty, dettachment)
• 'I expect through cleaning of heartsl he declared. It did not matter what the Moslem's in Pakstan were doing. Hindus and Sikhs should remember Tagore's favorite song: 'If no one responds to your call, Walk alone, Walk alone.' (perseverance, difficulties )

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

Lent: 40 Days, 40 Thoughts from the Pope

An article published at the Opus Dei web-site.

The article gives a series of 40 thoughts from the Pope in the last 4 years about lent.

Is hard to summarize that, but something that remains clear in my mind is that lent should be a time of fasting that helps us to get closer to God and to the people around us, family, friends, society.

Two points which talk about poverty and detachment:

16. We are not owners but rather administrators of the goods we possess: these, then, are not to be considered as our exclusive possession, but means through which the Lord calls each one of us to act as a steward of His providence for our neighbor. (2008)

17. In those countries whose population is majority Christian, the call to share is even more urgent, since their responsibility toward the many who suffer poverty and abandonment is even greater. To come to their aid is a duty of justice even prior to being an act of charity. (2008)

In an obese world, children obsessed with thinness

From the blog Family Edge

Author Carolyn Moynihan

Anorexia and eating disorders is highly increasing in kids 10-12 years old, both boys and girls.

They say the reason is because of the obsession in the media about the obesity problem. And they suggest that the outlook to it should be changed to a positive one, say "running around all day". Also the reality shows seem to be a cause for this.

But Carolyn adds:

There’s a deeper issue, though: a focus on the self that has been building for several decades and probably owes something to small families and over-solicitous parents who want to give their children everything -- except the opportunity to forget themselves and look after others.

Cars, family size and demography

Blog post at: Demography is Destiny
Author: Brian Lilley

Europeans ask: why American like large cars? Because they have something to put inside... Americans have larger families than Europeans or Japanese people.

Before many could be compressed in a small car, but now the rules in America are very stringent and is not possible to fit many kids in one small car (even if they fit).

They should come down to Mumbai and see how many kids can fit in a Rikshaw!