Praying 15 days with Saint Josemaria

By Guillaume Derville


15th day
Constructing the new city of love
We must learn to recognize Christ when he comes out to meet us in our brothers, the ppl around us


14th day
A love that knows no bounds
The Lord never forces himself on us. He wants us to turn to him freely... We have to hold him back (like the disciples of Emmaus)


13th day
True love of God is as far removed from sensuality as it is from insensitivity, and as far from sentimentality as it is from heartlessness or hard-heartedness.
Purity gives love wings. It sets us free.
Speak out. When water flows it stays clean; blocked up, it becomes a stagnant pool full of repugnant filth.

12th day
The fundamental motive behind prudence is to fulfill the will of God who wants us to be straight forward w/o being childish, friends of truth but never superficial or bewildered.
To love the truth gives peace & makes possible authentic dialogue w others . Speaking the truth is a sign of authentic respect and condition for real love.
Dialogue , freedom n responsibility go together.
To defend the truth we must love.
The true charity of Christ involves affection n warmth

11th day
The disciples didnt understand Jesus' choice of a donkey. Didnt realice it was to fulfill the Scripture, nor that it represented each of them.


10th day
Learning to love like a child
If you want to be great, make yourself little. To be little you must believe, love, abandon yourself, pray as children do.
Be children means be simple in pr and ask for the moon if need be
Grown ups feel embarrassd when they tumble... Children just get up
Humility is the virtue that helps us to recognize , at one and the same time, both our wretchedness and our greatness




9th day
St Josemaria used to call penance 'the sacrament of joy'
Jesus does not condemn. He forgives. In him, God loves us.
Humor - a word with the same root as humility

8th day
We have God with us; we can receive him every day and, if we want to, we can speak intimately with him... As we talk with love itself.
St Josemaria often meditated on 7 pgospel passages about prayer of petitiion he had written in his planner.
So it is necessary to ask with faith.
With faith n love we can steal God's heart, making him fall madly in love.



7th day
love of freeedom
Freedom finds its true meaning when it is put to the service of the truth which redeems.
In creating us God has accepted the risk and the adventure of our freedom.
Things are not all on the same plane, and love is always supreme.
The source of respect forbfreedom lies in love.


6th day
As at Nazareth, so also there (Bethany) the human face of God was visible in his holy humanity in a special way.
Follow example of both sisters, spending time with Jesus means working as well as praying.
Jesus Christ was not, and is not insensitive to the suffring that stems from love... But at the same time requires tha we first admit the pre-eminence of divine love.
We must be very human, otherwise we cannot be divine.
The love we experience on earth when it is really genuine, helps us to savor divine love.



Book No. r001
Date: 27/12/10 onwards

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

How To Know Your Side Project Is Ready To Be A Startup

http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/39008/How-To-Know-Your-Side-Project-Is-Ready-To-Be-A-Startup.aspx

Here are the 8 things that I realized, which are telltale signs that you might be ready to turn your project to a full time startup.

1. You’re Doing Something You Love
    
2. You’re Making Revenue
    
3. You Know The BIG Vision
    
4. Your Big Vision Does Not Have A Ceiling
    
5. You Are Ready To Be Selfless
    
6. You Have A Responsibility To Employees
    
7. You Have A Responsibility To Customers
    
8. You Have A Responsibility To Investors

El hombre de Villa Tevere. Chapter XV

For a person to be able to 'fly' high, i.e. to reach ideals, especially of service to God, h needs to be dettached from anything that could distract him from his goal. St. Josemaria lived poverty, not meaning not having things, but in spite of having the required instruments, living free from them.

And he took care so that he could always keep that freedom by never 'possessing' things, never considering anything as 'his', never thinking of anything as 'essential'. If we have it, good, because we are able to do things better, if we don't have it, OK, we'll do without it.

His brother Santiago, knowing this, thought very hard of what to gift him. Once he gave him a walkie-talkie which he thought would be very useful. St. Josemaria received it with a lot of gratitude and enjoyed seeing how it worked, but as soon as he could, he gave it to somebody who needed it more (his daughters). Similarly, once he was gifted a table clock which he liked a lot. A few days afterwards he gave it to somebody else becauase he noticed he was grw
owing attached to the gift.

However, he was very generous, and lived justice to its maximum. Once, a worker who had saved for various months, so that his to-be-born child could be born at a nice clinic and would have a nice bed, lost all the savings when he got drunk in a bar and was robbed. St. Josemaria asked that the worker be given by the boss the full amount lost plus an extra bonus so that he could fulfill the dream for his child.

He had only two cassocks, one to see visitors and go visiting people, and an old one which he would wear at home. The old one was always very clean, but was very old (lasted 20 years) and had been fixed so many times that it had various shades of black.

When he died it took just 6 minutes for two people to put all his belongings in just one box.

He was always taking care of te material things of the house and teaching others to do so: not slamming doors, closing windows carefully, etc.

Toy Story

Article published by IEEE Spectrum

How a B student landed an A+ job in the toy industry.

This is part of the dream jobs yearly seres of the Spectrum magazine of IEEE, Feb 2009.

• Age: 38,
• What he does: Evaluates toys for reliability and safety;
• For whom: Wild Planet Toys;
• Where he does it: In an office cluttered with toys, old and new, in San Francisco's financial district;
• Fun factors: Gets to play with all the latest toys made by his company and competitors, works with children to evaluate product designs.

Shannon Bruzelius graduated from mechanical engineering in 1995, but it was not until 1999 that he got his 'dream job'.

Throughout those four years he had 'boring' jobs, on engineering but which were not really fulfilling, mainly because he was seriously looking for his job at a toys company.

It took him many daily 'cold calls' to all companies which manufactured toys, getting no response. Until one day he met somebody by chance in a flight who gave him the right contact. After a few months of dealing with that contact, he finally landed the 'dream job', which he loved from day one.

Other jobs may pay more, but this is the right one and he would not change it for anything.

From unemployed to business man: how does an entrepreneur think?

Title: From unemployed to business man: how does an entrepreneur think?
Type: Article
Author: Unknown
Published by: www.cccapt.com (in Spanish)

To be an entrepreneur is required to have certain personal skills. Essentials are: creativity, risk taking, perseverance and patience. We must be ready and comfortable to be under situation of change, uncertainty, crisis, pressure. Be able to delegate responsibilities, trust in others.

To think as an entrepreneur must manage future, be ambitious, foresee and anticipate economic difficulties.

The path for an entrepreneur is not easy. It is important to define clearly what we want to do, set the limits of our objectives and develop the business plan. The clearer the path, the higher probabilities not to get lost.

Objectives must be specific, clear, reachable and motivating (encouraging).

It is better to think big but from our context... encouragement to reach objective is linked to how reachable it is. Business plan should describe activity to be developed, product, sector, innovation and technology to be incorporated.

El hombre de Villa Tevere. Chapter XIV.

St. Josemaria was (is) a man in love, in love with Jesus Christ through and through. He is completely given to Jesus and doesn’t keep anything for himself or anybody else.

“I had not thought of becoming a priest, but Jesus came to my soul, as love comes: ‘sicur fur’, as a thief, at an unexpected moment. He said: now you are mine, meus es tu! […] Those were inklings of Love”. He said.

He would count his age by years of love to God. Once he said he was very old: “seventy three!”... but then he rectified: “No! I’m young! I’m just a little above 30, those I’ve been serving Our Lord Jesus Christ” (1965). He is respectful with women, but always keeping distance; he would never be alone with a lady (young or old); even though he is a good observer, he would avoid looking at them in such a way that he would not even know the colour of their eyes. He would tell his daughters that he love them very much, with the heart of a father and mother, but only when many of them were together, never when only one of them was present. He would never go alone to a Center of women.

He would speak of celibacy as “the most precious jewel of the crown of the Church”.

He would avoid any attachment from other people to himself: in 1954, a worker was told that the Father had praised his work. The worker replied that he would do ‘anything for the monsignore’. When told about this, the Father said that it was a pity that it had been done for himself and not for God.