PODCAST | “The Way”: Challenging Readers to Holiness
Throughout the month of September, the St. Josemaria Institute is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the first publication of The Way by St. Josemaria. For thousands of people today, The Way is a beloved guide to prayer that helps readers in their effort to get to know Jesus Christ and to strive for holiness in everyday life.
We end our four-part podcast series on The Way with a talk by Fr. Javier del Castillo who reflects on the top four points shared and referenced across social media in the past year. Fr. Javier helps us to explore these points offering insights as to why they continue to challenge readers to holiness today.
Points from The Way referenced in this podcast:
- “Don’t say, ‘That’s the way I am––it’s my character.’ It’s your lack of character. Esto vir!––Be a man!” (The Way, no. 4)
- “Conquer yourself each day from the very first moment. Getting up on the dot. At a fixed time without yielding a single minute to laziness.” (The Way, no. 191)
- “Great holiness consists in carrying out the little duties of each moment.” (The Way, no. 817)
- “To begin is for everyone, to persevere is for saints. May your perseverance not be a blind consequence of the first impulse, the effect of inertia; may it be a reflective perseverance.” (The Way, no. 983)
Rev. Javier del Castillo
Fr. Javier del Castillo is a priest of the Prelature of Opus Dei and currently serves as President of the St. Josemaria Institute. He earned a degree in electronic engineering and moved to Rome to complete his ecclesiastical studies, where he was ordained a priest in 2005 and earned a doctorate in Philosophy from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in 2007. He worked as a chaplain in high schools in the Washington, D.C. and Chicago areas for several years, offering spiritual accompaniment to students, parents, and teachers. From 2015 on, he served as the vicar of Opus Dei in the midwest; he was appointed regional vicar of the United States in 2022. He became vicar of the United States and Canada in 2024, following the restructuring of the regions, until his appointment as Vicar General in April 2025.
