Spiritual Reading: A Personal Plan According to St. Josemaria Escriva

In the spiritual classic The Way, St. Josemaria Escriva provides us with a strong reason for making time for spiritual reading: “Don’t neglect your spiritual reading.– Reading has made many saints” (no. 116). He transcribed this point on his 32nd birthday, which might lead us to wonder: what was he reading at age 32? What can we conclude, if anything, about how St. Josemaria chose his own reading, spiritual and otherwise?

A PERSONAL READING PLAN

During a talk I gave on the topic of the sacred humanity of Jesus Christ, some of the attendees wanted to know the exact titles and authors of the books that St. Josemaria recommended when he advised college students and young professionals to read books about the life of Jesus Christ (cf. The Way, no. 2). Before I could respond, some of them had already searched online and discovered Life of Christ by Blessed Fulton Sheen. I have read Sheen’s book myself, and I could recommend it. But I had to admit that I have no evidence that St. Josemaria himself read it, and that I thought it unlikely given that Sheen wrote it in the English language in the mid-20th century.

Although there are shelves of archives pertaining to St. Josemaria and his oral and written teachings, there does not seem to be a list of what he himself included in his own spiritual reading plans. No doubt he had one, since he recommended such a reading plan to others. But one thing I’ve heard repeatedly about St. Josemaria is that he was hesitant about making himself a model in anything. He wanted to leave people as free as possible. For example, those of us who consider ourselves spiritual daughters and sons of St. Josemaria are to take initiative and responsibility when forming and following our consciences and when meeting the demands of our own personal and professional lives. Thus, each person’s reading plan would become just that, i.e., each person’s reading plan.

DISCERNING WHAT TO READ

More important than a book list that would soon be outdated as new titles appear on the scene is the fact that St. Josemaria provided criteria with which to make our own reading choices. In The Way, he advises:

“Books: don’t buy them without advice from a Christian who is learned and prudent. It’s so easy to buy something useless or harmful. How often a man thinks he is carrying a book under his arm, and it turns out to be a load of rubbish!” (no. 339)

In The Way- Critical Edition, we learn that point no. 339 comes from St. Josemaria’s  collection of notes (Notebook no. 6, pg. 971) in which he wrote: “Books. Don’t buy books without being informed by Christians with discernment. Better: don’t buy books without getting advice from Christians who have knowledge and discernment.” The sense in which ‘better’ is used is elucidated when he continues writing in his notebook: “It is not enough to seek information, but one has to seek advice; that is why the person giving advice has also to be learned.”

For those of us seeking advice from a learned source in this digital age, we can turn to websites like: delibris.org. In addition to literature and essays, Delibris contains an entire catalog of spiritual reading, divided up into categories, including “Books to be an apostle of Jesus” that features books on the life of Christ. They’re adding new titles as they review them; “they” mean those learned Christians who have both knowledge and discernment. Since we should carefully discern what we feed our souls, a website like Delibris is literally priceless.

ST. JOSEMARIA’S RECOMMENDATIONS

So, then, what can we say about what St. Josemaria chose to read? We know from his own stories and commentaries that St. Josemaria was incredibly well-read; he frequently referenced news, literature, scientific discoveries, and history. And, of course, he did a lot of spiritual reading. His biographer, Andrés Vásquez de Prada, mentions that the young Josemaria read the Life of St. Dominic of Silos by Gonzalo de Berceo, for example. But by far, the single source most often referenced in his preaching is Sacred Scripture. And, in fact, when you search on escrivaworks.org among his published writings, a bibliography of scriptural quotes always appears on the bottom of the page. St. Josemaria’s writings include direct quotes from various Fathers of the Church (St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory the Great, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, etc.) in addition to St. Thomas Aquinas. The founder of Opus Dei at times commented on his own intensive training and preparation in seminary; his frequent commentaries on Spanish spiritual authors, such as  St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, provides evidence that he was extremely familiar with these classics.

We also have personal testimonies from among the first members of Opus Dei that St. Josemaria gifted copies of certain spiritual reading books. To Lola Fisac, he entrusted the book Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux. To Ricardo Fernandez Vallespin, he gave a copy of Luis de la Palma’s The Sacred Passion with this personalized inscription: “Madrid, 29 May 1933: May you seek Christ, may you find Christ, may you love Christ” (cf. The Way, no. 382). Like Vallespin, several young men received books focused on the sacred humanity of Our Lord; Vásquez de Prada mentions these three explicitly: Treatise on Prayer and Meditation (1533) by St. Peter of Alcantara; Life of Jesus Christ (1574) by Luis de Granada; and The Sacred Passion (1624) by Luis de la Palma.

In his memoir, Dream and Your Dreams Will Fall Short, Fr. Pedro Casciaro wrote the following about the early circles¹ he attended that were initiated by and given by St. Josemaria: “At the end of the circle he [St. Josemaria] would ask one of those present to read a few pages from a spiritual book such as The Imitation of Christ (Thomas a Kempis).” These books—Story of a Soul, The Imitation of Christ, The Sacred Passion—are undeniably Catholic spiritual classics, and we can easily assume that St. Josemaria read them since he shared them among the young people he was dealing with.

A SHORT DAILY ROUTINE

Finally, the busy 21st century reader might especially appreciate St. Josemaria’s advice on how to fit spiritual reading into a packed daily schedule. He recommended a daily dose of lectio divina and then some other spiritual text, adding up to a total of 15 minutes. If following this routine means it takes someone many months to finish a text, then one can rest assured that he or she is following in the footsteps of at least one saint. The reason for spiritual reading is, after all, sanctification and not productivity.

Becoming more contemplative in this fast-paced world seems to require more than the mere reduction of distractions. To fill one’s interior life with the life of God is a sure step towards maintaining a constant gaze upon His face, for today and for eternity.

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¹ A circle is a practical class focused on putting one’s Christian life into practice according to the specific circumstances of the group. For this reason, a circle group is usually relatively small and homogeneous. St. Josemaria initiated circles in 1932 as an ongoing means of spiritual development for the members of Opus Dei, and for others seeking that formation. A circle is directed by a member of Opus Dei, and in this case it was directed by St. Josemaria himself.

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