My Spiritual Father and His Legacy in 2010

January 9, 2010 --- today is a special day! It's the 108th birthday of St. Josemaria Escriva. Two days ago, we received a gift from Manila: a Coffee-table book chronicling the development of sculpting his statue, from the time when the sculptor, Mr. Romano Cosci, scouted around for the right carrara marble from which he will sculpt our Father's towering figure --- 18 feet high--- down to the time when Pope Benedict XVI blessed and inaugurated its installation in one of the side alleys inside St. Peter's in Rome. Sculpting our Father took three years: from 2002-2005. That coffee table book, which has both Spanish and English texts, says it all! From it, you would learn how Mr. Cosci diligently studied his subject, down to the minutest of details. St. Josemaria's hands, his eyes, his smile; the vestments he is wearing, the details on the vestments, the two angels at his feet, their hair, and the barest personal effects they could have --- their wings! One of the angels holds a book on which is written a Latin inscription based on words of Our Lord himself: "Et ego, si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia traham ad meipsum", which, translated, means: And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.

The 'little things' is one of the teachings that make up our Father's pastoral work. I think this is one of the best legacies he left us, people who live in this time and age, when we take for granted the little things of ordinary life.

What, indeed, are little things in daily life?

* Saying thank you to the jeepney driver.

* Greeting and smiling at our colleagues.

* Opening and closing the door gently.

* Picking up paper trash and throwing it in the trash can.

* Reporting to work on time.

* Fixing your bed.

* Returning the things you use to their proper places.

* Submitting correction-free paper work...

And a million other ordinary things ... you would be surprised to discover how little things make up our day-to-day lives.

St. Josemaria taught us to turn the 'prose of each day into a beautiful poem.' But what, you may ask, turns everyday prose into poetry? It is the LOVE you put in the ordinary duties of each day. A little more love each day puts new color into what we do.

If you and I persevere in fighting to inject love in our daily duties until the day we die, then an ultimate reward awaits all of us in heaven: ETERNAL LIFE, which will be given by the only One who can repay us with true justice and true love.

Thank you, Lord, for giving us the gift of our Father, St. Josemaria Escriva. Thank you because he showed us the eternal value of the little things in our ordinary life. Why, nothing on earth is left to bore us! Everything, absolutely everything, can be turned into a means to please You! Just help us, then, to keep going. And as St. Ignatius' prayer for generosity suggests ... Dearest Lord ... teach me to be generous, teach me to serve you as I should, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and ask not for reward ...