The Way (Paperback)

~ Josemaria Escriva (Author) "1 Don't let your life be sterile..." (more)
Key Phrases: Saint Paul, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Beloved by millions, The Way is St. Josemaría’s spiritually rich collection of points for meditation and prayer. Genial but pointed, The Way is born out of deep Christian experience and aims at encouraging people to love God and live for Him. Says St. Josemaría: "The 999 points which make up The Way were written with yearnings to see" Christ, the Light of the World. "Anyone who reads it with the same yearnings will not have opened this book in vain." This mini-edition fits easily into the most jammed purse or pocket.

Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Scepter Pubs (January 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0933932545
• ISBN-13: 978-0933932548
• Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #677,258 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Deeper than most, May 14, 2006

By	Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" (Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Way: Centennial Edition (Paperback) (Paperback)

This is one of three great little books by Josemaria Escriva's The Way, Furrow and The Forge. Each of these three volumes are collections of thoughts, pense's musings and meditations. They can be read from beginning to end or randomly opened and read just as you find them. Some of the reflections will require more thought and work then others. Some examples that particularly grabbed my attention are:

"Fight against the softness that makes you lazy and careless in your spiritual life. Remember that it might well be the beginning of tepidity ... and, in the words of the scriptures, God will vomit out the lukewarm."
#325

"When I made you a present of that life of Jesus, I wrote in it this inscription: `May you seek Christ, may you find Christ, may you love Christ. These are three very distinct steps. Have you at least tried to live the first?"
#382

"Fight against that weakness which makes you lazy and careless in your spiritual life. Remember that it might well be the beginning of lukewarmness... and, in the words of the Scripture, God will vomit the lukewarm out of his mouth."
#325


Each of these three little books will help you grow deeper in the Christian life. They will challenge you every time you pick them up and read. I have gotten to the point that I always carry one of them with me, and while waiting for a ride, or before class, or in any spare moment open it and read, and through that reading I pray. Through that prayer I hope to become a better Christian and a better person.

89 of 115 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Puzzling..., February 8, 2004

By A Customer

I bought this because I was interested in Opus Dei. I am a devout Catholic and was interested in becoming a member of this group, and wanted to know more. Their website isn't much help - little information is contained there. I kept reading (from non-Church sources) that they are basically a secret cult within the Church, and when I tried to contact them they said I had to live near one of their main centers (Houston, D.C., etc.) in order to become a member. So, I bought "The Way", written by the founder of Opus Dei.

Josemaria Escriva was a Spanish priest who founded Opus Dei in the 1930's, and after a few decades it became an enormously powerful and wealthy organization. They are now a personal prelature of the Church, and I still haven't found a good definition of what that is. There are plenty of anti-Catholic conspiracy theorists out there, and I don't want to add fuel to their fires, but it strikes me that perhaps some of the things I've heard about Opus Dei are true - that it's basically a secret society, that you don't know what you're getting into until you're in it, and that once you're in they try a little too hard to keep you in. I love The Church and am devoted to it, but I don't doubt that the above is true.

If "The Way" is anything to judge by, Father Escriva was a pretty odd and fierce guy. For one thing, the book is merely a collection of random thoughts, basically grouped into chapters such as "Prayer" or "Character". Within each chapter are a few dozen little one or two sentence epithets. Some are as long as a paragraph. Most of them are profoundly un-inspiring. I would say only about half of them mention Christ. Some of them are worth remembering, thus the 2 star rating, but many of them are basically no more than this sort of thing (I paraphrase): "You are lazy and foolish...when are you going to get it together and get on with your life?" Or something cheerful like "No matter how hard you try, you can still do more." It reads like a bitter, barely literate "Dao De Ching", except that the Dao is much more inspiring, even though it isn't Christian. I read them and just scratched my head...was this guy serious? I think part of the problem may well be that they are poorly translated from Spanish. The English syntax is poor, the punctuation irregular, and often the meanings of many sentences are completely opaque. There are sentence fragments that leave you scratching your head. One of the epithets really stumped me. "Are there no real men left? Why do we have nothing but...bellies?" I didn't know what to make of that one. And I didn't know what to make of dozens of others. All in all the book left me feeling foolish and confused. I felt as though I was being yelled at by someone with a poor command of English.

If his writing is anything to go by, I don't think Father Escriva was a terribly erudite man. It's quite easy to toss off a little book like this. With random disjointed thoughts, you don't need to even construct a decent paragraph, or develop an argument, or a complex point. You can just throw verbal cream pies at your reader. All of which gives me the funny feeling, at the back of my brain, that Opus Dei is really pretty weird after all. I do not intend to look further into joining them, nor do I intend to read any more of this man's writing. I don't doubt his sanctity. But with all the wonderful, uplifting Catholic writing out there (Aquinas, Augustine, etc.) why would I spend my time on an oddity like this? I don't see how you could start a movement like Opus Dei based on the thought contained in here, unless the movement really ISN'T based on the thought here but reather something else, which I fear may be the truth of the matter.

32 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Will Change the World, June 23, 1999

By A Customer

In the current atmosphere of mushy religion and sacchriney spiritual sentiment, it is refreshing to read a book of prayer and wisdom that so forcefully compels the reader to live a truly Catholic lifestyle. This is not for the weak, only the strong--it is meant for true men willing to reform their lives, turn away from the bondage of sin, and come home to Christ and Mother Church.

It changed my life, and it will change yours, too (if you're strong enough)!