Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Be Frank with God

#61 Mission from God - Be Frank with God

#60 Dream, Dream, Dream - Be Frank with God

#59 Here I’m going to be Happy - Be Frank with God

#58 Difficulties - Be Frank with God

#57 Christian Unity - Be Frank with God

#56 It's a Wonderful Life - Be Frank with God

The liturgical year is coming to a close and in the holy sacrifice of the altar we renew the offering of the victim to the Father — the offering of Christ, the king of justice, love and peace, as we shall read shortly in the preface.[1] You all experience a great joy in your souls as you consider the sacred humanity of our Lord. He is a king with a heart of flesh, like yours; he is the author of the universe and of every creature, but he does not lord it over us. He begs us to give him a little love, as he silently shows us his wounds.

Why then do so many people not know him? Why do we still hear that cruel protest: “We do not want this man to reign over us”?[2] There are millions of people in the world who reject Jesus Christ in this way; or rather they reject his shadow, for they do not know Christ. They have not seen the beauty of his face, they do not realize how wonderful his teaching is. This sad state of affairs makes me want to atone to our Lord. When I hear that endless clamour — expressed more in ignoble actions than in words — I feel the need to cry out, “He must reign!

#54 Universal Call to Holiness - Be Frank with God

#53 Sin - Be Frank with God

All men and women should have a priestly soul, and are called to share intimately in the sentiments of Christ's Heart.

#51 Peacemakers - Be Frank with God

#50 Pray with Jesus in the Eucharist (Part 2) - Be Frank with God

#49 Pray with Jesus in the Eucharist - Be Frank with God

#48 If I Were the Devil (Part 2) - Be Frank with God

If I Were the Devil - Be Frank with God

#46 We are the Church - Be Frank with God

#45 To Become a Champion - Be Frank with God

#44 Holidays or Holiness - Be Frank with God

#43 True Love from God - Be Frank with God

#42 The Trinity, a Mystery of Love - Be Frank with God

#41 The Way to Holiness: Obedience - Be Frank with God

A few weeks ago, I visited Torreciudad. I live in Murcia, and I’ve been telling everyone the same story: I left the Chapel of Our Lady of the Pillar in tears. After listening to the explanations we were given about the sanctuary’s altarpiece, I decided to go to confession. It had been many years since my last one—because, to be honest, I had stopped believing.

What truly moved me, however, was the gentleness and compassion with which the priest received me. I had so much to unburden from all these years, and yet he made me feel deeply at peace—understood, cared for, and treated with great delicacy.

I promise never again to stop loving Our Lady. In Torreciudad, a new chapter of my life began.

#39 Rebels with a cause - Be Frank with God

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” - Anna Carenina

#37 The Star: A New Year's guide - Be Frank with God

#35 Truth, What's the Truth? - Be Frank with God

#34 Life is not Fair - Be Frank with God

#33 It's Wonderful to be Here - Be Frank with God

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. - The Way, Chapter 14, 325

#31 The Feast of St. Josemaria Escriva - Be Frank with God

In April 1934, Saint Josemaria composed a prayer to the Holy Spirit that he prayed frequently and encouraged others to pray. Come, O Holy Spirit!

Enlighten my mind to know your commands; strengthen my heart against the snares of the enemy; inflame my will…

I have heard your voice, and I don’t want to harden myself and resist, saying “Later…, tomorrow.”

Nunc coepi! Now I begin! In case there is no tomorrow for me.

O Spirit of truth and wisdom, Spirit of understanding and counsel, Spirit of joy and peace! I want whatever you want. I want because you want, I want however you want, I want whenever you want.

I want to share a miracle that Our Lady of Torreciudad has worked in my life. It’s one of those miracles that Saint Josemaría used to say often go unnoticed — because they’re something intimate, something that happens quietly between a person and the Virgin. I want to spend the rest of my life giving thanks. And one way to do that is by telling my story. What the Our Lady has done for me is so great that my name or where I come from doesn’t matter. She is the true protagonist here — and I’ll stay anonymous, which is exactly where I belong.

It’s been many years since that first encounter with the Virgin in Torreciudad, but I still remember it as if it were yesterday — what I experienced during that Holy Week. Some friends had invited me to spend a few days in Torreciudad, and although I’ve always loved traveling and meeting new people, I turned down the plan. Outwardly, I said I couldn’t afford the trip. But the real reason was deeper: I didn’t see myself on a religious trip, not when I was already so distant from God and determined to stop going to church altogether. It felt hypocritical to go on a trip like that when, inside, I wanted to break off my relationship with God.

So how did I end up there? There are many little details, but mainly, it was my mother. She simply said, “If you want to go, go — it’ll do you good.” Somehow, my mother placed me in the hands of the MOTHER — with capital letters. Mothers know who to entrust their children to. Nobody really knew what was going on inside me, though it was clear something had changed. On the surface, I had my reasons, but the real cause was one only I knew: I had run into a cross far too heavy for me to carry. A dark, crushing one — because that’s how the cross often is, even for Jesus. I had been raped, and that’s a wound that leaves a permanent mark. There’s no need to say more about that.

I asked the same questions everyone asks in suffering: Where is God? Why does He allow this? Why me? Is it really possible to forgive everything, as Jesus asks in the Gospel? Two things didn’t fit together for me:

• Where is God in suffering — how does His loving care show itself in such pain?

• And I couldn’t pray the Our Father anymore, because I couldn’t forgive. And if I couldn’t forgive, how could God forgive me?

In my eyes, I was lost. I couldn’t live out something I had prayed since childhood — the Our Father. What was the point of anything else? Inside, I was broken. I had no hope. I kept thinking, “No one can understand my pain. I’m completely alone, humanly and spiritually. God has turned His face away from me.” The darkness was so deep that the only thing I could really “talk” to was the idea of suicide. It seemed like the only possible way out. And that’s how I arrived at Torreciudad, one Holy Week.

And that’s when the miracle began. I got to the sanctuary, and while waiting for the services to start — the ones recalling Jesus’ Passion, Death, and Resurrection — something unexpected happened: I realised I could be alone with myself. I didn’t speak; I just looked at the image of the Virgin and discovered that she is truly a Mother — my Mother — who knows me completely and cares for me. I also found the chapel of Christ. It’s impossible to describe — you just have to go and stand before Him. I didn’t say a word. Silence filled me from within.

Looking at Jesus on the Cross, I understood that I couldn’t keep complaining about my suffering forever. I began to realize that His Cross and mine were deeply connected. Through the readings during those days, I discovered that Jesus, too, asked His Father, “Why me? Why the Cross?” He too cried and needed comfort. During those days, I found myself speaking with the Virgin — discovering her truly as a Mother. It was easy to talk to her. With the Christ of Torreciudad, though, I couldn’t speak or even complain — we just looked at each other. And sometimes, you can say more with a look than with words.

In this podcast, we reflect on the virtue of fortitude as the motivation to overcome temptation. St. Josemaria Escriva tells us that “a task which presents no difficulties lacks human appeal – and supernatural appeal too. If you find no resistance when hammering a nail into a wall, what can you expect to hang on it?” (The Forge, no. 245). In order to win the prize, you cannot dodge the fight that takes you to the end.

#27 Walking with Jesus during his Passion - Part 2 - Be Frank with God

Walking with Jesus during his Passion - Be Frank with God

#25 Beatitudes - The Face of Jesus - Be Frank with God

“Lent should suggest to us these basic questions: Am I advancing in my faithfulness to Christ, in my desire for holiness, in a generous apostolate in my daily life, in my ordinary work among my colleagues? Each one of us, silently, should answer these questions, and we will see that we need to change again if Christ is to live in us, if Jesus’ image is to be reflected clearly in our behaviour.” (Christ is Passing By, 58)

God wants us to cooperate with him in this task which he is carrying out in the world. He takes a risk with our freedom. I am deeply moved by the Jesus born in Bethlehem: a defenceless, powerless child, incapable of offering any resistance. God gives himself up to men; he comes close to us, down to our level.

As St. Paul says: ”Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." God respects and bows down to our freedom, our imperfection and wretchedness. He agrees to have his divine treasures carried in vessels of clay; he lets us make them known; God is not afraid of mixing his strength with our weaknesses. (Christ is passing by, 113)

Every time Christmas comes around, I love to look at representations of the child Jesus. Statues and pictures which show a God who lowered himself remind me that God is calling us. The Almighty wants us to know that he is defenseless, that he needs men's help. From the cradle at Bethlehem, Christ tells you and me that he needs us. He urges us to live a christian life to the full — a life of self‑sacrifice, work and joy.

We will never have genuine joy if we do not really try to imitate Jesus. Like him we must be humble. I repeat: do you see where God's greatness is hidden? In a manger, in swaddling clothes, in a stable. The redemptive power of our lives can only work through humility. We must stop thinking about ourselves and feel the responsibility to help others.

It can sometimes happen that even well‑intentioned people create personal problems — really serious worries — which have no objective basis whatsoever. These problems arise in persons whose lack of self‑knowledge leads to pride and a desire to be the centre of attention, to be favoured by everyone. They want to appear always in a good light, to be personally secure. They are not content simply to do good and disappear. And so, many who could enjoy a wonderful peace of soul and great happiness become, through pride and presumption, unhappy and unfruitful.

Christ was humble of heart. Throughout his life he looked for no special consideration or privilege. (Christ is passing by, 18)

#21 Heaven - Our final destination - Be Frank with God

Purgatory is a manifestation of God's mercy who wishes for us the best in heaven.

Purgatory shows God's great mercy and washes away the defects of those who long to become one with Him (Furrow, 889).

The holy souls in purgatory. Out of charity, out of justice, and out of excusable selfishness—they have such power with God!—remember them often in your sacrifices and in your prayers. May you be able to say when you speak of them, “My good friends the souls in purgatory” (The Way, 571).

Have you heard how sadly the worldly-minded lament that “Each day that passes is to die a little”?

Well, I say to you: rejoice, apostolic soul, because each day that passes brings you closer to Life. The Way 737

Looking at Life through Jesus' Eyes

One of the traits of a mature personality is the ability to combine intense activity with order and interior peace. Achieving this equilibrium requires real effort. Saint Josemaria once told someone who mentioned the difficulties his work presented for looking after his own formation: “I would like to see you inside this cassock! I also have to do multi-tasking. On top of this disorder we have to build order.”[2] Order, the harmony of our life, is a prize we have to win, bit by bit, on the battlefield of each day. “Beginning the least pleasant but most urgent job first, perseverance in the fulfillment of our duty when it would be easy to abandon it, not leaving for tomorrow what should be finished today: and all this, to please him, Our Father God!”[3]

The humility of Jesus: in Bethlehem, in Nazareth, on Calvary. But more humiliation and more self-abasement still in the Sacred Host: more than in the stable, more than in Nazareth, more than on the Cross. That is why I must love the Mass so much ('Our' Mass, Jesus...) (The Way, 533)

“I have always taught you, my beloved daughters and sons, that the root and the center of your spiritual life is the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar.” Saint Josemaría Escrivá’s words and writings constantly pointed to the Eucharist as the center and root of Christian life.

A man who fails to love the Mass fails to love Christ. We must make an effort to 'live' the Mass with calm and serenity, with devotion and affection. Those who love acquire a finesse, a sensitivity of soul that makes them notice details that are sometimes very small, but that are important because they express the love of a passionate heart. (St. Josemaría, Christ is Passing By, 92)

Points on Examination of Conscience from The Way by St. Josemaría Escrivá

235

Examination of conscience: a daily task. Book-keeping is never neglected by anyone in business.

And is there any business worth more than the business of eternal life?

236

At the time of examination beware of the devil that ties your tongue.

237

Examine yourself: slowly, courageously. Is it not true that your bad humour and your gloominess, both without cause — without apparent cause — are due to your lack of determination in breaking the subtle but real snares laid for you — cunningly and attractively — by your concupiscence?

238

The general examination implies defence. The particular, attack. The first is your armour. The second, your sword.

239

Looking back on the past. To bewail it? No: that would be useless. — To learn: that is fruitful.

Through this gift of divine filiation, Christ completely destroyed the barriers that separate men from one other by bridging the distance between heaven and earth and between his creatures. God came so close to man as to become one of us. By taking on our nature, the Word joined human and divine in himself. Now, as St. Paul says, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor freeman, neither male nor female; you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3: 28). Now God is not distant; He is our Father. And neither are others remote from us; they are our brothers and sisters.

“I am happy…for I see that the Lord is seeking me again, that the Lord is still my Father. We are loved by God, and we will let the Holy Spirit act in us and purify us, so that we can embrace the Son of God on the cross, and rise with him, because the resurrection is rooted in the cross” (Christ is Passing By, no. 66).