Saint Josemaría Escrivá De Balaguer

INTRODUCTION

“Through Him, with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is Yours, almighty Father, forever and ever.”
The closing doxology of the Eucharistic prayer indicates the goal of all prayer: union with God. We can indeed do all things through Him, with Him, and in Him. This doxology is also the goal of the plan of life, the method of pious practices and Christian customs taught by Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer which mark the times of the day dedicated to conversation with God. This plan of life according to Saint Josemaría is a practical method of daily prayer. Failing to plan, is planning to fail, the adage tells us. The concept of planning prayer may seem strange, for our intimate conversations

Prayer, if not cultivated by a certain amount of discipline, tends to be an intimate conversation easily forgotten, or in most cases, begun with enthusiasm and eventually dropped. In the same way that spouses or friends over time can forget how to communicate with their beloved, we can miss that daily encounter with God. The plan of life serves as an anecdote to this spiritual acedia. If with the help of God, we plan our life of prayer and are faithful to that plan, we slowly enter into friendship with God. That friendship then begins to permeate everything we do. It is this relationship with God which Josemaría sought to foster by the plan of life. The organic development of a relationship with God

There are three primary themes in the works of Josemaría which encapsulate these points. The first is the action of grace in the soul which initiates, sustains, and brings to completion every good work. The second theme is the doctrine of divine filiation which is the foundation of the spiritual life. This is the sublime reality of that God regards us as His sons and daughters. Finally, there is a phenomenon by which the Christian manifests a union between their prayer and the ordinary events of their life. Saint Josemaría called this manifestation of God’s love both in prayer and action the ‘unity of life.’ A consideration of the effect of living a unity of life concludes the second