"The Way" by St. Josemaría Escrivá

Reading is something I am quite fond of, something I do every day. Whether it's to read FaceBook statuses, news articles and religious essays, I do it all the time without actually recognising what I'm doing - to me, reading comes natural.

Books on the other hand, whilst I enjoy them when I actually get into the story, I go through phases of constantly reading for a period of time, then suddenly stop and not get back into it for a longer period of time.

"The Way" by St. Josemaría Escrivá is one book I have had on my "to-read list" for at least six years now; ever since I first heard of it whilst I was in Sydney for a week-long, fun and faith-filled time as a pilgrim during World Youth Day 2008. Without going off topic, that was the best week of my life and will be pretty hard to top it! Being in such a large city, constantly surrounded by young people who share the same Catholic faith - language being no barrier - we were all one very large family united in Jesus Christ.

I finally ordered a copy of "The Way" two weeks ago and have been guiding my way through it, quite slowly but only ever with a prayerful spirit. So far I have finished a few "chapters" but when I looked this morning, I'm only on page forty (or thereabouts!) but already come to the conclusion that it wasn't $20 wasted; this is a book I had to own and will be flipping through it for the rest of my life.

Those who don't know, "The Way" was written by the founder of "Opus Dei", the first personal prelature in the Roman Catholic Church. Many will call it the handbook of Opus Dei, but it is much more than that, applicable to everyone in life - whether you're Catholic or not. It's not a story, but a book divided into sections with short sayings/quotes that relate to the title of that chapter. Many chapters that you would expect, such as "Prayer" and "Love" as well as more obscure sounding ones, such as "Mortification" (it talks more about spiritual mortification, not physical mortification as many anti-Opus Dei readers would assume).

Basically, the book is about life and finding God in it, no matter how upbeat or mellow ones current situation is. It is written in a very gentle style, one can relate to the author as a brother but at the same time a father or an uncle. It is formed with 999 short quotations applicable to the certain chapter one is reading and very easy to navigate and understand. Some may think it would be a hard book to read as it has no story as such; it is meant to make the reader think about their life, where they're going and the way they go about doing it.

First published in 1939, "The Way" has sold more than 4.5million copies in over 40 languages, and sits alongside other great religious works such as "The Imitation of Christ". It is a book you will always keep, going back through the pages for the rest of your life. It is a book of life, for life!