Romana

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Javier Cotelo Villarreal, Al volante de un santo: Mis años en coche junto a san Josemaría, Madrid, Rialp, 2021, 1st edition, 194 pp.

Javier Cotelo, an architect who drove the car in which St. Josemaría traveled for 23 years, has collected his memories in a book. The author was born in 1932 and studied architecture in Madrid. He asked for admission to Opus Dei at the age of 19 and worked in the architectural firm that designed Opus Dei’s headquarters in Rome and several other buildings. There he was able to interact with St. Josemaría closely in a rather unique context: the car in which he used to travel both in the city and on his frequent trips around Europe. He currently lives in Rome.

“The novelty of this book,” he explains, “lies in the fact that it presents new anecdotes, previously unpublished, since I was the only one who experienced them while accompanying a saint who had his feet on the earth and his head in heaven.” The biographies of St. Josemaría and the films of his get-togethers,” he continues, “make him very well known. In this book I tell what I experienced with him and his immediate successors, when driving them by car and working alongside them. I have not tried to write a biography, but rather to collect some of the anecdotes I have told in get-togethers with people who wanted to know what this saint was like in his daily life. I have tried to give it the same informal air as the get-togethers, adding some drawings and a section of photos.” “Through these episodes,” he concludes, “we come to know above all his heart in love with God and his affection for each and every person he encountered along the way. He was a true Father, affectionate and strong, a friend of freedom and good humor, who sowed doctrine and joy generously.”

St. Josemaría prepared the way for the expansion of Opus Dei throughout Europe by visiting bishops and filling the roads “with Hail Marys and songs,” as he used to say. These trips, like so many others he made to visit and encourage those who were starting out in those countries, or to rest for a few days during the summer, were usually made by car.

The author, an architect and photographer, also took advantage of these trips to take pictures of architectural solutions that were later used in the buildings he designed.

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Francisco Ugarte Corcuera, Mexicano de corazón: San Josemaría en México, 1970, Madrid, Rialp, 2021, 1st edition, 166 pp.

St. Josemaría visited Mexico on only one occasion, in 1970. His intention was to have recourse to Our Lady of Guadalupe to pray for the Church, shaken by the turmoil of the post-conciliar period. The author had the opportunity to live alongside him during those weeks, and now offers us a close-up and deeply human account of his personality.

This trip left a deep mark on the soul of the founder of Opus Dei. As he said in later years, “I often escape in my heart to the Shrine of Guadalupe. I place myself before that brown-skinned Lady, to tell her that I love her very much, as much as her Mexicans.” As Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz says in the prologue, the author “takes us on a pilgrimage in our hearts to Our Lady of Guadalupe to relive those days with the founder of Opus Dei.”

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TRANSLATIONS

Rafael Arias and Juan Juvancic, En chemin vers la sainteté. L’histoire de saint Josémaria, Paris, Boleine, 2020, 1st French edition, 40 pp. [French translation of the original Spanish Camino a la santidad: San Josemaría Escrivá y su historia, Madrid, Rialp, 2019, 40 pages].

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Hugo de Azevedo, Leçons de l’âne à la noria, (Lessons from a donkey at the waterwheel), Paris, Le Laurier, 2021, 1st French edition, 100 pages. [French translation of the original Portuguese: Lições do burro, São Paulo, Brazil, Quadrante Publishing House, 2014, 92 pages]. There is also a Spanish translation: Historia de un burro. En las enseñanzas de san Josemaría, Madrid, Palabra, 2015, 124 pages.

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St. Josemaría Escrivá, Dialogue avec le Seigneur, Paris, Le Laurier, 2021, First French edition, 400 pp. [French translation of In Dialogue with the Lord: Texts from Oral Preaching, Madrid, Rialp, 2019, First edition, 387 pages]. The book brings together twenty-five pieces of preaching by the founder of Opus Dei, dated between 1954 and 1975 (Available in English from Scepter Publishers).