"How can I leave a mark?"

"I always thought that I was living as a good Catholic. Then one day I came upon a copy of 'The Way.'" José recounts how reading a book by the founder of Opus Dei helped him change his life.

I always thought that I was living as a good Catholic. I went to Mass on Sundays and tried to be as good a person as possible at work and with my family. Then one day I came upon a copy of The Way.

I have to admit that the impression I had of Opus Dei at the time wasn’t very positive, so I set the book aside. Then one evening, for no special reason, I started reading it. I soon realized that it wasn’t a book just about God, as I had expected, but about how an ordinary person like myself could draw close to God and become holy in his work—an idea that had never occurred to me.

Don’t let your life be barren. Be useful. Leave a mark. The first words in the book really struck me. How could I “leave a mark”? I wasn’t famous or rich; I hadn’t discovered or invented anything. How could my life truly be fruitful? But I soon realized that the “mark” my life could make required taking advantage of each hour each day.

In other points of The Way I read that matrimony is a sacrament and a path to holiness, and that I was God’s temple, but that I needed to have a plan for each day and seek to live order.

Some of the points there began to make me uneasy, since they seemed to be written just for me. I realized that I had to change many things if I truly wanted to be a good Christian. I don’t know exactly when or how, but I made the decision to try to follow the teachings in the book.

What I do know is that my life began changing at work, with my family and friends, in confronting problems…. For the first time in my life I realized how close God was to me. I only had to open the eyes of my heart to discover that God had always been alongside me.