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For young people

And finally… there was a castle!

Tags: The Escriva family, books, For younger readers
Mr Jose Escriva was a good friend to his son Josemaria. Ever since he was very small, Mr Escriva played with him as if he had nothing else to do.

Paulina Mönckeberg
Paulina Mönckeberg
He had some wooden bricks in different shapes and colours, and Mr Escriva would tell him,

“Put this one here… and that one there… and put that red one over there…

And finally, the little boy’s face lit up as he found… there was a castle!

They were such good friends that Josemaria’s devotion to St Joseph, and his first prayers to him, really began because the holy patriarch St Joseph had the same name as his Dad. On top of a cupboard, under a glass dome, there was a statue of St Joseph. Josemaria wanted to get close to him to say a prayer, but wasn’t tall enough, so he stood on tiptoe and hung onto the cupboard with his hands.

“Joseph… uhh…”

Then the Little Watch-mender quickly whispered in his ear the short prayer he already knew by heart:

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I be always with all three.”

Little Josemaria loved Mr Jose Escriva so much that he liked people to call him just “Jose”, like his Dad.

He was baptized Jose Maria Julian Mariano, but if anyone called him Jose Maria, he would say crossly,

“No. Jose.”

“But your name’s Jose Maria.”

“Yes, but then comes ‘Maria-no’!” he said, meaning his fourth name.

His Guardian Angel cast a sly glance up to Heaven. Our Lady smiled. She knew that this boy was going to be very “marian”.



Extract from the book Vida y venturas de un borrico de noria… y su Relojerico by Paulina Monckeberg, Madrid: Palabra, 2006, p. 38.