The Forge

Tags: Contemplation, The Forge

This book, a compilation of spiritual annotations of Josemaría Escrivá appearing in 1987, completes the trilogy aimed at facilitating personal prayer that began with The Way and continued with Furrow. Similar in structure to these two, it consists of 1055 points organized in 13 chapters centered on the soul’s journey toward identification with Christ. The author’s prologue captures its purpose nicely:

“There was a mother, who, like all mothers, was passionately fond of her little child,
whom she called her prince, her king, her treasure, her very sun.
“I thought of you.
“And I understood —for what father does not carry deep inside some maternal feelings?—
that it was no exaggeration for that good mother to say:
you are more than a treasure, you are worth more than the sun itself:
you are worth all Christ’s Blood!
“How can I fail to take up your soul —pure gold— and place it in the forge,
and fashion it with fire and hammer, until that gold nugget is turned
into a splendid jewel to be offered to my God, to your God?”

The Forge has been translated into 14 languages and has sold over 400,000 copies.

Read The Forge in www.escrivaworks.org