Book Reviews and More: The Day That Changed My Life

The Day That Changed My Life

Francis Fernandez

Francisco Fernández-Carvajal

Sinag-Tala

ISBN 9789715542159

Over the last 30ish years I have been reading Francis Fernandez’s In Conversation With God, I have read it many years. Finding his books in English has not always been easy. And in fact he has far more available in Spanish. One of the hard parts of tracking down his books is they are published under a few different names, especially English translations. I have seen volumes under these names:

Francis Carvajal

Francis Fernandez

Francis Fernandez-Carvajal

Francis Fernandez Carvajal

Francisco Fernández-Carvajal

And there might be others out there. This volume is only available in English from Sinag-Tala in the Philippines. The back of the book states this about the author:

“Francis Fernandez is the same author of the best selling 7-volume series IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD which has been printed in ten languages with a combined print-run of more than two million copies.”

This one was well worth tracking down and reading. I picked it up on retreat a few years back, but because I prefer eBooks took a while to getting around to reading it. I finally put it on my bedside table to try and read a chapter a night. The description on the back of the books is:

“The title ‘THE DAY THAT CHANGED MY LIFE’ suggests the profound conversion that happens within every person when he meets Christ and agrees to follow Him closely. There is a moment - a stellar day - when one can say that it was this time when it all began.

It was on the road to Damascus…St Paul would say.

It was almost four in the afternoon when St John the Apostle recalls that most important day of his life when he met the Master as a young man.

From that moment on, everything changed. And this is what has happened, generation after generation. Everything changes when Jesus is made present.

This book is a series of short meditations which were inspired by moments of the author’s personal prayer or from preparations for the outlines of the meditations which he had to give. As he mentions in the Prologue - “the main reason for putting all these considerations into writing has been the hope of helping others to take a new turn in their lives and make them grow closer to Christ … or remind him to carry the message, the Good News, he has received to others.””

When I picked it up, I had not even read the back of the book. So it was not exactly what I was expecting, I was expecting an autobiography or even conversion story. But instead it is 79 meditations or reflections highlighting examples of growth in holiness, sanctity and living out the Christian life. Those chapters are:

PROLOGUE

1. A Stellar Day

2. Our Lord's Gaze

3. Tell Me Something, Lord

4. No one is Lost

5. Open The Door

6. Soar Like the Eagles

7. The Lord Smiled at Me

8. "I Will Follow Thee Wherever Thou Goest"

9. There Is No Turbulence Up There

10. The House

11. Jesus, So Quiet

12. “Put Out Into The Deep"

13. The Water and The Fountain

14. Mary of Bethany

15. The Name

16. The Precious Pearl

17. Giving Joy

18. The Master Calls You

19. The Banquets

20. Taking Risks

21. The Reward

22. The Thirst

23. The Footprints of God

24. The Summit

25. Enter and Ask

26. "You Can Do Nothing, But I Can"

27. A Donkey

28. A Full Life

29. Love for One's Work

30. Two Coins

31. Two Stars

32. The Angel

33. The Echo

34. The Forest

35. The Butterflies

36. Food for The Journey

37. The Bread

38. In The House of Simon

39. Five Rivers

40. The Circus

41. Pain Is Not Sadness

42. The Sick Son

43. The Message

44. The Palace of Wonders

45. The Rope's Resistance

46. The Virgin's Gaze

47. "The Mass is My Joy"

48. The Empty Chair

49. The Window

50. The Stained Glass Windows of The Cathedral

51. The Neighbor

52. "Do Not Forget My Leprosy"

53. We are Not Afraid

54. He Never Makes Mistakes

55. El Platero

56. The Cloak of Jesus

57. "I Do Not Sing Against God"

58. I Am With You

59. The Ring

60. "The Gift You Did Not Ask For"

61. Searching for The Face of The Lord

62. The Great Swindler

63. When Everything Goes Wrong

64. It Is Never Too Late

65. When Night Falls

66. Everyone Waited For Him

67. I Do Not Have Other Plans

68. A Friend in The Summit

69. A Personal Love

70. Pointing Out The Way

71. A Soul's Condition

72. An Ocean of Mercy

73. A Lever for Support

74. A Voice in The Darkness

75. A Few

76. Go to The Priests

77. Time To End

78. A Feast in Heaven

79. God’s Dwellings

INDEX

The index is one of the subjects covered not people whose stories are shared. He draws from many stories told by Saint Josemaria Escriva and Blessed Alvaro del Portillo. This is one of those volumes I could easily return to time and time again. It can easily be read from beginning to end, or randomly opened and read a specific chapter. There are numerous examples of attitudes, practices, or devotions to help us grow in our faith. The examples are from people raised by holy parents who learned in the home to live it out. To others who has specific struggles and needed to work to overcome them.

This is an absolutely wonderful volume. I just wish it was more easily accessible or that an eBook edition was available. The author in the prologue states:

“My editor asked me to write a few lines regarding the origin of these meditations.

All of them arose as a result of experiences I have lived throughout the years, which are so full of events. Here you will find how we unexpectedly saw an eagle fly up in all its majesty from one of the peaks of the Aragonese Pyrenees ("Soar Like the Eagles"), how we met with a shepherd, also in the Pyrenees, whom we approached to tell him that one of his sheep had been left behind with a broken leg ("No One is Lost"), and the story of a conversation I had with a friend, a pilot, who flew a plane during a storm in Madrid ("There is no Turbulence up There").

Other events have to do with occasions that are very special to me, such as the canonization of Saint Josemaría Escrivá, whom I met and collaborated with during my stay in Rome and to whom I owe such great things. Many of the ideas, suggestions, and advice that appear in this book are his. His canonization inspired me to write "A Friend in the Summit." We all know that when someone of the group is able to reach the peak of a rocky mountain, he or she will always be there to lend others a hand. The saints, "up there," offer us incalculable aid.

Other meditations arose from some of those readings that leave their mark: "Pointing out the Way," "I Do not Sing Against God," "The Great Swindler."

And finally, others were inspired by brief moments of personal prayer or from preparations for the outlines of the meditations I had to give.”

And also:

“The main reason for putting all these considerations into writing has been the hope of helping others to take a new turn in their lives and make them grow closer to Christ, or to give that someone that nudge so that he or she may hurry so as not be left behind, lost in the debris of the castle (see Meditation 43, "The Message"), or remind him to carry the message, the Good News, he has received to others.

Finally, my only suggestion to the reader is that he read or meditate on these pages in the way that Saint Peter of Alcantara recommended:

"The reading," he writes, "should not be hurried or rushed, but attentive and peaceful; applying to it not only understanding in order to comprehend what is being read, but a lot more will to take in what is being understood. And when one finds some devout phrase, stop a while so as to feel it better" (Treaty on Prayer and Meditation, 1, 7).”

No matter what name you find his books under they are worth the read. I highly recommend this volume. It is an excellent work.

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2022 Catholic Reading Plan!