''The Way'' ( es, Camino) is a book about spirituality composed by

Josemaría Escrivá Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás (9 January 1902 – 26 June 1975) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. He founded Opus Dei, an organization of laypeople and priests dedicated to the teaching that everyone is called to holiness ...

, the initiator of the Roman Catholic religious organization

Opus Dei Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei ( la, Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church whose members seek personal Christian holiness and strive to imbue their work an ...

. The book was published first during 1934 with the name ''Consideraciones espirituales''. It received its present title during 1939. More than four and a half million copies have been sold, in 43 languages. According to Escrivá his motivation was: "The 999 points which make up ''The Way'' were written with yearnings to see 'Christ, the Light of the World.' Anyone who reads it with the same yearnings will not have opened this book in vain." ''The Way'' was composed based on notes Escrivá made based on his thoughts about the

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

and its application to specific situations occurring during his personal pastoral experience. Many of the sections are counsels he actually gave to persons in

spiritual direction Spiritual direction is the practice of being with people as they attempt to deepen their relationship with the divine, or to learn and grow in their personal spirituality. The person seeking direction shares stories of their encounters of the div ...

. Some are letters he wrote and received. Thus it has a conversational style. As a reviewer in the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

newspaper ''

Osservatore Romano ''L'Osservatore Romano'' (, 'The Roman Observer') is the daily newspaper of Vatican City State which reports on the activities of the Holy See and events taking place in the Catholic Church and the world. It is owned by the Holy See but is not a ...

'' (March 24, 1950) stated: "Msgr. Escrivá de Balaguer has written something more than a masterpiece; he has written straight from the heart, and straight to the heart go the short paragraphs which make up ''The Way''." The writer on the Spanish Catholic world, Frances Lannon, has described it as "a bizarre amalgam of traditional piety, penitential discipline, and crude popular moralizing; it aims at a fusion of devotion with efficiency, inward humility with the exercise of leadership and power. Its readers are exhorted to childlike simplicity, to silence and discretion, and to orderliness; they are encouraged to pray to

guardian angels A guardian angel is a type of angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group or nation. Belief in tutelary beings can be traced throughout all antiquity. The idea of angels that guard over people played a major role in ...

and to the souls in

purgatory Purgatory (, borrowed into English via Anglo-Norman and Old French) is, according to the belief of some Christian denominations (mostly Catholic), an intermediate state after physical death for expiatory purification. The process of purgatory ...

, and to bless themselves every day with

holy water Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from ...

. But they are also urged to acquire professional competence, to stand out from the crowd, to lead and to dominate."Frances Lannon, ''Privilege, Persecution and Prophecy'', p.226

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