Like Any Other: A Girl Named Montse

Montserrat Grases (Montse, to her friends) was born in Barcelona, Spain. At the age of 17 it was discovered that she had bone cancer. Less than a year later she died.

Montse’s life was simple and short, but intense and deep. So powerful is the message of her life that she was recently given the title Venerable by the Catholic Church, and her cause is on the steady path to Canonization. This book, Like Any Other by José Miguel Cejas is the story of her life.

Her life had the makings of a regular teenage girl: a girl who laughed, who cried, who had hope for the future, and who had burdens of failure. Hers was a life which made a difference in the lives of others, because she came to be focused on the Love of God. Thanks to her contagious and endearing cheerfulness, Montse was able to transform every smile into a prayer, and every prayer into a smile, accepting the Will of God. Her message could be summarized in a phrase she came to use often, no matter how difficult: “Lord, whatever You want!”

A leading member of the Spanish Academy wrote: “She died without having done anything extraordinary – nothing other than having done extraordinarily well the ordinary things of every day.” Here lies the prescription for the many millions of Catholics who are living their ordinary workday lives, and aim to win heaven by “turning the prose of every day into heroic verse.”