Tuesday, October 09, 2007

What the Saints Have to Say About - Obedience

angels



Obedience is the only virtue that implants the other virtues in the heart and preserves them after they have been so implanted.
- St. Gregory I The Great
Obedience is the mortification of the members while the mind remains alive. Obedience is unquestioned movement, death freely accepted, a simple life, danger faced without worry, an unprepared defense before God, fearlessness before death, a safe voyage, a sleeper's journey. Obedience is the sepulcher of the will and the resurrection of lowliness.
- St. John Climacus
If you are ordered to eat meat, be extremely careful not to make the slightest resistance to obedience, for you will render more honor to God by eating flesh meat through obedience than by fasting on bread and water of your own volition.
- St. John Eudes
If you begin to grieve at this, to judge your superior, to murmur in your heart, even though you outwardly fulfill what is commanded, this is not the virtue of obedience, but a cloak over your malice.
- St. Bernard of Clairvaux
The virtue of obedience makes the will supple. It gives the power to conquer self, to overcome laziness, and to resist temptations. It inspires the courage with which to fulfill the most difficult tasks.
- St. John Vianney
Thus the abbot john without a single though as to whether it would do any good or not, with great and prolonged labor watered a dray stick for a whole year on end when told to do so. Heaven sometimes approved this kind of obedience with miracles.
- St. Ignatius of Loyola.

From The Wisdom of the Saints by Jill Haak Adels

4 comments:

  1. I'll have to look for this book. You always have good reading information.

    Did you draw these angels yourself? I love them! If they are shareable, I'd love to have a copy for personal use.

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  2. Thanks :-)
    No, it was shared through my paint shop pro group. I don't permit copyrighted material so I assume it was okay to share...

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  3. Hi Esther,
    I enjoyed reading these quotes. I especially liked St. John Climacus': his radical obedience to God... for obedience should not be out of convenience or out of our own choosing, it is about obedience to his will right now, what he asks of us this moment that truly counts.
    Thanks and aloha!

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  4. True Easter. God bless!

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