"But by the precept He gave, God commended obedience, which is, in a sort, the mother and guardian of all the virtues in the reasonable creature, which was so created that submission is advantageous to it, while the fulfillment of its own will in preference to the Creator’s is destruction." -St. Augustine
"We ought to serve God, for we are His creatures and His property. Although God gives us liberty, He does not mean to relinquish His rights over us. We belong to Him, we are His; and should we endeavor to free ourselves by disobedience, which is a true robbery of God's goods, a denial of [...]
"A disobedient soul will win no victory, even if the Lord Jesus Himself, in person, were to hear its confession. The most experienced confessor will be of no help whatsoever to such a soul. The disobedient soul exposes itself to great misfortunes; it will make no progress toward perfection, nor will it succeed in the [...]
"However, in all these sufferings and struggles, I was not omitting Holy Communion. When it seemed to me that I should not communicate, I went, before Holy Communion, to the Directress and told her that I could not approach the Sacrament, because it seemed to me that I should not do so. But she would [...]
"The vow of obedience consummates the sacrifice of the religious. It is the essential vow of religion. It alone might suffice, for it eminently comprises the others. It perfects the holocaust begun by poverty in the goods of fortune, and continued by chastity in those of the body, by offering to God the liberty, the [...]
"True humility lies in obedience and the most literal compliance with His Will!" -St. Francis de Sales
"However, in all these sufferings and struggles, I was not omitting Holy Communion. When it seemed to me that I should not communicate, I went, before Holy Communion, to the Directress and told her that I could not approach the Sacrament, because it seemed to me that I should not do so. But she would [...]
The vow of obedience consummates the sacrifice of the religious. It is the essential vow of religion. It alone might suffice, for it eminently comprises the others. It perfects the holocaust begun by poverty in the goods of fortune, and continued by chastity in those of the body, by offering to God the liberty, the [...]
True humility lies in obedience and the most literal compliance with His Will! Source: ÿSt. Francis de Sales,ÿIntroduction to the Devout Life, Random House, Inc., 2002.
"Mary’s greatness consists in the fact that she wants to magnify God, not herself. She is lowly: her only desire is to be the handmaid of the Lord (cf. Lk 1:38, 48). She knows that she will only contribute to the salvation of the world if, rather than carrying out her own projects, she places [...]