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 [...]
"He [Fr. Alvarez] used also to say, that religious persons were indeed fortunate, because in the very houses in which they reside, they can, whenever they please, either night or day, visit this great Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament; and this lay people cannot do." Source: St. Alphonsus Liguori, Visits to the Most [...]
"Thus it is in every respect dangerous to be content with mediocre obedience. Such obedience is cold, very burdensome, and very painful. Because it seems to the cold heart wearisome to carry it, these souls bear great burdens with little fruit. They sin against the perfection into which they entered and which they are obliged [...]
"Sometimes we pride ourselves on the merit of having become a religious, and think we have done a heroic action. Alas! we are in arrears with mercy. The advantage is all on our side. We receive a hundred times more than we have given." Source: St. Peter Julian Eymard, The Divine Eucharist St. Peter [...]
"Some there are who wish to serve Our Lord only on condition of being better treated than they were in the world. Oh, how many there are who demand of religion only its advantages, who enter it only to make sure of their bread, to find in it a resource, a commodious shelter! Religious nobodies! [...]
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 [...]