Archangel Radio

The Wisdom of the Saints……………………………..about obedience
“How can a man say he believes in Christ if he doesn’t do what Christ commanded him to do?” St. Cyprian of Carthage (3rd century)

“He who obeys not the rudder will obey the reef.” St. Herve of Brittany (6th century)

“Are you unaware that obedience is better than sacrifice?…Have you not read in the gospel the example of obedience given by the boy Jesus as a way to holiness for young people?  For He had stayed behind in Jerusalem and explained that He must be busy about His Father’s affairs; yet because His parents would not concur with Him He did not disdain to follow them to Nazareth.  So we have the Master obeying his disciples, God obeying humans, God’s Word and Wisdom obeying a carpenter and his wife.” St. Bernard of Clairvaux (11th-12th centuries, Doctor of the Church)

“If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.” St. Thomas Aquinas (13th century, Doctor of the Church)

“Don’t let correction seem burdensome to you.  Oh, if you only knew how severe is God’s correction of the soul who scorns correction in this life!…Be obedient, then, for love of that most gentle loving young Man, God’s Son, who obeyed even to the point of death.” St. Catherine of Siena (14th century, Doctor of the Church)

“As long as obedience is flourishing, all the other virtues will be seen to flourish and to bear the fruit that I would like to see in your souls.  Obedience is what He demands Who through His obedience redeemed the world that had been lost through disobedience…” St. Ignatius of Loyola (15th-16th centuries)

“…in obedience, just as in a very dubious litigation, a judge is accepted and both sides place the matter in his hands.  Tired of arguing, our soul accepts one who may be either the superior or the confessor with the determination not to have any more argument or to think any more of its own case but to trust the words of the Lord Who says, Whoever hears you hears me, and it disregards its own will.  The Lord esteems this surrender very much, and rightly so, because it means making Him Lord over the free will He has given us.” St. Teresa of Avila (16th century, Doctor of the Church)

“A little drop of simple obedience is worth a million times more than a whole vase of the choicest contemplation.” St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi (16th-17th centuries)

“How are we to learn obedience if we do not subject ourselves to a rule?  Or patience, if no one contradicts us?  Or humility, if we are inferior to no one?” St. Francis de Sales (16th-17th centuries, Doctor of the Church)

“Our Lord spent three hours in redeeming, three years in teaching, and thirty years in obeying, in order that a rebellious, proud, and diabolically independent world might learn the value of obedience.” Servant of God Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries)

“If you buy an electric coffeepot, you will find instructions.  The instructions may read, ‘Do not plug this coffeepot in when the pot is empty.’  Well, suppose you say, ‘Why should anybody tell me what to do?  He’s violating my constitutional rights.’  When you say that, you forget that the manufacturer of that coffee pot gave you instructions in order that you might get perfect coffee out of it.  Sin is a deliberate violation of the law of God.  When we violate those laws, we break a relationship, and we hurt ourselves.” Servant of God Fulton Sheen

“Obey, as an instrument obeys in the hands of the artist – not stopping to consider the why and the wherefore of what it is doing.  Be sure that you’ll never be directed to do anything that isn’t good and for the greater glory of God.” St. Josemaria Escriva (20th century)